| Chapter 1: | History and Consequence |
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newly American-backed country. Having been inaccurately informed of holding a high-standing position in the party, Sihanouk joined the ranks of the Khmer Rouge. Sihanouk addressed the Cambodian people via radio shortly after the coup occurred at a time that the Cambodians were seeking guidance from their former king. Sihanouk instructed the Cambodian people to “rise up against the government and support the Khmer Rouge” (Norodom Sihanouk, a Brief History, 61).
The Vietnamese remained true to their promise and provided armament and fighters to combat the Lon Nol government. Hundreds of thousands of North Vietnamese fighters assisted in ransacking government buildings and establishments. After establishing a strong presence throughout most of Cambodia, the North Vietnamese began withdrawing in 1972. The Khmer Rouge focused its interest on recruitment, especially of the rural classes. With the support of the ousted king and the ever-present bombing campaigns (initiated by capitalists), Cambodians joined the Khmer Rouge in multitudes.22 Saloth quickly recognized that psychological warfare involved more than landmine manipulation tactics and subsequently used Sihanouk and the US carpet bombing campaign to recruit the vast majority of rural Cambodians.
By 1973, strategic initiatives were in full force to gain control of the capital. The entire Khmer Rouge military power was focused around two military objectives, placing Phnom Penh under siege and purging non-Khmer ethnicities. In regard to placing the capital under siege, access to food from outside Phnom Penh was controlled by the Khmer Rouge. This simplistic mechanism proved as effective as the Khmer Rouge had hoped. In regard to purging non-Khmer ethnicities, the Khmer Rouge systematically exterminated villages comprised of Chinese, Vietnamese, and Cham descendants.23 Pithy Soen, a newly recruited Khmer Rouge soldier, remembers helping to lay thousands of landmines on the outskirts of a village in the Mondol Kiri province before ransacking the village in the night and forcing the non-Khmer “invaders” across the field; no one survived.
On April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh, strongly recognized as the new victors of the country. Internationally, the Khmer