Year Zero in Cambodia,In 1975 a group of guerrilla fighters called the Khmer Rouge overran the gover

Year Zero in Cambodia,In 1975 a group of guerrilla fighters called the Khmer Rouge overran the government of Cambodia.  Led by a man named Saloth Sar, aka Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge was a communist group modeled after Stalinist and Maoist ideals.  When the Khmer Rouge took over the country many Cambodians were happy with the change.  After all the old Cambodian regime was corrupt and ineffective.  However Pol Pot was dismayed to find that Cambodian society continued as usual; conducting commerce, practicing religion, and all the other things that went against his communist ideals.  To change this the Khmer Rouge implemented a revolutionary program called “Year Zero”, which would go down in history as the most radical and controlling revolutionary program ever devised.The idea of “Year Zero” was based on the idea of “Year One” during the French Revolution.  During the French Revolution, the idea of Year One was the institution of a program that not only reformed government, but sought to reform culture and society as a whole.  This included the adoption of a new calender (with the date of the Revolution as “year one”) changes as to how people spoke and dress, and limits to religious worship.Pol Pot’s “Year Zero” took the ideas of the French Revolution to a new extreme.  The policy of Year Zero would be wide-sweeping and so radical that it’s difficult to believe it actually happened. Like the French Revolution, a new calendar was adopted with the date of the revolution as “year zero”.  However Pol Pot not only sought to reform the calendar, but to change history itself, as well as every single aspect of Cambodian culture and society.To change Cambodia’s history, the old history of Cambodia had to be erased.  This was done by murdering all Cambodian’s who were educated.  Even being able to read and write, or wearing glasses, marked one for death.  With the remaining population uneducated and ignorant, the state could could create its own history in any way it saw fit.Stalinism and Maoism sought to transform the nation into an industrialized modern state (Stalin’s Five Year Plans, The Great Leap Forward).  However Pol Pot sought to do the exact opposite.  His plan was to de-evolve Cambodia back into an agrarian feudal state.  All industrialism was banned.  All modern technology was banned with the exception of military weapons and state controlled radio.Believe it or not, cities and urbanism was banned.  All cities and towns were emptied of residents.  Major cities became ghost towns overnight.  The people were forced to move to agricultural communes (forced labor camps) where they were to work as peasant farmers for the state.In the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea the use of forced labor camps was used as a punishment.  Under Pol Pot labor camps were the status quo.  The entire Cambodian population was divided up and forced to live in the thousands of communal farms throughout the country.  It was a truly classes society as the entire population was forced to live as peasant farmers.All commerce was banned.  All food was collected by the state, all food was distributed state.  It was illegal to grow your own food, make your own clothes, build you own shelter, etc.  Even something as simple as picking a wild fruit was considered commerce, which was punishable by death.  As a result of the policy, hundreds of thousands died of starvation and famine.The Khmer Rouge sought to reform society at its most basic levels.  Religion was banned. Literacy was banned. Music and entertainment was banned.  All holidays were banned. Families were banned, with families being broken up and exiled to different parts of the country to prevent each other from meeting again. Privacy was banned; everyone was force to eat together and sleep together as a commune. Marriage was banned, and married couples were broken up.  The state dictated what you wore, what you ate, even when you had sex and who you had sex with.Language was reformed, with certain words, phrases, and gestures being banned.All people were forced to work 12-18 hours a day, everyday with the exception of a few days off for New Years. Most time not working was spent attending communal indoctrination sessions.All contact with the outside world was severed. All foreign trade was banned.After only 4 years of Pol Pot’s Year Zero program, around 2-3 million Cambodians died from starvation, disease, exhaustion, or execution.  This amounted to ¼th or 1/3rd of the country’s total population.  The Khmer Rouge regime ended in 1979 when it picked a fight with Vietnam.  Pol Pot had gained control of the country primarily with Vietnamese help.  During the revolution most of the fighting was done by the Vietnamese Army while the Khmer Rouge acted as auxiliary and rear echelon units.  In 1979 due to a dispute between Soviet back nations (Vietnam) and Chinese back nations (Cambodia), the Khmer Rouge declared war on Vietnam and attempted an invasion.  The invasion failed miserably, and Vietnam responded by utterly destroying the Khmer Rouge regime.  Pol Pot and what was left of the Khmer Rouge retreated back into the jungle in hopes of restarting the revolution.  He would die of natural causes in 1998.  The Khmer Rouge itself was officially disbanded in 1999, with most former Khmer Rouge leaders being granted amnesty for their crimes. -- source link

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