Editing Khmer Rouge (section)

== Ideology ==
=== Influence of Communist thought ===
[[File:Khmer rouge clothing.jpg|thumb|Khmer Rouge clothing, consisting of a red [[krama]], a black outfit and shoes made of [[Tire|tires]].]]
The movement's ideology was shaped by a power struggle during 1976 in which the so-called Party Centre which was led by [[Pol Pot]], defeated other regional elements of its leadership. The Party Centre's ideology combined elements of [[Communism]] with a strongly [[Xenophobia|xenophobic]] form of [[Khmer nationalism]]. Partly because of its secrecy and partly because of changes in how it presented itself, academic interpretations of its political position vary widely,<ref name="Kiernan 2008" />{{rp|25}} ranging from interpreting it as the "purest" [[Marxist–Leninist]] movement to characterising it as an [[Anti-communism|anti-Marxist]] "peasant revolution".<ref name="Kiernan 2008" />{{rp|26}} The first interpretation has been criticized by historian [[Ben Kiernan]], who asserts that it comes from a "convenient anti-communist perspective".<ref name="Kiernan 2008" />{{rp|26}} Its leaders and theorists, most of whom had been exposed to the heavily [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] outlook of the [[French Communist Party]] during the 1950s,<ref name="Jackson 1992">{{cite book|last=Jackson|first=Karl D|title=Cambodia, 1975–1978: Rendezvous with Death|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1992|isbn=978-0691025414}}</ref>{{rp|249}} developed a distinctive and eclectic "post-Leninist" ideology that drew on elements of Stalinism, [[Maoism]] and the postcolonial theory of [[Frantz Fanon]].<ref name="Jackson 1992" />{{rp|244}} In the early 1970s, the Khmer Rouge looked to the model of [[Enver Hoxha]]'s [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Albania]] which they believed was the most advanced [[communist state]] which was then in existence.<ref name="Kiernan 2008" />{{rp|25}}

Many of the regime's characteristics—such as its focus on the rural [[peasant]]ry rather than the urban [[proletariat]] as the bulwark of revolution, its emphasis on [[Great Leap Forward]]-type initiatives, its desire to abolish personal interest in human behaviour, its promotion of communal living and eating, and its focus on perceived common sense over technical knowledge—appear to have been heavily influenced by [[Maoism|Maoist ideology]];<ref name="Jackson 1992" />{{rp|244}} however, the Khmer Rouge displayed these characteristics in a more extreme form.<ref name="Jackson 1992" />{{rp|244}} Additionally, non-Khmers, who comprised a significant part of the supposedly favored segment of the peasantry, were singled out because of their race.<ref name="Kiernan 2008" />{{rp|26}} According to Ben Kiernan, this was "neither a communist proletarian revolution that privileged the working class, nor a peasant revolution that favored all farmers".<ref name="Kiernan 2008" />{{rp|26}}

While the CPK described itself as the "number 1 Communist state" once it was in power,<ref name="Kiernan 2008" />{{rp|25}} some communist regimes, such as [[Vietnam]], saw it as a Maoist deviation from [[orthodox Marxism]].<ref name="Kiernan 2008" />{{rp|26}} According to author Rebecca Gidley, the Khmer Rouge "almost immediately erred by implementing a Maoist doctrine rather than following the Marxist–Leninist prescriptions."<ref name="Gidley 2019 p48" /> The Maoist and Khmer Rouge belief that human willpower could overcome material and historical conditions was strongly at odds with mainstream Marxism, which emphasised [[historical materialism]] and the idea of history as inevitable progression toward communism.<ref name="Kiernan 2008" />{{rp|27}} In 1981, following the Cambodian–Vietnamese War, in an attempt to get foreign support, the Khmer Rouge officially renounced communism.<ref name="Cook 2017" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/08/07/why-the-world-should-not-forget-khmer-rouge-and-the-killing-fields-of-cambodia/|title=Why the world should not forget Khmer Rouge and the killing fields of Cambodia|last=Taylor|first=Adam|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=7 August 2014|access-date=30 July 2019|archive-date=25 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425181241/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/08/07/why-the-world-should-not-forget-khmer-rouge-and-the-killing-fields-of-cambodia/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Khmer nationalism ===
One of the regime's main characteristics was its form of [[Khmer nationalism]], which combined an idealisation of the [[Khmer Empire|Angkor Empire]] (802–1431) and the [[Post-Angkor Period|Late Middle Period of Cambodia]] (1431–1863) with an existential fear for the survival of the Cambodian state, which had historically been liquidated during periods of Vietnamese and Siamese intervention.<ref>{{cite book|title=Contemporary Genocides: Causes, Cases, Consequences|first=Albert J.|last=Johnman|publisher=Programma Interdisciplinair Onderzoek naar Oorzaken van Mensenrechtenschendingen|year=1996|chapter=The Case of Cambodia|page=61}}</ref> The spillover of Vietnamese fighters from the [[Vietnam War|Vietnamese–American War]] further aggravated anti-Vietnamese sentiments: the [[Khmer Republic]] under [[Lon Nol]], overthrown by the Khmer Rouge, had promoted [[Austroasiatic languages|Mon-Khmer]] nationalism and was responsible for several anti-Vietnamese [[Pogrom|pogroms]] during the 1970s.<ref name="Jordens 1995">Jordens in Heder and Ledgerwood (eds) (1995) ''Propaganda, Politics and Violence in Cambodia'', M. E. Sharpe, p. 134.</ref> Some historians such as [[Ben Kiernan]] have stated that the importance which the regime gave to [[Race (human categorization)|race]] overshadowed its conceptions of [[Social class|class]].<ref name="Kiernan 2008" />{{rp|26}}

The Khmer Rouge targeted particular groups of people, among them [[Bhikkhu|Buddhist monks]], ethnic minorities, and educated elites.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gsp.yale.edu/literacy-and-education-under-khmer-rouge|title=Literacy and Education under the Khmer Rouge|website=gsp.yale.edu|language=en|access-date=3 June 2023|archive-date=25 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230725104126/https://gsp.yale.edu/literacy-and-education-under-khmer-rouge|url-status=live}}</ref>
Once in power, the Khmer Rouge explicitly targeted the [[Chinese Cambodians|Chinese]], the [[Vietnamese Cambodians|Vietnamese]], the [[Chams|Cham]] minority and even their partially Khmer offspring.<ref name="Weitz 2005 p156–157, 162–164, 171–172">{{cite book|title=A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation|first=Eric D.|last=Weitz|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2005|chapter=Racial Communism: Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge|pages=156–157, 162–164, 171–172|quote=Someth May was a young Cambodian ... [who] recalls ... when a party cadre addressed a crowd [amidst deportation]: "As you all know, during the Lon Nol regime the Chinese were parasites on our nation. They cheated the government They made money out of Cambodian farmers. ... Now the High Revolutionary Committee wants to separate Chinese infiltrators from Cambodians, to watch the kind of tricks they get up to. The population of each village will be divided into a Chinese, a Vietnamese and a Cambodian section. So, is you are not Cambodian, stand up and leave the group. Remember that Chinese and Vietnamese look completely different from Cambodians." Under the new regime, the Khmer Rouge declared that "there are to be no Chams or Chinese or Vietnamese. Everybody is to join the same, single, Khmer nationality. ... [There is] only one religion – Khmer religion. Similarly, a survivor recalls a cadre saying: 'Now we are making revolution. Everyone becomes a Khmer.'}}</ref> The same attitude extended to the party's own ranks, as senior CPK figures of non-Khmer ethnicity were removed from the leadership despite extensive revolutionary experience and were often killed.<ref name="Kiernan 2008" />{{rp|26}}

A [[Vietnamese people|Vietnamese]] official called the Khmer Rouge leaders "Hitlerite-fascists", while the General Secretary of the [[Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party]], [[Pen Sovan]], referred to the Khmer Rouge as a "draconian, dictatorial and fascist regime".<ref name="Gidley 2019 p48">{{Cite book|last=Gidley|first=Rebecca|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbSIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA48|title=Illiberal Transitional Justice and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia|date=2019|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-030-04783-2|page=48|language=en|access-date=1 February 2022|archive-date=13 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231013183146/https://books.google.com/books?id=cbSIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA48#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Economy ===
The goal of Khmer Rouge was to create a communist society through the complete and immediate abolition of money, trade and private property. The new society was to be perfectly egalitarian, which required homogeneity, which Khmer Rouge sought to achieve through the destruction of existing social structures and the uniformisation of the newly emerging socialist society. To this end, the creation of a 'new society' that would completely break with the existing traditions and cultural heritage of Cambodia was also considered necessary. One of the Khmer Rouge activists stated: "We must burn the old grass so that new grass can grow." For Khmer Rouge, egalitarianism also included the concept of ‘levelling down’ - Cambodian society was to be brought to the level of the rural poor and develop from there; anything that was inaccessible to the general public was considered bourgeois and a luxury that was had to be destroyed.<ref name="tomasiewicz">{{cite journal |title=Maoizm, polpotyzm, dengizm: trzy formy azjatyckiego marksizmu |trans-title=Maoism, Pol Potism, Dengism: three forms of Asian Marxism |language=pl |first=Jarosław |last=Tomasiewicz |author-link=:pl:Jarosław Tomasiewicz |year=2013 |journal=Ideopolityka |pages=6-7 |volume=2 |issue=1}}</ref>

The leading economic theorist of Khmer Rouge, [[Hou Yuon]], distinguished two types of economic systems: ‘natural’ (natural economy) and ‘commodity’ (trade-based); in the agricultural conditions of Cambodia, the "commodity" economy was considered a parasite on the ‘natural’ economy - according to Youn's calculations, rice producers received only 26% of the profits. This formed the basis of Khmer Rouge's hostility towards cities, as urban areas were seen as playing a parasitic role in the pre-industrial society of Cambodia, and even the urban working class was considered a relatively privileged group. Khmer Rouge instead postulated socialism built on agrarianism - the poorest peasants, organized into production cooperatives, were considered the main and in fact the only force of the revolution; one of the Khmer Rouge's slogans was "agriculture is the basis for further industrial expansion" - the economy was to be based on agriculture, with the development of industry postponed for the future. The Cambodian economy was also supposed to be self-sufficient along the principle of ‘reliance on one's own strength’, which Khmer Rouge considered necessary to ensure the independence of the Cambodian revolution from imperialism and neo-colonialism, even if this entailed technological regression.<ref name="tomasiewicz"/> 
=== Autarky ===
[[File:Bullet holes at angkor wat.jpg|thumb|Khmer Rouge bullet holes left at [[Angkor Wat]] temple]]
The Khmer Rouge's economic policy, which was largely based on the plans of [[Khieu Samphan]], focused on the achievement of national self-reliance through an initial phase of [[Collective farming|agricultural collectivism]]. This would then be used as a route to achieve rapid social transformation and industrial and technological development without assistance from foreign powers, a process which the party characterised as a "Super Great Leap Forward".<ref name="Tyner 2012 p116">Tyner, James (2012) ''Genocide and the Geographical Imagination'', Rowman and Littlefield, p. 116.</ref>

The party's General Secretary Pol Pot strongly influenced the propagation of the policy of [[autarky]]. He was reportedly impressed with the self-sufficient manner in which the mountain tribes of Cambodia lived, which the party believed was a form of [[primitive communism]]. Khmer Rouge theory developed the concept that the nation should take "agriculture as the basic factor and use the fruits of agriculture to build industry".<ref name="Jackson 1992" />{{rp|110}} In 1975, Khmer Rouge representatives to China said that Pol Pot's belief was that the collectivisation of agriculture was capable of "[creating] a complete communist society without wasting time on the intermediate steps".<ref name="Fletcher 2009">{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1879785,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221002409/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1879785,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 February 2009|title=The Khmer Rouge|last=Fletcher|first=Dan|magazine=Time|date=17 February 2009|access-date=30 July 2019}}</ref> Society was accordingly classified into peasant "base people" ({{lang|km|ប្រជាជនមូលដ្ឋាន}} {{transliteration|km|prâchéachôn mulôdthan}}), who would be the bulwark of the transformation; and urban "new people" ({{lang|km|ប្រជាជនថ្មី}} {{transliteration|km|prâchéachôn thmei}}), who were to be reeducated or liquidated. The focus of the Khmer Rouge leadership on the peasantry as the base of the revolution was according to [[Michael Vickery]] a product of their status as "[[Petite bourgeoisie|petty-bourgeois]] radicals who had been overcome by peasantist [[romanticism]]".<ref name="Vickery 1999">{{cite book|last=Vickery|first=Michael|title=Cambodia 1975–82 2nd edition|publisher=Silkworm Books|year=1999|isbn=978-9747100815}}</ref>{{rp|306}} The opposition of the peasantry and the urban population in Khmer Rouge ideology was heightened by the structure of the Cambodian [[Rural economics|rural economy]], where small farmers and peasants had historically suffered from indebtedness to urban money-lenders rather than suffering from indebtedness to landlords.<ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|284}} The policy of evacuating major towns, as well as providing a reserve of easily exploitable agricultural labour, was likely viewed positively by the Khmer Rouge's peasant supporters as removing the source of their debts.<ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|284}}

=== Relationship to religion ===
Democratic Kampuchea was an [[State atheism|atheist state]],<ref name="Wessinger 2000 p282">{{Cite book |last=Salter |first=Richard C. |title=Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases |title-link=Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-8156-0599-7 |editor-last=Wessinger |editor-first=Catherine |editor-link=Catherine Wessinger |language=en |chapter=Time, Authority, and Ethics in the Khmer Rouge: Elements of the Millennial Vision in Year Zero |page=282 |quote=Democratic Kampuchea was officially an atheist state, and the persecution of religion by the Khmer Rouge was matched in severity only by the persecution of religion in the communist states of Albania and North Korea, so there were no direct historical continuities with Buddhism into the Democratic Kampuchean era.}}</ref> although its constitution stated that everyone had freedom of religion, or not to hold a religion. However, it specified that what it termed "reactionary religion" would not be permitted.<ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|191}} While in practice religious activity was not tolerated, the relationship of the CPK to the majority Cambodian [[Theravada|Theravada Buddhism]] was complex; several key figures in its history, such as [[Tou Samouth]] and [[Ta Mok]], were former monks, along with many lower level cadres, who often proved some of the strictest disciplinarians.<ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|191}} While there was extreme harassment of Buddhist institutions, there was a tendency for the CPK regime to internalise and reconfigure the symbolism and language of [[Buddhism in Cambodia|Cambodian Buddhism]] so that many revolutionary slogans mimicked the formulae learned by young monks during their training.<ref name="Harris 2008">{{cite book|last=Harris|first=Ian|title=Cambodian Buddhism: History and Practice|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0824832988}}</ref>{{rp|182}} Some cadres who had previously been monks interpreted their change of vocation as a simple movement from a lower to a higher religion, mirroring attitudes around the growth of [[Caodaism|Cao Dai]] in the 1920s.<ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|193}}

Buddhist [[laity]] seem not to have been singled out for persecution, although traditional belief in the [[Tutelary deity|tutelary spirits]], or ''[[neak ta]]'', rapidly eroded as people were forcibly moved from their home areas.<ref name="Harris 2008" />{{rp|176}} The position with Buddhist monks was more complicated: as with [[Islam]], many religious leaders were killed whereas many ordinary monks were sent to remote monasteries where they were subjected to hard physical labour.<ref name="Harris 2008" />{{rp|176}} The same division between rural and urban populations was seen in the regime's treatment of monks. For instance, those from urban monasteries were classified as "new monks" and sent to rural areas to live alongside "base monks" of peasant background, who were classified as "proper and revolutionary".<ref name="Harris 2008" />{{rp|176}} Monks were not ordered to [[Defrocking|defrock]] until as late as 1977 in [[Kratié Province]], where many monks found that they reverted to the status of lay peasantry as the agricultural work they were allocated to involved regular breaches of [[Monasticism|monastic]] rules.<ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|192}} While there is evidence of widespread vandalism of Buddhist monasteries, many more than were initially thought survived the Khmer Rouge years in fair condition, as did most Khmer historical monuments, and it is possible that stories of their near-total destruction were propaganda issued by the successor People's Republic of Kampuchea.<ref name="Harris 2008" />{{rp|181}} Nevertheless, it has been estimated that nearly 25,000 Buddhist monks were killed by the regime.<ref name="NYTi">Shenon, Philp (2 January 1992). [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5DE163CF931A35752C0A964958260 "Phnom Penh Journal; Lord Buddha Returns, With Artists His Soldiers"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080223082943/https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5DE163CF931A35752C0A964958260 |date=23 February 2008 }}. ''[[The New York Times]]''. Retrieved 30 July 2019.</ref>

The repression of Islam<ref>{{cite book|date=2003|last=Juergensmeyer|first=Mark|title=The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=495}}</ref> (practised by the country's Cham minority) was extensive. Islamic religious leaders were executed, although some Cham Muslims appear to have been told they could continue devotions in private as long as it did not interfere with work quotas.<ref name="Harris 2008" />{{rp|176}} Mat Ly, a Cham who served as the deputy minister of agriculture under the [[People's Republic of Kampuchea]], stated that Khmer Rouge troops had perpetrated a number of massacres in Cham villages in the Central and Eastern zones where the residents had refused to give up Islamic customs.<ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|347}} While [[François Ponchaud]] stated that Christians were invariably taken away and killed with the accusation of having links with the U.S. [[Central Intelligence Agency]], at least some cadres appear to have regarded it as preferable to the "feudal" class-based Buddhism.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Third Indochina War: Conflict Between China, Vietnam and Cambodia, 1972–79|date=2006|publisher=Routledge|editor1-last=Quinn-Judge|editor1-first=Sophie|page=189|editor2-last=Westad|editor2-first=Odd Arne}}</ref><ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|193}} Nevertheless, it remained deeply suspect to the regime thanks to its close links to [[French colonialism]]; [[Roman Catholic Cathedral of Phnom Penh|Phnom Penh cathedral]] was razed along with other places of worship.<ref name="Vickery 1999" />{{rp|193}}

=== Interpretations ===
In analysing the Khmer Rouge regime, scholars place it within historical context. The Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975 through the [[Cambodian Civil War]], where the United States had supported the opposing regime of Lon Nol and heavily bombed Cambodia,<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008">Karlsson, Klas-Göran (2008). "Cambodia". In Karlsson, Klas-Göran; Schoenhals, Michael. [https://www.levandehistoria.se/sites/default/files/material_file/research-review-crimes-against-humanity.pdf ''Crimes Against Humanity Under Communist Regimes – Research Review''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211124001629/https://www.levandehistoria.se/sites/default/files/material_file/research-review-crimes-against-humanity.pdf |date=24 November 2021 }}. Stockholm: Forum for Living History. pp. 88–102. {{ISBN|9789197748728}}.</ref>{{rp|89–99}} primarily targeting communist Vietnamese troops who were allied to the Khmer Rouge, but it gave the Khmer Rouge's leadership a justification to eliminate the pro-Vietnamese faction within the group.<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008" />{{rp|97}} The Cambodian genocide was stopped with the Khmer Rouge's overthrow in 1979 by Communist Vietnam.<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008" />{{rp|88}} There have been [[allegations of United States support for the Khmer Rouge]] following their overthrow and the [[United Nations General Assembly]] voted to continue recognising Pol Pot's Democratic Kampuchea.<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008" />{{rp|93}} Communism in [[Southeast Asia|South East Asia]] was deeply divided, as China supported the Khmer Rouge, while the Soviet Union and Vietnam opposed it.<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008" />{{rp|89}}

There are three interpretations of the Khmer Rouge: [[totalitarianism]], revisionism, and postrevisionism. Historian Ben Kiernan describes their rule as [[totalitarian]] but places it within the context of "xenophobic [[Pan-European nationalism|European nationalism]]", from which came their [[agrarianism]] and the establishment of a Great Cambodia, rather than communism or [[Marxism]].<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008" />{{rp|96}} Pol Pot's biographers [[David P. Chandler]] and [[Philip Short]] place more emphasis on their ideological heritage of communism;<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008" />{{rp|96}} it was not easy to apply [[Karl Marx]] and [[Vladimir Lenin]]'s ideas to Cambodia, and communism was chosen as a way to get rid of French colonialism and transform the [[feudal]] society.<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008" />{{rp|97}} Another interpretation, as proposed by historian Michael Vickery, is that of a bottom-up, left-wing peasant revolution with the Khmer Rouge as the revolutionaries.<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008" />{{rp|97}} The Khmer Rouge was an intellectual group with a middle-class background and a romanticised sympathy for rural poor people but with little to no awareness that their radical policies would lead to such violence;<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008" />{{rp|97}} according to this view, the applicability of [[genocide]] is rejected and the violence was an unintentional consequence that was beyond the Khmer Rouge's control.<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008" />{{rp|97}} For Vickery, communist ideology does not explain the violence any more than those closer to the peasants', such as agrarianism, [[populism]], and [[nationalism]].<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008" />{{rp|97}} Vickery wrote of communisms, as different communist factions were opposed to each other and fought against each other, resulting in further escalation of violence.<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008" />{{rp|98}}

A synthesis of both interpretations rejects the totalitarian theory in favor of a bottom-up perspective, which emphasises that the peasants did not have revolutionary ambitions.<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008" />{{rp|98}} According to this perspective, the Khmer Rouge was able to effectively manipulate the peasants to mobilise them towards collective goals that they did not understand, or where the revolutionaries had no desire to create a new society, which would require a certain level of support and understanding that the Khmer Rouge was not able to win over, but were mainly motivated to tear down the old one and violence became an end in itself.<ref name="Karllson & Schoenhals 2008" />{{rp|98}}