The Twisted History Of Pol Pot

May 2024 · 2 minute read

Violence was arbitrary during the mass exodus of April 17, 1975. In "Cambodia: Year Zero," Francois Ponchaud recounted soldiers waving assault rifles and stealing whatever they could find, such as watches, motorbikes, and, strangely, a ballpoint pen, for which Ponchaud was almost killed. Such opportunism was just the start of the inhumanity that defined Cambodian life for the next four years. 

Public officials were the first to be murdered. Then, on May 20, just over a month later, the Khmer Rouge shifted its attention to the masses. Anyone suspected of non-conformity faced death, and non-conformity could include speaking another language and even owning a pair of glasses, for these traits were "intellectual," according to the Khmer Rouge's warped ideology. Other targets included Buddhist monks, Cham Muslims, and those of Thai, Chinese, and Vietnamese origin. However, while the Khmer Rouge directed special enmity toward these groups, the Cambodian genocide represented societal autogenocide rather than a focused murder campaign: If you fitted the Khmer Rouge's vague notions of dissent – you were dead.

Our World in Data shows that in 1975 and 1976, Cambodia's life expectancy plummeted from 39.8 to just 12 years old. This climbed to 28.9 years in 1977, but the Khmer Rouge continued to murder their citizens in what journalist Dith Pran called the "killing fields," according to Sydney Schanberg's book "The Death and Life of Dith Pran." When Vietnamese troops toppled the regime in January 1979, up to two million people were dead, including much of the country's professional and technical class.

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