Khmer Rouge Takes Cambodia
On 17 April 1975, forces of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, better known as the Khmer Rouge, marched into Phnom Penh and took control of Cambodia. Over the next three years and eight months, the regime led by Pol Pot emptied the cities, abolished money, markets and private property, and pursued a radical agrarian revolution. The result was one of the deadliest episodes of the twentieth century: an estimated 1.5 to 2 million people, roughly a quarter of the population, died from execution, forced labor, starvation and disease.
The roots of the takeover lay in the Vietnam War and Cambodia's own instability. In 1970 General Lon Nol overthrew Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who then allied with the Khmer Rouge, lending the insurgents legitimacy among rural Cambodians. American bombing of eastern Cambodia during the early 1970s, along with a civil war between Lon Nol's republic and the communists, devastated the countryside and displaced many people. Historians debate how much the bombing contributed to Khmer Rouge recruitment, but most agree it deepened the chaos in which the movement grew. Its leaders, many educated in France in the 1950s, were shaped by Marxism-Leninism and a deep distrust of urban society.
After victory, the Khmer Rouge ordered the evacuation of Phnom Penh and other towns within days, sending millions into the countryside to work in collective farms. The regime renamed the country Democratic Kampuchea and is often described as proclaiming a "Year Zero," a total reset of society. Religion was suppressed, schools and hospitals largely closed, and families were broken up. Educated people, former officials, ethnic minorities such as the Cham and Vietnamese, and Buddhist monks were targeted. Suspected enemies, including many within the party itself, were sent to prisons like Tuol Sleng (S-21), where thousands were tortured and nearly all were killed.
The regime collapsed in January 1979, when Vietnamese forces, backed by Khmer Rouge defectors, invaded and captured Phnom Penh. Pol Pot and his followers retreated to the western jungles and continued a guerrilla struggle for years, receiving some international backing, notably from China and Thailand, while the Cold War shaped who recognized Cambodia's government. The movement faded in the 1990s, and Pol Pot died in 1998 without facing trial.
The legacy remains profound. A UN-backed tribunal, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, convicted a few senior leaders, including Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, of crimes including genocide and crimes against humanity. Many Cambodians still live with the trauma, the loss of a generation of teachers and professionals, and landmines left from decades of conflict. The period is now a central subject in Cambodian education and remembrance.