Khmer Rouge: Difference between revisions

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Although originally fighting against exiled head of state Norodom Sihanouk, on the advice of the CPC, the Khmer Rouge changed its position to support Sihanouk after the latter was overthrown in a 1970 coup by [[Lon Nol]] who established the pro-United States Khmer Republic. Despite a massive American bombing campaign against them, the Khmer Rouge won the Cambodian Civil War when they captured the Cambodian capital and overthrew the Khmer Republic in 1975.

In power, the Khmer Rouge carried out a radical [[communist]] program that included isolating the country from all foreign influences, closing schools, hospitals and some factories, abolishing banking, finance and currency, and collectivising agriculture. Khmer Rouge theorists, developing the ideas of Hou Yuon and Khieu Samphan, believed that an initial period of self-imposed economic isolation and national self-sufficiency would stimulate the rebirth of the crafts and the country's latent industrial capability.

In power, the Khmer Rouge carried out a radical communist program that included isolating the country from all foreign influences, closing schools, hospitals and some factories, abolishing banking, finance and currency, and collectivising agriculture. Khmer Rouge theorists, developing the ideas of Hou Yuon and Khieu Samphan, believed that an initial period of self-imposed economic isolation and national self-sufficiency would stimulate the rebirth of the crafts and the country's latent industrial capability.

They also orchestrated the [[Cambodian Genocide]], in which many people were expelled out of the cities into rural [[Concentration Camp|concentration camps]]. There, they were forced into hard physical work, with [[torture]] and executions being frequent. The regime opposed intellectualism as well, and educated people were also sent to "killing fields" where they were brutally [[murder]]ed with pickaxes. The ban on education also lead to a lack of doctors, which caused disease to escalate, and the unhealthy living conditions of farmers also lead to mass starvation. This culminated in roughly 2 million dying as a result of the Khmer Rouge. Most of these killings were carried out by the [[Santebal]], the Khmer Rouge's internal security branch that also served as the [[secret police]] of Democratic Kampuchea.

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 Although originally fighting against exiled head of state Norodom Sihanouk, on the advice of the CPC, the Khmer Rouge changed its position to support Sihanouk after the latter was overthrown in a 1970 coup by [[Lon Nol]] who established the pro-United States Khmer Republic. Despite a massive American bombing campaign against them, the Khmer Rouge won the Cambodian Civil War when they captured the Cambodian capital and overthrew the Khmer Republic in 1975.
-In power, the Khmer Rouge carried out a radical [[communist]] program that included isolating the country from all foreign influences, closing schools, hospitals and some factories, abolishing banking, finance and currency, and collectivising agriculture. Khmer Rouge theorists, developing the ideas of Hou Yuon and Khieu Samphan, believed that an initial period of self-imposed economic isolation and national self-sufficiency would stimulate the rebirth of the crafts and the country's latent industrial capability.
+In power, the Khmer Rouge carried out a radical communist program that included isolating the country from all foreign influences, closing schools, hospitals and some factories, abolishing banking, finance and currency, and collectivising agriculture. Khmer Rouge theorists, developing the ideas of Hou Yuon and Khieu Samphan, believed that an initial period of self-imposed economic isolation and national self-sufficiency would stimulate the rebirth of the crafts and the country's latent industrial capability.
 They also orchestrated the [[Cambodian Genocide]], in which many people were expelled out of the cities into rural [[Concentration Camp|concentration camps]]. There, they were forced into hard physical work, with [[torture]] and executions being frequent. The regime opposed intellectualism as well, and educated people were also sent to "killing fields" where they were brutally [[murder]]ed with pickaxes. The ban on education also lead to a lack of doctors, which caused disease to escalate, and the unhealthy living conditions of farmers also lead to mass starvation. This culminated in roughly 2 million dying as a result of the Khmer Rouge. Most of these killings were carried out by the [[Santebal]], the Khmer Rouge's internal security branch that also served as the [[secret police]] of Democratic Kampuchea.