If you somehow didn’t think that Pol Pot was already a monster, this man never faced justice as he was never arrested. In an interview after the regime, he stated that he regretted nothing as he was simply experimenting with the country. As such, he was hoping he could orchestrate a second revolution. All of this said with a soft voice deprived of any remorse or sorrow for the country he single-handedly brought down on its knees.
The sadder part is the U.S were willing to work with him to aid in such genocide as a last ditch attempt to also overthrow the new Vietnamese government
@@kaifxaif9502 he was kept on house arrest and still had a sizeable amount of supporters. For example, the province of Pailin was still under the Khmer rouge control on election day.
@@HienLuongOfficial I believe the sole reason it managed to remain a threat was because of Pol Pot himself and he died in 1998 so no, the Khmer rouge have largely dissolved and Cambodia is finally able to recover from these atrocities
I'm Vietnamese and back in my hometown we had a neighbor. He was born 1961 and was clearly not well mentally. He would always mumble gibberish, rarely does basic hygiene and this went on until he died around a year ago amidst the pandemic because he refused to eat and sleep for a whole week. My parents would later reveal that he used to be a soldier who was sent to Cambodia in the 1979 conflict and what he saw there scarred him so much it made him went insane. The horror of seeing all the lying corpses decaying was too much for him to handle and he had to be discharged. I've only met him a few times yet on every occasions, I could still see in his eyes how traumatized he was from the whole ordeal. R.I.P and I can only hope he had finally found salvation.
@@peepeetrain8755 Which would mean that he also witnessed the American war (Vietnam war) growing up as a child, before being sent to Cambodia as an 18 year old. Not a happy life at all.
Vietnamese soldiers saved my family that helped me and my family escaped to refugee camp in Thailand. I wanted to say thank you to all Vietnamese soldiers god bless you and your family and god bless your country also .
Why don't you thank you to Thailand? "A CAMP in THAILAND" Why did Thailand help many Khmers in that time, I think it's very useless because your people would like to blame and claim culture from Thailand.
This video is not details the real history behind how bad Vietnamese leader and soldiers. King Sihanouk supported North Vietnam allowed more then 200k Vietnamese soldiers to hide in Cambodia land while they fight with American. So that why American drop the bomb in Cambodia because of the Vietnamese soldiers that hide in Cambodia land. Do you think American really lose the war to small country like Vietnam 🇻🇳? I think Vietnam should thank to Cambodia 🇰🇭 that how they win the Vietnam war, but Cambodia get nothing from Vietnam 😢. American fight with the North Vietnam (communist) to support the South Vietnam (non communist). Do you think Vietnamese people sacrifice their life to save Cambodian people for nothing? How about កោះត្រល់ land and 21 provinces in Kampuchea krom land why they took from Cambodia country? 😊
This video is not details the real history behind how bad Vietnamese leader and soldiers. King Sihanouk supported North Vietnam allowed more then 200k Vietnamese soldiers to hide in Cambodia land while they fight with American. So that why American drop the bomb in Cambodia because of the Vietnamese soldiers that hide in Cambodia land. Do you think American really lose the war to small country like Vietnam 🇻🇳? I think Vietnam should thank to Cambodia 🇰🇭 that how they win the Vietnam war, but Cambodia get nothing from Vietnam 😢. American fight with the North Vietnam (communist) to support the South Vietnam (non communist). Do you think Vietnamese people sacrifice their life to save Cambodian people for nothing? How about កោះត្រល់ land and 21 provinces in Kampuchea krom land why they took from Cambodia country? 😊
Even though Vietnam and Cambodia were enemies the Vietnamese government was shocked at what was happening at fought against the Cambodians to try and make it stop. They deserve credit for that.
We actually tried to stand out of this because we know what kind of lies the US and its allies would scatter around once we got involved. But then Pol Pot started to assault our own people and we couldn't stand it anymore. Guess what happened next? According to Western media: "Vietnam's invasion to Cambodia"
Vietnamese troop contributed a big part to overthrow the regime of Khmer Rouge. Unfortunately, their contributions of this war with blood are used to propagandize as a foreign invasion for political purposes.
My dad is a Vietnamese soldier who came to Cambodia to fight against Pol Pot. He was badly wounded and all the scars still remain these days. It's pretty sad to know a fact that a lot of Cambodians today see us as invaders rather than liberators...Any Cambodian who read this comment, I just want to let you know that that small country Vietnam was the ONLY country at that time that stood beside and librated Cambodia from Pol pot.
Cambodian here. Bro, I am just the next generation. Things have been told to us about the Vietnamese - good and bad, facts and lies. Sadly, there is no way for me or anyone else to know the whole truth. But I need you to know that I am one of the Cambodians that are grateful to all those who said Yes and helped us out of those horrendous times. Cambodians need to admit that we're way better off than some other countries who have not yet been liberated from corrupted communist governments; for instance, North Korea.
@@WarMaster168 And my mother is the prime minister of Vietnam. No dude, this is the internet, your words are taken with a grain of salt. Your mom is not a historical evidence 😂 Man, Vietnamese's last generation fought and prevented a genocide and they got this treatment ? They should have just left you guys with Pol Pot. I bet he was a nice guy to all of you ungrateful people, way better than us "looters" I presumed.
I am a Cambodian. My parents always told me about the story what they have been through. They said the real situation was more than the film. My grandfather was executed in 1977 because he was a lecturer. My grandfather corpse was never been found. My grandma became a widow at the age of 25 of five children. It's the worst regime and nightmare. My mom told me that it was all in the past and she just wants the best in the present. Only peace lead to development and happiness.
It's a shame he was killed but it was for the betterment of the nation. Real shame it didn't work out though. A nation where everyone is of the same class, uncorrupted by greed and working closely and lovingly together in the fields. We need more revolutionaries who can instill this faith into others.
Thanks for sharing this story. May God bless you 🙏 ❤️ ✨️ all especially if you believe in your hearts 💕 that Jesus Christ is your Savior for your sins (any sin is sin like lying, cussing). He won't condemn u even if u continue to sin after you sincerely believe that He is your Savior. You would just feel bad for sinning.
I remember my dad telling me stories about how strict and poor ‘75-‘86 Vietnam was, but even the government then was shocked about the genocide in Cambodia at the time
I'm impressed the Vietnamese managed to repel China and liberate Cambodia at the same time considering their wealth was drained by previous wars with Western powers
Visited Cambodia a few years ago: - S21 prison is preserved as a museum and the cells still have the blood stains on the walls from people tortured there. - The Killing Fields are gut wrenching. They stopped exhuming them as it was crippling the minds of the diggers, they wait for rain to bring them to the surface and only move the bones then. - These pits are strewn with the clothes people were executed in, and their skulls were put in the middle to show the toll. - Most were beaten rather than shot to keep the later victims calm - The only pit without clothes was one where all the bodies were women. The suffering that place has seen is unimaginable
The victims were not shot to avoid the loud gunfire (some say also to save bullets) but they were not beaten. They were simply killed with a farming hoe struck at the back of the head. If you visit the killing fields in Cambodia, you will see the mountains of skull preserved as memorials. Take a look closely and you will see a punctured hole at the back of the skulls.
@@CalvinK300 I remember the central mausoleum where skulls were organised by execution method so apologies I just used beaten as a substitute encompassing all those methods. Some (if not most) were definitely beaten though, my guide mentioned all the broken ribs and forearms they found
@@cudanmang_theog Oh shut up. Even if we did kill Cambodians, those Cambodians would definitely be the Khmer Rouge members who tried to fight back. And you say "Pol Pot did nothing wrong"? Oh sure. If you think that torturing and killing your own people just because you overworked 'em to death is true things to do, then perhaps Pol Pot did nothing wrong! All I can say, my friend, is that Khmer Rouge killed millions of people. There are quite a lot of clear evidences. So shut up and do something productive with your life instead of giving us Vietnamese a bad name (your nickname says it all, it means "Netizen").
@@Connor-vj7vf the victims were tortured in prisons and interrogation centres (S21 was one of many) and then brought to the killing fields in lorries. By then, these victims were so broken and weakened they couldn’t resist. Some say they even welcomed death. Very sad but yet, I am amazed the Cambodians decided to punish only the top 4 leaders of Khmer Rouge and forgive the rest. Peace & Reconciliation like South Africa’s post apartheid policy. Truly admirable.
@@CalvinK300 I'd question that finding. Almost everyone in govt now was previously in Khmer Rouge. The ones prosecuted were the only ones who didn't cooperate with Vietnam after they invaded in 1973 (year may be wrong). My guide said they just couldn't speak openly about it because almost half of the generation 60+ were perpetrators
I’m the daughter of two Cambodia parents who made it out of the genocide alive, unlike so many, including my own uncles and grandfathers. It’s truly heartbreaking what they went through. Took me years to understand the gravity of what they had experienced. What they went through continues to impact them and their loved ones, even today. Many of my family members were able to make it out alive, but they still live with repressed trauma and pain that they passed onto the younger generation, myself included. I am still mourning what they went through but amazed by their strength. They came to a foreign world with no connections, no knowledge of English, but somehow managed to build a comfortable life for our family. Thanks to all those who’ve taken the time to learn about Cambodia and it’s history. If you know a Khmer person, get to know them…ask to hear their story and listen. We may seem a bit closed off and awkward at first (learned that in order to keep ourselves/family safe) but once you gain our trust, we will share more and more about ourselves and welcome you as family.
Was the Pol Pot the mass killer? Vietnam has been an active participant in Cambodai since 1863 and has never left Cambodia on its own. Vietnam and France anointed Commoner as the prince of Cambodia in 1941, designating Sihanouk as their puppet and his spouse as a Vietnamese spy. The opposition royal families, dukes, and government officials were assassinated by Sihanouk's secret agents, who also destroyed their records and photos, erasing the Khmer nation's past. Sihanouk killed opposition figures, let Vietnam to set up a military base housing 200,000 soldiers, and permitted covert agents to kidnap 5,000-6,000 Cambodian children, most of whom were between the ages of three and five. In the 1960s, Sihanouk increased the tax that the French had ordered, and many people opposed the tax and fled into the jungle to form a group. This small opposition group dared to fight against the tax collectors protect the farmers and their families. Sihanouk did not know what to call this group. Later on, Ta Mok, Nuon Chea, and Charlot Sar joined this anti-tax group, and the tax opposition group was formed in almost every province in Cambodia. The tax opposition group had only about 200 rifles to defend themselves and the farmers. While Sihanouk was in Peking, China, Lon Nol, who had great regard and admiration for Sihanouk, had plotted to topple him in a coup. Sihanouk was in Peking, China, exhorts people to escape to the Prey Marqui to joint the anti-tain order to support Lon Nol's forces. They came across 200,000 Vietnamese soldiers prepared to support Sihanouk in taking back the throne during their flight to prey Marqui; Sihanouk even had a conference with the tax rebel organization in the forest. Lon Nol and the Khmer Rouge went to battle, but it didn't take long for the latter to win. How is it possible? Although the Vietnamese army were in charge of Phnom Penh City and had given orders for citizens to leave, the Khmer Rouge leader refuted this in Khmer Rouge Tribul Court. Despite this, the Khmer Rouges emerged victorious in the conflict. Following the evacuation of civilians, a team of undercover officers looked through and destroyed official and archived records. The cornerstones of the Khmer country were assassinated: academics, lawyers, historians, educators, students, and government officials-including those with glasses and smooth skin. In order to silence witnesses and destroy records and other evidence that might show Vietnam's ties to the Khmer Rouge, Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978. Vietnam prohibited local communities' media access, but let international media to take pictures of the skulls and bones of Khmer people who had been slain. The scenario is repeated now that Hun Sen has been installed by the Vietnamese as their puppet. Read the report from American General Mark A. Smith to the White House, please.
I have a Cambodian friend, She used to told me about her grandparents’s survival story and i always want to know more about Cambodia’s history. Thank you for this❤
@@d00rknob mostly they survive due to courage and steal food otherwise they barely walk to work. the rices are massive tons and if pol pot pour it on the land than it can cover all the territory of cambodia and yet they didn't give the food or any single crops of rice to citizens. They want citizens to drink only water or add some few rice in to water to survival. Why? Because they store for foreigners might arrive in future. It is just like plan hit and run and take all the blame. This is what happen when you hand over the country to terriosm.
Yes, Pol Pot literally wiped out 999 999 999 999 trillion dead urbanites according to cringe libtards. Pol Pot did nothing wrong. Long Live Democratic Kampuchea revolution
My father was a Vietnamese soldier deploying during the liberation for the Cambodian in the late 70'. I heard so many horrendous story from him about the actrocity the Khmer Rouge had committed. It forever haunted him. Cambodian brother, we had endured a lot of suffering. We now must forgive the past and live in a harmony, prosperity future !
It's sad that the fact is a lot of Cambodian today see us as invader rather than liberater. They even said that Vietnam did all those and blamed Pol Pot lol.
@@SaltyMartian the military intervention was inevitable. Polpot had already demanded for Vietnam's territory and he would definitely take it by force. Khmer Rouge had done 2 sieges into Vietnamese border long before any Vietnamese troops crossed their border.
@@Huyc115 I know the story and my mother went to Cambodia at that time when (1979) she was 15 with her mates in the Children's House (Nhà văn hoá thiếu nhi) in order to support the soldiers's morale.
I am a Vietnamese. My mother told me she had a Cambodian colleague who lost his family (parents and 4 other silblings) because of Pol Pot. He was lucky to survive, losing "only" two fingers. I am sorry for what happened to Cambodian people and glad that more people know about the period and appreciate more the strength of Cambodian people.
There's a French animated film named Funan which is based on the events of Cambodian genocide. This film is about Funan, his parents and the relatives of Funan, who got separated between him and his parents and we can see the struggles between those characters and we saw them lost their lives and the forshadowing sights such as death, execution, punishment, etc. This film is good and dark at the same time and it even won Annecy. I highly recommend you all watch this film.
The Khmer Rouge has always been a deeply disturbing yet fascinating period to me In the 1960s Cambodia saw a rise in popularity for psychedelic rock music, with artists like Ros Serey Sothea , Yol Aularong , Pan Ron, Etc. which I enjoy The disturbing aspect of this however is that all these artists just seem to disappear after the Khmer Rouge took power , there are little records detailing what happened to them , and they are presumed killed. To think a country with such a vibrant culture could be so quickly hidden from the world and massacred is truly terrifying
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge not only executed people connected with the opposition party but his vision for a pure nation of land workers and anyone who didn't fit that model was also executed. Simply put the Khmer Rouge was largely made up of people from the provinces/countryside and they had essentially been convinced that those from the cities were curupted. There was to be no more money, no more religion so anyone who was deemed a threat to that vision was executed. All artists such as musicians, teachers, scholars, bi/multi-linguists, even people who wore glasses as they looked like scholars would have their lives taken. Basically anyone deemed educated or influential enough to be a threat. The KR army had convinced to believe that the only thing that was true to them was Mother Angkor, the earth basically. Starving workers were punished, often by death, if caught stealing any food at all, that included catching a bug to eat. Young KR members even were executed their own parents. It's a gruesome story. Cambodia had a great music scene through the 60's up to then. Sadly though, those great musicians you mentioned above quite possibly didn't even make it to the fields.
We're taught that the Khmer Rouge's vision of a class-less Cambodia required the extermination of aristocrats, artists, and well-educated people. This is why it's widely assumed that most of those artists were killed.
its not that they "just seem to disappear"; the whole purpose of socialistic thought is this: agree with the country or be killed. they either fled and restarted their lives or were caught in the crossfires and died
Cambodia was rapidly developing after the independence from Colonial France. We had a booming manufactures, great infrastructure, and many of intellectuals who are ready to take the country to catch up many nations and modernize our country. Even Lee Kuan Yew admire our development and call us the Pearl of Asia. Then, the political turmoil came, chaos erupted, and civil war broke out, eventually led to the heinous Pol Pot regime. My family lost 11 relatives due to them being educated and worked for the government. In just a little more than 3 years, Pol Pot sent Cambodia 100 years backward. Many intellectuals was killed, infrastructure destroyed, struggle for power just among other civility problems that Cambodia had. Just to how destructive it was, almost 50 years after, Cambodia is still struggle reach the status it once had. We are getting back on the right track now but it was nowhere near before the Khmer Rouge Regime.
You know that Pearl of Asia was the name Lee Kuan Yew told about Saigon, right? Anyway, don't believe him. Singapore at that time was truly Pearl of Asia, he spoke nonsense things to make Indochina proud lol
@@theuniverse2126 you know what they might be wrong on the plural of Asia part but they aren't entirely wrong after the French colony left we had a lot of smart intellectual people and we learned a lot from the French and their technologies that's why they said our population was booming and we were on our way to catching up to other nations or country they aren't wrong.
As a Vietnames, I feel sad that the superpowers did make our Asean divided and used us against each other. Let'a hope Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar could maintain peace and stability in our Mainland Southeast Asia
@@kitjabhornisveryhappy3360 yeah, but I am quite afraid that Cambodia will become the Chinese puppet as the Khmer Rouge did cause our destabilization of our region
It is very hard for many people who don't understand the international politics to understand the situation. Many people blame the countries who supported the Khmer Rouge. I would like to explain something more. In the case of Thailand, the Thai government exactly knewn the brutality of the Khmer Rouge, but they also saw that the occupation of Cambodia by the Vietnamese was the threat to the nation and the region, since there were many border raids between Thai military force and Vietnamese military force near the border, mostly on the Cambodian refugee camps, so Thailand decided to cooperate closely with ASEAN, 5 members at the time, and China, which had conflicts with Vietnam and Soviet Union which supported Vietnam, to contain the Vietnamese expansion in the region, both in the region and international stage. For the international stage, ASEAN and China worked closely to block the official recognitions of the Vietnamese - backed Cambodian government led by Heng Samrin by other UN members. For the region, ASEAN, especially Thailand worked closely with China to contain the expansion of the Vietnamese. The close relations between China and Thailand developed in this period. Many weapons and supplies were sent from China through Thailand to Cambodia. Many Cambodian fighters were trained by Thai military officers. Since the international reputation of Khmer Rouge was really bad, so Thailand persuaded other Khmer factions to established the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK) or the Three Khmre Factions in 1981, to improve the reputation of the de jure Cambodian government to fight for the legitimacy with the Heng Samrin's government. This consisted of the Khmer Rouge, a royalist faction led by Sihanouk, and the Khmer People's National Liberation Front led by Son Sannn. Its credentials were recognised by the United Nations. Thailand also supported the Cambodian people by accepting them to take a refuge in many refugee camps along the border. Many survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime whose stories were told to the world took the refuge in the refugee camps on the border,.The example of these people are Dith Pran, whose story was adapted into the 1984 film named "The Killing Field", Haing S. Ngor, who played as Dith Pran in that fim, Loung Ung, the writer of "First They Killed My Father" which was adapted into the Netflix film in 2017, and Sichan Siv, the United States ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council from 2001 to 2006. He also wroted the book, "The Golden Bone" about his life from Cambodia to the United States. The Vietnamese troops withdrew after changing of the international politics in 1989. The Cambodian issue was concluded with the Paris Comprehensive Peace Settlement signed in 1991. The UN was given a mandate to enforce a ceasefire and deal with refugees and disarmament known as the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). The first election happened in 1993. The monarchy was restored in the same year. This is the beginning of the modern Cambodia.
I'm from Thailand and this Genocide was happened in my neighbouring country of Cambodia, and The Cambodian Genocide was one of the most darkest moment in the Cold War Era.
@@doctorfuntime1709 Indeed, I felt terrible that the Thai Government supported the Khmer Rouge after fleeing to the border. The Thai Government should send these Khmer Rouge to an international tribunal for their crimes.
The New Ongoam24 it’s just wrong what happened. Pol Pot should only never have been in power in the first place and communism should of never been started at all ( Same goes for The French Revolution and Russian Revolution).
@@thenewongoam2486 did the thai support the Khmer rouge? I thought the thai had massive refugee camps for cambodians and vietnamese fleeing their new genocidal communist governments.
as a cambodian, after watching this i never knew how cruel it was. it was far more than i expected. this video is unexpectedly excellent at showing what our ancestors went through.
How old are u? Go to the museum which is probably 30 minutes away from your house. We studied this in middle, high, and even uni. Cambodians talk about this, young and old.
Vietnamese soldiers who sacrificed themselves to help the Cambodian people escape the genocide of the Khmer Rouge, are now viewed by young Cambodians as invaders because of the toxic ideological contamination of China, We - the Vietnamese - do not ask for your gratitude, we just want you to respect those who have sacrificed for peace on the Indochinese peninsula - where the forces always want to compete for the victory. its influence on it. If you want to be our good friend, we are always ready, but if you want to be our enemy, we will not be lenient, but I hope all 3 Indochinese countries always get along and get along. cooperate with each other rather than become enemies. Best wishes to you.
Những người lính Việt Nam - những người đã hi sinh để giúp dân tộc Campuchia thoát khỏi họa diệt chủng của Khmer đỏ, giờ đây, bị giới trẻ Campuchia xem như những tên xâm lược bởi sự tiêm nhiễm tư tưởng độc hại bởi trung quốc, chúng tôi - những người Việt Nam - không yêu cầu sự biết ơn của các bạn, chúng tôi chỉ muốn các bạn tôn trọng những người đã hi sinh vì hòa bình trên Bán đảo Đông Dương - nơi mà các thế lực luôn muốn tranh giành sự ảnh hưởng của mình lên nó. Nếu các bạn muốn trở thành bạn tốt của chúng tôi, chúng tôi luôn sẵn sàng, nhưng nếu các bạn muốn trở thành kẻ thù của chúng tôi, chúng tôi sẽ không khoan nhượng, nhưng tôi mong cả 3 nước Đông Dương luôn hòa thuận và hợp tác với nhau hơn là trở thành kẻ thù của nhau. Gởi lời chúc tốt đẹp đến các bạn.
I don't blame them for feeling spiteful, our government back then wasn't even "nice" to our own people. This modern Chinese influenced lens though, is infuriating. Holding us accountable for the things that was wrong, sure, but refusing to even understand the role that other powers played is just baffling. Forming a pro-China stance too, is outrageous. Polpot danced in the palms of China. He was a literal Chinese backed puppet. To the point that China sparked a war to try to get us to pull out. Seeking a closer alliance to THAT while pinning the blame on us? Despicable.
That's because they believe that all these scene was Vietnamese playing. They believe that Polpot regime was installed by Vietnamese, so is the Hun Sen until now. Basically, they want the Mekong Delta region back to Cambodia
Probably not many Cambodian people are watching this ig, but i’m surprised that many people here are eagerly want to know about our dark history. I’m just a later generation who has been told and learnt a lot about this. I have to say that this video is so precise even some part feel quite new to me. Thank you so much for the video!
Im Indonesian, and all i heard before about Cambodia is just Angkor Wat and Genocide but i never know what is whit this Genocide, and this video is amazing
I'm part Cambodian, my dad told me some stories of how he got separated from his mom and had to take care of his youngest sister. His dad died from malaria. He said he was skin and bones and tried to eat grass...
I'm Cambodian, My Grandmother told me stories of how she survived bombings and prison camps. She told me about her old friends who died during the regime and how lucky it was that our family managed to survive.
As a Cambodian whose been following Ted-Ed for years now, I thank you with every fiber of my body for making this video. I lost both my grandfathers during the regime, uncles and aunts whose faces I did not even get to see. My father was hospitalized because he was suffering from malnutrition at a far distance hospital. And when the Vietnamese helped liberated us, he was left for dead there alone as everyone fled for themselves. My grandmother and one of my auntie had to sneak through muddy fields and forests for miles in order to reach and save him. While the rest of the world had moved on from the passage of wars, we are still trying to recover from our scars and wounds from the past. So again, thank you for making this video and spreading awareness of our daunting history to the rest of the world.
I lived and worked in Cambodia for a time and the scars are still there. A foreign filmmaker was abducted and murdered for asking the wrong questions, and every couple of weeks in the local newspapers, they report some poor kid got his leg blown off from a mine or bomb dropped during the Vietnam War from the US. Extremely sad recent history, incredible people and friends I made, and the global community failed Cambodia during this period.
@@hoangminhle2296 they did liberate Cambodia from Pop Pot but did occupy it for a while, much kile how Syria refused to leave Lebanon for a while after the war ended. Vietnam still deserves credit tho.
@@johnxina5126 They stayed to protect the young cambodian government from the polpot. Polpot was supported by china and US and they remained in thailand for years after the corruption
@@hoangminhle2296 there's slightly more context and complication to Cambo-Viet relationship during that time. I'll give them credits for liberating Cambodia but I would not thank them for that. As a Cambodian, I was fortunate enough to be able to hear stories and truth behind the Khmer rouge and Vietnam was definitely not a saint nor hero to us.
There was this film, (hopefully is still on Netflix) How They Killed My Father. Amazing film. One of the scenes that sticks with me is how the Cambodians are taught to despise the Vietnamese, but when they come face to face with them, they’re more as guardians rather than monsters. The same goes for another scene where a Cambodian soldier is getting beaten by the locals, and the main character steps in and stops it. Even after watching it several times, it still hits me like a train.
it was First They Killed My Father, Angelina Jolie's movie. i liked that movie too. it gave me a picture of how people made other people of their own nation suffered.
Ted Ed, please bring back the mini series where two historical figures are presented in front of a judge and their lawyers defend them. It was brilliant.
Something you didn't talk about, the American support of the Khmer Rouge. When Sihanouk was overthrown, he fled to China. There, he formed a gov in exile called GRUNK (Gouvernement royal d'union nationale du Kampuchéa). With support from China and North Vietnam, he decided to be on the side of the Cambodian communists. The communists' numbers grew in rural areas because of the fact the people realized Sihanouk was on their side and were enraged at the American bombings taking place. However, he feared Khmer Rouge hardliners would advocate his removal, so he tried to gain American support of his national unity government as well. This failed because the Nixon administration made it clear that they support his prime minister's Khmer Republic. In fact his plan backfired so much the Americans actually SUPPORTED the Khmer Rouge hardliners who wanted him gone when they became the majority of GRUNK. When the Vietnamese liberated the country to help the Salvation Front (FUNSK), the US and China refused to recognize the new pro-Vietnamese People's Republic of Kampuchea as legitimate, so the Khmer Rouge retained its seat for three years after its fall when its seat would be taken by a coalition of anti-Vietnamese resistance led by Sihanouk. This time with the US (Reagan) supporting both Sihanouk and the Khmer Rouge because they were against Vietnam
Wrong!!! Shihanouk make the riot and burn down american embassy first and k$ll alot of americans and than order lon nol to massacre people in somlot because they didn't want to sell rice to vietnam in order to gain victory over usa. Usa have no choice but to call on lon nol for his crime might expose and than lon nol accept by the king to pretend loyalty to the american and cheat american to believe and invest to cambodia. King and lon nol plan to eradicate all western policy that cambodian's teacher, professors, doctor etc adapt and love. By doing so they make the greatest mistake of all time and play right in the hand of vietnam leader. Lon nol have american tank and support and also 150k troop to 300k troop while pol pot have only 5k and increase to 50k after took the regime and increase to 70k later on to 100k and the end of fall they have only 120k troops.
For anyone who is interested in some cambodian pop music from before the Khmer rouge, i recommend looking up "Sublime frequencies: Radio Phnom Penh". Its a collection of many tracks from multiple artists, out of whom many would perish during the genocide. Its a haunting experience, and one of the most original forms of artistic expression i've heard.
I work in a little Cambodian owned donut shop where I live. Whenever its slow and I'm helping clean around in the kitchen, my boss, the wife, would often tell me stories about the things they went through in Cambodian before they came to the US and often times, they're pain and suffering often continued because of the racial discrimination against Asian. She said that the part my boss is from, the husband, food was scares. That more often than not people would stave days on end. So when ever there was food provided, if you didn't eat fast, you didn't get food. "That we he eats so fast" she said. To this day, the trauma still affects my boss, unconsciously. He still eat his food fast even though their isn't anyone who's gonna steal his food. Stories about how people who broke into her house, they didn't want valuables. They were after food. They were children when its all happened, worse of all. The suffering and pain didn't stop even after a sponsor brought them over to the US. Due to the racism again anyone of Asian, they faced racial discrimination here too. On one occasion my boss and a friend were beaten up by a group of American boys simply for being Asian. He said it was so bad they felt like they HAD to form a gang. Not like a typical gang where one would assume they commit violent acts and crimes, rather just a gang of teenage Asian boys just simply together to protect themselves and friends from racial injustices and biases they face. I think that's the saddest part, they didn't make the gang to commit crimes but rather to protect themselves but of course, the narrative might have been the same as they are today for Mexican immigrants, they are just violent criminals and gang members.
Sadly, this was reality for many young South-east Asians as they had no recourse but to form gangs to provide for their own well being. Most of the kids born in the 80's were targets for these gangs to increase their numbers and boost their prominence in their neighborhoods. This is probably why, even within the Khemr community, there is a stark border between those of us who grew up in safe neighborhoods and those of us who grew up in the ghetto. It is sometimes difficult to reconcile the divide between the subcultures within the subculture.
Wrong!!! Stop blaming usa. Shihanouk make the riot and burn down american embassy first and k$ll alot of americans and than order lon nol to massacre people in somlot because they didn't want to sell rice to vietnam in order to gain victory over usa. Usa have no choice but to call on lon nol for his crime might expose and than lon nol accept by the king to pretend loyalty to the american and cheat american to believe and invest to cambodia. King and lon nol plan to eradicate all western policy that cambodian's teacher, professors, doctor etc adapt and love. By doing so they make the greatest mistake of all time and play right in the hand of vietnam leader. Lon nol have american tank and support and also 150k troop to 300k troop while pol pot have only 5k and increase to 50k after took the regime and increase to 70k later on to 100k and the end of fall they have only 120k troops.
In my area, the Cambodian gang might form for protection, but they quickly became violent as well. There are Mexican gang in the area, so they are always fighting for territories. It is like a freaking war during that time as my uncle told.
The current prime minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, sought united Vietnam for help. In 1979, only 4 years after Vietnam War, Vietnamese launched an invasion to stop the genocide. We lose thousands of men to liberate Cambodia. Meanwhile, China PRC supported the Cambodia Red Rouge (Pol Pot) and announced sanction against Vietnam in the UN. China went extra miles to launch an invasion in North Vietnam to assist Pol Pot. And in 1979, Vietnam won on both front of conflict.
What Vietnam did was more of a military settlement in Cambodia rather than an invasion, I suppose, because there seems to be no evidence of Vietnamese troops killing the oppressed Cambodians en masse.
My mother was in the supply core for the counter-offensive in ‘78. My mother doesn’t tell much, I can understand she had seen horrific attrocities. A year before that, pol pot attacked phu quoc and tho chu, and some regions in the provinces at the border with cambodia like Tay Ninh or Ha Tien. They massacred almost the whole population of Vietnamese in Tho Chu island, from children to elderly, from men to women, just a few who manage to run away alive. We used all kind of diplomacy to ask the criminals to return our people, even send back pol pit’s murderers for them. We cared for them all the way from tending their wound to give them food (at that time, food was very valuable in vietnam). It’s sad to see nowaday some cambodian were taught the wrong history and think of us as invader.
The video is meant to be about the suffering of the Cambodian people and not about the politics of the entire thing, Kissinger probably got his nose up half of the world's asses
And more so, they didn't even mentioned the part that right after the Vietnamese liberated Kampuchea, the US even rallied on the side of the Khmer Rouge and even let them retain a seat on UN. Like, gosh dang Murica, really?!
As a Chinese, what I know is: Pol Pot is a faithful student of Stalinism and Maoism. His radical policy is heavily influenced by Mao's "Great leap forward" and "Cultural Revolution" which also took away enormous lives in China.
He seems to have forgotten about the best thing Stalin did though: industrializing the country and turning it into a world power. If you leave that aside, you only have the genocide left lol. Which is exactly what Pol Pot did
China, DPRK and for some reason USA and UK supported him. Vietnam and Cuba and USSR were opposed to him. Vietnam eventually liberated Cambodia and the state they Setup wasn’t recognised by USA for years until a anti Vietnamese government took power in Cambodia. China invaded Vietnam over it.
The Cambodian genocide was indirectly part of the Sino-Soviet split, the Khmer Rouge was allied with China and the U.S. (now friendly with China due to Nixon's ping pong diplomacy) while the opposition supported by the Vietnamese communists (were friendly with the Soviet Union rather than China).
Dear TED-Ed, can you make a video on the Philippines' Martial Law era? The dark histories of countries is a nice series, and the Philippines would really need one video of that. Our history books failed us. The post-Martial Law era Presidents failed us. We need an international observer to help the blind see the light.
Fun fact : What happened in Cambodia became the justification for the Suharto regime in Indonesia for the massacre of suspected communists in Indonesia after 1965 and became the reason for the ban on the idea of communism in Indonesia. Meanwhile, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge reasoned that this massacre was carried out because they reflected on what was happening in Indonesia and were afraid that what happened in Indonesia would happen to the communists in Cambodia. Look how terrible the impact of the cold war on the countries outside the two fighting blocs
all that for 32 Years....and the scar still linger to this day. i pray both us and Cambodians move forward from this...Blackwater state our Leaders put ya through.
My mother and her family are Cambodian and experienced the Khmer Rouge Regime firsthand. It is haunting to hear the stories she told me about this Era, and how much she had to go through. I can't appreciate enough for discussing this horrible event.
Cambodian genocide and civil war is a complicated subject in a video under 10 minutes but it really needs to be mentioned that the Khmer Rouge were actively and openly supported by the United States after the Khmer Rouge was driven out of power in the late 70's and 80's because they were fighting against the VietNamese.
yes thank you. Its really weird that it is rarely mentioned. Its really hard to find stricles about that. I am from germany and on wikipedia its written that we supported them with wapons. But its not really mentioned and there are not a lot of ducomentations about it.
@@sharisad9730 because America is not directly support khmer rouge. But do it by their order to Thailand. And try to give khmer rouge a position in UN. Thailand take every blame of support khmer rouge remnant. when the true mastermind never leave any paper behind.
Was the Pol Pot the mass killer? Vietnam has been an active participant in Cambodai since 1863 and has never left Cambodia on its own. Vietnam and France anointed Commoner as the prince of Cambodia in 1941, designating Sihanouk as their puppet and his spouse as a Vietnamese spy. The opposition royal families, dukes, and government officials were assassinated by Sihanouk's secret agents, who also destroyed their records and photos, erasing the Khmer nation's past. Sihanouk killed opposition figures, let Vietnam to set up a military base housing 200,000 soldiers, and permitted covert agents to kidnap 5,000-6,000 Cambodian children, most of whom were between the ages of three and five. In the 1960s, Sihanouk increased the tax that the French had ordered, and many people opposed the tax and fled into the jungle to form a group. This small opposition group dared to fight against the tax collectors protect the farmers and their families. Sihanouk did not know what to call this group. Later on, Ta Mok, Nuon Chea, and Charlot Sar joined this anti-tax group, and the tax opposition group was formed in almost every province in Cambodia. The tax opposition group had only about 200 rifles to defend themselves and the farmers. While Sihanouk was in Peking, China, Lon Nol, who had great regard and admiration for Sihanouk, had plotted to topple him in a coup. Sihanouk was in Peking, China, exhorts people to escape to the Prey Marqui to joint the anti-tain order to support Lon Nol's forces. They came across 200,000 Vietnamese soldiers prepared to support Sihanouk in taking back the throne during their flight to prey Marqui; Sihanouk even had a conference with the tax rebel organization in the forest. Lon Nol and the Khmer Rouge went to battle, but it didn't take long for the latter to win. How is it possible? Although the Vietnamese army were in charge of Phnom Penh City and had given orders for citizens to leave, the Khmer Rouge leader refuted this in Khmer Rouge Tribul Court. Despite this, the Khmer Rouges emerged victorious in the conflict. Following the evacuation of civilians, a team of undercover officers looked through and destroyed official and archived records. The cornerstones of the Khmer country were assassinated: academics, lawyers, historians, educators, students, and government officials-including those with glasses and smooth skin. In order to silence witnesses and destroy records and other evidence that might show Vietnam's ties to the Khmer Rouge, Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978. Vietnam prohibited local communities' media access, but let international media to take pictures of the skulls and bones of Khmer people who had been slain. The scenario is repeated now that Hun Sen has been installed by the Vietnamese as their puppet. Read the report from American General Mark A. Smith to the White House, please.
In my humble opinion.. if it wasn't for the late president ferdinand marcos imposing martial law... Communism would have entered the philippines and ended up like cambodia
One thing that has never been talked about is North Korea's stance in this war. North Korea initially supported Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, but frictions broke out in 1968 when North Korea opposed North Vietnam-US talks and the Paris Agreement of 1973. Subsequently, North Korea withdrew all military advisors from Vietnam, believing that North Vietnam would be unable to unify the South without its help, which proven... not so true for Kim Il-sung in 1975. The fall of Saigon was a shock to North Korea (which have failed to achieve the same task back then and still now), and thus, North Korea became more hostile to unified communist Vietnam, which contributed to its condemnation of Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia in 1979 and hosting the Cambodian royal family as well as Khmer Rouge's officials. Worth noting here is, Pol Pot only had two foreign trips throughout his life, and one of them was to North Korea, personally meeting Kim Il-sung. This showed how close Khmer Rouge to North Korea and, awkwardly, weakened the relations between communist Vietnam and North Korea since.
@@meh92 Literally it is a real story. There was a report on newspaper back in 1980s, photographing Pol Pot and Kim Il-sung's personal meeting. Pol Pot really admired Kim Il-sung and his regime. At the same time, relations between North Korea and China also turned good when Kim Il-sung did meet Deng Xiaoping several times.
@@meh92 yep, Kim Il Sung is secretly jealous at the Viet Congs and the North Vietnamese that they were able to unify their country by liberating South Vietnam. Maybe the two Koreas are just bound to be like this, divided by their political ideologies and both of them would never have the same exchange of pain and tribulations just like Vietnamese during the Vietnam War.
North Korea trying to give advice to North Vietnam with military advisors on how to defeat the US when they couldn't even unite their own country? That's like telling Elon Musk how to build rockets when you only know how to light bottle rockets. Okayyy....
The U.S. equally supported the Khmer Rouge, it was because the U.S. just lost South Vietnam to the North Vietnamese and Vietcong. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. U.S. and the PR China were also cementing their partnership under Nixon at the time, so it was natural that the U.S. and PR China would support the Khmer Rouge since they both did not like North Vietnam. The Vietnamese were also close with the Soviet Union (and not the Chinese) during the Sino-Soviet Split, made China uncomfortable that the Soviets had satellite states in North Korea and Vietnam along its borders. History is weird like that. The U.S. could excuse communism under Pol Pot and Mao, if it meant getting revenge for the Vietnam War.
What are the odds of this video being released on the same day I started writing a grad school essay on the same topic? Also, with my family coming from Vietnam, my father participated in our country's political and military involvements in Cambodia during the last few years of that second civil war said in the video. Sure, while my government's actions in Cambodia such as military intervention, prolonged occupation, and propping up a puppet regime were bad, I still believe those were necessary to fight the Khmer Rouge and its genocide.
yeah, my father still have problems when he came back from that war, I don't know why Cambodians act like we the bad guys make my father service there seem pointless. Especially those who blame Vietnam when Khmer Rouge kill a tons of Vietnamese
Long standing historical grudges are hard things to kick. Many Khmer believe that the Rouge were made of Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants to take over the country, so good luck trying to convince them otherwise.
@@comradekenobi6908 maybe if you read more history, you will understanding more about 2 countries you need to be *wise enough* to comment if you don't wanted to be ended up like the Azov in Ukraine ua-cam.com/video/fy910FG46C4/v-deo.html&ab_channel=TIME Also, we, the Vietnamese, seeing that Cambodia suffering very high casualties due to the Khmer Rogue strict rules including the killings of Civilians and Vietnamese and the United Nation who not intervene this causing even more deaths. We do not crossed our arms and watched you guys keep suffering so we decided that we need to do something that having good benefits for both of us. We do not eat fresh or swallow alive any countries. Remember that we, the Vietnamese is loving peace and not wanna cause any wars so we instead of invade Cambodia, we liberated it from the old regime and that's how you got your new flag today.
This is an amazing summary of the genocide's history and political context, and the animation is simply stunning. The animation team did a phenomenal job, it's so emotionally evocative.
Incredibly well-made and well-articulated video capturing the complexity of historical trauma and violence. The animation is painterly and masterfully crafted. Thank you for this!
The massacre and the reign of Pol Pot resulted in almost braindraining the entire country leaving a little professionals and educated living after the 1979 liberation. If they had continue this even further, then the entire Khmer society and its people may collapse and go to an almost extinction levels.
@@targe4070 That shows how fast the Khmer Rouge got rotten. When they massacred their fellow Cambodians and attacked Vietnam, they were under the umbrella of China and the US. Killers go with killers, no surprise.
Whoever drew the last slide depicting the country trying to stay still on the foundation of a genocide has nailed the artistry and subtext. I just got shivers looking at that picture.
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge believed they were being compassionate to their fellow countrymen by making equality as their objective. They thought the elite classes were oppressing the underprivileged classes. Thus, they sought to make a classless society where everyone was equal and we all know this inevitably led to more suffering and atrocities. A lesson to current activists who wish to fight for ‘equality’.
So all of them then. That's the worst part, stories like these may repeat anywhere, it only depends on how much power the current State has and how much it hates. Any system and anyone is capable of such atrocities if they're not careful or if they allow it.
@@danielleow2813 Isn’t that over stating the point? Aside from the fact that we can’t go back and play through the world without history books to see how things would have unfolded had historical knowledge not have been preserved, I think it’s pretty clear some civilizations did learn from the past. The lesson may not have been perfect. Maybe not everyone learned the lessons as well as others. Maybe not everyone learned all the lessons. Maybe they don’t remembers the lessons indefinitely. In short, maybe people don’t learn as much from the past as one might hope. But to say that people have learned nothing from the past just makes me wonder what world you’re seeing.
The worst genocide are perpetrated by those whose families live in comforts of palaces... There is a Hindi poem for this: हवा से झोपड़ी क़ाप रही है, और महलों की इच्छा है कि बारिश हो। Meaning: The sheds of poor are shaking from winds while the palaces wish for heavy rains...
Reading this comment immediately got me thinking of how Americans are in full support of war, while people in the middle east fear it. They destabilised countries and yet no one calls them out on it for being a terrorist organisation disguised as light bearers of democracy
My school organise a school trip to Cambodia. We did community service. The last days of the trip we visited S21 and the graves. There no words for me to describe the lessons I took from those few days, lessons that for people take a life time. Take nothing for granted.
a few years ago , my father introduced this devastating history of the land of Cambodia ... "First they killed my father " is one of the netflix movie we came across and that alone brings me to tears ...
Visited Cambodia around 2008, I was only 14 years old then but the impact of the regime can still be felt. One of the most scariest I visited was a school/ building that was converted into a prison/ torture building. The corridors were fenced up because apparently, prisoners would rather jump to their deaths rather than sit through imprisonment. Not to mention the kids who had no legs because they were blown off by uncovered mines.
A side story: I'm a Vietnamese born and raised in a province that shares the border with Cambodia, and also the first province where the Mekong River flows into Vietnam land. In our area, people build a lot of stilt houses along the river bank, you can gg it, basically, when the flood season comes the floor will be just above the water a bit, and the back end of the house will be a washing/fishing area and we keep our boats there too. We're told that during the Polpot massacre, the river carried plenty of corpses from Cambodia that flew down to us, and sometimes they STUCK to the stilt (or fishing nets). Imagine going to the back of your house for your morning routine and seeing a guy/girl lying under your floor (maybe a head or something missing). Yeah we have numerous horror stories about that only.
I’m mixed Cambodian Vietnamese and my family were lower-middle class teachers before the cambodian genocide. My grandma and my parents remember seeing ponds that were literally completley filled up with bones and dead bodies after the war. A pond that kids used to play in was turned into a pit of dead bodies. When they were escaping cambodia, they had to hide in a pile of dead bodies because thai soldiers would kill them on the spot (or return them to the khmer rouge). I have a khmer-vietnamese aunt who lived near Can Tho and even saw bodies there.
@@stephany6417 The problem is that those sources that you can easily find on the internet are riddled with fake news and historical revisionism. The Marcoses weaponized social media for their own agenda, and they were successful.
A story from my Grandma and it’s her cousin, he is a doctor, he worked for the Khmer’s Republic soldiers camp, since the fall of Phnom Penh... no matters how he tried to hide his identity, one night he got called out by two young comrades, a sound of shot gun gone through my grandmother ears that made her remember till nowadays.
My grandma's brother sacrified in the war when Vietnam send soldiers to help out. I was told he was one of the brightest, hard-working child in the family. When he turn 18, he volunteered to the military, and after 2 months was he sent to Cambodia border, he never came back. My grandma's crys her heart out every year when she visits his tomb. I also went to visit him near the border, and there were so much tombs that you couldn't see the end. They have to make 3 stairs-up, it was so big of a place that we could rent electric cars to travel.
My mother's family evacuated to Vietnam in 78 when she was born. Her twelve sisters and brothers were lucky enough to survive, however her aunt was not. Out of the 13 kids her aunt had, only two survived. As a child I was told gruesome stories. They would sharpen bamboo into pikes, loading truckloads of people into pickup trucks. They would then dump them from a hill onto these spikes- her aunt died this way. Furthermore I heard countless stories of children being forced to shoot their own parents. It is so brutal.
Seen and been to the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields few years ago. I still can't stop feeling helpless for the victims up to this time. I can't imagine the horror that took place in Cambodia.
Quite a haunting story about oppression and hope. The outcome of the genocide only having three arrests was shocking but is an interesting reflection of the mindset Cambodians have on what they believe will benefit their society the most.
When I studied about this history event at school, i got shock. I can feel the pain of the Cambodian people and my own people in Tây Ninh, Đồng Tháp, An Giang,... Their extreme cruelty (pol pot) make me feel angry and i was very proud of what our army did in 7/1/1979. But after that, Vietnam got in a lot trouble for did such an heroic action. A lot of our young soldiers died in someone's country for someone's freedom and they were called "terrorists". Fair?
0:13 This style of the Democratic Kampuchea flag is incorrect. The towers of Angkor Wat were more rounded on that flag, the version of Angkor Wat you drew is on the current Kingdom of Cambodia flag. We know a thing or two about the Khmer Rouge because we supported them. When Sihanouk fled, he fled to our country and we built him his own palace in Pyongyang called the Changsuwon Palace. When Vietnam invaded Cambodia, we remained on Sihanouk's side. He regularly lived here until 1991 when he became king again. When he returned, he brought bodyguards from here with him. Even after the Cold War, we still had a relationship with Cambodia. We used to have several restaurants in the country and even built a museum for them called the Angkor Panorama Museum. All of these were sadly closed due to UN sanctions
I got goosebumps just imagining the horrors suffered by Cambodians. Just hope the victims find some kind of peace or are able to process such unimaginable trauma to an extent which enables them to live their lives with some kind of normalcy.
My father was born during the genocide. My father’s sister was one of the victim who died due to starvation. As for his parents, he and his sisters are separated from them. He only learned that they were executed when he was a bit older as my dad was around 6 or so. To this day, he would talk about it a lot as it was such a painful memory for him. He has an injury that was never healed as it happened during when he was taken to work. A rock hit his toe and caused it to bleed. He had to work while having the injury. Another thing is that many of his friends were killed as their parents were ‘traitor’ or ‘spy’. And if you were intelligent in anyway such as knowing math, different languages, art, or simply wearing glasses mean that you will be killed.
My dad escaped from a military camp with his parents and 8 siblings in 1979. He along with 5 other siblings survived. The rest got shot or blew up on a landmine. I am thankful he survived 2 incredible events of world history and will be forever grateful!
There is a good book on this genocide called "First They Killed My Father" by Loung Ung and this book have changed me so profoundly that I have never wasted food after reading
Thank you for this! Your videos are filled with information. I hope you do more history animations for other south east asian countries. It's good to know more about the histories of our brothers. Love from PH.
I’m Cambodian-Chinese, born in America. My grandparents have experienced the Khmer Rouge. My grandma ran away and escaped her camp with the other campers, but the only reason my grandpa survived is because one of his friends was a solider who killed the campers there, and they convinced all the other soldiers to not waste a bullet on him. I realize the scars this left on my grandparents, and I appreciate them a lot. To the Cambodians who experienced the rouge, or have relatives who have, bless you
My family are survivors of the Khmer Rouge and now they own a successful business. They never truly said what happened so this was helpful to know why they fled
To the Cambodians here: What do you think of Norodom Sihanouk, the Cambodian political leader who lived and worked through all of these events? Do you think he was a hero for Cambodia, who led the country to independence and tried to walk a middle path between the various factions threatening to tear his country apart while caring for his people, or do you think he was a Machiavellian strongman who imposed an authoritarian regime on his country, allied with a genocidal regime, and ultimately let the current regime of Hun Sen stand as it is today?
I likes him, but I don't like his decision to the Viet cong to walked freely in our own soil. That decision was a huge mistake. Thanks to that a Vietnam war spilled in Cambodia and caused them into chaos
In my opinion, Sihanouk is a man who wants to make his country “the greatest” and he, himself, also wants to be “the greatest”. Shortly after Cambodia gained independence, he tried everything he could to develop his country: built schools, universities, factories, infrastructures, and modernized Cambodia to be “the pearl of Southeast Asia”. He sang many songs, he acted in many movies, he was active in sports, he was benevolent he wanted his people to see him as the greatest in every possible field. All he did is to realize his dreams. However, he wasn’t the greatest. He wasn’t capable enough. He was, after all, just a man. He made mistakes after mistakes and he didn’t realize he made a mistake until it was too late. In the end, he became the villain in his hero story while dragging his country to its downfall with him. If you ask me, am I love or hate him? All I can say is I love and respect him a lot. He was a king who genuinely loves his country and his people. I doubt some people love Cambodia more than him nowadays. Today, Khmer political leaders and high-ranking governments only care about themselves. They only care how much they can earn, the wealth and power. Sihanouk, at least, was a true nationalist who wanted to make his country better. Yet, I hate his incompetence, his greed, and his self-centered personality. He wasn’t capable enough to realize his dreams and his mistakes lead to the Khmer Rouge regime, leading to millions of death. Sihanouk has a complicated role in Khmer history. He is the hero. He is the villain. He is the savior. He is the predator. All his good deeds and mistakes make him “The King Sihanouk of Cambodia”.
I'm Vietnamese and my father was deployed in 79, he was only 19 at the time. He only told me his story one time when he and I was having a drink for a family party, he was drunk and I was currious because our family was just finish talking about their time during the war (almost all of my uncle was also delpoyed back then too). He said was assigned to escort a supply truck to the front that was when he saw the killing field, he told that the bodies where scatter everywhere along the road with limbs being chopped off and head being blown off from bullets and it was just like that for miles and miles on end, he said he can sometimes smell the horrible stench of decomposing corpses from the humid and hot summer day to this day all while having that 1000 yard stare when telling his story. Even I who just listening to story can really feel how horrible it was for everybody who where there during that time
If any cambodian who lost any thing to the Khmer Rouge is able to read this message by any mean, know that I care of what happened. I try so hard to feel what you or any of your family or friends felt during that years, bringing tears on my eyes every single day. For all that innocent people, from newborns to elders, who passed away because of monsters playing God, whom shall never find a 2nd opportunity to live, I share my deepest condolences. Every single one of you will remain until the day I finish my stay in this realm inside my mind and heart. Be sure that your sacrifice was not in vain. Lot of people won't see the terror that communism creates, even my own country defends the slaughter of innocents, but I don't. I'll always talk the truth among anybody naive enought to believe killing people is right, or left ideas are good. Each time I remember that how avoidable the lost of people was, tears break down their way in my face, yet realizing the truth and how the future from now on can change so we never see again any of this kind ever again, shines a spark of hope inside me. As long as there is life, there is always hope
Ted-Ed, do the Martial Law under the Marcos Era in the Philippines...it really is relevant today after the result of the current election in the country where the son of the former dictator gained the highest seat of the land...Now our history is revised under his favor, trying to erase the dark past his father inflicted in this country...
Was talking to a lady today, and she was telling me the whole story as i was getting my hair cut. Very sad. Her story brought me here wanting to learn about the history.
No matter what you believe on the Khmer-Vietnamese War, it’s nice to know they’re both in ASEAN and have good ties with each other. Let the 80,000+ Military and 200,000+ Civilian casualties of the conflict’s sacrifice be in the past and have contributed to a better future for Cambodia, Vietnam, and Southeast Asia as a whole. 🇰🇭🤝🇻🇳
Having the opportunity to visit Cambodia in 2008, it remains one of my favourite countries I have ever visited. Viewing all the atrocities and how well the Cambodian people have adapted and have been able to move past this genocide and horrific past, left me in awe. Visiting the highschool turned torture camp, the killing fields, and numerous other sites I cant begin to imagine the pain and suffering they went through. Cambodia will forever be one of my favourite countries because of the people I met there.
"The Killing Fields" is magnificent movie about this event, one of the greatest films ever made. As usual, American interventionism had unintended consequences.
@@marcell_forchannel3985 NATO is the main reason why Libya and Afghanistan are the way they are today. They absolutely destroyed those countries. And NATO's Operation Gladio also supported and armed various right-wing fascist groups in various European countries.
look at how they bombed Serbia! and i remember the Chinese embassy was bombed as well. just imagine if Russian bombs in Ukraine hit the embassy of any NATO members.
I will be really impressed if you do a video on the US supported Indochinian invasion and subjugation of East Timor, which happened at the same time as the Khmer Rouge regime.
My parents now avoid telling me anything about escaping the war as it must be triggering.. But I remember as a kid when being scared sleeping in the dark or learning how to swim, they somehow told me it's gonna be fine as one "learned to swim in the river to avoid getting shot, but the bullet luckily touched someone right besides instead.." and the other had to "sleep under dead corpse". Today I sill can't believe what they have been through, so thank you!
Seeing this video and as a Cambodia The fact that my school have pictures of pol pot- It’s also nice to see that people are FINALLY mentioning Cambodia again
My maternal grandma's hometown was close to the border of Vietnam and Cambodia. Her brother, neighbors, and friends were tortured and murdered by the Khmer Rouge. We're Vietnamese, and sometimes we remind each other about the event to protect the peace we have attained after years of blood and tears.
This is such a beautifully haunting depiction. I encourage TED-Ed to produce a similar project for the Secret War in Lao and share our stories as well.
It's very common if you are aware of how the United States, ASEAN and its Western allies supported Khmer Rouge. But if you are aware of how North Korea, Soviet Union and China reacted, it is even more absurd. North Korea and China shared a similar stance, both were fiercely anti-Vietnamese by 1980s. North Korea and China had sent a lot of weapons to Khmer Rouge. The Rouge had Chinese and North Korean technicians on their side, and this, coupled with the American support and Thailand providing refuge, allowed them to ravage Cambodia for years until 1990s. North Korea also openly condemned Vietnam in 1980s and allowed anti-Vietnamese leaflets broadcasted from Pyongyang with both royal and Rouge's officials operating. For North Korea, North Vietnam's conquest of the South in 1975 worsened North Korea's position, for now more American troops stationed in Japan and South Korea. For China, well, we don't need to talk. Deng Xiaoping never liked the United States or the West at all, but he wanted to play the game, and also, to conceal China's power until the right time to put its revenge. He never saw Vietnam a friend, and neither was his view toward the United States. Soviet Union (and now Russia) was initially receptive, but time went by revealed that the Soviet leadership deeply disliked North Vietnam's 1975 victory and its invasion of Cambodia in 1979. Those wins proved not a blessing, but a burden for Moscow, to protect a communist state that is too far and too irrelevant for its geopolitical ambitions, especially if what happened in Afghanistan 1980s had shown. Moreover, Vietnam was seen by Moscow as an untamed dog, North Vietnam's foreign diplomacy had never aligned to Soviet order despite being ally. The Soviets did not welcome 1973 Paris Accord without a reason, as long as the north-south status quo to remain, so Moscow could manipulate. But North Vietnam violated it in 1975, and Moscow had to struggle to feed it, as the Americans diverted more soldiers to European and Asian front to contain USSR (a legacy Russia still endures today). To punish Vietnam for violating this, the Soviets did not act when Vietnam lost Johnson Reef to China in 1988, and Russia appears to have never forgotten how Vietnam, its untamed dog, doesn't lean to its domination even though they still sell weapons to Hanoi, by quietly supporting China's military buildup in South China Sea and encircling Vietnam. Soviet Union (and now Russia) cared little about defending allies (going as far as invading Warsaw Pact's members Hungary and Czechoslovakia), but unlike the United States, which provided a Marshall Plan, Soviet Union only saw exploitation as the mean for its enrichment. You can safely say that, North Korea, China and Soviet Union (now Russia) resented Vietnam for what happened after 1975, but they had different ways to handle it. The Khmer Rouge's reign of terror and Vietnamese invasion later on, however, showed how much these nations cared about Vietnam.
If you somehow didn’t think that Pol Pot was already a monster, this man never faced justice as he was never arrested. In an interview after the regime, he stated that he regretted nothing as he was simply experimenting with the country. As such, he was hoping he could orchestrate a second revolution. All of this said with a soft voice deprived of any remorse or sorrow for the country he single-handedly brought down on its knees.
The sadder part is the U.S were willing to work with him to aid in such genocide as a last ditch attempt to also overthrow the new Vietnamese government
Why was he allowed to be free?
@@kaifxaif9502 he was kept on house arrest and still had a sizeable amount of supporters. For example, the province of Pailin was still under the Khmer rouge control on election day.
Does it mean Khmer Rouge still has sizable power and influence in Cambodia until now?
@@HienLuongOfficial I believe the sole reason it managed to remain a threat was because of Pol Pot himself and he died in 1998 so no, the Khmer rouge have largely dissolved and Cambodia is finally able to recover from these atrocities
I'm Vietnamese and back in my hometown we had a neighbor. He was born 1961 and was clearly not well mentally. He would always mumble gibberish, rarely does basic hygiene and this went on until he died around a year ago amidst the pandemic because he refused to eat and sleep for a whole week. My parents would later reveal that he used to be a soldier who was sent to Cambodia in the 1979 conflict and what he saw there scarred him so much it made him went insane. The horror of seeing all the lying corpses decaying was too much for him to handle and he had to be discharged. I've only met him a few times yet on every occasions, I could still see in his eyes how traumatized he was from the whole ordeal. R.I.P and I can only hope he had finally found salvation.
born in 1961...Sent to Cambodia in 1979, poor fella was only 18 and witnessed that.
@@peepeetrain8755 Which would mean that he also witnessed the American war (Vietnam war) growing up as a child, before being sent to Cambodia as an 18 year old. Not a happy life at all.
it's called ptsd, sadly most vietnamese don't recognize it
@@AnhNgoc-vt3it a lot of Asians don’t recognize metal illness unfortunately
god bless him, i really hope heaven exists so that he can rest there :(
Vietnamese soldiers saved my family that helped me and my family escaped to refugee camp in Thailand. I wanted to say thank you to all Vietnamese soldiers god bless you and your family and god bless your country also .
Best wishes to you and your family..
❤️
Why don't you thank you to Thailand? "A CAMP in THAILAND" Why did Thailand help many Khmers in that time, I think it's very useless because your people would like to blame and claim culture from Thailand.
This video is not details the real history behind how bad Vietnamese leader and soldiers. King Sihanouk supported North Vietnam allowed more then 200k Vietnamese soldiers to hide in Cambodia land while they fight with American. So that why American drop the bomb in Cambodia because of the Vietnamese soldiers that hide in Cambodia land. Do you think American really lose the war to small country like Vietnam 🇻🇳? I think Vietnam should thank to Cambodia 🇰🇭 that how they win the Vietnam war, but Cambodia get nothing from Vietnam 😢. American fight with the North Vietnam (communist) to support the South Vietnam (non communist). Do you think Vietnamese people sacrifice their life to save Cambodian people for nothing? How about កោះត្រល់ land and 21 provinces in Kampuchea krom land why they took from Cambodia country? 😊
This video is not details the real history behind how bad Vietnamese leader and soldiers. King Sihanouk supported North Vietnam allowed more then 200k Vietnamese soldiers to hide in Cambodia land while they fight with American. So that why American drop the bomb in Cambodia because of the Vietnamese soldiers that hide in Cambodia land. Do you think American really lose the war to small country like Vietnam 🇻🇳? I think Vietnam should thank to Cambodia 🇰🇭 that how they win the Vietnam war, but Cambodia get nothing from Vietnam 😢. American fight with the North Vietnam (communist) to support the South Vietnam (non communist). Do you think Vietnamese people sacrifice their life to save Cambodian people for nothing? How about កោះត្រល់ land and 21 provinces in Kampuchea krom land why they took from Cambodia country? 😊
Even though Vietnam and Cambodia were enemies the Vietnamese government was shocked at what was happening at fought against the Cambodians to try and make it stop. They deserve credit for that.
cambodia kill thousand people in vietnam and UN do nothing, then when vietnamese liberate cambodia they call that "invade" and embargo us
Thank you
We actually tried to stand out of this because we know what kind of lies the US and its allies would scatter around once we got involved.
But then Pol Pot started to assault our own people and we couldn't stand it anymore.
Guess what happened next? According to Western media: "Vietnam's invasion to Cambodia"
Because they were killing vietnamese people, maybe?
Vietnamese troop contributed a big part to overthrow the regime of Khmer Rouge. Unfortunately, their contributions of this war with blood are used to propagandize as a foreign invasion for political purposes.
My dad is a Vietnamese soldier who came to Cambodia to fight against Pol Pot. He was badly wounded and all the scars still remain these days. It's pretty sad to know a fact that a lot of Cambodians today see us as invaders rather than liberators...Any Cambodian who read this comment, I just want to let you know that that small country Vietnam was the ONLY country at that time that stood beside and librated Cambodia from Pol pot.
Cambodian here. Bro, I am just the next generation. Things have been told to us about the Vietnamese - good and bad, facts and lies. Sadly, there is no way for me or anyone else to know the whole truth. But I need you to know that I am one of the Cambodians that are grateful to all those who said Yes and helped us out of those horrendous times. Cambodians need to admit that we're way better off than some other countries who have not yet been liberated from corrupted communist governments; for instance, North Korea.
Liberator? Liberator don’t sack and took everything back to their homeland.
@@WarMaster168 source: trust me bro
@@jakenguyen1150 source: my mom and my grandmother who watched all VN troops looting and sacking all the goods through Ha Teing border.
@@WarMaster168 And my mother is the prime minister of Vietnam. No dude, this is the internet, your words are taken with a grain of salt. Your mom is not a historical evidence 😂
Man, Vietnamese's last generation fought and prevented a genocide and they got this treatment ? They should have just left you guys with Pol Pot. I bet he was a nice guy to all of you ungrateful people, way better than us "looters" I presumed.
I am a Cambodian. My parents always told me about the story what they have been through. They said the real situation was more than the film. My grandfather was executed in 1977 because he was a lecturer. My grandfather corpse was never been found. My grandma became a widow at the age of 25 of five children. It's the worst regime and nightmare. My mom told me that it was all in the past and she just wants the best in the present. Only peace lead to development and happiness.
are you able to do second grade math. most cambodian men i know of are basically human vegetables, practically drooling
It's a shame he was killed but it was for the betterment of the nation. Real shame it didn't work out though. A nation where everyone is of the same class, uncorrupted by greed and working closely and lovingly together in the fields. We need more revolutionaries who can instill this faith into others.
@@GeorgeChan-kp3ls That description made me chuckle and sad at the same time
Thanks for sharing this story.
May God bless you 🙏 ❤️ ✨️ all especially if you believe in your hearts 💕 that Jesus Christ is your Savior for your sins (any sin is sin like lying, cussing). He won't condemn u even if u continue to sin after you sincerely believe that He is your Savior. You would just feel bad for sinning.
and now, do you hate Vietnamese?
I remember my dad telling me stories about how strict and poor ‘75-‘86 Vietnam was, but even the government then was shocked about the genocide in Cambodia at the time
I'm impressed the Vietnamese managed to repel China and liberate Cambodia at the same time considering their wealth was drained by previous wars with Western powers
The US and Vietnamese Khrushchevite-imperialists murdered two million Cambodians then blamed all on Pol Pot whos totally innocent.
@@cudanmang_theog Bullsh*t!
@@cudanmang_theog it's true but polpot isn't all innocent either .
@@cudanmang_theog I don’t know where you got your source, but in no way was Pol Pot innocent.
Visited Cambodia a few years ago:
- S21 prison is preserved as a museum and the cells still have the blood stains on the walls from people tortured there.
- The Killing Fields are gut wrenching. They stopped exhuming them as it was crippling the minds of the diggers, they wait for rain to bring them to the surface and only move the bones then.
- These pits are strewn with the clothes people were executed in, and their skulls were put in the middle to show the toll.
- Most were beaten rather than shot to keep the later victims calm
- The only pit without clothes was one where all the bodies were women. The suffering that place has seen is unimaginable
The victims were not shot to avoid the loud gunfire (some say also to save bullets) but they were not beaten. They were simply killed with a farming hoe struck at the back of the head. If you visit the killing fields in Cambodia, you will see the mountains of skull preserved as memorials. Take a look closely and you will see a punctured hole at the back of the skulls.
@@CalvinK300 I remember the central mausoleum where skulls were organised by execution method so apologies I just used beaten as a substitute encompassing all those methods.
Some (if not most) were definitely beaten though, my guide mentioned all the broken ribs and forearms they found
@@cudanmang_theog Oh shut up. Even if we did kill Cambodians, those Cambodians would definitely be the Khmer Rouge members who tried to fight back.
And you say "Pol Pot did nothing wrong"? Oh sure. If you think that torturing and killing your own people just because you overworked 'em to death is true things to do, then perhaps Pol Pot did nothing wrong!
All I can say, my friend, is that Khmer Rouge killed millions of people. There are quite a lot of clear evidences. So shut up and do something productive with your life instead of giving us Vietnamese a bad name (your nickname says it all, it means "Netizen").
@@Connor-vj7vf the victims were tortured in prisons and interrogation centres (S21 was one of many) and then brought to the killing fields in lorries. By then, these victims were so broken and weakened they couldn’t resist. Some say they even welcomed death. Very sad but yet, I am amazed the Cambodians decided to punish only the top 4 leaders of Khmer Rouge and forgive the rest. Peace & Reconciliation like South Africa’s post apartheid policy. Truly admirable.
@@CalvinK300 I'd question that finding. Almost everyone in govt now was previously in Khmer Rouge. The ones prosecuted were the only ones who didn't cooperate with Vietnam after they invaded in 1973 (year may be wrong).
My guide said they just couldn't speak openly about it because almost half of the generation 60+ were perpetrators
I’m the daughter of two Cambodia parents who made it out of the genocide alive, unlike so many, including my own uncles and grandfathers. It’s truly heartbreaking what they went through. Took me years to understand the gravity of what they had experienced. What they went through continues to impact them and their loved ones, even today. Many of my family members were able to make it out alive, but they still live with repressed trauma and pain that they passed onto the younger generation, myself included. I am still mourning what they went through but amazed by their strength. They came to a foreign world with no connections, no knowledge of English, but somehow managed to build a comfortable life for our family. Thanks to all those who’ve taken the time to learn about Cambodia and it’s history. If you know a Khmer person, get to know them…ask to hear their story and listen. We may seem a bit closed off and awkward at first (learned that in order to keep ourselves/family safe) but once you gain our trust, we will share more and more about ourselves and welcome you as family.
You are very beautiful
Was the Pol Pot the mass killer?
Vietnam has been an active participant in Cambodai since 1863 and has never left Cambodia on its own.
Vietnam and France anointed Commoner as the prince of Cambodia in 1941, designating Sihanouk as their puppet and his spouse as a Vietnamese spy. The opposition royal families, dukes, and government officials were assassinated by Sihanouk's secret agents, who also destroyed their records and photos, erasing the Khmer nation's past.
Sihanouk killed opposition figures, let Vietnam to set up a military base housing 200,000 soldiers, and permitted covert agents to kidnap 5,000-6,000 Cambodian children, most of whom were between the ages of three and five.
In the 1960s, Sihanouk increased the tax that the French had ordered, and many people opposed the tax and fled into the jungle to form a group. This small opposition group dared to fight against the tax collectors protect the farmers and their families. Sihanouk did not know what to call this group. Later on, Ta Mok, Nuon Chea, and Charlot Sar joined this anti-tax group, and the tax opposition group was formed in almost every province in Cambodia. The tax opposition group had only about 200 rifles to defend themselves and the farmers.
While Sihanouk was in Peking, China, Lon Nol, who had great regard and admiration for Sihanouk, had plotted to topple him in a coup.
Sihanouk was in Peking, China, exhorts people to escape to the Prey Marqui to joint the anti-tain order to support Lon Nol's forces.
They came across 200,000 Vietnamese soldiers prepared to support Sihanouk in taking back the throne during their flight to prey Marqui; Sihanouk even had a conference with the tax rebel organization in the forest.
Lon Nol and the Khmer Rouge went to battle, but it didn't take long for the latter to win.
How is it possible?
Although the Vietnamese army were in charge of Phnom Penh City and had given orders for citizens to leave, the Khmer Rouge leader refuted this in Khmer Rouge Tribul Court. Despite this, the Khmer Rouges emerged victorious in the conflict. Following the evacuation of civilians, a team of undercover officers looked through and destroyed official and archived records.
The cornerstones of the Khmer country were assassinated: academics, lawyers, historians, educators, students, and government officials-including those with glasses and smooth skin.
In order to silence witnesses and destroy records and other evidence that might show Vietnam's ties to the Khmer Rouge, Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978.
Vietnam prohibited local communities' media access, but let international media to take pictures of the skulls and bones of Khmer people who had been slain.
The scenario is repeated now that Hun Sen has been installed by the Vietnamese as their puppet.
Read the report from American General Mark A. Smith to the White House, please.
@@khmerhope2104Vietnamese puppet never works under Chinese command. Shut the f up you stup!d.
I have a Cambodian friend, She used to told me about her grandparents’s survival story and i always want to know more about Cambodia’s history. Thank you for this❤
im sorry
@@d00rknob My dad also survived and escaped when he was 16 and he is ethnically Chinese too.
@@d00rknob mostly they survive due to courage and steal food otherwise they barely walk to work. the rices are massive tons and if pol pot pour it on the land than it can cover all the territory of cambodia and yet they didn't give the food or any single crops of rice to citizens. They want citizens to drink only water or add some few rice in to water to survival. Why? Because they store for foreigners might arrive in future. It is just like plan hit and run and take all the blame. This is what happen when you hand over the country to terriosm.
Yes, Pol Pot literally wiped out 999 999 999 999 trillion dead urbanites according to cringe libtards. Pol Pot did nothing wrong. Long Live Democratic Kampuchea revolution
✊🚫🕶️
My father was a Vietnamese soldier deploying during the liberation for the Cambodian in the late 70'. I heard so many horrendous story from him about the actrocity the Khmer Rouge had committed. It forever haunted him. Cambodian brother, we had endured a lot of suffering. We now must forgive the past and live in a harmony, prosperity future !
It's sad that the fact is a lot of Cambodian today see us as invader rather than liberater. They even said that Vietnam did all those and blamed Pol Pot lol.
@@SaltyMartian We did what it had to be done. Every one who understands history justifies us. Those who don't, are just blindly ignorances.
Thế giới nợ đất nước chúng ta, thế hệ cha ông 1 lời xin lỗi bạn ạ.
@@SaltyMartian the military intervention was inevitable. Polpot had already demanded for Vietnam's territory and he would definitely take it by force. Khmer Rouge had done 2 sieges into Vietnamese border long before any Vietnamese troops crossed their border.
@@Huyc115 I know the story and my mother went to Cambodia at that time when (1979) she was 15 with her mates in the Children's House (Nhà văn hoá thiếu nhi) in order to support the soldiers's morale.
I am a Vietnamese. My mother told me she had a Cambodian colleague who lost his family (parents and 4 other silblings) because of Pol Pot. He was lucky to survive, losing "only" two fingers. I am sorry for what happened to Cambodian people and glad that more people know about the period and appreciate more the strength of Cambodian people.
There's a French animated film named Funan which is based on the events of Cambodian genocide. This film is about Funan, his parents and the relatives of Funan, who got separated between him and his parents and we can see the struggles between those characters and we saw them lost their lives and the forshadowing sights such as death, execution, punishment, etc.
This film is good and dark at the same time and it even won Annecy. I highly recommend you all watch this film.
I already watched that. And it was a good animated movie. I still have it on my computer downloads.
Or try watch First They Killed My Father
What Is Annecy? I've Never Heard Of It Before.
@@HaughtyHedonist Annecy International Animation Film Festival is an annual film festival where they release new animated films from around the world.
@@AnimationFanboy2k4 Wow, Sounds Dope!
The Khmer Rouge has always been a deeply disturbing yet fascinating period to me
In the 1960s Cambodia saw a rise in popularity for psychedelic rock music, with artists like Ros Serey Sothea , Yol Aularong , Pan Ron, Etc. which I enjoy
The disturbing aspect of this however is that all these artists just seem to disappear after the Khmer Rouge took power , there are little records detailing what happened to them , and they are presumed killed. To think a country with such a vibrant culture could be so quickly hidden from the world and massacred is truly terrifying
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge not only executed people connected with the opposition party but his vision for a pure nation of land workers and anyone who didn't fit that model was also executed. Simply put the Khmer Rouge was largely made up of people from the provinces/countryside and they had essentially been convinced that those from the cities were curupted. There was to be no more money, no more religion so anyone who was deemed a threat to that vision was executed. All artists such as musicians, teachers, scholars, bi/multi-linguists, even people who wore glasses as they looked like scholars would have their lives taken. Basically anyone deemed educated or influential enough to be a threat. The KR army had convinced to believe that the only thing that was true to them was Mother Angkor, the earth basically. Starving workers were punished, often by death, if caught stealing any food at all, that included catching a bug to eat. Young KR members even were executed their own parents. It's a gruesome story. Cambodia had a great music scene through the 60's up to then. Sadly though, those great musicians you mentioned above quite possibly didn't even make it to the fields.
In those songs they tell stories.. my grandparents and uncles still listen to them
Dont you watch usa?
We're taught that the Khmer Rouge's vision of a class-less Cambodia required the extermination of aristocrats, artists, and well-educated people. This is why it's widely assumed that most of those artists were killed.
its not that they "just seem to disappear"; the whole purpose of socialistic thought is this: agree with the country or be killed. they either fled and restarted their lives or were caught in the crossfires and died
Cambodia was rapidly developing after the independence from Colonial France. We had a booming manufactures, great infrastructure, and many of intellectuals who are ready to take the country to catch up many nations and modernize our country. Even Lee Kuan Yew admire our development and call us the Pearl of Asia. Then, the political turmoil came, chaos erupted, and civil war broke out, eventually led to the heinous Pol Pot regime. My family lost 11 relatives due to them being educated and worked for the government.
In just a little more than 3 years, Pol Pot sent Cambodia 100 years backward. Many intellectuals was killed, infrastructure destroyed, struggle for power just among other civility problems that Cambodia had. Just to how destructive it was, almost 50 years after, Cambodia is still struggle reach the status it once had. We are getting back on the right track now but it was nowhere near before the Khmer Rouge Regime.
And it all started because of the prince's strict policies? Makes you wonder where Cambodia would be today if he had been a more lenient monarch...
You know that Pearl of Asia was the name Lee Kuan Yew told about Saigon, right? Anyway, don't believe him. Singapore at that time was truly Pearl of Asia, he spoke nonsense things to make Indochina proud lol
@@theuniverse2126 And here i thought the Pearl of Asia was Hong Kong British crown jewel in the Asia.
@@theuniverse2126 you know what they might be wrong on the plural of Asia part but they aren't entirely wrong after the French colony left we had a lot of smart intellectual people and we learned a lot from the French and their technologies that's why they said our population was booming and we were on our way to catching up to other nations or country they aren't wrong.
@@Justin93koch or maybe if the US would just mind their business
As a Thai myself, I feel ashamed that Thai officials gave Pol Pot a hospitable residence and support after committing all those crimes.
As a Vietnames, I feel sad that the superpowers did make our Asean divided and used us against each other. Let'a hope Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar could maintain peace and stability in our Mainland Southeast Asia
@@ThienHoang-tr3dh I hope it becomes a reality soon. Love from Thailand 🇹🇭
@@kitjabhornisveryhappy3360 yeah, but I am quite afraid that Cambodia will become the Chinese puppet as the Khmer Rouge did cause our destabilization of our region
@@ThienHoang-tr3dh Then we need to keep watching. Sadly but most of our region is under the Chinese influence like how Mekong river functions etc.
It is very hard for many people who don't understand the international politics to understand the situation. Many people blame the countries who supported the Khmer Rouge. I would like to explain something more. In the case of Thailand, the Thai government exactly knewn the brutality of the Khmer Rouge, but they also saw that the occupation of Cambodia by the Vietnamese was the threat to the nation and the region, since there were many border raids between Thai military force and Vietnamese military force near the border, mostly on the Cambodian refugee camps, so Thailand decided to cooperate closely with ASEAN, 5 members at the time, and China, which had conflicts with Vietnam and Soviet Union which supported Vietnam, to contain the Vietnamese expansion in the region, both in the region and international stage. For the international stage, ASEAN and China worked closely to block the official recognitions of the Vietnamese - backed Cambodian government led by Heng Samrin by other UN members. For the region, ASEAN, especially Thailand worked closely with China to contain the expansion of the Vietnamese. The close relations between China and Thailand developed in this period. Many weapons and supplies were sent from China through Thailand to Cambodia. Many Cambodian fighters were trained by Thai military officers. Since the international reputation of Khmer Rouge was really bad, so Thailand persuaded other Khmer factions to established the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK) or the Three Khmre Factions in 1981, to improve the reputation of the de jure Cambodian government to fight for the legitimacy with the Heng Samrin's government. This consisted of the Khmer Rouge, a royalist faction led by Sihanouk, and the Khmer People's National Liberation Front led by Son Sannn. Its credentials were recognised by the United Nations. Thailand also supported the Cambodian people by accepting them to take a refuge in many refugee camps along the border. Many survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime whose stories were told to the world took the refuge in the refugee camps on the border,.The example of these people are Dith Pran, whose story was adapted into the 1984 film named "The Killing Field", Haing S. Ngor, who played as Dith Pran in that fim, Loung Ung, the writer of "First They Killed My Father" which was adapted into the Netflix film in 2017, and Sichan Siv, the United States ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council from 2001 to 2006. He also wroted the book, "The Golden Bone" about his life from Cambodia to the United States. The Vietnamese troops withdrew after changing of the international politics in 1989. The Cambodian issue was concluded with the Paris Comprehensive Peace Settlement signed in 1991. The UN was given a mandate to enforce a ceasefire and deal with refugees and disarmament known as the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). The first election happened in 1993. The monarchy was restored in the same year. This is the beginning of the modern Cambodia.
I'm from Thailand and this Genocide was happened in my neighbouring country of Cambodia, and The Cambodian Genocide was one of the most darkest moment in the Cold War Era.
I feel really bad for you and your people.
@@doctorfuntime1709 Indeed, I felt terrible that the Thai Government supported the Khmer Rouge after fleeing to the border. The Thai Government should send these Khmer Rouge to an international tribunal for their crimes.
The New Ongoam24 it’s just wrong what happened. Pol Pot should only never have been in power in the first place and communism should of never been started at all ( Same goes for The French Revolution and Russian Revolution).
@@doctorfuntime1709 The French Revolution was what caused Europe to change very much(Hint: The reason is Napoleon)
@@thenewongoam2486 did the thai support the Khmer rouge? I thought the thai had massive refugee camps for cambodians and vietnamese fleeing their new genocidal communist governments.
as a cambodian, after watching this i never knew how cruel it was. it was far more than i expected. this video is unexpectedly excellent at showing what our ancestors went through.
If this is far more than you expected, the unfiltered history will make this video looks like a Disney movie.
And a lot of people said that the younger generation sucks.
SMH, LEARN YOUR HISTORY DUDE!
How old are u? Go to the museum which is probably 30 minutes away from your house. We studied this in middle, high, and even uni. Cambodians talk about this, young and old.
Yea this is nothing. Read more into depth to understand the full extent of the regime and the survival of Khmer people during the Year Zero.
@@naritanaret it's probably because we only learned about it from history books and through our ancestors stories but not anyting to this extent
Vietnamese soldiers who sacrificed themselves to help the Cambodian people escape the genocide of the Khmer Rouge, are now viewed by young Cambodians as invaders because of the toxic ideological contamination of China, We - the Vietnamese - do not ask for your gratitude, we just want you to respect those who have sacrificed for peace on the Indochinese peninsula - where the forces always want to compete for the victory. its influence on it. If you want to be our good friend, we are always ready, but if you want to be our enemy, we will not be lenient, but I hope all 3 Indochinese countries always get along and get along. cooperate with each other rather than become enemies. Best wishes to you.
Những người lính Việt Nam - những người đã hi sinh để giúp dân tộc Campuchia thoát khỏi họa diệt chủng của Khmer đỏ, giờ đây, bị giới trẻ Campuchia xem như những tên xâm lược bởi sự tiêm nhiễm tư tưởng độc hại bởi trung quốc, chúng tôi - những người Việt Nam - không yêu cầu sự biết ơn của các bạn, chúng tôi chỉ muốn các bạn tôn trọng những người đã hi sinh vì hòa bình trên Bán đảo Đông Dương - nơi mà các thế lực luôn muốn tranh giành sự ảnh hưởng của mình lên nó. Nếu các bạn muốn trở thành bạn tốt của chúng tôi, chúng tôi luôn sẵn sàng, nhưng nếu các bạn muốn trở thành kẻ thù của chúng tôi, chúng tôi sẽ không khoan nhượng, nhưng tôi mong cả 3 nước Đông Dương luôn hòa thuận và hợp tác với nhau hơn là trở thành kẻ thù của nhau. Gởi lời chúc tốt đẹp đến các bạn.
Damn bro, there are one reply here but it got blocked by UA-cam
@@tunguska2370 ?:v
I don't blame them for feeling spiteful, our government back then wasn't even "nice" to our own people. This modern Chinese influenced lens though, is infuriating. Holding us accountable for the things that was wrong, sure, but refusing to even understand the role that other powers played is just baffling. Forming a pro-China stance too, is outrageous. Polpot danced in the palms of China. He was a literal Chinese backed puppet. To the point that China sparked a war to try to get us to pull out.
Seeking a closer alliance to THAT while pinning the blame on us? Despicable.
That's because they believe that all these scene was Vietnamese playing. They believe that Polpot regime was installed by Vietnamese, so is the Hun Sen until now.
Basically, they want the Mekong Delta region back to Cambodia
Probably not many Cambodian people are watching this ig, but i’m surprised that many people here are eagerly want to know about our dark history. I’m just a later generation who has been told and learnt a lot about this. I have to say that this video is so precise even some part feel quite new to me. Thank you so much for the video!
Im Indonesian, and all i heard before about Cambodia is just Angkor Wat and Genocide
but i never know what is whit this Genocide, and this video is amazing
I'm part Cambodian, my dad told me some stories of how he got separated from his mom and had to take care of his youngest sister. His dad died from malaria. He said he was skin and bones and tried to eat grass...
Im cambodian and happy that more people are knowing more about our history and how it affected our lives until now
EYY another Khmer here hiii!!!!
I'm Cambodian, My Grandmother told me stories of how she survived bombings and prison camps. She told me about her old friends who died during the regime and how lucky it was that our family managed to survive.
As a Cambodian whose been following Ted-Ed for years now, I thank you with every fiber of my body for making this video.
I lost both my grandfathers during the regime, uncles and aunts whose faces I did not even get to see. My father was hospitalized because he was suffering from malnutrition at a far distance hospital. And when the Vietnamese helped liberated us, he was left for dead there alone as everyone fled for themselves. My grandmother and one of my auntie had to sneak through muddy fields and forests for miles in order to reach and save him.
While the rest of the world had moved on from the passage of wars, we are still trying to recover from our scars and wounds from the past. So again, thank you for making this video and spreading awareness of our daunting history to the rest of the world.
As a Cambodian this is filled with western propoganda
@@SovietYugoslavOk friend. Next time Khmer Rouge taking in charge nobody will be there. Enjoy your stay
@@studiodossier USA literally supported Khmer rogue lmao
@@SovietYugoslavye you are right on this one bud, US did supported commie China and Khmer
@@SovietYugoslav ask your parent what Khmer Rouge did to your country. They will not gonna lie.
I lived and worked in Cambodia for a time and the scars are still there. A foreign filmmaker was abducted and murdered for asking the wrong questions, and every couple of weeks in the local newspapers, they report some poor kid got his leg blown off from a mine or bomb dropped during the Vietnam War from the US. Extremely sad recent history, incredible people and friends I made, and the global community failed Cambodia during this period.
US bombs cambodia. A couple years later, cambodians moves to the US. 🤔
It was Vietnam saving Cambodians
@@hoangminhle2296 they did liberate Cambodia from Pop Pot but did occupy it for a while, much kile how Syria refused to leave Lebanon for a while after the war ended. Vietnam still deserves credit tho.
@@johnxina5126 They stayed to protect the young cambodian government from the polpot. Polpot was supported by china and US and they remained in thailand for years after the corruption
@@hoangminhle2296 there's slightly more context and complication to Cambo-Viet relationship during that time. I'll give them credits for liberating Cambodia but I would not thank them for that. As a Cambodian, I was fortunate enough to be able to hear stories and truth behind the Khmer rouge and Vietnam was definitely not a saint nor hero to us.
There was this film, (hopefully is still on Netflix) How They Killed My Father. Amazing film. One of the scenes that sticks with me is how the Cambodians are taught to despise the Vietnamese, but when they come face to face with them, they’re more as guardians rather than monsters. The same goes for another scene where a Cambodian soldier is getting beaten by the locals, and the main character steps in and stops it. Even after watching it several times, it still hits me like a train.
it was First They Killed My Father, Angelina Jolie's movie. i liked that movie too. it gave me a picture of how people made other people of their own nation suffered.
It's a Netflix original, it won't disappear.
@@kholeka8475. Thank goodness.
Worst part of it all was the CIA funding the Khmer Rouge as an act of spite against North Vietnam
@Cuddles you just dont have great taste in historical movies
That animation is incredible. My congratulations to the artists. Presenting such a sorrowful history in such a beautiful way - simply incredible.
Ted Ed, please bring back the mini series where two historical figures are presented in front of a judge and their lawyers defend them. It was brilliant.
There was one for Tamerlane last month. They only do them once in a while now; still, I can't wait for the next episode of History on Trial.
How about an episode of History vs. on Pol Pot?
@@mohammadkhasimabdulmajid9992 hard to defend someone like pol pot
@@walrus6173
Yeah, exactly!
As a history teacher, I love those so much! The one about Columbus is my favorite.
Something you didn't talk about, the American support of the Khmer Rouge. When Sihanouk was overthrown, he fled to China. There, he formed a gov in exile called GRUNK (Gouvernement royal d'union nationale du Kampuchéa). With support from China and North Vietnam, he decided to be on the side of the Cambodian communists. The communists' numbers grew in rural areas because of the fact the people realized Sihanouk was on their side and were enraged at the American bombings taking place.
However, he feared Khmer Rouge hardliners would advocate his removal, so he tried to gain American support of his national unity government as well. This failed because the Nixon administration made it clear that they support his prime minister's Khmer Republic. In fact his plan backfired so much the Americans actually SUPPORTED the Khmer Rouge hardliners who wanted him gone when they became the majority of GRUNK. When the Vietnamese liberated the country to help the Salvation Front (FUNSK), the US and China refused to recognize the new pro-Vietnamese People's Republic of Kampuchea as legitimate, so the Khmer Rouge retained its seat for three years after its fall when its seat would be taken by a coalition of anti-Vietnamese resistance led by Sihanouk. This time with the US (Reagan) supporting both Sihanouk and the Khmer Rouge because they were against Vietnam
I for sure agree. I also think Kissinger's role alongside Nixon would've been worth mentioning.
Wrong!!! Shihanouk make the riot and burn down american embassy first and k$ll alot of americans and than order lon nol to massacre people in somlot because they didn't want to sell rice to vietnam in order to gain victory over usa. Usa have no choice but to call on lon nol for his crime might expose and than lon nol accept by the king to pretend loyalty to the american and cheat american to believe and invest to cambodia. King and lon nol plan to eradicate all western policy that cambodian's teacher, professors, doctor etc adapt and love. By doing so they make the greatest mistake of all time and play right in the hand of vietnam leader. Lon nol have american tank and support and also 150k troop to 300k troop while pol pot have only 5k and increase to 50k after took the regime and increase to 70k later on to 100k and the end of fall they have only 120k troops.
Kind of funny since it was Vietnam who helped pol pot get into power.
@@brixiu5 Nixon liked Khmer Rouge because they were eco-friendly. Nixon was an environmentalist (see:EPA).
@@schneejacques3502 At that time they didn't know what the Pol Pot would do after they would gain power.
For anyone who is interested in some cambodian pop music from before the Khmer rouge, i recommend looking up "Sublime frequencies: Radio Phnom Penh". Its a collection of many tracks from multiple artists, out of whom many would perish during the genocide. Its a haunting experience, and one of the most original forms of artistic expression i've heard.
I love the work of Ros Sereysothea. She’s very pretty too.
I work in a little Cambodian owned donut shop where I live. Whenever its slow and I'm helping clean around in the kitchen, my boss, the wife, would often tell me stories about the things they went through in Cambodian before they came to the US and often times, they're pain and suffering often continued because of the racial discrimination against Asian. She said that the part my boss is from, the husband, food was scares. That more often than not people would stave days on end. So when ever there was food provided, if you didn't eat fast, you didn't get food. "That we he eats so fast" she said. To this day, the trauma still affects my boss, unconsciously. He still eat his food fast even though their isn't anyone who's gonna steal his food. Stories about how people who broke into her house, they didn't want valuables. They were after food. They were children when its all happened, worse of all.
The suffering and pain didn't stop even after a sponsor brought them over to the US. Due to the racism again anyone of Asian, they faced racial discrimination here too. On one occasion my boss and a friend were beaten up by a group of American boys simply for being Asian. He said it was so bad they felt like they HAD to form a gang. Not like a typical gang where one would assume they commit violent acts and crimes, rather just a gang of teenage Asian boys just simply together to protect themselves and friends from racial injustices and biases they face.
I think that's the saddest part, they didn't make the gang to commit crimes but rather to protect themselves but of course, the narrative might have been the same as they are today for Mexican immigrants, they are just violent criminals and gang members.
What is your shop? Interesting details!
I also live by a cambodian-owned donut shop! it's tragic to learn the history of what happened before they moved to the us
Sadly, this was reality for many young South-east Asians as they had no recourse but to form gangs to provide for their own well being. Most of the kids born in the 80's were targets for these gangs to increase their numbers and boost their prominence in their neighborhoods.
This is probably why, even within the Khemr community, there is a stark border between those of us who grew up in safe neighborhoods and those of us who grew up in the ghetto. It is sometimes difficult to reconcile the divide between the subcultures within the subculture.
Wrong!!! Stop blaming usa. Shihanouk make the riot and burn down american embassy first and k$ll alot of americans and than order lon nol to massacre people in somlot because they didn't want to sell rice to vietnam in order to gain victory over usa. Usa have no choice but to call on lon nol for his crime might expose and than lon nol accept by the king to pretend loyalty to the american and cheat american to believe and invest to cambodia. King and lon nol plan to eradicate all western policy that cambodian's teacher, professors, doctor etc adapt and love. By doing so they make the greatest mistake of all time and play right in the hand of vietnam leader. Lon nol have american tank and support and also 150k troop to 300k troop while pol pot have only 5k and increase to 50k after took the regime and increase to 70k later on to 100k and the end of fall they have only 120k troops.
In my area, the Cambodian gang might form for protection, but they quickly became violent as well. There are Mexican gang in the area, so they are always fighting for territories. It is like a freaking war during that time as my uncle told.
The current prime minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, sought united Vietnam for help. In 1979, only 4 years after Vietnam War, Vietnamese launched an invasion to stop the genocide. We lose thousands of men to liberate Cambodia. Meanwhile, China PRC supported the Cambodia Red Rouge (Pol Pot) and announced sanction against Vietnam in the UN. China went extra miles to launch an invasion in North Vietnam to assist Pol Pot.
And in 1979, Vietnam won on both front of conflict.
What Vietnam did was more of a military settlement in Cambodia rather than an invasion, I suppose, because there seems to be no evidence of Vietnamese troops killing the oppressed Cambodians en masse.
Part of the reason for the Sino-US support for Pol Pot was because the USSR opposed it. Funny how things turn out...
@@mylonoceda I'm pretty sure they wouldn't find many Cambodian civilians either since many are already killed by Pol pot
Then why Cambodia is pro china in 2022?
Libs: "Pol Pot was bad cuz Vietnam and the Soviets told me so..."
My mother was in the supply core for the counter-offensive in ‘78. My mother doesn’t tell much, I can understand she had seen horrific attrocities. A year before that, pol pot attacked phu quoc and tho chu, and some regions in the provinces at the border with cambodia like Tay Ninh or Ha Tien. They massacred almost the whole population of Vietnamese in Tho Chu island, from children to elderly, from men to women, just a few who manage to run away alive. We used all kind of diplomacy to ask the criminals to return our people, even send back pol pit’s murderers for them. We cared for them all the way from tending their wound to give them food (at that time, food was very valuable in vietnam). It’s sad to see nowaday some cambodian were taught the wrong history and think of us as invader.
As a Cambodian, thank you for bringing this topic to light!!
How is Kissinger not mentioned in this? Dude's role in countless global tragedies is soooo understated.
They never even mentioned Pol Pot
The video is meant to be about the suffering of the Cambodian people and not about the politics of the entire thing, Kissinger probably got his nose up half of the world's asses
US bias baby.
And more so, they didn't even mentioned the part that right after the Vietnamese liberated Kampuchea, the US even rallied on the side of the Khmer Rouge and even let them retain a seat on UN. Like, gosh dang Murica, really?!
@@AccipiterSmith Bro wtf💀
As a Chinese, what I know is: Pol Pot is a faithful student of Stalinism and Maoism. His radical policy is heavily influenced by Mao's "Great leap forward" and "Cultural Revolution" which also took away enormous lives in China.
He seems to have forgotten about the best thing Stalin did though: industrializing the country and turning it into a world power. If you leave that aside, you only have the genocide left lol. Which is exactly what Pol Pot did
Its maoism 100%, the china did support him after all.
THIS IS WHY PEOPLE SHOULD STOP LISTENING TO COMMUNISTS!
China, DPRK and for some reason USA and UK supported him. Vietnam and Cuba and USSR were opposed to him. Vietnam eventually liberated Cambodia and the state they Setup wasn’t recognised by USA for years until a anti Vietnamese government took power in Cambodia. China invaded Vietnam over it.
And all deeply rooted in the ideas of Karl Marx, who is so beloved in many Western intellectual circles these days...
Remember it was the Vietnamese communists that beat down the Khmer Rouge…
Remember, not all communists get along together.
@@paleoph6168 pol pot wasnt even a communist
The Cambodian genocide was indirectly part of the Sino-Soviet split, the Khmer Rouge was allied with China and the U.S. (now friendly with China due to Nixon's ping pong diplomacy) while the opposition supported by the Vietnamese communists (were friendly with the Soviet Union rather than China).
Also remember that the US supported the Khmer Rouge
Quite... Ironic
@@paleoph6168 sino soviet split, also communist china and communist vietnam didnt get along, some things never change
I watched "First they killed my father" last week and I cried so hard. Telling the story of Khmer Rouge in the child's perspective broke my heart.
As the son of a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime, I can say that this video is incredibly accurate with what my parents have told me
Dear TED-Ed, can you make a video on the Philippines' Martial Law era? The dark histories of countries is a nice series, and the Philippines would really need one video of that.
Our history books failed us. The post-Martial Law era Presidents failed us. We need an international observer to help the blind see the light.
^^THIS^^!!!
Up!!!
Yeah!
pleaassssee!!!
Up!!! Yes please!
Fun fact : What happened in Cambodia became the justification for the Suharto regime in Indonesia for the massacre of suspected communists in Indonesia after 1965 and became the reason for the ban on the idea of communism in Indonesia. Meanwhile, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge reasoned that this massacre was carried out because they reflected on what was happening in Indonesia and were afraid that what happened in Indonesia would happen to the communists in Cambodia. Look how terrible the impact of the cold war on the countries outside the two fighting blocs
That ain't fun at all
all that for 32 Years....and the scar still linger to this day. i pray both us and Cambodians move forward from this...Blackwater state our Leaders put ya through.
Yes, more people massacred during Communist purge and no one bats an eye.
Yoooo i just knew that, thank you for the info.. SEA united! We are strong
My mother and her family are Cambodian and experienced the Khmer Rouge Regime firsthand. It is haunting to hear the stories she told me about this Era, and how much she had to go through. I can't appreciate enough for discussing this horrible event.
Cambodian genocide and civil war is a complicated subject in a video under 10 minutes but it really needs to be mentioned that the Khmer Rouge were actively and openly supported by the United States after the Khmer Rouge was driven out of power in the late 70's and 80's because they were fighting against the VietNamese.
yes thank you. Its really weird that it is rarely mentioned. Its really hard to find stricles about that. I am from germany and on wikipedia its written that we supported them with wapons. But its not really mentioned and there are not a lot of ducomentations about it.
@@sharisad9730 because America is not directly support khmer rouge. But do it by their order to Thailand. And try to give khmer rouge a position in UN. Thailand take every blame of support khmer rouge remnant. when the true mastermind never leave any paper behind.
Was the Pol Pot the mass killer?
Vietnam has been an active participant in Cambodai since 1863 and has never left Cambodia on its own.
Vietnam and France anointed Commoner as the prince of Cambodia in 1941, designating Sihanouk as their puppet and his spouse as a Vietnamese spy. The opposition royal families, dukes, and government officials were assassinated by Sihanouk's secret agents, who also destroyed their records and photos, erasing the Khmer nation's past.
Sihanouk killed opposition figures, let Vietnam to set up a military base housing 200,000 soldiers, and permitted covert agents to kidnap 5,000-6,000 Cambodian children, most of whom were between the ages of three and five.
In the 1960s, Sihanouk increased the tax that the French had ordered, and many people opposed the tax and fled into the jungle to form a group. This small opposition group dared to fight against the tax collectors protect the farmers and their families. Sihanouk did not know what to call this group. Later on, Ta Mok, Nuon Chea, and Charlot Sar joined this anti-tax group, and the tax opposition group was formed in almost every province in Cambodia. The tax opposition group had only about 200 rifles to defend themselves and the farmers.
While Sihanouk was in Peking, China, Lon Nol, who had great regard and admiration for Sihanouk, had plotted to topple him in a coup.
Sihanouk was in Peking, China, exhorts people to escape to the Prey Marqui to joint the anti-tain order to support Lon Nol's forces.
They came across 200,000 Vietnamese soldiers prepared to support Sihanouk in taking back the throne during their flight to prey Marqui; Sihanouk even had a conference with the tax rebel organization in the forest.
Lon Nol and the Khmer Rouge went to battle, but it didn't take long for the latter to win.
How is it possible?
Although the Vietnamese army were in charge of Phnom Penh City and had given orders for citizens to leave, the Khmer Rouge leader refuted this in Khmer Rouge Tribul Court. Despite this, the Khmer Rouges emerged victorious in the conflict. Following the evacuation of civilians, a team of undercover officers looked through and destroyed official and archived records.
The cornerstones of the Khmer country were assassinated: academics, lawyers, historians, educators, students, and government officials-including those with glasses and smooth skin.
In order to silence witnesses and destroy records and other evidence that might show Vietnam's ties to the Khmer Rouge, Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978.
Vietnam prohibited local communities' media access, but let international media to take pictures of the skulls and bones of Khmer people who had been slain.
The scenario is repeated now that Hun Sen has been installed by the Vietnamese as their puppet.
Read the report from American General Mark A. Smith to the White House, please.
I hope you guys cover Philippines' Martial Law next, that was the first thing I thought of when I read: ”Here, only the silent survive.“
The history is already chanced, not by facts, but people's opinions.
In my humble opinion.. if it wasn't for the late president ferdinand marcos imposing martial law... Communism would have entered the philippines and ended up like cambodia
Dilawans spotted 🤣
Without Martial Law, worse atrocities to the scale mentioned above would have happened under a communist takeover. Pick your poison.
Especially now that the Philippines just elected their former dictator's son.
One thing that has never been talked about is North Korea's stance in this war. North Korea initially supported Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, but frictions broke out in 1968 when North Korea opposed North Vietnam-US talks and the Paris Agreement of 1973. Subsequently, North Korea withdrew all military advisors from Vietnam, believing that North Vietnam would be unable to unify the South without its help, which proven... not so true for Kim Il-sung in 1975. The fall of Saigon was a shock to North Korea (which have failed to achieve the same task back then and still now), and thus, North Korea became more hostile to unified communist Vietnam, which contributed to its condemnation of Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia in 1979 and hosting the Cambodian royal family as well as Khmer Rouge's officials. Worth noting here is, Pol Pot only had two foreign trips throughout his life, and one of them was to North Korea, personally meeting Kim Il-sung. This showed how close Khmer Rouge to North Korea and, awkwardly, weakened the relations between communist Vietnam and North Korea since.
So your telling me that NK was being salty about how Vietnam able to reunified itself
@@meh92 Literally it is a real story. There was a report on newspaper back in 1980s, photographing Pol Pot and Kim Il-sung's personal meeting. Pol Pot really admired Kim Il-sung and his regime. At the same time, relations between North Korea and China also turned good when Kim Il-sung did meet Deng Xiaoping several times.
@@meh92 yep, Kim Il Sung is secretly jealous at the Viet Congs and the North Vietnamese that they were able to unify their country by liberating South Vietnam. Maybe the two Koreas are just bound to be like this, divided by their political ideologies and both of them would never have the same exchange of pain and tribulations just like Vietnamese during the Vietnam War.
North Korea trying to give advice to North Vietnam with military advisors on how to defeat the US when they couldn't even unite their own country? That's like telling Elon Musk how to build rockets when you only know how to light bottle rockets. Okayyy....
And the Chinese govt sponsored it all, who then attacked the Vietnamese (and got their butts kicked) for trying to stop this madness.
The U.S. equally supported the Khmer Rouge, it was because the U.S. just lost South Vietnam to the North Vietnamese and Vietcong. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. U.S. and the PR China were also cementing their partnership under Nixon at the time, so it was natural that the U.S. and PR China would support the Khmer Rouge since they both did not like North Vietnam. The Vietnamese were also close with the Soviet Union (and not the Chinese) during the Sino-Soviet Split, made China uncomfortable that the Soviets had satellite states in North Korea and Vietnam along its borders. History is weird like that. The U.S. could excuse communism under Pol Pot and Mao, if it meant getting revenge for the Vietnam War.
@@daeseongkim93 eye for an eye makes the whole world blind indeed!
TBF, Vietnam wasn’t invading to stop the suffering. They were invading because the Khmer Rouge attacked Vietnam.
@@edo5407 Is this from Gandhi?
Another great artistic work, simplified but short and to the point.
This was so powerful; I shed a tear at the end. Beautiful animation, beautiful narration, a tragic story.
What are the odds of this video being released on the same day I started writing a grad school essay on the same topic? Also, with my family coming from Vietnam, my father participated in our country's political and military involvements in Cambodia during the last few years of that second civil war said in the video. Sure, while my government's actions in Cambodia such as military intervention, prolonged occupation, and propping up a puppet regime were bad, I still believe those were necessary to fight the Khmer Rouge and its genocide.
that "puppet regime" is the other side of campuchia come to vietnam and ask for help, then they betray us
yeah, my father still have problems when he came back from that war, I don't know why Cambodians act like we the bad guys make my father service there seem pointless. Especially those who blame Vietnam when Khmer Rouge kill a tons of Vietnamese
Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia is one of the few justified wars of aggression in history tbh
Long standing historical grudges are hard things to kick. Many Khmer believe that the Rouge were made of Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants to take over the country, so good luck trying to convince them otherwise.
@@comradekenobi6908 maybe if you read more history, you will understanding more about 2 countries
you need to be *wise enough* to comment if you don't wanted to be ended up like the Azov in Ukraine ua-cam.com/video/fy910FG46C4/v-deo.html&ab_channel=TIME
Also, we, the Vietnamese, seeing that Cambodia suffering very high casualties due to the Khmer Rogue strict rules including the killings of Civilians and Vietnamese and the United Nation who not intervene this causing even more deaths. We do not crossed our arms and watched you guys keep suffering so we decided that we need to do something that having good benefits for both of us. We do not eat fresh or swallow alive any countries. Remember that we, the Vietnamese is loving peace and not wanna cause any wars so we instead of invade Cambodia, we liberated it from the old regime and that's how you got your new flag today.
This is an amazing summary of the genocide's history and political context, and the animation is simply stunning. The animation team did a phenomenal job, it's so emotionally evocative.
Incredibly well-made and well-articulated video capturing the complexity of historical trauma and violence. The animation is painterly and masterfully crafted. Thank you for this!
My dad said " without the vietnamese soldiers in 1979, what more can you imagine for Khmer people now? "
The massacre and the reign of Pol Pot resulted in almost braindraining the entire country leaving a little professionals and educated living after the 1979 liberation. If they had continue this even further, then the entire Khmer society and its people may collapse and go to an almost extinction levels.
What about Vienam soldier that train and supply Khmer rouge in 1975? 😜
@@targe4070 That shows how fast the Khmer Rouge got rotten. When they massacred their fellow Cambodians and attacked Vietnam, they were under the umbrella of China and the US. Killers go with killers, no surprise.
@@AnhNguyen-gc7gb mann thats' what i'v ebeen saying.
@@targe4070 we trained them to become soldiers not murderers
Whoever drew the last slide depicting the country trying to stay still on the foundation of a genocide has nailed the artistry and subtext. I just got shivers looking at that picture.
Thank you TEDed for spreading our culture! 🇰🇭
Any political system devoid of compassion will inevitably lead to atrocities such as this.
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge believed they were being compassionate to their fellow countrymen by making equality as their objective. They thought the elite classes were oppressing the underprivileged classes. Thus, they sought to make a classless society where everyone was equal and we all know this inevitably led to more suffering and atrocities. A lesson to current activists who wish to fight for ‘equality’.
So all of them then. That's the worst part, stories like these may repeat anywhere, it only depends on how much power the current State has and how much it hates.
Any system and anyone is capable of such atrocities if they're not careful or if they allow it.
It has nothing to do with lack of compassion. The problem is total concentration of power, where the state assumes total control over individuals.
Ideologies are mental viruses that produce only tragedy, all ideologies...
And every single time, a political party’s true line of sight is power.
*Power corrupts everything in it’s path*
"History should be preserved and taught to the next generation so that they may learn from our past mistakes"
- Master Oogway
History has shown that men learnt nothing from the past
@@danielleow2813 Isn’t that over stating the point? Aside from the fact that we can’t go back and play through the world without history books to see how things would have unfolded had historical knowledge not have been preserved, I think it’s pretty clear some civilizations did learn from the past. The lesson may not have been perfect. Maybe not everyone learned the lessons as well as others. Maybe not everyone learned all the lessons. Maybe they don’t remembers the lessons indefinitely. In short, maybe people don’t learn as much from the past as one might hope. But to say that people have learned nothing from the past just makes me wonder what world you’re seeing.
sadly even though throughout history a dictatorship has always brought ruin to the Nation, some people don't learn that.
@@ianmartinesq Agreed.
@@zeroanimation3956 it's not like the common people can easily overthrow their government
Videos like this always makes me feel grateful for the life I live, many aren’t given a chance
this was incredible! and the animation was SO good
The worst genocide are perpetrated by those whose families live in comforts of palaces...
There is a Hindi poem for this:
हवा से झोपड़ी क़ाप रही है, और महलों की इच्छा है कि बारिश हो।
Meaning:
The sheds of poor are shaking from winds while the palaces wish for heavy rains...
लगेगी आग तो आएंगे कई घर जद में
यहां मकान बस हमारा थोड़ी ना है।
Oof. That's hard
There's a scene in the movie Parasite that illustrates this quite well during the rain scene.
Reading this comment immediately got me thinking of how Americans are in full support of war, while people in the middle east fear it. They destabilised countries and yet no one calls them out on it for being a terrorist organisation disguised as light bearers of democracy
Khmer rouge murderers didnt live in palaces lmao.
My school organise a school trip to Cambodia. We did community service. The last days of the trip we visited S21 and the graves. There no words for me to describe the lessons I took from those few days, lessons that for people take a life time. Take nothing for granted.
a few years ago , my father introduced this devastating history of the land of Cambodia ... "First they killed my father " is one of the netflix movie we came across and that alone brings me to tears ...
Visited Cambodia around 2008, I was only 14 years old then but the impact of the regime can still be felt. One of the most scariest I visited was a school/ building that was converted into a prison/ torture building. The corridors were fenced up because apparently, prisoners would rather jump to their deaths rather than sit through imprisonment. Not to mention the kids who had no legs because they were blown off by uncovered mines.
A side story: I'm a Vietnamese born and raised in a province that shares the border with Cambodia, and also the first province where the Mekong River flows into Vietnam land. In our area, people build a lot of stilt houses along the river bank, you can gg it, basically, when the flood season comes the floor will be just above the water a bit, and the back end of the house will be a washing/fishing area and we keep our boats there too. We're told that during the Polpot massacre, the river carried plenty of corpses from Cambodia that flew down to us, and sometimes they STUCK to the stilt (or fishing nets). Imagine going to the back of your house for your morning routine and seeing a guy/girl lying under your floor (maybe a head or something missing). Yeah we have numerous horror stories about that only.
I’m mixed Cambodian Vietnamese and my family were lower-middle class teachers before the cambodian genocide. My grandma and my parents remember seeing ponds that were literally completley filled up with bones and dead bodies after the war. A pond that kids used to play in was turned into a pit of dead bodies. When they were escaping cambodia, they had to hide in a pile of dead bodies because thai soldiers would kill them on the spot (or return them to the khmer rouge). I have a khmer-vietnamese aunt who lived near Can Tho and even saw bodies there.
Ted Ed, please do the darkest History of the Philippines : the Martial Law.
Dilawans spotted 🤣
@@stephany6417 The problem is that those sources that you can easily find on the internet are riddled with fake news and historical revisionism. The Marcoses weaponized social media for their own agenda, and they were successful.
Agree!
A story from my Grandma and it’s her cousin, he is a doctor, he worked for the Khmer’s Republic soldiers camp, since the fall of Phnom Penh... no matters how he tried to hide his identity, one night he got called out by two young comrades, a sound of shot gun gone through my grandmother ears that made her remember till nowadays.
My grandma's brother sacrified in the war when Vietnam send soldiers to help out. I was told he was one of the brightest, hard-working child in the family. When he turn 18, he volunteered to the military, and after 2 months was he sent to Cambodia border, he never came back. My grandma's crys her heart out every year when she visits his tomb. I also went to visit him near the border, and there were so much tombs that you couldn't see the end. They have to make 3 stairs-up, it was so big of a place that we could rent electric cars to travel.
Awesome video. The artwork is particularly great.
One of the greatest atrocities commited in a century of horrendous atrocities.
Such a mesmerizing art style, that complement the voice and story. Wonderful video
Reading the comments and seeing how many peoples families have been and still are affected by this is heartbreaking.
My mother's family evacuated to Vietnam in 78 when she was born. Her twelve sisters and brothers were lucky enough to survive, however her aunt was not. Out of the 13 kids her aunt had, only two survived. As a child I was told gruesome stories. They would sharpen bamboo into pikes, loading truckloads of people into pickup trucks. They would then dump them from a hill onto these spikes- her aunt died this way. Furthermore I heard countless stories of children being forced to shoot their own parents. It is so brutal.
This is one of my best Ted X videos
Seen and been to the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields few years ago. I still can't stop feeling helpless for the victims up to this time. I can't imagine the horror that took place in Cambodia.
Quite a haunting story about oppression and hope. The outcome of the genocide only having three arrests was shocking but is an interesting reflection of the mindset Cambodians have on what they believe will benefit their society the most.
When I studied about this history event at school, i got shock. I can feel the pain of the Cambodian people and my own people in Tây Ninh, Đồng Tháp, An Giang,... Their extreme cruelty (pol pot) make me feel angry and i was very proud of what our army did in 7/1/1979. But after that, Vietnam got in a lot trouble for did such an heroic action. A lot of our young soldiers died in someone's country for someone's freedom and they were called "terrorists". Fair?
0:13 This style of the Democratic Kampuchea flag is incorrect. The towers of Angkor Wat were more rounded on that flag, the version of Angkor Wat you drew is on the current Kingdom of Cambodia flag.
We know a thing or two about the Khmer Rouge because we supported them. When Sihanouk fled, he fled to our country and we built him his own palace in Pyongyang called the Changsuwon Palace. When Vietnam invaded Cambodia, we remained on Sihanouk's side. He regularly lived here until 1991 when he became king again. When he returned, he brought bodyguards from here with him. Even after the Cold War, we still had a relationship with Cambodia. We used to have several restaurants in the country and even built a museum for them called the Angkor Panorama Museum. All of these were sadly closed due to UN sanctions
Alright Great Leader.
Wasn't your grandfather supportive of Khmer Rouge?
I got goosebumps just imagining the horrors suffered by Cambodians. Just hope the victims find some kind of peace or are able to process such unimaginable trauma to an extent which enables them to live their lives with some kind of normalcy.
the pronunciation is almost spot-on. love to see it.
I recall of Pol Pot everytime I hear of Cambodian genocide!
My father was born during the genocide. My father’s sister was one of the victim who died due to starvation. As for his parents, he and his sisters are separated from them. He only learned that they were executed when he was a bit older as my dad was around 6 or so.
To this day, he would talk about it a lot as it was such a painful memory for him. He has an injury that was never healed as it happened during when he was taken to work. A rock hit his toe and caused it to bleed. He had to work while having the injury.
Another thing is that many of his friends were killed as their parents were ‘traitor’ or ‘spy’. And if you were intelligent in anyway such as knowing math, different languages, art, or simply wearing glasses mean that you will be killed.
My dad escaped from a military camp with his parents and 8 siblings in 1979. He along with 5 other siblings survived. The rest got shot or blew up on a landmine. I am thankful he survived 2 incredible events of world history and will be forever grateful!
There is a good book on this genocide called "First They Killed My Father" by Loung Ung and this book have changed me so profoundly that I have never wasted food after reading
Thank you for this! Your videos are filled with information. I hope you do more history animations for other south east asian countries. It's good to know more about the histories of our brothers. Love from PH.
I’m Cambodian-Chinese, born in America. My grandparents have experienced the Khmer Rouge. My grandma ran away and escaped her camp with the other campers, but the only reason my grandpa survived is because one of his friends was a solider who killed the campers there, and they convinced all the other soldiers to not waste a bullet on him. I realize the scars this left on my grandparents, and I appreciate them a lot. To the Cambodians who experienced the rouge, or have relatives who have, bless you
My family are survivors of the Khmer Rouge and now they own a successful business. They never truly said what happened so this was helpful to know why they fled
To the Cambodians here: What do you think of Norodom Sihanouk, the Cambodian political leader who lived and worked through all of these events? Do you think he was a hero for Cambodia, who led the country to independence and tried to walk a middle path between the various factions threatening to tear his country apart while caring for his people, or do you think he was a Machiavellian strongman who imposed an authoritarian regime on his country, allied with a genocidal regime, and ultimately let the current regime of Hun Sen stand as it is today?
There's no hero in this story.
I'm Cambodian and I'm just gonna say Sihanouk was not innocent.
I likes him, but I don't like his decision to the Viet cong to walked freely in our own soil. That decision was a huge mistake. Thanks to that a Vietnam war spilled in Cambodia and caused them into chaos
In my opinion, Sihanouk is a man who wants to make his country “the greatest” and he, himself, also wants to be “the greatest”. Shortly after Cambodia gained independence, he tried everything he could to develop his country: built schools, universities, factories, infrastructures, and modernized Cambodia to be “the pearl of Southeast Asia”. He sang many songs, he acted in many movies, he was active in sports, he was benevolent he wanted his people to see him as the greatest in every possible field. All he did is to realize his dreams. However, he wasn’t the greatest. He wasn’t capable enough. He was, after all, just a man. He made mistakes after mistakes and he didn’t realize he made a mistake until it was too late. In the end, he became the villain in his hero story while dragging his country to its downfall with him.
If you ask me, am I love or hate him? All I can say is I love and respect him a lot. He was a king who genuinely loves his country and his people. I doubt some people love Cambodia more than him nowadays. Today, Khmer political leaders and high-ranking governments only care about themselves. They only care how much they can earn, the wealth and power. Sihanouk, at least, was a true nationalist who wanted to make his country better.
Yet, I hate his incompetence, his greed, and his self-centered personality. He wasn’t capable enough to realize his dreams and his mistakes lead to the Khmer Rouge regime, leading to millions of death.
Sihanouk has a complicated role in Khmer history. He is the hero. He is the villain. He is the savior. He is the predator. All his good deeds and mistakes make him “The King Sihanouk of Cambodia”.
@@Lets_seeapanda wow, u put all my thoughts into words and i agree with every single statement u point out 👏
I'm Vietnamese and my father was deployed in 79, he was only 19 at the time. He only told me his story one time when he and I was having a drink for a family party, he was drunk and I was currious because our family was just finish talking about their time during the war (almost all of my uncle was also delpoyed back then too). He said was assigned to escort a supply truck to the front that was when he saw the killing field, he told that the bodies where scatter everywhere along the road with limbs being chopped off and head being blown off from bullets and it was just like that for miles and miles on end, he said he can sometimes smell the horrible stench of decomposing corpses from the humid and hot summer day to this day all while having that 1000 yard stare when telling his story. Even I who just listening to story can really feel how horrible it was for everybody who where there during that time
If any cambodian who lost any thing to the Khmer Rouge is able to read this message by any mean, know that I care of what happened. I try so hard to feel what you or any of your family or friends felt during that years, bringing tears on my eyes every single day. For all that innocent people, from newborns to elders, who passed away because of monsters playing God, whom shall never find a 2nd opportunity to live, I share my deepest condolences. Every single one of you will remain until the day I finish my stay in this realm inside my mind and heart. Be sure that your sacrifice was not in vain. Lot of people won't see the terror that communism creates, even my own country defends the slaughter of innocents, but I don't. I'll always talk the truth among anybody naive enought to believe killing people is right, or left ideas are good. Each time I remember that how avoidable the lost of people was, tears break down their way in my face, yet realizing the truth and how the future from now on can change so we never see again any of this kind ever again, shines a spark of hope inside me.
As long as there is life, there is always hope
Ted-Ed, do the Martial Law under the Marcos Era in the Philippines...it really is relevant today after the result of the current election in the country where the son of the former dictator gained the highest seat of the land...Now our history is revised under his favor, trying to erase the dark past his father inflicted in this country...
Was talking to a lady today, and she was telling me the whole story as i was getting my hair cut. Very sad. Her story brought me here wanting to learn about the history.
No matter what you believe on the Khmer-Vietnamese War, it’s nice to know they’re both in ASEAN and have good ties with each other.
Let the 80,000+ Military and 200,000+ Civilian casualties of the conflict’s sacrifice be in the past and have contributed to a better future for Cambodia, Vietnam, and Southeast Asia as a whole.
🇰🇭🤝🇻🇳
And through it all, the leader’s name wasn’t mentioned not once.
Having the opportunity to visit Cambodia in 2008, it remains one of my favourite countries I have ever visited. Viewing all the atrocities and how well the Cambodian people have adapted and have been able to move past this genocide and horrific past, left me in awe. Visiting the highschool turned torture camp, the killing fields, and numerous other sites I cant begin to imagine the pain and suffering they went through. Cambodia will forever be one of my favourite countries because of the people I met there.
"The Killing Fields" is magnificent movie about this event, one of the greatest films ever made. As usual, American interventionism had unintended consequences.
I am pretty sure those consequences were intended, given our continued support for the khmer rouge after they were over thrown by vietnam
Ah yes..."blame America" the classic solution whenever things go wrong. The Cambodians are 100% to blame for this, not the Americans.
Please do one for American and NATO invasions since ww2 ended.
I wish they had the courage to do one about the atrocities committed by NATO in recent decades but something tells me they will not.
@@met.marfil true
@@marcell_forchannel3985 NATO is the main reason why Libya and Afghanistan are the way they are today. They absolutely destroyed those countries.
And NATO's Operation Gladio also supported and armed various right-wing fascist groups in various European countries.
look at how they bombed Serbia! and i remember the Chinese embassy was bombed as well. just imagine if Russian bombs in Ukraine hit the embassy of any NATO members.
@@met.marfil the Balkans and Africa do be cheerin for this one
Love the animation. It’s simple yet conveys the message.
I cannot comprehend the fact a quarter of the Cambodian population was wiped out , the trauma of the survivors must be immeasurable
I will be really impressed if you do a video on the US supported Indochinian invasion and subjugation of East Timor, which happened at the same time as the Khmer Rouge regime.
My parents now avoid telling me anything about escaping the war as it must be triggering.. But I remember as a kid when being scared sleeping in the dark or learning how to swim, they somehow told me it's gonna be fine as one "learned to swim in the river to avoid getting shot, but the bullet luckily touched someone right besides instead.." and the other had to "sleep under dead corpse". Today I sill can't believe what they have been through, so thank you!
I wish I was taught this in school. But thank goodness for TED-ED
Seeing this video and as a Cambodia
The fact that my school have pictures of pol pot-
It’s also nice to see that people are FINALLY mentioning Cambodia again
My maternal grandma's hometown was close to the border of Vietnam and Cambodia. Her brother, neighbors, and friends were tortured and murdered by the Khmer Rouge. We're Vietnamese, and sometimes we remind each other about the event to protect the peace we have attained after years of blood and tears.
This is such a beautifully haunting depiction. I encourage TED-Ed to produce a similar project for the Secret War in Lao and share our stories as well.
It's very common if you are aware of how the United States, ASEAN and its Western allies supported Khmer Rouge. But if you are aware of how North Korea, Soviet Union and China reacted, it is even more absurd.
North Korea and China shared a similar stance, both were fiercely anti-Vietnamese by 1980s. North Korea and China had sent a lot of weapons to Khmer Rouge. The Rouge had Chinese and North Korean technicians on their side, and this, coupled with the American support and Thailand providing refuge, allowed them to ravage Cambodia for years until 1990s. North Korea also openly condemned Vietnam in 1980s and allowed anti-Vietnamese leaflets broadcasted from Pyongyang with both royal and Rouge's officials operating. For North Korea, North Vietnam's conquest of the South in 1975 worsened North Korea's position, for now more American troops stationed in Japan and South Korea. For China, well, we don't need to talk. Deng Xiaoping never liked the United States or the West at all, but he wanted to play the game, and also, to conceal China's power until the right time to put its revenge. He never saw Vietnam a friend, and neither was his view toward the United States.
Soviet Union (and now Russia) was initially receptive, but time went by revealed that the Soviet leadership deeply disliked North Vietnam's 1975 victory and its invasion of Cambodia in 1979. Those wins proved not a blessing, but a burden for Moscow, to protect a communist state that is too far and too irrelevant for its geopolitical ambitions, especially if what happened in Afghanistan 1980s had shown. Moreover, Vietnam was seen by Moscow as an untamed dog, North Vietnam's foreign diplomacy had never aligned to Soviet order despite being ally. The Soviets did not welcome 1973 Paris Accord without a reason, as long as the north-south status quo to remain, so Moscow could manipulate. But North Vietnam violated it in 1975, and Moscow had to struggle to feed it, as the Americans diverted more soldiers to European and Asian front to contain USSR (a legacy Russia still endures today). To punish Vietnam for violating this, the Soviets did not act when Vietnam lost Johnson Reef to China in 1988, and Russia appears to have never forgotten how Vietnam, its untamed dog, doesn't lean to its domination even though they still sell weapons to Hanoi, by quietly supporting China's military buildup in South China Sea and encircling Vietnam. Soviet Union (and now Russia) cared little about defending allies (going as far as invading Warsaw Pact's members Hungary and Czechoslovakia), but unlike the United States, which provided a Marshall Plan, Soviet Union only saw exploitation as the mean for its enrichment.
You can safely say that, North Korea, China and Soviet Union (now Russia) resented Vietnam for what happened after 1975, but they had different ways to handle it. The Khmer Rouge's reign of terror and Vietnamese invasion later on, however, showed how much these nations cared about Vietnam.