Syllabus Dot Point: The nature of the Khmer Rouge Takeover: The Takeover and Year Zero

Syllabus Dot Point: Students investigate the nature of the Khmer Rouge takeover, including: the takeover and Year
Zero

The Khmer Rouge Come to Power

- Phnom Phen relied on frequent U.S. air drops of food and
supplies to survive.
- Increasing numbers of rural Cambodians joined communist
guerrilla groups fighting against Lon Nol’s army.
- This turned into a civil war between Lon Nol’s Republic and
Khmer and Vietnamese communists.
- 4th April 1975, US evacuates its embassy staff and Lon Nol.
- 17th April 1975, Khmer tanks rolled virtually unopposed into
Phnom Penh.
- Deindividualisation, mobilisation of children etc.
- ‘Liberation’ of the people. → evacuation of the city to
escape US bombings.

Why did the KR order the evacuation of Phnom Penh?

- They believed that Cambodia’s cities symbolised external foreign influences that had damaged the Cambodian
people. (urbanisation and westernisation → consequential to French Colonialism)
- Food shortages after years of conflict demanded more labour in rural areas
- The cities could have been a potential site for counter-revolutionary activities

The Evacuation of Phnom Penh

- The evacuation / mass expulsion was atrocious and ruthless. → became a ‘ghost city’.
- The Khmer Rouge takeover included the mass deportation of ethnic and religious minorities. (e.g., Vietnamese
and Siamese).
- What was unique in regard to the Khmer Rouge takeover/the Cambodian experience was that the Khmer
expelled the Khmer.
- The city dwellers/urbanites became the ‘class enemy’, as according to Khmer Rouge leaders, they were in league
with the US imperialists and were collectively responsible for the suffering of the peasantry.

Reasons for the Evacuation of Cities

- A precaution against possible US bombings and mass starvation. → At this point (1975), the US bombings had
ceased the secret bombings of Cambodia for two years.
- Made on ideological grounds.
● There were two main interrelated reasons for the evacuation of the capital:
1. The relative weakness of the Khmer Rouge's forces.
2. Fear that the cities would act as reservoirs for counterrevolution.

Building Utopia from Year Zero

- The Khmer Rouge leaders and supporters collectively followed the ‘if you are not with us, you are against us’
logic.
 - Khmer Rouge leadership was determined to begin the total transformation of Cambodian society on the day that
Phnom Penh and Battambang fell. → dispersal of the old urban population.

Pol Pot’s Commands

Upon liberation on the 17th of April, 1975, there was a special centre assembly for Cabinet Ministers and all Zone and
Region secretaries.
1. Evacuate the people from the towns.
2. Abolish all markets.
3. Abolition of the Lon Nol regime currency and withhold revolutionary currency.
4. Defrock Buddist monks. → sent to work in the rice paddocks.
5. Execute all leaders of the Lon Nol regime.
6. Establish high-level cooperatives throughout the country w/ communal eating.
7. Expel the Vietnamese minority population.
8. Dispatch troops to Cambodia’s borders (especially between Vietnam).

Pol Pot's Plan

- To construct a communist Utopia on the ruins of the old society.
- Towns/cities were seen as parasitic growths of spies, foreign ideologies and capitalism.
- The urban citizens (new people) were forced into productive labour alongside the ‘old people’ → wealth would
build the future paradise.

Syllabus Dot Point: The nature of the Khmer Rouge Takeover: The Takeover and Year Zero
Restrictions
- No freedom of movement or spiritual sustenance (problematic as Cambodia was intensely religious), no choice
of occupation.
- Family, song and dance, friendships were abolished as they distracted individuals from achieving goals in rice
production to benefit the state.
- The entire country was isolated from the outside world to prevent contamination from external influences.
- Individuals were not given respite to mourn the dead or heal from war.
- Cambodia became a ‘prison farm’.

Four Year Plan

- 1976 - 1980
- Foresaw rapid development of light industry, followed by heavy industry, regardless of lacking materials,
knowledge and infrastructure.
- Ideally, Cambodia would overtake Western capitalist countries.
- Based upon Moaist 'voluntarism’ → the belief that individuals can overcome all obstacles by sheer willpower
alone.
- Additionally based upon Soviet socialism → violent expropriation of peasantry and slave labour.
- However, Cambodia’s communist experience was different to that of Stalin’s USSR and Nazi Germany as it
completely abolished all elements of ‘normal life’. E.g. family and education.
- Pol Pot believed that the transformation of Cambodia would be so swift that there was no need for transitional
mechanisms (money and markets).
Plantation Life
- Private property became obsolete
- Eating was socialised. → mass malnutrition due to lack of resources and regulations prohibiting eating ‘wild
food’, a staple of the Cambodian diet during tough times.
- Individuals were overworked in harsh conditions.
- Treatment differed from region to region. → ‘new people’ and minorities were treated much worse.