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Pol Pot & the Khmer Rouge. What leads to the rise of Pol Pot & the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia?. The Killing Fields of Cambodia. 1975: US leaves SE Asia, Khmer Rouge win the civil war vs. Lon Nol, westerners flee Cambodia.
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Pol Pot & the Khmer Rouge What leads to the rise of Pol Pot & the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia?
The Killing Fields of Cambodia • 1975: US leaves SE Asia, Khmer Rouge win the civil war vs. Lon Nol, westerners flee Cambodia • 1970s: Civil War in Cambodia: US backed Lon Nol Govt. vs. Communist rebels, called the Khmer Rouge • The Khmer Rouge is led by Pol Pot (Saloth Sar) • Khmer Rouge troops enter Phnom Penh, Pol Pot orders all people out of cities & into the countryside • Cambodians go to reeducation camps to learn the ways of Angka (KR’s form of communism) • April 17th, 1975 starts Year Zero of new Republic of Kampuchea • 1975-79: 2+ million Cambodians are exterminated by the Khmer Rouge • Vietnam invades Cambodia in 1979, doesn’t agree w/ KR’s style of communism