Cambodian Genocide Essay

[Dóchas]

for one of my history projects i have to write an essay on a genocide and iv chosen the cambodian genoncide because of its links to communism. i was just wondering could i make it seem that it wasnt a bad as it seems or was it one of communisms failures and there isnt really anything to salvage. i would really like it if this was possible as my history teacher is severely anti-communist and hes such a bully in class so id like to rub this in his face.

Any help would be greatfully appreciated

[Woland]

How anyone can think that Khmer Rouge was communist in its ideology is beyond me. One of the most non-communist ''communist'' organisations, more like a nationalist/psychopathic movement. It wasnt a failure of communism in the first place, and luckily it was Vietnam, a ''communist'' country which went in and overthrew it. And yes, it really was that bad.

[Dóchas]

ye i read that pol pot tried to base it on maos china but he obviously failed i think the only way i can make this seem good is the involvement of the CIA and american government i suppose its a win for my history teacher

[Woland]

You really should have picked a better topic when talking about communism :P

[Dóchas]

it was either that or the holocaust or the rwandan genocide so the choice was limited

[Pogue]

It's not a failure of communism because communism wasn't implemented there and the leaders didn't desire communism. They said they did but they were basically mental, and no communist would call for people to dig their own graves before being beaten to death with the very same shovels to "save moeny on bullets".

[SocialDemocracy19]

If communists liberated the cambodian people from the Khmer rouge regime than how can someone not realize alot of communists fight for the good rather than people illusioned and fantasizing with the ideals of stalinism or pol pot.

[OneNamedNameLess]

It's not a failure of communism because communism wasn't implemented there and the leaders didn't desire communism. They said they did but they were basically mental, and no communist would call for people to dig their own graves before being beaten to death with the very same shovels to "save moeny on bullets".

I have always fucking loved that part.

My advice would be to steer well clear of attempting to communicate that the Cambodian genocide was not as bad as it seems. It was pretty fucking bad.

Try the Holocaust. This will enable you to criminalize the far right. Can't go wrong there.

[My Heart is a Molotov]

Yep, you cannot make Democratic Kamuchea sound good at all.
I saw a really good exhibition at the site of Toul Sleng Prison by a guy called Gunnar Bergstrom. It also seems to be a book and I found this brochure for it: http://www.dccam.org/Publication/Mon...OCHURE_ENG.pdf

[Dóchas]

I have always fucking loved that part.

My advice would be to steer well clear of attempting to communicate that the Cambodian genocide was not as bad as it seems. It was pretty fucking bad.

Try the Holocaust. This will enable you to criminalize the far right. Can't go wrong there.

ye i supose you are right i heard it bad but i wasnt sure if that was just my techer being anti communist or if it really was that bad i guess ill go for the compromise and do the holocaust instead. thanks for all your help i appreciate it

[VukBZ2005]

Since we are talking about this, I have something to say: to call what happened in Cambodia "Genocide" is ridiculous, as the Khmer Rouge did not have racist or ethnically-based intentions in committing the irrational acts of mass murder that have forever stained their name.

The only time when the word should be used is when we are discussing events such as the Holocaust during the Second World War, the mass murder of over 800,000 Tutsi by Hutu militiamen in Rwanda in 1994, the expulsion of 200,000 Serbs from the Croatian region of Krajina in 1995 (which was made possible due to information given to the Croatian army by the United States, and, which also included the death of over 17,000 Serbs) and ongoing the mass murder of those who happen to have dark skin by "Arab" militias in Darfur.

[Hiero]

I tend to agree with Communist FireFox. There was no genocide in Cambodia. The word genocide has been used very liberally and usually against anti-western regimes. It is often avioded by colonialist regimes in regards to their own genocidal programs in the colony, such as in Australia and the USA.

To prove genocide you would have to show that the Khmer Rogue had a programe or ideology to exterminate a ethnic group. I have read very limited Khmer Rouge offical documents from a Khmer site that is now currently down. No where did I find any outline to exterminate non Khmer people. Maybe you could argue ethnic cleansing from Kampuchea as they identified ethnic Vietnamese as enemies in the eastern region. Though the Vietnamese were intervening in the area due to Soviet influence and by this time Democratic Kampuchea was anti-Soviet since the USSR did not support their national liberation war against the USA. So even then the origins are political and not ethnic, though no doubt the Khmer Rouge did use ethnic tensions to futher violence against anti-Khmer Rouge forces but still at the top hierarchical level there was no theory to eliminate Vietnamese simple because they were Veitnamese.

But, no doubt you can find many western acadamics who will run the line that the Khmer Rouge commited genocide. The reason being is they do not distinguish between actions and ideaology, they do not understand Communist ideology and action within a class society espically in an underveloped society and they do not acknowledge or even understand the international climate of the Communist world after the sino-soviet split and it's affect on communist parties around the world.

So if you want to go for marks then write the paper about a 'genocide" in Cambodia. Or if you get some offical Democratic Kampuchea documents and do some heavy research you could do the paper on the misuse of the term genocide for political reasons. Just be carefull not to imply that no political or ethnic violence occured, what you want to do is challenge the use of the term genocide in this case.

[Dóchas]

thank you those posts were really helpfull i think i will do it on the Cambodian "Genocide" but then at the end i will point out that technically i wasnt actually a genocide thanks guys that was really helpful