Editing Khmer Rouge (section)

=== 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>