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It seems like we ought to cut Pol Pot some slack given the conditions he had to
| https://imgur.com/a/o2g8xYK | 06/10/25 |
| https://imgur.com/a/o2g8xYK | 06/10/25 |
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Date: June 10th, 2025 6:44 PM Author: https://imgur.com/a/o2g8xYK work with after Kissinger bombed Cambodia. The cultural genocide we associate with the Khmer Rouge occurred during a period when Pol Pot appears to have lost effective control over the organization. Furthermore, it was not something he personally advocated. Pol Pot's army consisted largely of orphaned children, and had he been given command of a regular army there's little reason to think he would have ordered them to kill so many of his countrymen.
But the bombings were tolerated by the Lon Nol government, so to any rural Cambodian orphan it would have seemed like people living in city needed to be replaced. |
Date: June 10th, 2025 6:48 PM Author: https://imgur.com/a/o2g8xYK Also, many years passed between the start of the bombing campaigns and the fall of Phnom Penh. Pol Pot could not have been expected to teach pacifism and tolerance to these orphans. The literature's emphasis on his ideology might make sense to outside analysts, but it diverts attention away from the effect of the US bombing campaign on the psyches of the children who survived it.
We also don't have very good information about what Pol Pot himself was doing at this time. We only have snippets of propaganda. The failure of the US bombing campaign to interrupt NVA supply lines implies that we never had good intelligence on Cambodia to begin with, yet I'm asked to believe we have an accurate biography of Pol Pot during this time. |