The fact that the Vietnamese, who were communists themselves, decided to fight against this communist regime, shows just how psychotic Pol Pot & his actions were.
There was actually a lot of infighting against Communists during the Cold War. For example China funded the rebels in Afghanistan during the Russo-Afghan War.
I knew an elderly Cambodian man who lived through the regime and one of the things he told me was how he had to learn how to do things like work and drive half blind because the Khmer Rouge considered anyone with prescription glasses to be apart of the intellectual class and thus enemies of the state. If they found out you needed glasses or caught you wearing them you would be immediately executed.
There's an Asian grocery store in my city ( Spartanburg , South Carolina) owned and ran by a Cambodian family . I frequently shop there . I love their Banh Mi , Two days ago I bought a 25 pound bag of Jasmine rice and some snacks there . They were out of Thai bananas due to their Tet holiday .
What the Khmer Rouge did is unfortunately not taught or even wide known today. Even at the time, many prominent Western socialists denied the genocide, saying the atrocities were either greatly exaggerated or American propaganda. Noam Chomsky was one of them. I think the important takeaway for us here in the West is that we are not immune to such barbarity. Any ideology, especially those promising utopianism or espouse violent solutions, should be looked at with a heavy dose of critical thinking.
critical thinking is a rare skill and is not being taught in schools in the west for a reason. People who ask questions or are skeptical get in the way of evil.
@@s0nnyburnett critical thinking is thought everywhere, but only to turn you into either a pothead, a communist, an anarchist, a feminist, a neo-n*zi, a neo-fascist, or any other idea where you get enclosed to, different to the previous you had.
If your solution to unprovoked and ongoing violence against you is either diplomatic or democratic in nature, then it would be more expedient to dig your own grave and simply wait for your enemy to come and give you a high-speed lobotomy.
"The people were not even allowed to forage for food in the countryside." Thank you for mentioning this. A lot of people have no idea how insane the Khmer Rouge was. Even in North Korea, people are allowed to go out and scavenge for food. Not in Cambodia. According to Khmer Rouge ideology, if one individual possessed any kind of food, even just a little bit of rice or a fruit they found in the jungle, it meant they broke the communist code of "equality" and were therefore liable to be punished. I've heard stories of weak and starving people being executed by suffocation (by plastic bags) merely for eating a little bit of food outside of designated communes. My own family survived by eating in secret (communes never had enough food). It makes me angry and sad to know what Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge put my family and millions of other Cambodians through. And for what? Did Cambodia become a stronger nation for it? More developed? More prosperous? And to add insult to injury, Pol Pot had a proper funeral and burial site when he died. By who, I have no idea. Every Cambodian I know hates him. Every single one, without exception. Even Mao, Stalin, and even Hitler have their admirers. Pol Pot is the only historical figure I know that's universally despised.
Nationalism, combined with the most idealistic, populistic facet of Marxism, all mixed together on steroid, created the monstrousity known as Khmer Rouge.
Pol Pot lived with the remnants of the Khmer Rouge after ousting, and was buried by them. He was something of an isolated warlord surrounded by the most extreme and those desperate enough to stay in his service. If i remember right it was a somewhat less than glorious procession and was buried under a bed of rocks or something like it. It is now a psuedo shire to him and them. I think his followers are still there as a paramilitary last i heard a peace deal was in effect tho that might be out of date info.
Pol Pot could have basically stayed in power if he hadn't ordered his troops to attack the Vietnamese border and storm into Vietnamese villages, killing and raping the innocents for no reason than to serve Pol Pot's delusion of a great Khmer empire. Vietnam tried to resolve the conflict using diplomatic channels, specifically through the UN, but to no avail as most of the security council members were supporting Pol Pot's regime at the time. The breaking point for the Vietnamese was the Ba Chuc Village Massacre, where 3000 civilians were brutally gunned and hunted down like animals by the Khmer Rouge, Hanoi knew peace had never been a choice to deal with the barbaric government in Cambodia, so they quickly mobilized the army, caling back battle hardened veterans of the Vietnam war, using both firepower and tactical superiority to sweep through Cambodia and reached Phnom Penh in just half a month. In short, Pol Pot dug a grave for himself and his regime when he decided to attack Vietnam.
@@haushkiy You don't understand politics and the regime at all. From a madman who fantasized about his strength was beaten to hide and hide in Thailand. From being the most powerful of the demons to obediently dying in bed, it's an indelible disgrace
I am deeply saddened that the people of Cambodia have not expressed their gratitude to Vietnam. My father fought alongside Cambodia when he was 18. He told me about the fierce battles, his comrades sacrificed, and the rescue missions for the Cambodian people. He recounted how the Cambodian people resorted to cannibalism when hungry, with ponds filled with human remains. In the post-war period, he transitioned to become an advisor, helping the locals build villages, cultivate rice, provide medical care, and education
My mom and dad and relatives were all survivors of the Khmer Rouge. They escaped into Vietnam and then the US. I’m the next generation along with my cousins from them and I’m going back there this summer for vacation. It’s crazy to think about the brutality they had to face and be lucky enough to survive and escape it.
There's a Cambodian grocery store in Spartanburg South Carolina that I frequent . They are very friendly and accommodating . Two days ago I bought some Three Sisters Jasmine rice there , but due to the Tet holiday they were out of Thai bananas .
@@chinglee911 I accidentally picked up a bag of broken rice . They replaced it with whole grain rice . I asked if broken rice was for making Joke , and they said Yes . I'd like to buy a couple of pounds of broken rice and try Joke sometime . I love Banh Mi with Dao Chua , Luc Loc , Pho , and nearly everything form Asia . I was in the US Navy from 1985 to 1995 . My first four years I sailed on a Guided Missile Destroyer homeported in Charleston South Carolina and was deployed to the Mediterranean sea . My next assignment was a shore duty job as Military Policeman in Yokosuka Japan . Then I sailed on a Guided Missile Cruiser homeported in Long Beach California. I sailed the Pacific Ocean , the Indian Ocean , and the Persian Gulf . I felt comfortable in the Asian countries that I visited . If I had to live outside of America I'd choose an Asian country to live in .
My grandpa passed away during the Khmer Rouge, all I heard from my grandma was that he died of starvation because he refused to eat during the toughest times and given his wife and children all of the little foods that he hidden or earned from the camp(work field) later on, grandma and most of her kids got separated and somehow survived until present and reunited. What a hero! R.I.P🙏🙏
A large amount of the high ranking Khmer Rouge are now rather wealthy of of gemstones that their former soldiers dig through minefields to find. Almost nobody was sent to trial for what they did.
After America failed in Vietnam. China conflicts with the Soviet Union. American capitalists and Chinese communists joined hands to deal with the Soviet Union and Vietnam. China promised the US to teach Vietnam a lesson and isolate the Soviet Union. China fascinated Pol Pot, provided weapons, and trained the Khmer Rouge army to fight Vietnam. At the same time, China invaded Vietnam from Vietnam's northern border. China's plans were very sinister, forcing Vietnam to fight two battlefields at the same time: Viet - Campot war and Viet - China war 1979. The US tried to send aid to Pol Pot across the Thai border. The US and China both attacked Vietnam on the political and diplomatic front, both calling on the world to boycott Vietnam for its acts of aggression. At that time, Vietnam was isolated in the UN international arena. The Khmer Rouge genocide regime supported by the US and China has a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Don't talk about communism or capitalism. The evil nature lies in bloodthirsty politicians
These guys were complete monsters. One of the reasons why Vietnam invaded them was because the khmer went into a Vietnamese village and murdered around 3000 people. May their victims never be forgotten.
@@thatperformer3879if we are talking about unrelated stuff. It's pretty ironic for US to support colonial france during the Vietcong war for independent against colonial France considering their history.
Vietnam actually ended all that by conquering Cambodia. After all those years fighting imperial Japan and western powers, they even managed to take over Cambodia and fight chinese troops back in the north of Vietnam. They're amazing.
Quân đội Trung Quốc đánh Việt Nam để cứu Khmer đỏ . chế độ mà Trung Quốc nuôi dưỡng để sát hại người Campuchia. Nhưng Trung Quốc đã thất bại khi tấn công Việt Nam và phải rút quân
My mother had to endure this horrid regime. She told me stories on how she feared for her life every day. It truly horrible what she had to go through, and thankful for everything I have thanks to her
@@DegnaDings I still don't understand how people can literally watch their friends, family, and neighbors getting killed and not rise up with anger, or refuse to work.
My parents and their families had to live through this. My dad remembers more than my mom did, and suffers terrible PTSD from living through this. Both of my parents lost a lot of family members...
I'm sorry to hear that, but I have to wonder why they and the other 99% of people in their country put up with it. I understand being afraid but if you are starving to death anyways, why not take a chance to fight for something greater?
As a Vietnamese, I am very proud of the Vietnamese People's Army. My country has a saying about my people's army: Go when the people remember, stay the people love. Take the meaning of the fierce victory, the intellect triumphs over the fierce. Do not take the needle or thread of the people. If you want to take something from the people, you have to pay. That is why our People's Army won the four or five permanent members of the United Nations and has the support of the people everywhere.
Did your teacher told you that Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon created the Khmer Rouge? Did your teacher told you the US voted to give a seat to the Khmer Rouge at the United Nations? Did your teacher told you the US sanctioned Vietnam after knowing they liberated Cambodian from pol pot ?
A few years back I visited the killing fields on a trip through Vietnam and Cambodia. One of the most sobering experiences of my life. Almost no one there that day so it was eerily silent and, in a strange way, also very peaceful. The killing tree is mind numbing. It’s decorated so beautifully now but listening to the headset I was given explaining what it had been used for made my knees go rubbery. I’ll never forget that place.
The "Killing Tree" was named Khmer soldier use infants and children's as axe on the tree. When the child died, they will throw it into the pit that they dug. That's enough to make my mind go very mad to the point that nearly destroyed my apartment. It was a dreaded sight and thing to hear. I pray to the children's that fall victim apon those barbaric bastards
I remember that Haing Ngor who was a medical professional later turned actor survived this horrible incident. But during that time he lost his wife & unborn child. He along with his niece moved to the US after that incident. Haing also later stared in the movie TKF, which he got an Academy Award for.
I’ve heard of his untimely passing to. It’s sad how lost is life in that incident. He deserved a more prosperous & peaceful life after going through that tragic event.
what funny is, he move to USA without knowing USA support and funding this Khmer Rouge regime The United States (U.S.) voted for the Khmer Rouge and the Khmer Rouge-dominated Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK) to retain Cambodia's United Nations (UN) seat until as late as 1993, long after the Khmer Rouge had been mostly deposed by Vietnam during the 1979 U.S. support for the Khmer Rouge guerrillas in the 1980s was "pivotal" to keeping the organization alive, and was in part motivated by revenge over the U.S. defeat during the Vietnam War.
@@tylerbozinovski427 Many former Khmer Rouge are still alive today. There's an infamous district in Cambodia called Anlong Veng that's full of former Khmer Rouge soldiers, officers, etc. They still live there isolated and ostracized from the rest of Cambodia, but they no longer hold any power. But that's just the overt stuff. The truth is that MOST former Khmer Rouge live everywhere in Cambodia among ordinary Cambodians, but they will never tell anyone. They are your neighbors, your shopkeeper, your rice farmer and local fisherman. They will never be identified because they will take their secrets to the grave, but every Cambodian knows there's always a possibility that someone they know was a former Khmer Rouge.
My dad’s old coworker had escaped Cambodia with her family when she was a kid, by boat if I remember correctly. There wasn’t enough room for everyone so her father stayed behind. She never saw him again. My dad asked about him once when he saw the man’s picture on her desk and she immediately started sobbing. 😢
Simple History, I am glad you added this video. I am Cambodian and people don’t talk about this usually. My great grandma died to this, because she was rich and the Khmer Rouge found out. Thank you. My grandpa on my dad’s side fought against Pol Pot’s army in the civil war, but they lost so he had to change his name. Sadly he died in 2021.
The history will always be an insult to the Cambodian. The first author I read about Cambodia history was an author confused between the Mandarin and Chinese. He simply classified them all as the Chinese. His name is Kimmo Kiljunen author of Kampuchea the Decade of Genocide. 300 to 400 pages of confusion, today I know he was as confused as most Khmer. The second author written many books about Cambodia history and one of his main subject was Cambodia education backwardness. He blamed on the French for Cambodia education backwardness and this proof he was completely ignorance about Cambodia and Southeast Asia history. He was simply a Vietnamese plagiarizer. The French didn't just ignored Cambodia education system but ignored its entire Southeast Asia colony education system. The French did open school for the brightest and smartest but none come from Laos or Khmer ethnic group. The French did attempted to educated the children of the Monarchies but evident suggest they were all been intellectual subverted. Another author painting a child psychology about Pol Pot got separated from his parents at a very young age and everyone was riding on his bandwagon. The most significant evidences given to us reader was a reporter name Philip Short. His book "Pol Pot The History of Nightmare", revealed some truth by his brother Suong about how his grandfather was killed by the French. Suong can claimed whatever he like but only those know Cambodia history can revealed the real truth. He claimed his grandfather was killed by the French, only 23 years after Khmer had to run to mountain and forest to survived on roots and leaves, which he claimed his grandfather experienced. Is his grandfather stupid enough to desired a returning to an era, when Khmer had to hide, eat leaves and roots to survive to make him rebelled against French or his grandfather was actually working for the Mandarin from Hue, Vietnam? Who was the Mandarin? They were the Chu-Han, the governing language of Hue, Vietnam. They took controlled of Cambodia and made Ang Chan II and his daughter as a puppet. Most of the Chu-Han descendant still blaming on Sihanouk but in reality. Sihanouk was never ready to take Cambodia independent from the French because the Mandarin still controlled most of Cambodia administration even 90 years under the French colony. He was forced to stole the independent from the Chu-Han. 90 percent of Cambodia history were still tell by the Chu-Han and their descendant. The best example of them all was Khieu Samphan. He was the son of the Chu-Han. Without mastering the Chu-Han, his father Khieu Long will never able to get a job as a judge. Those falsely classified as his moderate faction such as Hou Yuon, Hu Nim and Ti Ol were actually the people without any link to the Chu-Han and they were all killed.
Everything in the film didn't tell too much about who was the killer. My reference point to some of historic event happened in Cambodia pretty similar to the Khmer Rouge given by Philips Short. Chapter 1 in his book "Pol Pot The History of Nightmare" tell some of Cambodia Calamities and I give the French the credit for rescuing Cambodia. My trivia questions for those interest in Cambodia history base on source from Philips Short's book. If the Khmer had to run into the mountain and forest to live on roots and leaves then would these people produced offspring with the education to run the Country? If the Khmer wasn't the people running Cambodia then who were the people running Cambodia? Was the people running Cambodia taking order from Beijing, China or Hue, Vietnam. Above are some of the most important question for those interest in Cambodia history. Remember, from 1802 to 1954, almost zero Khmer running Cambodia governing body. Most officials running Cambodia were either promoted from Hue, Vietnam or Bangkok, Thailand. There children continued to run Cambodia and blending themselves as Khmer. I cannot make too much sense with a few sentences but point to the direction of true paradigm. Do you know Hua Goufeng? If you don't know Hua Goufeng, then you don't know anything about China and Cambodia relationship. The Khmer Rouge was a perfect genocide. Most books and sources continued to insulting us just because we were psychologically subverted and didn't have the time to research about our history.
As a Burmese whose family and relatives suffered under the Junta, and as I have a Cambodian best friend, I can emphasize with the Cambodians, the hardships and cruelty they faced are similar to the 8888 uprising. Almost every thing is the same between Ne Win and Pol Pot, both were ruthless, cold, heartless and greedy dictators. I myself wouldn't want to be one when I dream and do become the future president of Myanmar, hats off to you Cambodian people, I respect you 100% Love, S.
I've been to the S21 Tuol Sleng museum myself and seen the checker floored rooms, the rusty bed frames and the torture devices that were used displayed in clear cases. Even after all these years, the blood stains are still there. They also had boards upon boards of pictures showing each victim that was held there... To think that people were tortured and even died in there many years ago is a truly terrifying thought to say the least....
I went there around 6 years old for a trip, more than 15 years ago. Just the look of the prison from the outside was so terrifying. I guess children are more spiritual, bc I genuinely felt like the suffering there was still alive. It was hard to even stand up from the bus seat. Until today, I still remember the feeling from that trip.
why terrifying? people die anyways, idk whats this big fuss about people killing people, killing has been since first humans so i dont see problem at all
Khi bộ đội Việt Nam tiến vào S21, chỉ còn 22 người sống sót trong tổng hơn 25.000 người, polpot giết 25.000 người, và giwof trẻ campuchia bảo Việt Nam giết hahaha
He actually removed any progress that there was and set them back who knows how many years. Such utter brutality and stupidity should never have happened. I don't know how soldiers could just follow these orders and not fight back.
They were likely manipulated or brainwashed to the point of being heavily indoctrinated, or their families were threatened with death Edit: That’s likely why so many soldiers followed the orders
I've watched a documentary about Pol Pot about a year ago and i nearly shed tears. Dude was cruel to not only men adults but also women and children. He targeted intellectuals and anybody who he saw that they were a threat to his rule.
*Nhưng khi Việt Nam giúp đỡ Campuchia chấm dứt chế độ diệt chủng PonPol, Campuchia giờ hòa bình và dần phát triển thì nhiều thanh niên Campuchia quay ra nói xấu Việt Nam, đúng là vô ơn.*
@@thepjpodcast *Lịch sử không nói dối, thời điểm Polpot lộng hành, giết, tàn sát hàng nghìn người dân vô tội Campuchia lúc đó US làm gì? liên hợp quốc làm gì? Tất cả đều quay lưng mặc dân Campuchia đói khát và chết, chỉ có Việt Nam là nhảy vào đám Polpot để đánh chúng, ông bạn hay nhìn thẳng vào lịch sử và thừa nhận, đừng suy diễn.*
I had a university professor who lived in the immediate aftermath of the Khemer Rouge , he at times shared stories that his family and others had shared with him about living under the regime it was eye opening. Professor Un you were my favorite teacher .
This is the reason why Cambodian American men like me are 2nd amendment absolutists, you can’t enslave us if we have guns to fight back. My grandpa was executed after the war because he had fought on the side of the Khmer Republic. My mom survived all 4 years of slavery by not standing out.
This is facts, my father, grandfather, and everyone else in my family strongly urged to me to train firearms and to serve in the military for a few years to ensure I can fight back if it came to it once more, in his words, “rather die fighting than die running or tortured”
My descendents were brought to their knees and killed. I live my life in America, ever grateful to my mother and her relatives that survived the journey over. Equality in guns = Equality in humanity. I rather die fighting than sacrificing any freedom. Without them, It will always lead back to the nightmare our people went through.
Then Vietnam has to sacrifice thousand lifes to free Cambodia off this madness, but the world was saying that Vietnam was invading Cambodia. Nowaday many young Cambodian and politicans spreading hate on Vietnam, one of those reasons is "Vietnam was invaded Cambodia" What the heck, the border still remain the same as since the french left Indochina. We didn't took any land in the war against Rouge Khmer. What a world.
@@lordtea womp womp the most important country in the world wasn’t able to have a clean track record. Ever heard of hindsight bias? World isn’t all rainbows
My grandpa was a Vietnam Vet and I remember as a kid we watched an older movie, I don't remember the name of it right now. But it was about a guy that escaped the killing fields, and listening to my grandpa talk about Pol Pot and how evil he was. One part of the movie I remember was with a group of young kids and there was a chalk board with a stick figure family drawn on it, and one of the kids erased the part of the figures holding hangs, showing the family needed to be dissolved and the other kids and leaders in the room cheered.
That's the plan of the US Democrat party . They wish to destroy family , destroy culture , destroy religion , destroy gender lines , disarm the people , and rewrite history .
The movie you described is probably 1984’s “The Killing Fields,” with Haing Ngor, a real life survivor of Pol Pot’s regime, playing the main character.
You’re welcome! One scene from that movie I’ll always remember is Ngor’s character stumbling upon a literal field of decomposing corpses in a marsh as far as the eye can see…
Khmer Rouge had the backing of both China and the USA, both countries have a lot to answer for when it comes to the crimes that occurred in Cambodia. Well done for Vietnam for realising what was happening and bringing an end to it.
The whole world owes Vietnam an apology for overthrowing the Khmer Rouge, literally most of the world including the US was on their side long before the truth came out, even if the Vietnamese were no better
Yeah, attempts at getting the rest of the world to send humanitarian aid was pretty much entirely blocked by the USA, which were still pretty salty about Vietnam
yea we shouldn't criticize Vietnam for invading in 1979, but cut me a break Vietnam isn't innocent they're the ones who trained the Khmer Rouge in the first place, not only that but the Vietcong using Cambodian land was the whole reason that the civil war started. They shouldn't be praised for cleaning up a mess they made.
Vietnam was also the reason Pol Pot got his power. They dragged the Cambodian to their Vietnam war by Ho Chi Minh trail, which lead to the American bombing the Cambodian countryside, destabilized the country.
I am not Cambodian, but I’d like to send my condolences to all people who lost their dear-loved ones during this awful period… It just saddens me as I keep seeing comments of people telling they lost someone during the Khmer Rouge regime 🖤🕊 May them Rest In Peace I’d like to show my respect to those who survived this regime in Cambodia too, and I wish them the best ❤️💪
@@hillerm yeah. I learned during my visit in Cambodia before the pandemic that intellectuals during that era needs to burn their diplomas or any proof that they are educated just to ensure their safety. 😢
My grandparents fled to America and had a big family They still went to visit for my great grandmas funeral in 2014 My family also went to visit They say the country is still beautiful but you can tell war had an effect on this country
@@SaretGnasoh That's what sucks even more. The USA supported the Khmer Rouge into overthrowing the pro-North Vietnamese government in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. So technically the US is indirectly responsible for the atrocities. And this is a common pattern observed whenever the US meddles in affairs of third-world countries, they get even more brutal.
@@SaretGnasoh evidence? Why don't Vietnam hate the US now? Because Vietnam is a settler state just the US killed all indigenous Champas and Montagnards
@@SaretGnasohh you mean the Wikipedia allegations? The murderers were ultimately communists and its evilness is solely on pol pot and Khmer rogue To blame america is so dumb 😂 More anti American pig slop
I first heard about this from my dad when I was a kid. I told him why there is so many skulls in a Cambodian museum. He also used to work for a Cambodian chef who owns a restaurant in France. That time, his boss managed to escape but his family were unable to run and were gunned down while trying to cross the border to Thailand. He eventually settled in France. His boss is comfortable to share his backstory but always shed tears when do so.
It should not have happened to the Cambodian people during the Khmer Rouge era, it was a dark period that the Cambodian people will never forget, it is still crazy to think that this happened in 1975/1979. I can not imagine what my parents and grandparents went through so I can grow here. Thanks to bringing insights to this part of history that most of the world did not even know happened.
I worked with a woman who escaped from Cambodia. She told me about working those log days on the farm. The workers would watch out for each other so they wouldn't get caught sleeping or napping, because if you did you would get shot. She ended up having to run across a minefield in order to escape, but some of her friends weren't so lucky.
You can hate or love Vietnam, you can question their real intention at that time, but you can't deny actions against Polpot is on the good side of human kind. Vietnam did it.
why we helped them and then receive all this criticism? we should have establish a formal relationship with Pol Pot like the US and China, we don't wanna save ungrateful people
Vietnam is the one who installed Pol Pot bringing weapons down the Ho Chi Minh trail directly to him. North Vietnam started the fire, then credited themselves for putting out the fire.
When my professor (who lived in China under Mao) first told me about this group, I got one of my first looks at how destructive Communism is, no matter who applies it.
By nature communism seems to fall because the wolf's teeth are shed. The only possible good communism always inevitably falls to tyranny and ego or capitalism as people get the freedom for choice
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." The problem is bureaucrats 100 miles away don't have the slightest idea what your abilities are, so they either end up enabling laziness or (as is the case here) slaving people to death.
Imagine if they had excel spreadsheets? No, really. I'm not making fun of the matter. Bureaucrats see you as a number already. Imagine if all they saw were just numbers on a screen? The main problem with far left ideologues is that they never ever think the problem is the ideology, the leaders, the the regime or a combination thereof. It's always foreign sabotage or worst of all, people not commited to the ideology enough. That's where khmer rouges, holodomors, and great leap forwards come from.
@@theyeening Yes, but this problem does not just apply to any one particular brand of socialism. This is a problem with command style economies in general.
@@cptndunsel3364 Most problems planned economies used to have in the past would be alleviated today with inclusion of computers into them. Read about Project Cybersyn and its modern legacy.
I am a Cambodian. My grandpa have events from this, he survived and he was a teenager in that time. It’s actually true he told me that, he actually have a drawing of him and his brother have their hands up and the soldiers have their guns pointing at them so this is actually a true story not kidding.
Red Khmer: *attacks Vietnam* Vietnam: *fights back* China: "Omg Vietnam is invading Cambodia, we must teach them a lesson by attacking their border and invading their islands." 🙃
Vietnam: Hey world, I defeated this horrible regime which has killed a third of its own population! World: How terrible! No one will play with you anymore!
Us Army vet married to a Lao. My wife’s aunts son married a Viet lady last year. I got to meet her dad. He was in the first invasion of Cambodia. He was shot 2 times in his arm. I have met lot of people from a lot of conflicts. The only one I have not yet is the Falklands war.
As a Cambodian seeing a video about Khmer-rouge just make me wanna think about my Grandparents and elderly relatives who survived the Khmer rouge regime and they're story how brutal is was to live without enough food and resting. Good to see the video about it !
My family and I fled Cambodia in 1979 to come to the US. I had a chance to go back in 1997 and visit S21, now known as Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. It's by far one of the scariest, depressing and saddest place i've ever visited. Many of the rooms still contain blood soaked mattresses where the victims were tortured on and torture contraptions and how they were used.. There are also pictures of the victims on many of the walls.
About time this video was made. I've been waiting for this for so long! I actually know some people who escaped from there, with one story being that one of them lost their father. Another case is when one almost got proscecuted and 'processed' because he could speak French.
My great grandparents died from this and so as my grandma's brother. I'm honestly just shocked at how my grandma managed to survive through all of this. She told me that she would hide behind things such as trees and buildings so that she didn't get shot. If she were to die, I wouldn't be here right now.
Thank for making this video. I’m a Cambodian myself. I can tell all of you that this was the historic traumatizing for all Cambodians. Decades later, we are healing, and we have been healing until today. I recommend all of you to visit Cambodia at least once in a lifetime. The country is dramatically developed. People are friendly and helpful. I bet you can see people smiling and chitchatting even during the traffic congestion. I’m opening for all the tourists to visit my country.
@@mirceazaharia2094we’re doing much better but most of the time, they won’t really talk about that part of the history at least on a daily basis. You can definitely tell that it traumatized them and they only mentioned what you’ve known and not much of their own personal experiences. My grandparents are a survivor of this mass genocide and I don’t think I’ve heard them go into much details about they’ve endured in it. There’s still a long way to go but we’re getting there
Im glad that Im one of those tourist choose to visit Phom Pehn before the pandemic and learned your history. I'm glad that I visited the Killing Fields and S21 because I believed, its a way to pay respect for those who died during that era. With love, from your ASEAN Brother, PH 🇵🇭
Fun fact: in the 70's Henry Kissinger gave the Thai foreign minister a message from the US government for the Khmer Rouge: "Tell the Cambodians we will be friends with them. They are murderous thugs but we will not let that stand in our way" After the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Khmer Rouge the US channeled funds and arms to the Khmer Rouge rebels that held on to pockets of the country, and made overtures to the Chinese asking them to support the Khmer Rouge. Until 1993 the US voted every year at the UN for the Khmer Rouge to retain Cambodia's UN seat.
I am a Simple History channel’s fan from Cambodia, I really appreciate for today’s video and as my generation we only heard and learned about this regime from book or our parents and grandparents memories. May the soul of civilians, prisoners, soldiers who died during the regime rest in peace.
My grandma in Law she used to live in Cambodia during pol pot. She was also the daughter of a high-ranking Government official whom was poisoned, she had to pretend and act like the men that poisoned him, didn’t and she would tell me and my mom about the story of living in Cambodia during pol pot in summary, it was absolutely horrible.
I visited the killing fields. They didnt execute the people with bullets as shown in the video. To save cost, they actually just use the the farming tools on the head, as evident on the skulls found. Can also watch award winning film The Killing Fields to have a feel of what happened in that era.
As a Vietnamese this is truth during Ba Chúc Massacre the Khmer Rouge used machete, bayonet or Vietnamese farming tool to execute 3000 innocent villagers to save bullets.
I went to S-21 and the killing fields last year, it’s surreal seeing all the photos and the cells etc. I got to meet one of the 7 survivors who was like 90+ and it’s just unbelievable what these people went through
Cambodia feels dark. Its a strange sensation. Outside Siam Riep the place just has a malaise about it. S21 and the killing fields are on another level. Its the kind of evil you can feel oozing from the place. I hated traveling any distance in Cambodia its still a wreck.
I’m an older American guy. Living in Cambodia seven years. It is a beautiful place with some of the friendliest people on the planet. I live in Siem Reap but I am currently visiting my wife’s homeland near the Vietnamese border. Absolutely lovely!
After Pol Pot's bout of ultranationalism spilled into Vietnam, with the occupation of Phu Quoc island in 1975 and most infamously the Ba Chuc massacre 1978 that saw almost all victims shot or beheaded, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and ended his genocidal regime. My uncle was there, 2nd Division of the 4th Army that entered Phnom Penh. When he arrived in Phnom Penh and when he eventually left, people were cheering for him. And what we got at the end was invasion by the PRC followed by a border skirmish lasting until 1991, and tightened embargo by the United States. All the while the Thai provided safe haven for the Khmer Rouge as they reorganised across the border (with British training for a time, no less) to wage a guerrilla war back into Cambodia with little repercussion. Meanwhile Noam Chomsky sat in cafes in Boston writing articles stating his support for Pol Pot's genocide. While Cambodia is on fire, Pol Pot naturally went on a secret tour from 1985 to 1988 to Beijing to receive cancer treatment. And once international pressure forced Vietnam occupation force to retreat from Cambodia, a UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia was established and operated in such a comedically incompetent fashion that almost broke the new post-war Cambodia as Khmer Rouge intensified its attack right up until well after the first election. Reality really is more absurd than fiction.
Bruh, it looks like the UN wanted the Khmer Rouge back, those people are really delusional. If they wanted to be gamers they should game with themselves first. Now that i read that Thailand gave refuge to Pol Pot, i'm starting to vomit.
Sadly, not many people outside Southeast Asia remember the tragedy of the “Killing Fields” of Cambodia, but in the late 1970s and 1980s, when the evil nature of the regime in that country from 1975-79 was publicized in Europe and the United States, the absolutely horrific acts of the Khmer Rouge (“kah-mair ruuj”) regime became front page news, an Oscar-winning movie and a quite popular punk rock anthem, “Holiday in Cambodia,” by the Dead Kennedy's in 1980. In 1996, an Oscar-winning actor was killed in an attempted robbery outside his Los Angeles home. A tragic thing to happen to anyone, but making this senseless act even more tragic was the fact that the victim was Dr. Haing S. Ngor. Ngor had come to the United States and made a successful life for himself as an actor, portraying another victim and survivor of the regime, Dith Pran, and winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in the movie “The Killing Fields.” Dr. Ngor had been an obstetrician in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, when the communist Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975. “Khmer Rouge” means “Red Khmer.” Rouge is French for “red”, the color of communism, and the French had ruled Cambodia for ninety years until 1953. “Khmer” is the Cambodian word for the dominant ethnic group in the country. The Khmer Rouge were on the extreme left of the political spectrum. The very extreme left - by the time they took power in Cambodia, Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong's China was coming out of a radical period itself - the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”, and Mao himself would be dead within a year, beginning a shift in Chinese politics. You can find out more about this strange and amazing time in “A Day in History's” “The Most Bizarre Events in Chinese History” on our channel [A Day In History ], but suffice it to say that the ideology of the Khmer Rouge made Mao look like a man living in the past. Though the Khmer Rouge looked to Mao and China for both guidance and financial support, the leaders of the movement, most notably it's #1 and #2 men, Pol Pot and Nuon Chea, known also as “Brother #1” and “Brother #2”, saw North Korea and Albania, the two most isolated and repressive communist regimes on Earth, as their role models. All three nations believed in “autarky” - complete self-sufficiency, though the smallest of the three, Albania, was the only one to come close to its goal. During the time of French control of the country, many Cambodians rebelled. Some carried out a small-scale and largely unsuccessful guerrilla war. Many people supported the Cambodian royal family, even though they were a puppet of the French military government. However, the heir to the throne, Prince Norodom Sihanouk (1922-2012), known within Cambodia by his traditional title of “Samdech Euv,” or “King Father,” became head of state in 1960 and again when crowned king in 1993, eventually led the country to independence in post-WWII talks with France.
I visited S21 during my study abroad in the summer 2022. When I visited, I felt my knees about to give out when I walked by the bricked cells. I wanted to cry and couldn't, but I sensed the pain of the prisoners (spiritually cause I was crying inside). I met 2 of the 3 surivivors, one was a painter and the other was only kid who hid underneath clothes. Thank you Simple History for creating this video
My friends parents escaped cambodia. We all knew this growing up but later when we were teens his dad pulled up his shirt and showed us scars from bullets in his back. Him and his wife were escaping on a small boat when someone started shooting at them with an ak. He was hit twice and his wife once. They floated around for hours bleeding. His dad was barely hanging on and would have bled out but his wife held her shirt to his wound. They were rescued by a fishing boat and eventually made it to the US. They had 5 kids who are all doing fantastic. Ive met few people who know more about US history and truly appreciate everything they have worked so hard for.
A man who was Vietnamese veteran told me the most haunting thing until now seeing a soldier kill a wound soldier in that time . Many Khmer's bomb and mine only wound people, it explodes half the body or foot, just let them bleeding and another one have to take care for him and weakening, slow down the team. So wound one choose to sacrifice by telling his teammate shot him. Most the case the Vietnamese soldier choose rather die than affect other..The most painful thing they never forgot
Those comrades' sacrifices were the absolute examples of heroism - to willingly lay down their life for the others, should the situation require. Men like them keep our nation safe and free, thus, let us pay respect to all of our fallen soldiers.
@@lordmarco not sure how israel is relevant to the US being the devil of the world for 70+ years. sure israel is an ally to the clowns but the head of the snake is the US.
You should have mentioned Malcolm Caldwell as well. The idiot constantly defended Pol Pot and his massacres until he was killed by them hours after meeting Pol Pot in his visit to Cambodia.
my uncle (He is actually my grandmothers younger brother, but my family sees him as an uncle) escaped the Khmer Rouge. He was taken to an indoctrination camp as a child, but after trying to steal food was sentenced to be executed. One of the daughters of the camp generals took pity on him and untied him from the tree and gave him directions on how to escape, and he was reunited with his family (My grandparents) in the USA after my grandmother discovered he was still alive. The rest of my grandmother's family was not as fortunate. They were promised for their possessions to returned to them if they came back to their home (They were boarding a ship for the US). They returned, and were shot down by the Khmer Rouge on a field. My grandpa, who was an army general, got as many people as he could on his ship and headed to America, just hours before the Khmer Rouge would arrive and burn the town.
I live in another city nearby Ba Chuc village in Vietnam, there was a massacre done by the Khmer Rouge. Seeing how brutal they executed people just freak me out. My history teacher even told us a rumour about there was a "super soldier" project which makes humans have no mercy, they are just killing others even their comrades. I dont believe the rumour but, it shows how people hard to believe how brutal the Khmer Rouge was.
The Khmer Rogue had children take part in executions and encouraged them to torture animals for fun. The idea was to create a merciless and sadistic soldier for the revolution.
This guy was such a lunatic that even the north vietnamese army decided to go against him. That is a level of madness that is impressive and scary. Like vlad the impaler levels of absolute evil
@Elephantsss says "the Vietnamese , Viet Minh , pathet Laos and Khmer Rouge all comrades in the Indo [China] Communist Party" -- That's true. But it's also true that some people could change drastically. That's why Saloth Sâr (Pol Pot) turned on his Vietnamese comrades after he was guided by his new Chinese mentors; that's why some Khmer Rouge like Hun Sen and Heng Samrin sought their Vietnamese comrades' help to stop Pol Pot's and his Chinese mentors' barbaric genocide on the Cambodian people; that's how the Vietnamese and Americans are now together in a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" while not long ago US soldiers were committing most heinous barbarity on the Vietnamese people (e.g. in My Lai in 1968 where US soldiers mercilessly shot dead at point blank even babies still clinging to their mother's bosom)
@@anh6156 i remember the fact that they killed hundreds of chinese cambodian ironic considering that only china supported him but pol pot himself was half chinese
They love communism, yet they use capitalist products, food and services. The Philippines has an infamous amount of faux socialists, especially in the state run universities and colleges.
In the end, Pol Pot's thugs died of old age, not execution. The trial of leaders of Khmer Rough was very difficult because at that time, Khmer Rough was supported by great powers such as China, the United States, the West,... Justice for those who were wrongly killed in the regime Khmer Rough degrees were not enforced. It was also because of sending troops to overthrow the Khmer Rouge, Vietnam was entangled in the War with China. The accusations about Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia caused Vietnam to be isolated, surrounded, embargoed, and exhausted the Vietnamese economy. Currently, a large percentage of Cambodians are still slandering Vietnam even though Vietnam has sacrificed a lot to rescue them from the Polpot regime. Hopefully the Khmer people will always be wise and self-reliant, China's investment in Cambodia is good, but be careful and wise, because China has also helped Khmer Rough kill millions of Cambodians. Vietnam has also learned a lot from this war, if there is a similar incident in Cambodia in the future, I believe that Vietnam will no longer act to rescue like the 20th century.
The Vietcong 🇻🇳 (Vietnam communists) was a close friend of Polpot, the same communist, equally evil. Viet Cong used to exterminate hundreds of thousands of people in land reform and the Mau Than 1968, just like Polpot. Vietcong is extremely evil Hitler, Ho Chi Minh 🇻🇳 (Vietnam communist), Polpot are 3 in 13 cruel ditators of the world
Pol Pot was one of the absolute worst human beings who ever lived. While some dictators have a few people feel nostalgic for their reign after they're gone, I'm not sure if any Cambodian has any positive opinions of him.
Some Khmer racist Ultranationalist do have positive feelings about the KR. I happened on a Facebook page, posting KR era songs. Songs are either about war, hating viets and Thais.
I’m Vietnamese and some of my family didn’t make it back during the Vietnam War. My dad fought in the Cambodian war, he was deployed in Laos to fight against the Khmer Regime. But reading some of these comments is really heart breaking. I have a friend who is Cambodian too and we became best friend right off the bat. The only word he knew in Vietnamese were “Du Ma” and it means the F-bomb in English. He told me his Grandpa got taken by the Khmer regime, he said he can’t own any dogs cuz his mom lost her dog during the Cambodian genocide and was heartbroken and she didn’t want to go through that whole stage again.
"Well, you'll work harder with a gun in your back For a bowl of rice a day Slave for soldiers 'til you starve Then your head is skewered on a stake" Dead Kennedys, Holiday in Cambodia
I buy some Asian groceries from a Cambodian owned store here in Spartanburg , South Carolina . There's a lot of Cambodian , Laotian , and HMong people in Upstate South Carolina . I support you and them with my hard earned dollars .
I’m a Cambodian. I’ve visited S-21( AKA SOR-21 in Cambodia). It’s a former high school. I’ve saw the killing field. There is plenty of cloths which belong to the victims and bullet shells remains there.
I was born 1972 Poipet. 1979 our families fled to Thailand refugee camp, we live through three different camps from 1979-1985. We arrived in Los Angeles, CA. Now I am back ten years in Battambong, Cambodia due to my deportation in 2015...
My grandmother told me how she survived 4 days and 4 nights under the regime. She left Thailand because of corruption, and then almost died in the khmer rouge. She said people would be kidnapped in the middle of the night and tortured within earshot. On her last night she was running from cpk forces while getting shot at thai military in the confusion. With my aunt being a newborn. Shoutout to yeay
In Year 5, we were learning about peoples migration stories, and there were a few students whose parents were from Cambodia and had escaped the Khmer Rouge. I got extremely curious about it, to be honest, I am glad this video explains more to me, because I only heard it was a terrible event like the Shoah. Thank you~
This is what I’ve been waiting for. My mother and father had been through all of the mess. And after watching the movie about Cambodia at my school, it was....... beautiful but turned into the horrible during the middle of it. Rest In Peace to all those people who had been slaughtered there, including my grandparents. At least Cambodia was liberated by the Vietnamese forces, and I thank them for that, and it’s slowly healing itself. Well as of now, Cambodia is not in a good now because of the crooked prime minister, accidents of people getting killed in car crashes, and everything else. Though Cambodia was healed, the wound still remains. I just there’s changes to Cambodia again so it could go back to the way it used to be.
The history will always be an insult to the Cambodian. The first author I read about Cambodia history was an author confused between the Mandarin and Chinese. He simply classified them all as the Chinese. His name is Kimmo Kiljunen author of Kampuchea the Decade of Genocide. 300 to 400 pages of confusion, today I know he was as confused as most Khmer. The second author written many books about Cambodia history and one of his main subject was Cambodia education backwardness. He blamed on the French for Cambodia education backwardness and this proof he was completely ignorance about Cambodia and Southeast Asia history. He was simply a Vietnamese plagiarizer. The French didn't just ignored Cambodia education system but ignored its entire Southeast Asia colony education system. The French did open school for the brightest and smartest but none come from Laos or Khmer ethnic group. The French did attempted to educated the children of the Monarchies but evident suggest they were all been intellectual subverted. Another author painting a child psychology about Pol Pot got separated from his parents at a very young age and everyone was riding on his bandwagon. The most significant evidences given to us reader was a reporter name Philip Short. His book "Pol Pot The History of Nightmare", revealed some truth by his brother Suong about how his grandfather was killed by the French. Suong can claimed whatever he like but only those know Cambodia history can revealed the real truth. He claimed his grandfather was killed by the French, only 23 years after Khmer had to run to mountain and forest to survived on roots and leaves, which he claimed his grandfather experienced. Is his grandfather stupid enough to desired a returning to an era, when Khmer had to hide, eat leaves and roots to survive to make him rebelled against French or his grandfather was actually working for the Mandarin from Hue, Vietnam? Who was the Mandarin? They were the Chu-Han, the governing language of Hue, Vietnam. They took controlled of Cambodia and made Ang Chan II and his daughter as a puppet. Most of the Chu-Han descendant still blaming on Sihanouk but in reality. Sihanouk was never ready to take Cambodia independent from the French because the Mandarin still controlled most of Cambodia administration even 90 years under the French colony. He was forced to stole the independent from the Chu-Han. 90 percent of Cambodia history were still tell by the Chu-Han and their descendant. The best example of them all was Khieu Samphan. He was the son of the Chu-Han. Without mastering the Chu-Han, his father Khieu Long will never able to get a job as a judge. Those falsely classified as his moderate faction such as Hou Yuon, Hu Nim and Ti Ol were actually the people without any link to the Chu-Han and they were all killed.
*Tôi đã đọc nhiều bình luận của người Campuchia trong video này và nhiều video khác nữa nói về chế độ diệt chủng Polpot, chỉ duy nhất bạn là người cảm ơn Việt Nam, thật buồn vì thanh niên Campuchia ngày nay luôn đổ lỗi cho Việt Nam về mọi chuyện và không quan tâm đến những gì xảy ra trong quá khứ, tôi cũng cảm ơn bạn đã khách quan khi nhìn nhận vấn đề. Còn về chế độ chính trị ở Campuchia bây giờ tuy còn nhiều hạn chế nhưng Campuchia đang ổn định và phát triển, nếu thay thế người lãnh đạo mới thì chắc gì xã hội ổn định, ngay cả Mỹ hàng ngày vẫn có xả súng, giết người, cướp bóc đấy thôi, chẳng có chế độ nào là hoàn hảo cả.*
At that time, Vietnam, our country, had to brace itself against China attacking from the north, against the Khmer Rouge in the south, the regular army that we maintained amounted to 2 million soldiers. It was really difficult at that time. America and the whole world surrounded and embargoed us. We are very grateful to our comrades in Russia, Cuba, India and some other countries who have helped us. Now there are some young people in Cambodia who are trampling on the flag that helped their country escape the cruel regime. We are really very disappointed
Vietnam is just one of those countries that’s impossible for anyone but the natives to hold. It’s like Afghanistan, the defending force can’t fight back, so they just hide in the jungle and wait for the enemy to come for them.
Another heartbreaking story There's a particular tree in the "Killing Field". This tree holds a special place in every mothers' hearts because: their newborn babies' heads or infants would be bashed into that said tree, killing them.
Polpot, the human devil, must have thought communism is equally sharing suffering and starvation. Even scavenging food is not allowed. But it's hard to blame him alone, hundreds of thousands of Cambodian soldiers themselves pointed their guns at their fellow citizens. Polpot was enabled by local and international community.
My wife's family are refugees from Cambodia. She was born in the states but her two eldest brothers lived through it and you can tell they still have PTSD from it. My mother in law ended up losing 3 of her children while trying to escape
As a Vietnamese-American, I can see that the Vietnamese liberating Cambodia is one of the good things that the Vietnamese communists did EDIT: But I wish that Vietnam wasn’t communist, instead it should be a democracy way different than South Vietnam EDIT 2: WTF HAPPENED TO MY REPLIES-
Man, the Vietnamese communists defeated the fascists Japanese and Americans, they brought peace, independence, democracy and socialism to Vietnam and now, because of socialism, Vietnam has a powerful economy
@@ChicChicMusic6673 They brought democracy to Vietnam? It's a one party system, like Iran and China, which means any candidate who runs has to be approved by those already in power. That's not a democracy.
There was a Chinese restaurant that I used to go to many years ago. The manager there was from Cambodia and had managed to leave the country with his family only 4 days before the Khmer Rouge took control of the country.
The fact that the Vietnamese, who were communists themselves, decided to fight against this communist regime, shows just how psychotic Pol Pot & his actions were.
Irish soldiers fighting on the side of United States during the Mexican war changed sides as well by seeing how sick Americans were so yeah I get it
There was actually a lot of infighting against Communists during the Cold War. For example China funded the rebels in Afghanistan during the Russo-Afghan War.
Almost like pol pot was funded by the cia and wasnt a communist
It goes to show that not all Communists or even politcal ideologically-aligned people agree with each other.
Not really, communista fight each other constantly
But yes, the khmer rouge were horrific
I knew an elderly Cambodian man who lived through the regime and one of the things he told me was how he had to learn how to do things like work and drive half blind because the Khmer Rouge considered anyone with prescription glasses to be apart of the intellectual class and thus enemies of the state. If they found out you needed glasses or caught you wearing them you would be immediately executed.
yup, if you had glasses it meant you were smart and could cause trouble.
@@user-op8fg3ny3j sorry but no. People were killed over something as simple as that.
@@user-op8fg3ny3j i spilt chlorine on my eyes and it hurt
@@user-op8fg3ny3j i thought it was from thei eyes adjusting to being indoors but true
Jesus that's fucked
My grandpa escaped Cambodia with his family and lost some of his siblings to the khmer rouge, thank you for covering this!
may god be with you
There's an Asian grocery store in my city ( Spartanburg , South Carolina) owned and ran by a Cambodian family . I frequently shop there . I love their Banh Mi , Two days ago I bought a 25 pound bag of Jasmine rice and some snacks there . They were out of Thai bananas due to their Tet holiday .
@@victorwaddell6530 Thanks for helping them
My grandad was a political prisoner in Cuba, communism sucks my biy, glad you guys got out. ❤
@@GEReptiles thank you! A few years ago my grandpa was able to be reunited with one of his siblings they thought they lost during the genocide.
As a Cambodian, I would like to thank the Vietnamese for liberating our country.
Hãy về tuyên truyền cho người Campuchia, rất nhiều người vô ơn
love the Cambodian people and all right-thinking people like you, we will always be brothers and good neighbors, from VN
@@oinguyenthanh8685 thank you
💖💖💖💖💖🇻🇳🇰🇭
But the people of your country hate Vietnam.. Always misunderstood
What the Khmer Rouge did is unfortunately not taught or even wide known today. Even at the time, many prominent Western socialists denied the genocide, saying the atrocities were either greatly exaggerated or American propaganda. Noam Chomsky was one of them. I think the important takeaway for us here in the West is that we are not immune to such barbarity. Any ideology, especially those promising utopianism or espouse violent solutions, should be looked at with a heavy dose of critical thinking.
critical thinking is a rare skill and is not being taught in schools in the west for a reason. People who ask questions or are skeptical get in the way of evil.
@@s0nnyburnett critical thinking is thought everywhere, but only to turn you into either a pothead, a communist, an anarchist, a feminist, a neo-n*zi, a neo-fascist, or any other idea where you get enclosed to, different to the previous you had.
If your solution to unprovoked and ongoing violence against you is either diplomatic or democratic in nature, then it would be more expedient to dig your own grave and simply wait for your enemy to come and give you a high-speed lobotomy.
Classic tankie moment
Also teaches us not to trust filthy socialists and communists.
"The people were not even allowed to forage for food in the countryside."
Thank you for mentioning this. A lot of people have no idea how insane the Khmer Rouge was. Even in North Korea, people are allowed to go out and scavenge for food. Not in Cambodia. According to Khmer Rouge ideology, if one individual possessed any kind of food, even just a little bit of rice or a fruit they found in the jungle, it meant they broke the communist code of "equality" and were therefore liable to be punished. I've heard stories of weak and starving people being executed by suffocation (by plastic bags) merely for eating a little bit of food outside of designated communes. My own family survived by eating in secret (communes never had enough food).
It makes me angry and sad to know what Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge put my family and millions of other Cambodians through. And for what? Did Cambodia become a stronger nation for it? More developed? More prosperous? And to add insult to injury, Pol Pot had a proper funeral and burial site when he died. By who, I have no idea. Every Cambodian I know hates him. Every single one, without exception. Even Mao, Stalin, and even Hitler have their admirers. Pol Pot is the only historical figure I know that's universally despised.
Nationalism, combined with the most idealistic, populistic facet of Marxism, all mixed together on steroid, created the monstrousity known as Khmer Rouge.
And the polpot eat chicken
He is a crazy man, and have acute inferiority complex with people that have education or a little bit smart than him...
From what I know there actually are people who yearn for him now😂
Pol Pot lived with the remnants of the Khmer Rouge after ousting, and was buried by them. He was something of an isolated warlord surrounded by the most extreme and those desperate enough to stay in his service. If i remember right it was a somewhat less than glorious procession and was buried under a bed of rocks or something like it. It is now a psuedo shire to him and them. I think his followers are still there as a paramilitary last i heard a peace deal was in effect tho that might be out of date info.
Pol Pot could have basically stayed in power if he hadn't ordered his troops to attack the Vietnamese border and storm into Vietnamese villages, killing and raping the innocents for no reason than to serve Pol Pot's delusion of a great Khmer empire.
Vietnam tried to resolve the conflict using diplomatic channels, specifically through the UN, but to no avail as most of the security council members were supporting Pol Pot's regime at the time. The breaking point for the Vietnamese was the Ba Chuc Village Massacre, where 3000 civilians were brutally gunned and hunted down like animals by the Khmer Rouge, Hanoi knew peace had never been a choice to deal with the barbaric government in Cambodia, so they quickly mobilized the army, caling back battle hardened veterans of the Vietnam war, using both firepower and tactical superiority to sweep through Cambodia and reached Phnom Penh in just half a month.
In short, Pol Pot dug a grave for himself and his regime when he decided to attack Vietnam.
The UN supporting a leftist regime? About as surprising as politicians ot knowing what a woman is.
Your last sentence made no sense. Pol Pot still lived a decent life and died of natural cause on his bed, peacefully with his family members.
@@haushkiy You don't understand politics and the regime at all. From a madman who fantasized about his strength was beaten to hide and hide in Thailand. From being the most powerful of the demons to obediently dying in bed, it's an indelible disgrace
@@Luucuden lol you don't understand what I meant.
@@haushkiy He didn't mean metaphorically. Pol Pot didn't actually DIG his own grave.
As a Cambodian, I would like to express my deep gratitude to all my foreign friends who like to talk about the painful history of Cambodia.❤
This is our necessity.
I am deeply saddened that the people of Cambodia have not expressed their gratitude to Vietnam. My father fought alongside Cambodia when he was 18. He told me about the fierce battles, his comrades sacrificed, and the rescue missions for the Cambodian people. He recounted how the Cambodian people resorted to cannibalism when hungry, with ponds filled with human remains. In the post-war period, he transitioned to become an advisor, helping the locals build villages, cultivate rice, provide medical care, and education
@@NguyenChungPro khmer là lũ mọi vô ơn mà bạn
I'm learning now from these comments than our Khmer history curriculum man.
@@NguyenChungPromaybe they still have some resentment towards vietnam especially since vietnam did help Pol Pot get into power
My mom and dad and relatives were all survivors of the Khmer Rouge. They escaped into Vietnam and then the US. I’m the next generation along with my cousins from them and I’m going back there this summer for vacation. It’s crazy to think about the brutality they had to face and be lucky enough to survive and escape it.
There's a Cambodian grocery store in Spartanburg South Carolina that I frequent . They are very friendly and accommodating . Two days ago I bought some Three Sisters Jasmine rice there , but due to the Tet holiday they were out of Thai bananas .
Truly lucky. I've known many families who've been torn apart by this terrible regime.
@@victorwaddell6530 My favorite rice!
@@chinglee911 I accidentally picked up a bag of broken rice . They replaced it with whole grain rice . I asked if broken rice was for making Joke , and they said Yes . I'd like to buy a couple of pounds of broken rice and try Joke sometime . I love Banh Mi with Dao Chua , Luc Loc , Pho , and nearly everything form Asia . I was in the US Navy from 1985 to 1995 . My first four years I sailed on a Guided Missile Destroyer homeported in Charleston South Carolina and was deployed to the Mediterranean sea . My next assignment was a shore duty job as Military Policeman in Yokosuka Japan . Then I sailed on a Guided Missile Cruiser homeported in Long Beach California. I sailed the Pacific Ocean , the Indian Ocean , and the Persian Gulf . I felt comfortable in the Asian countries that I visited . If I had to live outside of America I'd choose an Asian country to live in .
I do have the same story as your family except Canada instead of the USA😊😅
My grandpa passed away during the Khmer Rouge, all I heard from my grandma was that he died of starvation because he refused to eat during the toughest times and given his wife and children all of the little foods that he hidden or earned from the camp(work field) later on, grandma and most of her kids got separated and somehow survived until present and reunited. What a hero! R.I.P🙏🙏
God bless her soul
Your Grandpa was a G for doing that. May his soul find eternal paradise.
@@hsaoJ12
Gangsters ain’t heroes. The Khmer Rouge were the G’s
Man the khmer rouge was so evil like not even allowed to have private property and private cooking and medice
@@totallyfrozen Khmer Rouge - Cambodian Stalinism
A large amount of the high ranking Khmer Rouge are now rather wealthy of of gemstones that their former soldiers dig through minefields to find. Almost nobody was sent to trial for what they did.
Sad story of these 2-3rd world dictatorships that get big foreign country support
all thanks to Uncle Sam
Kaleidoscope what do you mean
@@namyuri5543 Sam forgiveness
Uncle Sam loves ignoring the most horrid of people when they make a convenient ally
After America failed in Vietnam. China conflicts with the Soviet Union.
American capitalists and Chinese communists joined hands to deal with the Soviet Union and Vietnam.
China promised the US to teach Vietnam a lesson and isolate the Soviet Union.
China fascinated Pol Pot, provided weapons, and trained the Khmer Rouge army to fight Vietnam.
At the same time, China invaded Vietnam from Vietnam's northern border.
China's plans were very sinister, forcing Vietnam to fight two battlefields at the same time: Viet - Campot war and Viet - China war 1979.
The US tried to send aid to Pol Pot across the Thai border.
The US and China both attacked Vietnam on the political and diplomatic front, both calling on the world to boycott Vietnam for its acts of aggression.
At that time, Vietnam was isolated in the UN international arena.
The Khmer Rouge genocide regime supported by the US and China has a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
Don't talk about communism or capitalism.
The evil nature lies in bloodthirsty politicians
Chuẩn
I agree with you.
Quá đúng
That's so true
This comment should be on top of
These guys were complete monsters. One of the reasons why Vietnam invaded them was because the khmer went into a Vietnamese village and murdered around 3000 people. May their victims never be forgotten.
Ironic considering how many South Vietnamese villages the NVA and Vietcong took out.
@@RenerDeCastro w a t ?
@@RenerDeCastro oh i think u mean the fact that the 3 country who were invaded at the time just helped each other out to defeat the US?
@@thatperformer3879if we are talking about unrelated stuff. It's pretty ironic for US to support colonial france during the Vietcong war for independent against colonial France considering their history.
@@thatperformer3879 My Lai massarcre.
Vietnam actually ended all that by conquering Cambodia. After all those years fighting imperial Japan and western powers, they even managed to take over Cambodia and fight chinese troops back in the north of Vietnam. They're amazing.
Quân đội Trung Quốc đánh Việt Nam để cứu Khmer đỏ . chế độ mà Trung Quốc nuôi dưỡng để sát hại người Campuchia. Nhưng Trung Quốc đã thất bại khi tấn công Việt Nam và phải rút quân
Common Vietnam W
Certified Vietnam Moment.
Respect to Vietnam
Back in the days , its hard to invade VN due to the jungles. You can bomb all you want . but then those liitle fuckers fight until they die )))😁
Pol Pot treated Cambodians like how I treat my Minecraft villagers
You should try Rimworld, then. You can literally butcher people, feed the flesh to prisoners, and make clothes from the skin.
💀
😂😂😂
Lol
😮😊😅😂
My mother had to endure this horrid regime. She told me stories on how she feared for her life every day. It truly horrible what she had to go through, and thankful for everything I have thanks to her
Nice to hear your mom had conquered her worst nightmare aka Khmer Rouge
Same here. She was 9 at the time and the communists forced children to work picking up cow dung for fertilizers
Did you ever ask your mother why she and the other 99% of her country endured it? Why did people not rise up after the first senseless murder?
@@skynotaname2229 it was impossible. They were so oppressed, it would even give North Korea’s Kim Dynasty a run for it’s money.
@@DegnaDings I still don't understand how people can literally watch their friends, family, and neighbors getting killed and not rise up with anger, or refuse to work.
My parents and their families had to live through this. My dad remembers more than my mom did, and suffers terrible PTSD from living through this. Both of my parents lost a lot of family members...
I'm sorry to hear that, but I have to wonder why they and the other 99% of people in their country put up with it. I understand being afraid but if you are starving to death anyways, why not take a chance to fight for something greater?
@@skynotaname2229 Well, would you rather get executed and suffer a horrible death, or starve to death?
@@ThatGuyFromEgypt Neither, banzai banzai
Jesus Crist
Same
Vietnamese in 1979: If we have to go against the entire WORLD to save these people, so be it..
As a Vietnamese, I am very proud of the Vietnamese People's Army. My country has a saying about my people's army: Go when the people remember, stay the people love. Take the meaning of the fierce victory, the intellect triumphs over the fierce. Do not take the needle or thread of the people. If you want to take something from the people, you have to pay. That is why our People's Army won the four or five permanent members of the United Nations and has the support of the people everywhere.
I learned about this in high school thanks to having an amazing history teacher who believed we should
Learn a wider array of issues in general
Kudos to thy Teacher.
Not in my school .
Did your teacher told you that Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon created the Khmer Rouge? Did your teacher told you the US voted to give a seat to the Khmer Rouge at the United Nations? Did your teacher told you the US sanctioned Vietnam after knowing they liberated Cambodian from pol pot ?
A few years back I visited the killing fields on a trip through Vietnam and Cambodia. One of the most sobering experiences of my life. Almost no one there that day so it was eerily silent and, in a strange way, also very peaceful. The killing tree is mind numbing. It’s decorated so beautifully now but listening to the headset I was given explaining what it had been used for made my knees go rubbery. I’ll never forget that place.
Tell it to the champas
I remember what they said in history of the Khmer rouge's reign and they used it for killing I won't go into who!
The "Killing Tree" was named Khmer soldier use infants and children's as axe on the tree. When the child died, they will throw it into the pit that they dug. That's enough to make my mind go very mad to the point that nearly destroyed my apartment. It was a dreaded sight and thing to hear. I pray to the children's that fall victim apon those barbaric bastards
@@cudanmang_theog Tell what to the Champa, they still around thriving.
@cudanmang_theog
Yeah, aren’t you one of them?
I remember that Haing Ngor who was a medical professional later turned actor survived this horrible incident. But during that time he lost his wife & unborn child. He along with his niece moved to the US after that incident. Haing also later stared in the movie TKF, which he got an Academy Award for.
And he was killed, not by a "street gang" but likely by elements of the old Khmer Rouge. They're still around.
I’ve heard of his untimely passing to. It’s sad how lost is life in that incident. He deserved a more prosperous & peaceful life after going through that tragic event.
what funny is, he move to USA without knowing USA support and funding this Khmer Rouge regime
The United States (U.S.) voted for the Khmer Rouge and the Khmer Rouge-dominated Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK) to retain Cambodia's United Nations (UN) seat until as late as 1993, long after the Khmer Rouge had been mostly deposed by Vietnam during the 1979
U.S. support for the Khmer Rouge guerrillas in the 1980s was "pivotal" to keeping the organization alive, and was in part motivated by revenge over the U.S. defeat during the Vietnam War.
@@thedungeondelver Well, the Khmer Rouge were still around when he died in 1996, so possibly.
@@tylerbozinovski427 Many former Khmer Rouge are still alive today. There's an infamous district in Cambodia called Anlong Veng that's full of former Khmer Rouge soldiers, officers, etc. They still live there isolated and ostracized from the rest of Cambodia, but they no longer hold any power.
But that's just the overt stuff. The truth is that MOST former Khmer Rouge live everywhere in Cambodia among ordinary Cambodians, but they will never tell anyone. They are your neighbors, your shopkeeper, your rice farmer and local fisherman. They will never be identified because they will take their secrets to the grave, but every Cambodian knows there's always a possibility that someone they know was a former Khmer Rouge.
My dad’s old coworker had escaped Cambodia with her family when she was a kid, by boat if I remember correctly. There wasn’t enough room for everyone so her father stayed behind. She never saw him again. My dad asked about him once when he saw the man’s picture on her desk and she immediately started sobbing. 😢
Simple History, I am glad you added this video. I am Cambodian and people don’t talk about this usually. My great grandma died to this, because she was rich and the Khmer Rouge found out. Thank you. My grandpa on my dad’s side fought against Pol Pot’s army in the civil war, but they lost so he had to change his name. Sadly he died in 2021.
The history will always be an insult to the Cambodian. The first author I read about Cambodia history was an author confused between the Mandarin and Chinese. He simply classified them all as the Chinese. His name is Kimmo Kiljunen author of Kampuchea the Decade of Genocide. 300 to 400 pages of confusion, today I know he was as confused as most Khmer. The second author written many books about Cambodia history and one of his main subject was Cambodia education backwardness. He blamed on the French for Cambodia education backwardness and this proof he was completely ignorance about Cambodia and Southeast Asia history. He was simply a Vietnamese plagiarizer. The French didn't just ignored Cambodia education system but ignored its entire Southeast Asia colony education system. The French did open school for the brightest and smartest but none come from Laos or Khmer ethnic group. The French did attempted to educated the children of the Monarchies but evident suggest they were all been intellectual subverted. Another author painting a child psychology about Pol Pot got separated from his parents at a very young age and everyone was riding on his bandwagon. The most significant evidences given to us reader was a reporter name Philip Short. His book "Pol Pot The History of Nightmare", revealed some truth by his brother Suong about how his grandfather was killed by the French. Suong can claimed whatever he like but only those know Cambodia history can revealed the real truth. He claimed his grandfather was killed by the French, only 23 years after Khmer had to run to mountain and forest to survived on roots and leaves, which he claimed his grandfather experienced. Is his grandfather stupid enough to desired a returning to an era, when Khmer had to hide, eat leaves and roots to survive to make him rebelled against French or his grandfather was actually working for the Mandarin from Hue, Vietnam? Who was the Mandarin? They were the Chu-Han, the governing language of Hue, Vietnam. They took controlled of Cambodia and made Ang Chan II and his daughter as a puppet. Most of the Chu-Han descendant still blaming on Sihanouk but in reality. Sihanouk was never ready to take Cambodia independent from the French because the Mandarin still controlled most of Cambodia administration even 90 years under the French colony. He was forced to stole the independent from the Chu-Han. 90 percent of Cambodia history were still tell by the Chu-Han and their descendant. The best example of them all was Khieu Samphan. He was the son of the Chu-Han. Without mastering the Chu-Han, his father Khieu Long will never able to get a job as a judge. Those falsely classified as his moderate faction such as Hou Yuon, Hu Nim and Ti Ol were actually the people without any link to the Chu-Han and they were all killed.
Cambodian should teach their children not to sign up with the Chinese who clearly support Pol Pot
@@mupchoi74 any link that i can read about it bro? Or book or something else.
@@mupchoi74 read it all and i still dont understand what you want to say there
Everything in the film didn't tell too much about who was the killer. My reference point to some of historic event happened in Cambodia pretty similar to the Khmer Rouge given by Philips Short. Chapter 1 in his book "Pol Pot The History of Nightmare" tell some of Cambodia Calamities and I give the French the credit for rescuing Cambodia. My trivia questions for those interest in Cambodia history base on source from Philips Short's book. If the Khmer had to run into the mountain and forest to live on roots and leaves then would these people produced offspring with the education to run the Country? If the Khmer wasn't the people running Cambodia then who were the people running Cambodia? Was the people running Cambodia taking order from Beijing, China or Hue, Vietnam. Above are some of the most important question for those interest in Cambodia history. Remember, from 1802 to 1954, almost zero Khmer running Cambodia governing body. Most officials running Cambodia were either promoted from Hue, Vietnam or Bangkok, Thailand. There children continued to run Cambodia and blending themselves as Khmer. I cannot make too much sense with a few sentences but point to the direction of true paradigm. Do you know Hua Goufeng? If you don't know Hua Goufeng, then you don't know anything about China and Cambodia relationship. The Khmer Rouge was a perfect genocide. Most books and sources continued to insulting us just because we were psychologically subverted and didn't have the time to research about our history.
As a Burmese whose family and relatives suffered under the Junta, and as I have a Cambodian best friend, I can emphasize with the Cambodians, the hardships and cruelty they faced are similar to the 8888 uprising. Almost every thing is the same between Ne Win and Pol Pot, both were ruthless, cold, heartless and greedy dictators. I myself wouldn't want to be one when I dream and do become the future president of Myanmar, hats off to you Cambodian people, I respect you 100%
Love,
S.
Good luck with that, man. You certainly couldn't be any worse than any of those monsters.
@@mirceazaharia2094 thank you man, wish u all the best
do you need we Viets helps you guys libration your country? 😂 Ur military seem rogue and weak.
@@doduy1510 haha yeah our military is a joke
@@authentic_ametin Jk but don't ever believe in U.S democracy, hope ur country get well soon and wash these rogue army
I've been to the S21 Tuol Sleng museum myself and seen the checker floored rooms, the rusty bed frames and the torture devices that were used displayed in clear cases. Even after all these years, the blood stains are still there. They also had boards upon boards of pictures showing each victim that was held there...
To think that people were tortured and even died in there many years ago is a truly terrifying thought to say the least....
I went there around 6 years old for a trip, more than 15 years ago. Just the look of the prison from the outside was so terrifying. I guess children are more spiritual, bc I genuinely felt like the suffering there was still alive. It was hard to even stand up from the bus seat. Until today, I still remember the feeling from that trip.
why terrifying? people die anyways, idk whats this big fuss about people killing people, killing has been since first humans so i dont see problem at all
@@Kitty-Cattie lol
Even so horrified that the khmer rouge got paranoid about everyone are enemies.
Khi bộ đội Việt Nam tiến vào S21, chỉ còn 22 người sống sót trong tổng hơn 25.000 người, polpot giết 25.000 người, và giwof trẻ campuchia bảo Việt Nam giết hahaha
He actually removed any progress that there was and set them back who knows how many years. Such utter brutality and stupidity should never have happened. I don't know how soldiers could just follow these orders and not fight back.
They were likely manipulated or brainwashed to the point of being heavily indoctrinated, or their families were threatened with death
Edit: That’s likely why so many soldiers followed the orders
I've watched a documentary about Pol Pot about a year ago and i nearly shed tears. Dude was cruel to not only men adults but also women and children. He targeted intellectuals and anybody who he saw that they were a threat to his rule.
Tis the life of a dictator, communist or otherwise
Pol Pot is not just one of the most evil dictators in history, he's a sadistic cold hearted monster.
So this 🤓 equals that💀, right?
You should his final words he shows no remorse what so ever
@@CJDunehew1 "what I had done, I had done for my country" No you almost destroyed your country
As a Cambodian, this is the worst time in our history. RIP to the ancestors that passed away. I never had a chance to meet any of my grandparents.
*Nhưng khi Việt Nam giúp đỡ Campuchia chấm dứt chế độ diệt chủng PonPol, Campuchia giờ hòa bình và dần phát triển thì nhiều thanh niên Campuchia quay ra nói xấu Việt Nam, đúng là vô ơn.*
@@linkb8304see what you’re trying to say, but not quite. Vietnam isn’t so innocent in this if you look at the facts.
@@thepjpodcast *Lịch sử không nói dối, thời điểm Polpot lộng hành, giết, tàn sát hàng nghìn người dân vô tội Campuchia lúc đó US làm gì? liên hợp quốc làm gì? Tất cả đều quay lưng mặc dân Campuchia đói khát và chết, chỉ có Việt Nam là nhảy vào đám Polpot để đánh chúng, ông bạn hay nhìn thẳng vào lịch sử và thừa nhận, đừng suy diễn.*
@@thepjpodcast I have a question , why Vietnam isn’t so innocent?
@@thepjpodcast my man got information from red scare propaganda in the 50s 💀
I had a university professor who lived in the immediate aftermath of the Khemer Rouge , he at times shared stories that his family and others had shared with him about living under the regime it was eye opening. Professor Un you were my favorite teacher .
This is the reason why Cambodian American men like me are 2nd amendment absolutists, you can’t enslave us if we have guns to fight back. My grandpa was executed after the war because he had fought on the side of the Khmer Republic. My mom survived all 4 years of slavery by not standing out.
This is facts, my father, grandfather, and everyone else in my family strongly urged to me to train firearms and to serve in the military for a few years to ensure I can fight back if it came to it once more, in his words, “rather die fighting than die running or tortured”
My descendents were brought to their knees and killed. I live my life in America, ever grateful to my mother and her relatives that survived the journey over.
Equality in guns = Equality in humanity. I rather die fighting than sacrificing any freedom. Without them, It will always lead back to the nightmare our people went through.
Somebody tell him the US Government ain't like Vietnam
You might want to look up the definition of "absolution". I think you mean "absolutists."
@@Dennis-nc3vw thank you for pointing that out, I didn’t see autocorrect had changed it
Then Vietnam has to sacrifice thousand lifes to free Cambodia off this madness, but the world was saying that Vietnam was invading Cambodia.
Nowaday many young Cambodian and politicans spreading hate on Vietnam, one of those reasons is "Vietnam was invaded Cambodia"
What the heck, the border still remain the same as since the french left Indochina. We didn't took any land in the war against Rouge Khmer.
What a world.
Like always winner wrote the history
Typical America
White people history, that's why
Also, greetings from Thailand 🇹🇭
@@lordteawomp womp sorry that America is a relevant country
@@kirbya9545 relevant in hypocrisy
@@lordtea womp womp the most important country in the world wasn’t able to have a clean track record. Ever heard of hindsight bias? World isn’t all rainbows
My grandpa was a Vietnam Vet and I remember as a kid we watched an older movie, I don't remember the name of it right now. But it was about a guy that escaped the killing fields, and listening to my grandpa talk about Pol Pot and how evil he was. One part of the movie I remember was with a group of young kids and there was a chalk board with a stick figure family drawn on it, and one of the kids erased the part of the figures holding hangs, showing the family needed to be dissolved and the other kids and leaders in the room cheered.
That's the plan of the US Democrat party . They wish to destroy family , destroy culture , destroy religion , destroy gender lines , disarm the people , and rewrite history .
The movie you described is probably 1984’s “The Killing Fields,” with Haing Ngor, a real life survivor of Pol Pot’s regime, playing the main character.
@@akend4426 I believe that was it. Thank you!
did he told you your goverment backed the khmer rouge?
You’re welcome!
One scene from that movie I’ll always remember is Ngor’s character stumbling upon a literal field of decomposing corpses in a marsh as far as the eye can see…
Khmer Rouge had the backing of both China and the USA, both countries have a lot to answer for when it comes to the crimes that occurred in Cambodia. Well done for Vietnam for realising what was happening and bringing an end to it.
North Vietnam backed Khmer Rouge back in 1960s. It was only Pol Pot’s arrival that they finally distanced themselves.
@@luishernandezblonde thanks to your CIA and Mao too, give those weapons
@@tmq0311.... We were also communist at the time. Do not speak like you know. Before CIA and Mao, you know whom.
@@luishernandezblonde before that, where's Pol Pot?
@@tmq0311.... Pol Pot was in your rank. If you want to know Pol Pot, read his history and his rise.
The whole world owes Vietnam an apology for overthrowing the Khmer Rouge, literally most of the world including the US was on their side long before the truth came out, even if the Vietnamese were no better
Yeah, attempts at getting the rest of the world to send humanitarian aid was pretty much entirely blocked by the USA, which were still pretty salty about Vietnam
yea we shouldn't criticize Vietnam for invading in 1979, but cut me a break Vietnam isn't innocent they're the ones who trained the Khmer Rouge in the first place, not only that but the Vietcong using Cambodian land was the whole reason that the civil war started. They shouldn't be praised for cleaning up a mess they made.
??? Bc they did 1 ok thing that means they should get something 😂😂😂😂
Nope.
Vietnam was also the reason Pol Pot got his power. They dragged the Cambodian to their Vietnam war by Ho Chi Minh trail, which lead to the American bombing the Cambodian countryside, destabilized the country.
I am not Cambodian, but I’d like to send my condolences to all people who lost their dear-loved ones during this awful period…
It just saddens me as I keep seeing comments of people telling they lost someone during the Khmer Rouge regime 🖤🕊 May them Rest In Peace
I’d like to show my respect to those who survived this regime in Cambodia too, and I wish them the best ❤️💪
My ex-girlfriend’s mom survived the Khmer Rouge but had several fingers cut off during torture. She also lost all proof of her Master’s degree.
WTF for real?
@@OttugiBap Yeah, no joke. She later returned to Cambodia and had an unsuccessful run for President. It’s a wild story.
@@hillerm yeah. I learned during my visit in Cambodia before the pandemic that intellectuals during that era needs to burn their diplomas or any proof that they are educated just to ensure their safety. 😢
That was too sad to hear. Harsh to be alive back then.. 😥
That's rough buddy
My grandparents fled to America and had a big family
They still went to visit for my great grandmas funeral in 2014
My family also went to visit
They say the country is still beautiful but you can tell war had an effect on this country
Don't forget that USA support and funding this Khmer Rouge regime
@@SaretGnasoh That's what sucks even more. The USA supported the Khmer Rouge into overthrowing the pro-North Vietnamese government in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. So technically the US is indirectly responsible for the atrocities. And this is a common pattern observed whenever the US meddles in affairs of third-world countries, they get even more brutal.
@@rithvikmuthyalapati9754 okay and social imperialist deception?
@@SaretGnasoh evidence? Why don't Vietnam hate the US now? Because Vietnam is a settler state just the US killed all indigenous Champas and Montagnards
@@SaretGnasohh you mean the Wikipedia allegations?
The murderers were ultimately communists and its evilness is solely on pol pot and Khmer rogue
To blame america is so dumb 😂
More anti American pig slop
I first heard about this from my dad when I was a kid. I told him why there is so many skulls in a Cambodian museum. He also used to work for a Cambodian chef who owns a restaurant in France. That time, his boss managed to escape but his family were unable to run and were gunned down while trying to cross the border to Thailand. He eventually settled in France. His boss is comfortable to share his backstory but always shed tears when do so.
It's so important to share these stories no matter how uncomfortable or painful it might be
@@leprechaunbutreallyjustamidget Champa genocide
It should not have happened to the Cambodian people during the Khmer Rouge era, it was a dark period that the Cambodian people will never forget, it is still crazy to think that this happened in 1975/1979. I can not imagine what my parents and grandparents went through so I can grow here. Thanks to bringing insights to this part of history that most of the world did not even know happened.
Yet the UN criticized Vietnam for liberating the Cambodian people and eliminating Khmer Rouge. What a shame
That is the reason I hate Cambodia. They say that VietNam 🇻🇳🇻🇳 attack their country. 😢😢🙏
Kouprey
It's the UN. What did you expect?
That is just messed
what a miscellaneous, dumb and foolish united nations lol
Glory to the People's Army of Vietnam, who liberated the Cambodian people from the evil regime of the Khmer rouge!
I worked with a woman who escaped from Cambodia. She told me about working those log days on the farm. The workers would watch out for each other so they wouldn't get caught sleeping or napping, because if you did you would get shot.
She ended up having to run across a minefield in order to escape, but some of her friends weren't so lucky.
You can hate or love Vietnam, you can question their real intention at that time, but you can't deny actions against Polpot is on the good side of human kind. Vietnam did it.
why we helped them and then receive all this criticism? we should have establish a formal relationship with Pol Pot like the US and China, we don't wanna save ungrateful people
@@bamot8908Tbf the Khmer Rouge attacked a village in Vietnam and massacred 3000 there.
Vietnam is the one who installed Pol Pot bringing weapons down the Ho Chi Minh trail directly to him. North Vietnam started the fire, then credited themselves for putting out the fire.
My grandpa was dying in the 1970s but he survived and then later pass away last year 2022 i miss my grandfather 😢
Do Cambodians hate Pol Pot?
@@olgamaulana-wy3zv of course we do
@@olgamaulana-wy3zv Hate ? To the core 😡😡😡😡😡😡.
May your grandfather went to heaven🙏
Love from Indonesia
When my professor (who lived in China under Mao) first told me about this group, I got one of my first looks at how destructive Communism is, no matter who applies it.
There's a lot of people who ignore history and think they'll get it right this time . Delusional mindset .
That's stupid , Vietnam liberated Cambodia and they're communist themselves
By nature communism seems to fall because the wolf's teeth are shed. The only possible good communism always inevitably falls to tyranny and ego or capitalism as people get the freedom for choice
Working exactly as intended
"TrUe CoMmUnIsM hAsN't BeEn TrIeD bEfOrE" - uneducated people today.
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."
The problem is bureaucrats 100 miles away don't have the slightest idea what your abilities are, so they either end up enabling laziness or (as is the case here) slaving people to death.
They also don't care about your basic needs.
Imagine if they had excel spreadsheets?
No, really. I'm not making fun of the matter. Bureaucrats see you as a number already. Imagine if all they saw were just numbers on a screen?
The main problem with far left ideologues is that they never ever think the problem is the ideology, the leaders, the the regime or a combination thereof. It's always foreign sabotage or worst of all, people not commited to the ideology enough. That's where khmer rouges, holodomors, and great leap forwards come from.
Marxist-Leninist state socialism is not the only form of socialism, y'know...
@@theyeening Yes, but this problem does not just apply to any one particular brand of socialism. This is a problem with command style economies in general.
@@cptndunsel3364 Most problems planned economies used to have in the past would be alleviated today with inclusion of computers into them. Read about Project Cybersyn and its modern legacy.
"People need food to be able to work and survive long enough to do so"
Pol Pot: That's not what I was taught! Is air not good enough to eat!?
Is AiR NoT GoOd EnOuGh To EaT😂 PsYcHo😢
I am a Cambodian. My grandpa have events from this, he survived and he was a teenager in that time. It’s actually true he told me that, he actually have a drawing of him and his brother have their hands up and the soldiers have their guns pointing at them so this is actually a true story not kidding.
The schools in Cambodia should tell the children about this.
@@rajars4239 they do
Red Khmer: *attacks Vietnam*
Vietnam: *fights back*
China: "Omg Vietnam is invading Cambodia, we must teach them a lesson by attacking their border and invading their islands." 🙃
Vietnam: *pushes back Chinese invasion*
China: 👁️👄👁️
Vietnam: Hey world, I defeated this horrible regime which has killed a third of its own population!
World: How terrible! No one will play with you anymore!
The World very knows how to play, huh 😂
Us Army vet married to a Lao. My wife’s aunts son married a Viet lady last year. I got to meet her dad. He was in the first invasion of Cambodia. He was shot 2 times in his arm. I have met lot of people from a lot of conflicts. The only one I have not yet is the Falklands war.
As a Cambodian seeing a video about Khmer-rouge just make me wanna think about my Grandparents and elderly relatives who survived the Khmer rouge regime and they're story how brutal is was to live without enough food and resting. Good to see the video about it !
My family and I fled Cambodia in 1979 to come to the US. I had a chance to go back in 1997 and visit S21, now known as Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. It's by far one of the scariest, depressing and saddest place i've ever visited. Many of the rooms still contain blood soaked mattresses where the victims were tortured on and torture contraptions and how they were used.. There are also pictures of the victims on many of the walls.
❤
About time this video was made. I've been waiting for this for so long!
I actually know some people who escaped from there, with one story being that one of them lost their father. Another case is when one almost got proscecuted and 'processed' because he could speak French.
Being able to speak French in a former French colony! SUBERVSIVE!!!
bruh i got an adventure communist ad at the start this is already going well
💀
Crazy that someone that stupid and evil could come in to power. Just torturing people for absolutely no reason. Some people are sick
My great grandparents died from this and so as my grandma's brother. I'm honestly just shocked at how my grandma managed to survive through all of this. She told me that she would hide behind things such as trees and buildings so that she didn't get shot. If she were to die, I wouldn't be here right now.
Socialist regimes wold be bether if they wont execute their own manpower
All my respects to your Grandma. I wish her the best ❤️
May your great grandparents Rest In Peace 🖤🕊
Thank for making this video. I’m a Cambodian myself. I can tell all of you that this was the historic traumatizing for all Cambodians. Decades later, we are healing, and we have been healing until today. I recommend all of you to visit Cambodia at least once in a lifetime. The country is dramatically developed. People are friendly and helpful. I bet you can see people smiling and chitchatting even during the traffic congestion. I’m opening for all the tourists to visit my country.
*gửi lời chào từ Việt Nam.*
Salut din Romania!
I certainly hope that the Cambodian people can recover from such an apocalyptic trauma. Pol Pot truly was a demon in human form.
@@mirceazaharia2094we’re doing much better but most of the time, they won’t really talk about that part of the history at least on a daily basis. You can definitely tell that it traumatized them and they only mentioned what you’ve known and not much of their own personal experiences. My grandparents are a survivor of this mass genocide and I don’t think I’ve heard them go into much details about they’ve endured in it. There’s still a long way to go but we’re getting there
Im glad that Im one of those tourist choose to visit Phom Pehn before the pandemic and learned your history. I'm glad that I visited the Killing Fields and S21 because I believed, its a way to pay respect for those who died during that era.
With love, from your ASEAN Brother, PH 🇵🇭
Fun fact: in the 70's Henry Kissinger gave the Thai foreign minister a message from the US government for the Khmer Rouge: "Tell the Cambodians we will be friends with them. They are murderous thugs but we will not let that stand in our way"
After the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Khmer Rouge the US channeled funds and arms to the Khmer Rouge rebels that held on to pockets of the country, and made overtures to the Chinese asking them to support the Khmer Rouge.
Until 1993 the US voted every year at the UN for the Khmer Rouge to retain Cambodia's UN seat.
USA is biggest Hypocrite.
They also supported bangladeshi genocide by Pakistani Army.🤬
That is not a fun fact. That is an embarrassment.
@@danburnes722 That is a fact. That is an embarrassment.
Henry Kissinger is a disgusting excuse for an American. He should be remembered as such.
It makes sense. Gotta look at the big picture
I remember one of the sayings of the Khmer Rouge was "To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss."
I am a Simple History channel’s fan from Cambodia, I really appreciate for today’s video and as my generation we only heard and learned about this regime from book or our parents and grandparents memories. May the soul of civilians, prisoners, soldiers who died during the regime rest in peace.
My grandma in Law she used to live in Cambodia during pol pot. She was also the daughter of a high-ranking Government official whom was poisoned, she had to pretend and act like the men that poisoned him, didn’t and she would tell me and my mom about the story of living in Cambodia during pol pot in summary, it was absolutely horrible.
I visited the killing fields. They didnt execute the people with bullets as shown in the video. To save cost, they actually just use the the farming tools on the head, as evident on the skulls found.
Can also watch award winning film The Killing Fields to have a feel of what happened in that era.
As a Vietnamese this is truth during Ba Chúc Massacre the Khmer Rouge used machete, bayonet or Vietnamese farming tool to execute 3000 innocent villagers to save bullets.
I went to S-21 and the killing fields last year, it’s surreal seeing all the photos and the cells etc. I got to meet one of the 7 survivors who was like 90+ and it’s just unbelievable what these people went through
Cambodia feels dark. Its a strange sensation. Outside Siam Riep the place just has a malaise about it. S21 and the killing fields are on another level. Its the kind of evil you can feel oozing from the place. I hated traveling any distance in Cambodia its still a wreck.
And it's filled with Western pedos. They are such a scourge on the land
I’m an older American guy. Living in Cambodia seven years. It is a beautiful place with some of the friendliest people on the planet. I live in Siem Reap but I am currently visiting my wife’s homeland near the Vietnamese border. Absolutely lovely!
After Pol Pot's bout of ultranationalism spilled into Vietnam, with the occupation of Phu Quoc island in 1975 and most infamously the Ba Chuc massacre 1978 that saw almost all victims shot or beheaded, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and ended his genocidal regime. My uncle was there, 2nd Division of the 4th Army that entered Phnom Penh. When he arrived in Phnom Penh and when he eventually left, people were cheering for him.
And what we got at the end was invasion by the PRC followed by a border skirmish lasting until 1991, and tightened embargo by the United States. All the while the Thai provided safe haven for the Khmer Rouge as they reorganised across the border (with British training for a time, no less) to wage a guerrilla war back into Cambodia with little repercussion. Meanwhile Noam Chomsky sat in cafes in Boston writing articles stating his support for Pol Pot's genocide. While Cambodia is on fire, Pol Pot naturally went on a secret tour from 1985 to 1988 to Beijing to receive cancer treatment.
And once international pressure forced Vietnam occupation force to retreat from Cambodia, a UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia was established and operated in such a comedically incompetent fashion that almost broke the new post-war Cambodia as Khmer Rouge intensified its attack right up until well after the first election.
Reality really is more absurd than fiction.
Bruh, it looks like the UN wanted the Khmer Rouge back, those people are really delusional. If they wanted to be gamers they should game with themselves first.
Now that i read that Thailand gave refuge to Pol Pot, i'm starting to vomit.
Got to love geopolitics. Noam Chomsky certainly hasn't changed.
Sadly, not many people outside Southeast Asia remember the tragedy of the “Killing Fields” of Cambodia, but in the late 1970s and 1980s, when the evil nature of the regime in that country from 1975-79 was publicized in Europe and the United States, the absolutely horrific acts of the Khmer Rouge (“kah-mair ruuj”) regime became front page news, an Oscar-winning movie and a quite popular punk rock anthem, “Holiday in Cambodia,” by the Dead Kennedy's in 1980.
In 1996, an Oscar-winning actor was killed in an attempted robbery outside his Los Angeles home. A tragic thing to happen to anyone, but making this senseless act even more tragic was the fact that the victim was Dr. Haing S. Ngor. Ngor had come to the United States and made a successful life for himself as an actor, portraying another victim and survivor of the regime, Dith Pran, and winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in the movie “The Killing Fields.”
Dr. Ngor had been an obstetrician in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, when the communist Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975. “Khmer Rouge” means “Red Khmer.” Rouge is French for “red”, the color of communism, and the French had ruled Cambodia for ninety years until 1953. “Khmer” is the Cambodian word for the dominant ethnic group in the country.
The Khmer Rouge were on the extreme left of the political spectrum. The very extreme left - by the time they took power in Cambodia, Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong's China was coming out of a radical period itself - the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”, and Mao himself would be dead within a year, beginning a shift in Chinese politics. You can find out more about this strange and amazing time in “A Day in History's” “The Most Bizarre Events in Chinese History” on our channel [A Day In History ], but suffice it to say that the ideology of the Khmer Rouge made Mao look like a man living in the past.
Though the Khmer Rouge looked to Mao and China for both guidance and financial support, the leaders of the movement, most notably it's #1 and #2 men, Pol Pot and Nuon Chea, known also as “Brother #1” and “Brother #2”, saw North Korea and Albania, the two most isolated and repressive communist regimes on Earth, as their role models. All three nations believed in “autarky” - complete self-sufficiency, though the smallest of the three, Albania, was the only one to come close to its goal.
During the time of French control of the country, many Cambodians rebelled. Some carried out a small-scale and largely unsuccessful guerrilla war. Many people supported the Cambodian royal family, even though they were a puppet of the French military government. However, the heir to the throne, Prince Norodom Sihanouk (1922-2012), known within Cambodia by his traditional title of “Samdech Euv,” or “King Father,” became head of state in 1960 and again when crowned king in 1993, eventually led the country to independence in post-WWII talks with France.
I visited S21 during my study abroad in the summer 2022. When I visited, I felt my knees about to give out when I walked by the bricked cells. I wanted to cry and couldn't, but I sensed the pain of the prisoners (spiritually cause I was crying inside). I met 2 of the 3 surivivors, one was a painter and the other was only kid who hid underneath clothes.
Thank you Simple History for creating this video
My friends parents escaped cambodia. We all knew this growing up but later when we were teens his dad pulled up his shirt and showed us scars from bullets in his back. Him and his wife were escaping on a small boat when someone started shooting at them with an ak. He was hit twice and his wife once. They floated around for hours bleeding. His dad was barely hanging on and would have bled out but his wife held her shirt to his wound. They were rescued by a fishing boat and eventually made it to the US. They had 5 kids who are all doing fantastic. Ive met few people who know more about US history and truly appreciate everything they have worked so hard for.
A man who was Vietnamese veteran told me the most haunting thing until now seeing a soldier kill a wound soldier in that time . Many Khmer's bomb and mine only wound people, it explodes half the body or foot, just let them bleeding and another one have to take care for him and weakening, slow down the team. So wound one choose to sacrifice by telling his teammate shot him. Most the case the Vietnamese soldier choose rather die than affect other..The most painful thing they never forgot
Those comrades' sacrifices were the absolute examples of heroism - to willingly lay down their life for the others, should the situation require. Men like them keep our nation safe and free, thus, let us pay respect to all of our fallen soldiers.
It is so odd how they don't teach this in American schools
could be because the US supported pol pot and recognised his leadership of cambodia through the UN until his death nearly 2 decades after the genocide
@@Wulture Israel can't keep getting away with this
@@lordmarco not sure how israel is relevant to the US being the devil of the world for 70+ years. sure israel is an ally to the clowns but the head of the snake is the US.
Vì Mỹ ủng hộ chế độ diệt chủng này.
because US support pck br
You should have mentioned Malcolm Caldwell as well. The idiot constantly defended Pol Pot and his massacres until he was killed by them hours after meeting Pol Pot in his visit to Cambodia.
my uncle (He is actually my grandmothers younger brother, but my family sees him as an uncle) escaped the Khmer Rouge. He was taken to an indoctrination camp as a child, but after trying to steal food was sentenced to be executed. One of the daughters of the camp generals took pity on him and untied him from the tree and gave him directions on how to escape, and he was reunited with his family (My grandparents) in the USA after my grandmother discovered he was still alive. The rest of my grandmother's family was not as fortunate. They were promised for their possessions to returned to them if they came back to their home (They were boarding a ship for the US). They returned, and were shot down by the Khmer Rouge on a field. My grandpa, who was an army general, got as many people as he could on his ship and headed to America, just hours before the Khmer
Rouge would arrive and burn the town.
A pity your uncle have survived. The traitors have now to witness the ruin they have led their own country to.
I live in another city nearby Ba Chuc village in Vietnam, there was a massacre done by the Khmer Rouge. Seeing how brutal they executed people just freak me out. My history teacher even told us a rumour about there was a "super soldier" project which makes humans have no mercy, they are just killing others even their comrades.
I dont believe the rumour but, it shows how people hard to believe how brutal the Khmer Rouge was.
Are you living in Chau Doc City?
@@joonsstories8549 yes im.
@@Faraday3939 im from Long Xuyen, nice to meet you!
The Khmer Rogue had children take part in executions and encouraged them to torture animals for fun. The idea was to create a merciless and sadistic soldier for the revolution.
Great work! Important history. Thank you for sharing.
I've waited for simple history to create a video on this! Thank you! :D
My father is Vietnamese soldier who fought against these monster in 80s and saved Cambodia
This guy was such a lunatic that even the north vietnamese army decided to go against him. That is a level of madness that is impressive and scary. Like vlad the impaler levels of absolute evil
Forget that, This guy surpasses all European monarchs for evil
@@orrorsaness5942 eh highly debatable
@Elephantsss says "the Vietnamese , Viet Minh , pathet Laos and Khmer Rouge all comrades in the Indo [China] Communist Party" -- That's true. But it's also true that some people could change drastically. That's why Saloth Sâr (Pol Pot) turned on his Vietnamese comrades after he was guided by his new Chinese mentors; that's why some Khmer Rouge like Hun Sen and Heng Samrin sought their Vietnamese comrades' help to stop Pol Pot's and his Chinese mentors' barbaric genocide on the Cambodian people; that's how the Vietnamese and Americans are now together in a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" while not long ago US soldiers were committing most heinous barbarity on the Vietnamese people (e.g. in My Lai in 1968 where US soldiers mercilessly shot dead at point blank even babies still clinging to their mother's bosom)
“Sir we killed the person with glasses because he’s a nerd”
Plot: turn out they kill chinese advisors wearing glasses
@@anh6156 i remember the fact that they killed hundreds of chinese cambodian ironic considering that only china supported him but pol pot himself was half chinese
Pol pot wore glasses too
@@giaoviendayonlinelop8g561 Yeah
@@giaoviendayonlinelop8g561 Yeah
"That wasn't real Communism!"
Some dude at a Starbucks
Wasn't communism
They love communism, yet they use capitalist products, food and services. The Philippines has an infamous amount of faux socialists, especially in the state run universities and colleges.
@panayotticonstantino8209 Yes it was Dude at Starbucks. That's what it always come down to. Cope.
But do you really think this is the only way to do communism?
I mean it literally wasn't.
Pol pot "communism" doesn't have that much trait of communism. I directly go against alot of basic communist principles.
My mom escaped Cambodia and was pregnant and she lost her mom dad and she has 9 siblings and all died except 3
In the end, Pol Pot's thugs died of old age, not execution. The trial of leaders of Khmer Rough was very difficult because at that time, Khmer Rough was supported by great powers such as China, the United States, the West,... Justice for those who were wrongly killed in the regime Khmer Rough degrees were not enforced. It was also because of sending troops to overthrow the Khmer Rouge, Vietnam was entangled in the War with China. The accusations about Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia caused Vietnam to be isolated, surrounded, embargoed, and exhausted the Vietnamese economy. Currently, a large percentage of Cambodians are still slandering Vietnam even though Vietnam has sacrificed a lot to rescue them from the Polpot regime. Hopefully the Khmer people will always be wise and self-reliant, China's investment in Cambodia is good, but be careful and wise, because China has also helped Khmer Rough kill millions of Cambodians. Vietnam has also learned a lot from this war, if there is a similar incident in Cambodia in the future, I believe that Vietnam will no longer act to rescue like the 20th century.
The Vietcong 🇻🇳 (Vietnam communists) was a close friend of Polpot, the same communist, equally evil.
Viet Cong used to exterminate hundreds of thousands of people in land reform and the Mau Than 1968, just like Polpot. Vietcong is extremely evil
Hitler, Ho Chi Minh 🇻🇳 (Vietnam communist), Polpot are 3 in 13 cruel ditators of the world
Pol Pot was one of the absolute worst human beings who ever lived. While some dictators have a few people feel nostalgic for their reign after they're gone, I'm not sure if any Cambodian has any positive opinions of him.
Some Khmer racist Ultranationalist do have positive feelings about the KR. I happened on a Facebook page, posting KR era songs. Songs are either about war, hating viets and Thais.
I’m Vietnamese and some of my family didn’t make it back during the Vietnam War. My dad fought in the Cambodian war, he was deployed in Laos to fight against the Khmer Regime.
But reading some of these comments is really heart breaking. I have a friend who is Cambodian too and we became best friend right off the bat. The only word he knew in Vietnamese were “Du Ma” and it means the F-bomb in English. He told me his Grandpa got taken by the Khmer regime, he said he can’t own any dogs cuz his mom lost her dog during the Cambodian genocide and was heartbroken and she didn’t want to go through that whole stage again.
He is hero
Thank YOU darling i looking for this❤😊
"Well, you'll work harder with a gun in your back
For a bowl of rice a day
Slave for soldiers 'til you starve
Then your head is skewered on a stake"
Dead Kennedys, Holiday in Cambodia
Finally! As a Cambdian-American with family members who've gone through this, thank you!
I buy some Asian groceries from a Cambodian owned store here in Spartanburg , South Carolina . There's a lot of Cambodian , Laotian , and HMong people in Upstate South Carolina . I support you and them with my hard earned dollars .
@@victorwaddell6530 Nice! What do you like to buy there?
@@sansand1236 Bahn Mi , Jasmine rice , fried travally fish , chilli peppers , Thai bananas, etc..
@@victorwaddell6530 Nice!
I’m a Cambodian. I’ve visited S-21( AKA SOR-21 in Cambodia). It’s a former high school. I’ve saw the killing field. There is plenty of cloths which belong to the victims and bullet shells remains there.
I was born 1972 Poipet. 1979 our families fled to Thailand refugee camp, we live through three different camps from 1979-1985. We arrived in Los Angeles, CA. Now I am back ten years in Battambong, Cambodia due to my deportation in 2015...
My grandmother told me how she survived 4 days and 4 nights under the regime. She left Thailand because of corruption, and then almost died in the khmer rouge. She said people would be kidnapped in the middle of the night and tortured within earshot. On her last night she was running from cpk forces while getting shot at thai military in the confusion. With my aunt being a newborn. Shoutout to yeay
In Year 5, we were learning about peoples migration stories, and there were a few students whose parents were from Cambodia and had escaped the Khmer Rouge. I got extremely curious about it, to be honest, I am glad this video explains more to me, because I only heard it was a terrible event like the Shoah. Thank you~
This is what I’ve been waiting for. My mother and father had been through all of the mess. And after watching the movie about Cambodia at my school, it was....... beautiful but turned into the horrible during the middle of it. Rest In Peace to all those people who had been slaughtered there, including my grandparents. At least Cambodia was liberated by the Vietnamese forces, and I thank them for that, and it’s slowly healing itself. Well as of now, Cambodia is not in a good now because of the crooked prime minister, accidents of people getting killed in car crashes, and everything else. Though Cambodia was healed, the wound still remains. I just there’s changes to Cambodia again so it could go back to the way it used to be.
The history will always be an insult to the Cambodian. The first author I read about Cambodia history was an author confused between the Mandarin and Chinese. He simply classified them all as the Chinese. His name is Kimmo Kiljunen author of Kampuchea the Decade of Genocide. 300 to 400 pages of confusion, today I know he was as confused as most Khmer. The second author written many books about Cambodia history and one of his main subject was Cambodia education backwardness. He blamed on the French for Cambodia education backwardness and this proof he was completely ignorance about Cambodia and Southeast Asia history. He was simply a Vietnamese plagiarizer. The French didn't just ignored Cambodia education system but ignored its entire Southeast Asia colony education system. The French did open school for the brightest and smartest but none come from Laos or Khmer ethnic group. The French did attempted to educated the children of the Monarchies but evident suggest they were all been intellectual subverted. Another author painting a child psychology about Pol Pot got separated from his parents at a very young age and everyone was riding on his bandwagon. The most significant evidences given to us reader was a reporter name Philip Short. His book "Pol Pot The History of Nightmare", revealed some truth by his brother Suong about how his grandfather was killed by the French. Suong can claimed whatever he like but only those know Cambodia history can revealed the real truth. He claimed his grandfather was killed by the French, only 23 years after Khmer had to run to mountain and forest to survived on roots and leaves, which he claimed his grandfather experienced. Is his grandfather stupid enough to desired a returning to an era, when Khmer had to hide, eat leaves and roots to survive to make him rebelled against French or his grandfather was actually working for the Mandarin from Hue, Vietnam? Who was the Mandarin? They were the Chu-Han, the governing language of Hue, Vietnam. They took controlled of Cambodia and made Ang Chan II and his daughter as a puppet. Most of the Chu-Han descendant still blaming on Sihanouk but in reality. Sihanouk was never ready to take Cambodia independent from the French because the Mandarin still controlled most of Cambodia administration even 90 years under the French colony. He was forced to stole the independent from the Chu-Han. 90 percent of Cambodia history were still tell by the Chu-Han and their descendant. The best example of them all was Khieu Samphan. He was the son of the Chu-Han. Without mastering the Chu-Han, his father Khieu Long will never able to get a job as a judge. Those falsely classified as his moderate faction such as Hou Yuon, Hu Nim and Ti Ol were actually the people without any link to the Chu-Han and they were all killed.
*Tôi đã đọc nhiều bình luận của người Campuchia trong video này và nhiều video khác nữa nói về chế độ diệt chủng Polpot, chỉ duy nhất bạn là người cảm ơn Việt Nam, thật buồn vì thanh niên Campuchia ngày nay luôn đổ lỗi cho Việt Nam về mọi chuyện và không quan tâm đến những gì xảy ra trong quá khứ, tôi cũng cảm ơn bạn đã khách quan khi nhìn nhận vấn đề. Còn về chế độ chính trị ở Campuchia bây giờ tuy còn nhiều hạn chế nhưng Campuchia đang ổn định và phát triển, nếu thay thế người lãnh đạo mới thì chắc gì xã hội ổn định, ngay cả Mỹ hàng ngày vẫn có xả súng, giết người, cướp bóc đấy thôi, chẳng có chế độ nào là hoàn hảo cả.*
At that time, Vietnam, our country, had to brace itself against China attacking from the north, against the Khmer Rouge in the south, the regular army that we maintained amounted to 2 million soldiers. It was really difficult at that time. America and the whole world surrounded and embargoed us. We are very grateful to our comrades in Russia, Cuba, India and some other countries who have helped us. Now there are some young people in Cambodia who are trampling on the flag that helped their country escape the cruel regime. We are really very disappointed
Vietnam is just one of those countries that’s impossible for anyone but the natives to hold. It’s like Afghanistan, the defending force can’t fight back, so they just hide in the jungle and wait for the enemy to come for them.
@@nazzer_xlonit is called guerrilla warfare
Vietnam is today what it is today thanks to the discipline, resilience and strength of the Vietnamese people. All respect to you guys! 🇻🇳 🇻🇳 🇻🇳
Another heartbreaking story
There's a particular tree in the "Killing Field". This tree holds a special place in every mothers' hearts because: their newborn babies' heads or infants would be bashed into that said tree, killing them.
Polpot, the human devil, must have thought communism is equally sharing suffering and starvation. Even scavenging food is not allowed.
But it's hard to blame him alone, hundreds of thousands of Cambodian soldiers themselves pointed their guns at their fellow citizens. Polpot was enabled by local and international community.
Sharing suffering and starvation equally is exactly what communism is.
My wife's family are refugees from Cambodia. She was born in the states but her two eldest brothers lived through it and you can tell they still have PTSD from it. My mother in law ended up losing 3 of her children while trying to escape
Imagine an entire country becoming a POW camp, and you have Kampuche.
As a Vietnamese-American, I can see that the Vietnamese liberating Cambodia is one of the good things that the Vietnamese communists did
EDIT: But I wish that Vietnam wasn’t communist, instead it should be a democracy way different than South Vietnam
EDIT 2: WTF HAPPENED TO MY REPLIES-
The Vietnamese didn't fight for the sole purpose of liberating the Cambodian people.
Man, the Vietnamese communists defeated the fascists Japanese and Americans, they brought peace, independence, democracy and socialism to Vietnam and now, because of socialism, Vietnam has a powerful economy
@@thynysan True though they inadvertently helped anyways.
@@ChicChicMusic6673 They brought democracy to Vietnam? It's a one party system, like Iran and China, which means any candidate who runs has to be approved by those already in power. That's not a democracy.
@@Dennis-nc3vw Democracy doesn't work. Vietnam is successful because of its one party socialist system.
There was a Chinese restaurant that I used to go to many years ago. The manager there was from Cambodia and had managed to leave the country with his family only 4 days before the Khmer Rouge took control of the country.