The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79
by Ben Kiernan
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ben KiernanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-10-01
ISBN: 0300096496
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: Yale University Press
Book Reviews of The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79
Book Review: An Excellent Study of the Khmer Rouge Years
Summary: 5 Stars
Without argument, Ben Kiernan is one of the the top Cambodia scholars working on the subject today. He has been in and out of Cambodia since the 1970's, including a trip shorty after the fall of the DPK in 1980. In 1995, Khmer Rouge forces even accused Kiernan of being a "war criminal," beaming the macbre message from guerrilla radio stations along the Thai border.
The Pol Pot Regime, a follow up to Kiernan's How Pol Pot Came to Power, begins with the DPK takeover following the fall of the Lon Nol government. He then provides a nearly 500 page systematic study of the Pol Pot regime.
Kiernan breaks the study down into three parts. The first segment discusses the very early days of the DPK and their paranoid attempt to cling to their hard-won power by emptying the cities, creating agrarian communes and exterminating the human remenants of the Lon Nol era, 1970-75.
Kiernan labels this section, "Wiping the Slate Clean." Indeed, that is exactly what the Khmer Rouge intended to do, wipe the 'slate,' Cambodia, clean- in order to usher in a new era, even going so far as to declare 1975 Year Zero.
Following "Wiping the Slate Clean," Kiernan begins to discuss the evolution and implementation of Khmer Rouge policies. It seems as though the ultimate goal of these radical Marxists was to create an agrarian utopia regardles of cost, even at the risk of turning the nation into one giant charnel house. Following the forced exodus of all major towns and cities, Cambodians were forced into the countryside to grow rice which the DPK felt would lead to the re-emegence of the great Khmer power of the past. The result was starvation and disease on a scale never before seen.
Although production was quite high, the Khmer people were placed on starvation rations. Nearly all surplus rice was exported in exchange for goods and military hardware to support the emerging bloody conflict with neighboring Vietnam. This leads us to Kiernan's third section illustrating the subsequent demise of the DPK.
As the war with Vietnam began to escalate, so did paranoia within the Party Cental. "Enemies" were ferreted out and executed, including numerous high ranking cadre and military commanders. In 1977, the purges were spiraling out of control. It wasn't long until a small contingent of DPK leaders grew fearful and disillusioned with the Central Party. A number of now famous commanders, most notably the current Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, fled to Vietnam and garnered support for the liberation of Kampuchea. Kiernan does an excellent and indepth job of studying the stucture of the DPK purges and why they lead to the ultimate collapse of the Pol Pot regime.
The Eastern Zone of Cambodia, from where the liberation leadership emerged, was was the most heavily purged, not only due to it's close proximity to Vietnam, but also because the Eastern Zone cadre, from the earliest days of the revolution, tended to be less brutal in their treatment of Cambodians, essentially making them weak in the eyes of the Party leadership.
Aside from exterminating native Khmer's, the Pol Pot regime launched pogroms against any ethnic minorities, claiming those who were not pure Khmer were in possession of Vietnames minds.
It would seem that the DPK was seeking not only an agrarian utopia, but one that also preserved racial purtiy.
In conclusion, Kiernan's work is an invaluable source for one working to understand the intricacies of Cambodia during the 1970's. The Pol Pot Regime was the main source I used prior to visiting Cambodia and although it only covers a brief segment of Cambodian history, it still was extremely helpful in understanding the people and their terribly sad past.
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