Cambodia

Things happened, and the rest is history

1. 01

   French protectorate and independence

   Event

   What happened

   In 1863 King Norodom accepts a French protectorate over Cambodia, which later becomes part of French Indochina. After the Second World War, King Norodom Sihanouk presses France for self-rule. Cambodia becomes fully independent in 1953.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Independence left Sihanouk as the dominant figure in Cambodian politics. He abdicated the throne in 1955 so that he could lead the state as a politician. The colonial period left a small educated elite, some of whom studied in Paris and later joined the communist movement. The Geneva Conference of 1954 confirmed Cambodia's separate status outside Vietnam.

   Sources

   1. BookChandler, David. A History of Cambodia. Boulder: Westview Press, 2008.
   2. BookOsborne, Milton. Sihanouk: Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.
2. 02

   Sihanouk's neutrality and the Vietnam War spillover

   Event

   What happened

   Through the 1960s Sihanouk tries to keep Cambodia neutral, but North Vietnamese forces use border areas as bases and supply routes. In 1969 the United States begins secret bombing of these areas. Cambodian communists, called the Khmer Rouge by Sihanouk, fight a small rebellion in the countryside.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The bombing and the war's spread destabilised Cambodia's countryside. Historians debate how far it caused the Khmer Rouge's growth, but most agree it helped their recruitment. The war's pressures also weakened Sihanouk's balancing policy. This set the stage for the coup of 1970.

   Sources

   1. BookKiernan, Ben. How Pol Pot Came to Power. London: Verso, 1985.
   2. BookShawcross, William. Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979.
3. 03

   The 1970 coup and civil war

   Event

   What happened

   On 18 March 1970, while Sihanouk is abroad, the National Assembly removes him and General Lon Nol takes power. Sihanouk, in Beijing, then allies with the Khmer Rouge. In spring 1970 American and South Vietnamese troops enter eastern Cambodia, and a civil war begins.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Sihanouk's backing gave the Khmer Rouge popular legitimacy among rural people loyal to the king. The Lon Nol government's forces were poorly led and lost ground. The Khmer Rouge grew from a small force into a large army. By 1973 American bombing had been halted by Congress, and the republic fell in 1975.

   Sources

   1. BookChandler, David. The Tragedy of Cambodian History: Politics, War, and Revolution since 1945. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.
   2. BookKiernan, Ben. How Pol Pot Came to Power. London: Verso, 1985.
4. 04

   The fall of Phnom Penh, 17 April 1975

   Event

   What happened

   On 17 April 1975 Khmer Rouge troops enter Phnom Penh, ending the civil war. Within days they order the city's residents, swollen with refugees, to leave on foot. Other towns are emptied too. The new state, Democratic Kampuchea, is proclaimed in 1976.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The evacuations separated families and caused many deaths among the sick and elderly. The leadership, known as Angkar, was led in practice by Pol Pot, whose identity was kept hidden at first. Money, markets, schools and religious practice were abolished. The country was reorganised around forced agricultural labour.

   Sources

   1. BookKiernan, Ben. The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
   2. BookBecker, Elizabeth. When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution. New York: PublicAffairs, 1998.
5. 05

   Forced labour, famine and the security prisons

   Event

   What happened

   From 1975 to 1979 most Cambodians are put into agricultural cooperatives and work long hours on irrigation and rice schemes with little food. The regime seeks out supposed enemies, including former officials, educated people and later its own cadres. Suspects are sent to security centres, of which Tuol Sleng (S-21) in Phnom Penh is the best documented.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Staff at S-21 kept detailed records, including confessions and photographs, and only a handful of prisoners are known to have survived. Estimates of total deaths under the regime vary, but most scholars give figures between about 1.5 and 2 million. Minorities such as the Cham, Vietnamese and Chinese were targeted. The records have been central to later research and trials.

   Sources

   1. BookChandler, David. Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
   2. BookKiernan, Ben. The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
6. 06

   The Vietnamese invasion of 1978-79

   Event

   What happened

   Border clashes between Democratic Kampuchea and Vietnam grow through 1977 and 1978. In December 1978 Vietnamese forces and Cambodian rebels invade. They take Phnom Penh on 7 January 1979, and the Khmer Rouge leaders flee west.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Vietnam installed a new government, the People's Republic of Kampuchea, led by Heng Samrin and later Hun Sen. The Khmer Rouge kept fighting from the Thai border. From 1982 they were part of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea, with Sihanoukist and noncommunist factions, which kept Cambodia's UN seat for years with backing from China and others. Famine eased only slowly. Vietnamese troops stayed until 1989.

   Sources

   1. BookChandler, David. A History of Cambodia. Boulder: Westview Press, 2008.
   2. BookGottesman, Evan. Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge: Inside the Politics of Nation Building. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
7. 07

   The Paris Peace Agreements and UN administration

   Event

   What happened

   On 23 October 1991 Cambodian factions and other states sign the Paris Peace Agreements. The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) then supervises key areas of administration, while the existing Cambodian government keeps much of its control, and holds elections in May 1993. The Khmer Rouge boycott the process.

   ↓ The rest is history

   A coalition government and a restored monarchy under Sihanouk followed. The Khmer Rouge declined through defections and Pol Pot's death in April 1998. The movement's last leaders surrendered by 1999. Peace came to the country only at the end of the decade.

   Sources

   1. BookChandler, David. A History of Cambodia. Boulder: Westview Press, 2008.
   2. BookDoyle, Michael W. UN Peacekeeping in Cambodia: UNTAC's Civil Mandate. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1995.
8. 08

   The tribunal for the Khmer Rouge

   Event

   What happened

   After agreements between Cambodia and the United Nations, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia begin work in 2006. They try a small number of senior surviving figures. In 2010 Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, who ran S-21, is convicted.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Later judgments convicted Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan of crimes against humanity. Nuon Chea was also convicted of genocide against both the Vietnamese and the Cham, while Khieu Samphan was convicted of genocide against the Vietnamese only. Many senior leaders, including Pol Pot, died before trial. The court's cost and limited reach have been debated. It closed its main work in the early 2020s.

   Sources

   1. BookHinton, Alexander Laban. Man or Monster? The Trial of a Khmer Rouge Torturer. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016.
9. 09

   The belief that the American bombing alone created the Khmer Rouge

   Popular belief

   The legend

   A common claim is that the American bombing of Cambodia, begun in secret in 1969, single-handedly caused the rise of the Khmer Rouge and so explains the genocide. In this telling the regime was simply a response to the bombs.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The bombing killed many civilians and helped the Khmer Rouge recruit, and historians such as Kiernan stress this. But the movement had existed since the 1950s and had a long-formed ideology shaped by Paris-educated leaders, the Vietnam War and Cambodian politics. Scholars also point to the 1970 coup, Sihanouk's alliance with the rebels, and the regime's own choices. The debate is about weighting, not about whether the bombing mattered.

   Sources

   1. BookKiernan, Ben. The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
   2. BookChandler, David. Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot. Boulder: Westview Press, 1992.
10. 10

    The belief that the regime killed all educated people for wearing glasses

    Popular belief

    The legend

    It is often said that the Khmer Rouge killed anyone who wore glasses or could read, as a sign of being educated. In this telling, spectacles alone were a death sentence.

    ↓ The rest is history

    Survivor accounts and research show that the regime did target teachers, officials, monks and professionals as supposed enemies, and that educated people often hid their background. But there is no evidence of a rule that glasses alone meant death. Persecution followed class background, ethnic identity and suspected disloyalty, and later purges hit the party's own cadres. The S-21 archive shows that killings followed forced confessions, not appearance.

    Sources

    1. BookChandler, David. Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
    2. BookUng, Loung. First They Killed My Father. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.