How Did Prince Sihanouk Caused The Genocide In Cambodia

Jonathan Haidt, a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, once stated, “The most powerful force on the planet is human cooperation - a force for construction and deconstruction.” When people work together they are an indomitable force, whether they use that power for good or bad. A large group of young boys and uneducated peasants all united to form an army that followed specifically one person’s idea of the perfect society. Someone who resembled the views of the west, disagreed with this person’s views or was unable to make the trip to the labor camps was killed/brutally murdered (Ellingson). This created a genocide that lasted for around 38 years and ended up killing over three million people. Prince Sihanouk was elected

No one was in charge for long periods of time and when someone took over the capital their way of dealing with the current state of the country involved killing more people. The government was easily taken from Lol Nol. While Lol Nol and his forces were trying to handle Vietnamese communists on Cambodian soil, Pol Pot was able to gain control of the country. Because he was able to obtain control of the country so easily he had accumulated a large group of men throughout the process, so he was an unstoppable force. During the genocide, a lot of men were being recruited to join the Khmer Rouge. It was said that Pol Pot had mustered up over 700,000 men to be a part of his vast army (Peace Pledge Union Information). Because the army was so massive they were able to then get the views of the new leader put into action very easily and effectively drive everyone out. All kinds of people were murdered, the people who wouldn’t obey orders, the people who refused to leave, the weak, the slow, and countless other groups of people were killed on the spot (Peace Pledge Union Information). With such an immense number of casualties, Pol Pot had begun to wipe out an entire portion of a population of people. The soldiers didn’t only kill people with guns, they tortured them as well. The men who stayed behind during the civil war that had been going

The only way to deal with the current state of the country was for a neighboring country to step forth. Vietnam was a country that had previously been in a civil war and was able to intervene at this time. Vietnam overthrew the Khmer Rouge during 1978 (Peace Pledge Union Information). As a result of the change in power, the genocide ended in 1978. Vietnam prevented the Khmer Rouge from continuing on their path of destruction. They helped to take over a country which involved building up its greatly suffering economy. Vietnam knew that it had to support the country but didn’t want to be in control of both countries so they established a “puppet” government to nudge the country in the right direction for growth. Vietnam also set up an agreement with Cambodia to prosecute the perpetrators. The neighboring country was attempting to build Cambodia back up from the ground, but Cambodia was skeptical of its intentions. Cambodia’s representatives were very hesitant to install an agreement that allowed the miscreants to be litigated, but finally in 1991, 13 years later, after heavy negotiations Vietnam was able to do just that. Once they had set up the “fake” government they retreated (“Cambodia Profile - Timeline”). It had taken Vietnam 13 years to get Cambodians to come to some sort of agreement, and soon