Tou samouth biography of martin

Members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea

This article is about the regime in general. For the political party of the Khmer Rouge regime, see Communist Party of Kampuchea. For nation of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime, see Democratic Kampuchea.

The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), and by extension to Democratic Kampuchea, which ruled Cambodia between and The name was coined in the s by Norodom Sihanouk to describe his country's heterogeneous, communist-led dissidents, with whom he allied after the Cambodian coup d'état.

The Kampuchea Revolutionary Army was slowly built up in the forests of eastern Cambodia during the late s, supported by the People's Army of Vietnam, the Viet Cong, the Pathet Lao, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Although it originally fought against Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge changed its position and supported Sihanouk following the CCP's advice after he was overthrown in a coup d'état by Lon Nol who established the pro-AmericanKhmer Republic. Despite a massive American bombing campaign (Operation Freedom Deal) against them, the Khmer Rouge won the Cambodian Civil War when they captured the Cambodian capital and overthrew the Khmer Republic in Following their victory, the Khmer Rouge–who were led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen, and Khieu Samphan–immediately set about forcibly evacuating the country's major cities. In , they renamed the country Democratic Kampuchea.

The Khmer Rouge regime was highly autocratic, totalitarian, and repressive. Many deaths resulted from the regime's social engineering policies and the "Moha Lout Plaoh", an imitation of China's Great Leap Forward which had caused the Great Chinese Famine. The Khmer Rouge's attempts at agricultural reform through collecti

Like Norodom Sihanouk, Lon Nol was educated at the French lycee in Saigon. He was of sino-khmer extraction, though in later life he sought to deny it, maintaining that he was an authentic “black khmer” without Chinese blood. Nol was born into a wealthy land-owning family in Prey Veng province, bordering Vietnam, in November In , he became a magistrate in the French colonial administration, and subsequently a provincial governor. But most of his career was spent in the security forces – first as Chief of Police (in ), then four years later as army Chief of Staff and finally, in , as Army Commander. He was ardently anti-communist and represented the right wing of Sihanouk governments. Lon Nol’s military intelligence was credited with the liquidation of the first CPK leader, Tou Samouth, in He served twice as Prime Minister, from and again from A Frenchman who worked with him wrote that he was “silent as a carp with all the subtlety of a bulldozer in the forest” (Charles Meyer, quoted from Short, ). Sihanouk was convinced of Lon Nol’s loyalty – and not without reason: Nol initially resisted Sirik Matak’s plans for a coup. But, like Sihanouk himself, he was extremely superstitious, and was swayed by the prophesies of Buddhist soothsayers who told him that his destiny was to wage war against the unbelievers in Vietnam. Matak finally presented him with an ultimatum: either to join the coup, or be treated as an enemy. In the early hours of March 18, Nol reluctantly acquiesced in the plot and Sihanouk was deposed (Osborne, ; Chandler, ). It could be considered as a strategic error of the first order. Nol and Matak had expected the United States to pour in troops and weaponry to bolster their regime, just as it had in South Vietnam, failing to realize that America’s goal was to extricate itself from the Vietnam quagmire, not to be dragged in deeper. When Kissinger's military assistant Alexander Haig told Nol there was no possibility

Harris, Ian. "Notes". Buddhism in a Dark Age: Cambodian Monks under Pol Pot, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, , pp.

Harris, I. (). Notes. In Buddhism in a Dark Age: Cambodian Monks under Pol Pot (pp. ). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Harris, I. Notes. Buddhism in a Dark Age: Cambodian Monks under Pol Pot. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, pp.

Harris, Ian. "Notes" In Buddhism in a Dark Age: Cambodian Monks under Pol Pot, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,

Harris I. Notes. In: Buddhism in a Dark Age: Cambodian Monks under Pol Pot. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press; p

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