Cambodian Genocide Quiz: Fall of Phnom Penh and Its Impact

Study Notes

The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, took power in Cambodia in 1975 after a civil war that killed around 500,000 people.
The Khmer Rouge evacuated Phnom Penh's 2.5 million residents, forcing them to work in fields as part of a reeducation process.
Those who disobeyed were tortured in detention centers, such as S-21, and then killed.
During the Cambodian genocide, millions died from malnutrition, overwork, or inadequate healthcare, filling mass graves across the country.

Pol Pot began his rise to power in 1968, launching a national uprising with the Khmer Rouge guerilla army.
The Khmer Rouge gained a foothold in the sparsely populated northeast and eventually allied with Prince Norodom Sihanouk against General Lon Nol.

The United States backed General Lon Nol's troops in the civil war, while also conducting a secret bombing campaign in Cambodia as part of the Vietnam War.
U.S. planes dropped 500,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia between 1969 and 1973, more than three times the amount dropped on Japan during World War II.
The U.S. bombing campaign ended in August 1973, but the Khmer Rouge's control over Cambodia's territory had increased exponentially by then.

The Khmer Rouge abolished money, private property, jewelry, gambling, most reading material, and religion.
Agriculture was collectivized, children were forced into the military, and strict rules governed sexual relations, vocabulary, and clothing.
Pol Pot became prime minister in 1976 after Prince Norodom was forced to resign.

Border skirmishes between Cambodia and Vietnam intensified in 1977, leading to a full-scale war in 1978.
Vietnamese forces captured Phnom Penh in 1979, forcing Pol Pot to flee and resume guerrilla operations.
The Khmer Rouge received arms from China and political support from the United States throughout the 1980s.
Pol Pot was captured by a Khmer Rouge splinter group in 1997 and died in 1998 due to heart failure at the age of 72.