Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge On April 17, 1976, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, a group of Cambodian Marxists, stormed the Cambodian capital of Phonm Penh, forcing Cambodia into four years of horrifying terror. They declared this time Zero Hour, the day Cambodia would enter a new utopian era and say goodbye to the “flawed” ways of a capitalistic society. Yet in reality, Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, achieved nothing for Cambodia. The …showed first 75 words of 2098 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2098 total…living conditions were horrible. For years, Pol Pot had despotically ruled Cambodia, while methodically purging any “threat” in his own party that could have possible led to reform. Pol Pot single-handedly killed a once prosperous nation. In 1979, when the Khmer Rouge’s detailed records were revealed, the death toll arose to be over 3,000,000 people – over twenty five percent of the Cambodian population. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge’s rule over Cambodia was a genocide.