CAMBODIAN GENOCIDEVietnamese Liberation of Cambodia, 1979

TIMELINE Cold War (1947-1991)

Vietnam War (Nov 1955-April

1975) Cambodian Civil

War (1967-1975)

Cambodian Genocide (1975-1979)

BACKGROUND INFORMATION• ~2 million people

killed (1975-1979)• Pol Pot, leader of

Khmer Rouge

"It was genocide driven not by racial or religious hatred but by an ideology that had been incubated so fervently that it became insanity." -Adam Fifield, author of A Blessing Over Ashes

PROBLEM DEFINITION: A LOOK AT THE NARRATIVES

MOTIVATIONS OF MARXIST-LENINIST REGIMES

Leadership tends to exist within a paranoid political culture

Usually creates a secret police and wages campaigns of terror against own people

Both have existed within communist Russia, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia

STALINIST (USSR) vs. MAOIST (CHINA) REGIMES Stalinist communism emphasized material power

Ex. Formal education, expertise, and technology Maoist communism was disdainful of material power

Emphasized human will instead Historical ideologies within Vietnam lent themselves towards a

Stalinist approach, whereas in Cambodia they lent themselves towards a Maoist approach

This determined what was objectively possible in choosing a means towards a politically desired ends

Globalized a regional struggle for power

CAUSES OF INVASION: PRIMARY Historical imperialism of Vietnamese

leadership, yearning to become regional hegemon of the former French Indochina Reinforced by Stalinist emphasis on material power

Five years of intermittent military attacks from Cambodian Khmer Rouge Irrational (weaker military and ally) fueled by

Maoist view of human will

CAUSES OF INVASION: SECONDARY North Vietnam antagonism towards

China Mistakenly assumes China is instigating

Khmer Rouge attacks Begins aligning with USSR Expulsion and purge of Chinese ethnic

minority Joins Soviet economic bloc, the Council for

Economic Mutual

CAUSES OF INVASION: SECONDARY (cont.)

China and Cambodian Khmer Rouge Reaction China becomes fearful Cambodia will fall under Soviet

influence, so allies and supports Maoist Khmer Rouge regime Cambodia held historical feelings of inferiority and deep

resentment of more powerful neighbors - desire to prove itself

Continues and fails incursions against Vietnam Failures generate paranoid delusions of an internal enemy at

fault Purges own military ranks

UNITED STATES PERSPECTIVE Geopolitical ideological

conflict Cold War & anti-

Communism Choosing the lesser evil

Vietnam violating Cambodia’s sovereignty

Sided with Khmer Rouge to strengthen alliance with China

CAMBODIAN PERSPECTIVE Thankful to be liberated

from Khmer Rouge but did not get desired freedom

Vietnam occupied Cambodia until 1989

“Why are you still here?”

OTHER INTERNATIONAL RESPONSES

Khmer Rouge in UN seat for years

End of Cold War End of Khmer

Rouge backings

CITATION

Morris, Stephen J. Why Vietnam Invaded Cambodia: Political Culture and the Causes of War. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1999. Print.

Kiernan, Ben. "The Cambodian Genocide and Imperial Culture.” 90 Years of Denial.(2005).

Morris, Brett S. "Jacobin.” Jacobin Nixon and the Cambodian Genocide Comments. 27 Apr 2015.

Murphy, Jarrett. "Remembering the Killing Fields.” CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 15 Apr. 2000.

WEBSITES VIDEOSCambodia: Anatomy of a GenocideCambodian Genocide Program

Vietnamese Liberation of CambodiaVietnamese Invasion in 1979The Killing Fields