The Recent History of Cambodia

Near the end of the Vietnam War the North Vietnam Army and the Vietcong were operating out of Cambodia. Because of this America decided to bomb and launch a land invasion in Cambodia. This was very bad for Cambodia. In April of 1975 the country was taken over by revolutionaries known as the Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer Rouge believed in creating a peasant-dominated nation, centered around agriculture. Unfortunately the way this was carried out was by marching everyone out of the cities, even the young, old, sick, and disabled. They were then forced to work on farms 12 to 15 hours a day. They wanted to also get rid of everything that had come before them. Anyone with any sort of an education was killed, including those that had glasses or could speak two languages. The Khmer Rouge treatment of the Cambodians was horrific and by the time their rule ended in January of 1979 almost 2 million, one-third of the total population, were murdered, died of starvation or disease. In addition to their terrible treatment of the Cambodians, the Khmer Rouge also planted landmines all over the countryside that have plagued the Cambodians to this day.

Although the total rule of the Khmer Rouge ended in 1979, they continued to have holdouts throughout Cambodia. Sadly the Khmer Rouge were not completely defeated until the spring of 1998. Then the Cambodians were finally able to begin to rebuild their society, and try to heal their injured psyches after all the awful things that happened to them. Because all of the educated people were systematically killed, it has been very difficult for the Cambodians to continue to develop their society.

As a volunteer helping to teach kids, I feel like I'm playing a part in the reconstruction of Cambodia.