Pol Pot essays

Pol Pot essays On April 17, 1976, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, a group of Cambodian Marxists, stormed the Cambodian capital of Phonm Penh, forcing Cambodia into four years of horrifying terror. They declared this time Zero Hour, the day Cambodia would enter a new utopian era and say goodbye to the flawed ways of a capitalistic society. Yet in reality, Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, achieved nothing for Cambodia. The Cambodian people only suffered under Pol Pot, with an estimated death toll of 3,000,000. Pol Pot, a conniving man, whos rule over Cambodia was marked by mass murder, negligence, and despotic rule, attempted and failed to create an egalitarian communist society, exploiting the manual power of the masses. In 1970, Prince Sihanouk was hoisted out of power in a coup de tat. General Lon Nol, backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States (US), successfully seized power in Cambodia. Nol, as opposed to Sihanouk, was pro US, something the US valued in their war against Cambodias bordering nation of Vietnam. Nol took little consideration of the people and their needs, and his corrupt administration stirred support for the Khmer Rouge (Seekins, 4). At that time, the Khmer Rouge, a thirty-year-old Communist movement, began their take over of Cambodia. In the five-year period that followed, Cambodia befell into a Civil War between the Khmer Rouge and Lon Nols forces. On April 17th, 1976, the Khmer Rouge succeeded and marched into Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge, at the time, was led by Pol Pot, formerly known as Saloth Sar. Sar had received an education in radio electronics in France. In France, Sar was introduced to Marxism. His teachers led him to believe that Cambodia, a prosperous monarchy at the time, should go through an agricultural revolution, converting Cambodia to a classless agrarian country (Geyer, 1). In doing so, Pol Pot was believed that Cambod...