The Khmer Rouge Governement...

The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), the formal name of the Khmer Rouge, came into power on April 17, 1975 after successfully defeating General Lon Nol‘s army. (The Khmer Rouge kept the CPK a secret) Pol Pot was the evident leader of this new party, although he kept himself hidden from the Cambodian people at this time. On that day the Khmer soldiers marched into the streets of Phnom Penh declaring their victory of the previous government. In doing this they were also making clear that they were the new power to be reckoned with. The Khmer Rouge killed nearly killed two million people on their "quest" to turn Cambodia into a communist country based on peasant society.

The Khmer Rouge government was able to keep their identity a secret so that none of the citizens knew who was running the country. The government was simply referred to as Angkar by the Khmer soldiers. The horrible mistreatment of the Cambodian people lasted until 1979. The end to this horrible period in time could have a lot to do with Vietnam. In 1977 the Khmer government began military attacks on Vietnam. These attacks drove Vietnam forces into Cambodia to fight back. This fighting between the Khmer Rouge and Vietnam lasted for two years. In 1979 Vietnam overthrew the Khmer Rouge regime and liberated those who survived the "Pol Pot Era."

Source: Chandler, David P. The Land and People of Cambodia. U.S.A.: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.

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