What Peace was Possible

One factor that quickly led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge was the wave of Communism that occurred when the US was at war with Vietnam. The US dropped several bombs on Cambodia during the Vietnam war, because Cambodia was allowing Vietnamese troops to move along their border. Due to this many rejected the US policy of containment, which led to the creation of radical and brutal Communist groups such as the Khmer Rouge. 

Children were separated from their parents in order to break down the traditional family dynamic. The love and admiration for their parents quickly turned into love and admiration for the Khmer Rouge ideology. Children were encouraged to spy on their parents and find faults within them. Young children were kidnapped from their families and sent to a commune so they could be indoctrinated.

A factor that made the Cambodian genocide so bloody and horrific was the low value put on human lives. Cambodians were seen only as unskilled farmers whose sole purpose was labor; anyone who was otherwise was either a threat or didn’t fit the ideology. Many people simply died from starvation and fatigue from working a ridiculous amount of hours in the rice fields. 

 Pol Pot was an extremely paranoid man, having many of his own soldiers executed or put in detainment camps for believing their conspiring against him. He believed in extracting information in any possible way. Many people wouldn’t have been executed if Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, in general, weren’t as neurotic. 

The Killing Tree is an example of how the lack of self-control causes a serious lap of judgment. There was no real force that was stopping them from committing heinous acts.  The killing tree is where they would bash babies skulls in order to kill them, so they wouldn’t have to use bullets when they were limited.

Cambodia was not a rich country, the majority of the country was in poverty and didn’t have access to many resources. An ideology based on the idea everyone is equal in almost every way (intelligence, value, purpose, etc.) was appealing to many. Although, the soldier, who originally were fighting for this equality made an unequal power balance and abused it to no end.