1. Pol Pot & the Khmer Rouge
What leads to the rise of Pol Pot & the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia?

2. The Killing Fields of Cambodia
1970s: Civil War in Cambodia: US backed Lon Nol Govt. vs. the Khmer Rouge (Communist rebels) led by Pol Pot
1975: US leaves SE Asia, Khmer Rouge win civil war vs. Lon Nol, westerners flee Cambodia
Khmer Rouge troops enter Phnom Penh, Pol Pot orders all people out of cities & into the countryside
Cambodians go to reeducation camps to learn the ways of Angka (KR’s form of communism)
April 17th, 1975 starts Year Zero of new Republic of Kampuchea
: 2+ million Cambodians are exterminated by the Khmer Rouge
Vietnam invades Cambodia in 1978, doesn’t agree w/ KR’s style of communism