The fact that the Vietnamese, who were communists themselves, decided to fight against this communist regime, shows just how psychotic Pol Pot & his actions were.

I knew an elderly Cambodian man who lived through the regime and one of the things he told me was how he had to learn how to do things like work and drive half blind because the Khmer Rouge considered anyone with prescription glasses  to be apart of the intellectual class and thus enemies of the state. If they found out you needed glasses or caught you wearing them you would be immediately executed.

My grandpa passed away during the Khmer Rouge, all I heard from my grandma was that he died of starvation because he refused to eat during the toughest times and given his wife and children all of the little foods that he hidden or earned from the camp(work field) later on, grandma and most of her kids got separated and somehow survived until present and reunited. What a hero! R.I.P🙏🙏

As a Cambodian, I would like to thank the Vietnamese for liberating our country.

My grandpa escaped Cambodia with his family and lost some of his siblings to the khmer rouge, thank you for covering this!

My mom and dad and relatives were all survivors of the Khmer Rouge. They escaped into Vietnam and then the US. I’m the next generation along with my cousins from them and I’m going back there this summer for vacation. It’s crazy to think about the brutality they had to face and be lucky enough to survive and escape it.

"The people were not even allowed to forage for food in the countryside."

Thank you for mentioning this. A lot of people have no idea how insane the Khmer Rouge was. Even in North Korea, people are allowed to go out and scavenge for food. Not in Cambodia. According to Khmer Rouge ideology, if one individual possessed any kind of food, even just a little bit of rice or a fruit they found in the jungle, it meant they broke the communist code of "equality" and were therefore liable to be punished. I've heard stories of weak and starving people being executed by suffocation (by plastic bags) merely for eating a little bit of food outside of designated communes. My own family survived by eating in secret (communes never had enough food).

It makes me angry and sad to know what Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge put my family and millions of other Cambodians through. And for what? Did Cambodia become a stronger nation for it? More developed? More prosperous? And to add insult to injury, Pol Pot had a proper funeral and burial site when he died. By who, I have no idea. Every Cambodian I know hates him. Every single one, without exception. Even Mao, Stalin, and even Hitler have their admirers. Pol Pot is the only historical figure I know that's universally despised.

Despite the Khmer Rouge banning the use of glasses, speaking foreign languages, being suspicious of intellectuals, etc. Pol Pot himself was a teacher who loved French poetry.

These guys were complete monsters. One of the reasons why Vietnam invaded them was because the khmer went into a Vietnamese village and murdered around 3000 people. May their victims never be forgotten.

What the Khmer Rouge did is unfortunately not taught or even wide known today. Even at the time, many prominent Western socialists denied the genocide, saying the atrocities were either greatly exaggerated or American propaganda. Noam Chomsky was one of them. I think the important takeaway for us here in the West is that we are not immune to such barbarity. Any ideology, especially those promising utopianism or espouse violent solutions, should be looked at with a heavy dose of critical thinking.

Pol Pot could have basically stayed in power if he hadn't ordered his troops to attack the Vietnamese border and storm into Vietnamese villages, killing and raping the innocents for no reason than to serve Pol Pot's delusion of a great Khmer empire.

Vietnam tried to resolve the conflict using diplomatic channels, specifically through the UN, but to no avail as most of the security council members were supporting Pol Pot's regime at the time. The breaking point for the Vietnamese was the Ba Chuc Village Massacre, where 3000 civilians were brutally gunned and hunted down like animals by the Khmer Rouge, Hanoi knew peace had never been a choice to deal with the barbaric government in Cambodia, so they quickly mobilized the army, caling back battle hardened veterans of the Vietnam war, using both firepower and tactical superiority to sweep through Cambodia and reached Phnom Penh in just half a month.

In short, Pol Pot dug a grave for himself and his regime when he decided to attack Vietnam.

I remember one of the sayings of the Khmer Rouge was "To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss."

A large amount of the high ranking Khmer Rouge are now rather wealthy of of gemstones that their former soldiers dig through minefields to find. Almost nobody was sent to trial for what they did.

Vietnam actually ended all that by conquering Cambodia. After all those years fighting imperial Japan and western powers, they even managed to take over Cambodia and fight chinese troops back in the north of Vietnam. They're amazing.

Thank you so much Vietnam for your help my Cambodia 🇰🇭💙🇻🇳 🙏🏻

My ex-girlfriend’s mom survived the Khmer Rouge but had several fingers cut off during torture. She also lost all proof of her Master’s degree.

My parents and their families had to live through this. My dad remembers more than my mom did, and suffers terrible PTSD from living through this. Both of my parents lost a lot of family members...

My mother had to endure this horrid regime. She told me stories on how she feared for her life every day. It truly horrible what she had to go through, and thankful for everything I have thanks to her

Crazy that someone that stupid and evil could come in to power. Just torturing people for absolutely no reason. Some people are sick

"People need food to be able to work and survive long enough to do so"
Pol Pot: That's not what I was taught! Is air not good enough to eat!?