Why did the genocide in Cambodia happen?
the previous answer gave a good basic history, but here are more things that need to be explained: although the original leaders were French educated(which makes sense , because basically the whole of SE asia were french colonies), Cambodia , along with Laos were also “kindred sopirits with their neighbors the chinese.(Prince Sihanouk’s daughter actually visited China in the early 50’s to observe one of the many programs that Mao had instituted(the Great Leap Forward etc.) and it is not too far to conclude that the idea of a classless society(read Communist) could appeal to the people that didn’t like the royalty or the “American” influenced Govt. it is easy to compare the rise of the Khmer Rouge to that of the “Red Guards” of the Chinese “Cultural Revolution”: You take (Largely) the youth of the country(who generally are either illiterate or uneducated) Give them weapons, and give them a target(the intellectuals, the doctors and the upper class) and make them enemies(in china they wer
