The Khmer Rouge, the Killing Fields and the 'Cambodian Genocide': An Introduction

On the morning of April 17th, 1975, the Khmer Rouge marched two million people out of Phnom Penh at gunpoint. They were told the Americans were about to bomb the city, and that they could return in three days. Phnom Penh stayed nearly empty for the next four years.

How would you react to being forced out of your home at gunpoint, ordered to leave all of your belongings behind, and instructed to walk for days into the countryside toward an unknown fate? And that is just the beginning of the nightmare.

Time period covered: 1969–1979

This first episode covers the fall of Phnom Penh, the evacuation of the city, and the discovery of the S-21 prison by the Vietnamese in January 1979. Under the Khmer Rouge, roughly a quarter of Cambodia's population died in under four years. This series is an attempt to provide a detailed narrative history of Cambodia and to explain how that happened. This episode is an introduction to the events themselves, before the series goes back to the beginning of Cambodian history to explain them. 

Sources
Pin Yathay Stay Alive My Son
David Chandler A History of Cambodia and Voices From S-21
Philip Short Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare
Roland Neveu The Fall of Phnom Penh
Elizabeth Becker When the War Was Over

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