A few days ago we visited the Killing Fields as well as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.
The photos can be seen HERE. Be warned, some of the pics are of a rather gruesome nature.
If you are not aware of what went on in Cambodia in the late 1970s, then you are…well, a totally normal Westerner. I had basically no idea of the atrocities that occurred in this nation before I visited. I highly encourage (if I could force you, I would) to research what happened. It will take just a few minutes. Google it, Wikipedia it, whatever.
Basically, the corrupt government/military regime of Democratic Kampuchea (later known as the Khmer Rouge) and led by a man known as Pol Pot took control of Cambodia in the mid-70s.
One of the biggest reasons they were able to come to power with so much support of the Cambodian people is because Cambodia was being secretly bombed by US military in an effort to stop the Viet Cong that were traveling through the Cambodian countryside during the Vietnam War. The US military dropped thousands of tons of bombs on Cambodian soil…and unfortunately killed thousands of Cambodian peasants instead of the Viet Cong forces. The indiscriminate, ineffective, and illegal bombing enraged the Cambodian people and gave the Khmer Rouge the political support they needed to gain control of the country (whereas prior to the US bombing they were a corrupt but small and weak political party).
After the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot came to power, they basically tried to start the country over at “Year One.” Needless to say, it didn’t work. In the end, they killed around 3 million people in less than 4 years, which was about a quarter of the population. The genocide specifically targeted anybody religious, all educated people and intellectuals, city dwellers, and basically all suspected enemies of the revolution.
You can imagine what that would do to the future of a nation.
If you can’t…come to Cambodia and see.
