Essay: Pol Pot / Khmer Rouge (Communist) evaluation

Brief Overview:
Name: Pol Pot
Party: Khmer Rouge (Communist)
Proto-communist Khmer People’s Revolutionary Party (KPRP)
Set up in 1951
Started a national communist uprising in 1968
Country: Cambodia
Years in Power: 1975-1979
Placement on the Ideological spectrum: Far Left wing
Wished to socially engineer a society that was classless
Rise of Pol Pot:
In 1968, there was a revolution and the Khmer Rouge became widely supported and well known
After a coup against the Cambodian monarchy led by a Cambodian politician, a civil war broke out in 1970. Americans supported the monarchy and were against the communists.
The Prince of Cambodia supported Khmer Rouge during the civil war. Khmer Rouge began to win, their troop numbers increasing and essentially helping them in winning the capital in 1975, ending the war.
The Cambodian capital was renamed Democratic Kampuchea.
Conditions in Society:
Many families had to separate during mandatory evacuations in Phnom Penh
There was no compensation for individuals that were forced out of the city
Religion was banned, and reading material was taken away.
Freedom of the press was banned.
Private property was banned.
Many personal freedoms were banned (freedom of speech, opinion, and basic rights).
Schools and banks were closed, enforcing equality under the ruler.
People were forced to work in rural farms
Every aspect of life was essentially controlled by Pol Pot’s rule
Vision of Pol Pot
Pol Pot strictly enforced Marxism-Leninism communism, similar to the USSR.
He abolished all classes, and forced everyone to live as peasants at the same rank in society (however anyone who was of high standing in the government was given privileges).
It was an egalitarian society.
He wanted to remove all foreign influence, especially the Western influence such as wristwatches, eyeglasses and technology. People who were in possession of these items were killed.
His goal was to “purify” society and start over with a new beginning. He declared this to be year zero.
He also completely removed all influences of religion by murdering religious leaders and destroying all relics.
All parental authority or any other authority within relationships was annulled. The only authority accepted was the government.
Pol Pot wanted Cambodia to be self sufficient and wanted everyone to be equal at peasant status. He wanted the country to be strictly rural, and the economy was run by communal farms.
Fall of Pol Pot
Vietnamese troops invaded in 1978 in order to end border attacks, and captured the capital city Phnom Penh.
A modern communist government was established with the Khmer Rouge no longer in power.
Pol Pot and his party retreated in the jungle and engaged in guerilla warfare against the government for 17 years.
An internal power struggle within the party in 1990 removed Pol Pot from his leadership role in the party.
Eventually, Pol Pot was put on trial and convicted but died of natural causes not long after.
Dictatorial Actions:
Violence and fear to suppress opponents, eliminating dissidents:
People were sent to detention centers or tortured if they complained about work, concealed rations or broke rules.
After taking power 2.5 million Phnom Penh residents were evacuated and forced to toil fields as part of a “re-education” process. All possessions were taken
1.5 – 2 million cambodians died of starvation, execution, disease or overwork. (Some were killed as due to their specific professions. Examples are doctors,
teachers merchants…)
Propaganda:
Country was renamed to Democratic Kampuchea
Rice fields were realigned to create the  symmetrical checkerboard pictured on their coat of arms.
Indoctrination
Children were taken and forced into the military
Controlling all branches of government:
State controlled all aspects of life.
Justification & Comparison:
The actions of Pol Pot were NOT justified. He killed millions of people through starvation, exhaustion, torture, and executions in order to bring his communist values into Cambodia. Pol Pot mercilessly sent people into killing fields, using their labour to further his agenda while ignoring the huge loss of life. People were rounded up and tortured into giving false confessions for crimes, just another way that he abused his power to suppress enemies. Pol Pot tried to benefit the economy, future, and quality of life for citizens, but his crusade failed, and his extreme paranoia ended up harming the people of Cambodia.
Pol Pot killed around 2.5 million people, Hitler killed around 11 million, and Stalin killed 5-7 million. Pol Pot clearly killed significantly less people than both Hitler and Stalin, but the impact of Pol Pot’s actions were not as beneficial or justifiable the other two rulers. Hitler wanted to improve the state of Germany, and provide Aryans a higher quality of life. He managed to decrease unemployment rates while helping the economy recover. Stalin and Pol Pot were similar in the ways that they both used their people to further their agendas, ignoring the massive loss of life. However, it could be argued that Pol Pot was more nefarious than Stalin, seen by the ways that he tortured millions of his through methods such as the killing fields.
Cambodian Genocide
The genocide came in a number of forms, which included but were not limited to:
Famine: The urban workers relocated to the fields knew nothing about agriculture, so land was not cultivated well enough to provide for the huge population, resulting in mass famine almost immediately after the regime took control.
Disease: The Khmer Rouge believed that the country should be self-reliant in all respects, including medicine. If the country did not have the resources to produce a certain drug, that drug was entirely unavailable (at least to the non-ruling class). As a result, thousands died to common and preventable diseases.
Execution: Violations of the regime’s anti-capitalist principles were generally punishable by death. If you hoarded food, you could be executed. If you harvested wild crops, you could be executed. If you traded for a profit, you could be executed. If you ever spoke out against the regime, you could be executed. Additionally, torture and execution were forced on those suspected of being an enemy of the regime. This included anyone with material ties to the former government or to the West. Many people with college-level educations, individuals of other ethnic backgrounds (including Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai) and people who failed to grow crops were killed.