Editing Khmer Rouge (section)

=== 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>