Posted on Apr 17, 2017
Cambodia falls to the Khmer Rouge - Apr 17, 1975 - HISTORY.com
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The Khmer Rouge troops capture Phnom Penh and government forces surrender. The war between government troops and the communist insurgents had been raging since March 1970, when Lt. Gen. Lon Nol had ousted Prince Norodom Sihanouk in a bloodless coup and proclaimed the establishment of the Khmer Republic.
Between 1970 and 1975, Lon Nol and his army, the Forces Armees Nationale Khmer (FANK), with U.S. support and military aid, battled the communist Khmer Rouge for control of Cambodia. During the five years of bitter fighting, approximately 10 percent of Cambodia’s 7 million people died. When the U.S. forces departed South Vietnam in 1973, both the Cambodians and South Vietnamese found themselves fighting the communists alone. Without U.S. support, Lon Nol’s forces fought on, but eventually succumbed to the Khmer Rouge. With the surrender, the victorious Khmer Rouge evacuated Phnom Penh and set about reordering Cambodian society. This resulted in a killing spree and the notorious “killing fields.” Eventually, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians were murdered or died from exhaustion, hunger, and disease.
@ SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas Capt Christopher MuellerCOL Mikel J. BurroughsSgt Joe LaBrancheSSgt (Join to see)Capt Seid WaddellSrA Christopher Wright LTC Stephen F.PO2 Ed C. SFC(P) Hercules Lobo MSG Tom EarleyPVT James Strait Alan K. PO1 William "Chip" NagelSGT John " Mac " McConnell SFC William Farrell LTC (Join to see) SPC Britanny *Winnie* Balthaser SSgt Robert Marx SFC (Join to see)
Between 1970 and 1975, Lon Nol and his army, the Forces Armees Nationale Khmer (FANK), with U.S. support and military aid, battled the communist Khmer Rouge for control of Cambodia. During the five years of bitter fighting, approximately 10 percent of Cambodia’s 7 million people died. When the U.S. forces departed South Vietnam in 1973, both the Cambodians and South Vietnamese found themselves fighting the communists alone. Without U.S. support, Lon Nol’s forces fought on, but eventually succumbed to the Khmer Rouge. With the surrender, the victorious Khmer Rouge evacuated Phnom Penh and set about reordering Cambodian society. This resulted in a killing spree and the notorious “killing fields.” Eventually, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians were murdered or died from exhaustion, hunger, and disease.
@ SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas Capt Christopher MuellerCOL Mikel J. BurroughsSgt Joe LaBrancheSSgt (Join to see)Capt Seid WaddellSrA Christopher Wright LTC Stephen F.PO2 Ed C. SFC(P) Hercules Lobo MSG Tom EarleyPVT James Strait Alan K. PO1 William "Chip" NagelSGT John " Mac " McConnell SFC William Farrell LTC (Join to see) SPC Britanny *Winnie* Balthaser SSgt Robert Marx SFC (Join to see)
Cambodia falls to the Khmer Rouge - Apr 17, 1975 - HISTORY.com
Posted from history.com
Vietnam War
Cambodia
Warfare
Military History
American History
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 7
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The brutality of the communists known as the Khmer Rouge shocked the world. Under Pol Pot's despotic leadership they ravaged the countryside of Cambodia, decimated the people as they killed many in the professional classes such as lawyers, teachers, college professors are anybody else who could teach the people about what life might be like outside of communism SP5 Mark Kuzinski.
A bitter irony, which is lost on liberal pundits, is that the belittled Domino theory espoused by Dwight D Eisenhower in the 1950s came to pass in the 1970s. While many in this nation were focused on withdrawing US forces from Vietnam under Vietnamization, the Pathet Lao were taking over Laos and the Khmer Rouge were focused on taking over Cambodia which they renamed Kampuchea.
The brutality of the Khmer rouge shocked the western world once it became known. The fact that this occurred within two generations after the Nazi and Japanese which shocked the world in the 1940s helps us remember that left unchecked, the strong abuse the weak when they have totalitarian power. Radical-Muslim led Turkey is getting ready to move down this path unless they are checked.
Images: Cambodian Genocide and forced labor left images resembling Nazi concentration camp victim; genocide; the educated, the religious, the disabled, the old, and the young; 1975-04 Fall of Phnom Penh Cambodian Civil War map; The Cambodian Genocide
LTC Stephen C. Capt Seid Waddell CW5 Charlie Poulton SFC William Farrell SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" SSgt (Join to see) TSgt Joe C. SGT John " Mac " McConnell SPC (Join to see) SrA Christopher Wright Maj Marty Hogan PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SP5 Robert Ruck SCPO Morris RamseyCPL Eric Escasio SPC Margaret HigginsCW5 (Join to see) SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT
A bitter irony, which is lost on liberal pundits, is that the belittled Domino theory espoused by Dwight D Eisenhower in the 1950s came to pass in the 1970s. While many in this nation were focused on withdrawing US forces from Vietnam under Vietnamization, the Pathet Lao were taking over Laos and the Khmer Rouge were focused on taking over Cambodia which they renamed Kampuchea.
The brutality of the Khmer rouge shocked the western world once it became known. The fact that this occurred within two generations after the Nazi and Japanese which shocked the world in the 1940s helps us remember that left unchecked, the strong abuse the weak when they have totalitarian power. Radical-Muslim led Turkey is getting ready to move down this path unless they are checked.
Images: Cambodian Genocide and forced labor left images resembling Nazi concentration camp victim; genocide; the educated, the religious, the disabled, the old, and the young; 1975-04 Fall of Phnom Penh Cambodian Civil War map; The Cambodian Genocide
LTC Stephen C. Capt Seid Waddell CW5 Charlie Poulton SFC William Farrell SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" SSgt (Join to see) TSgt Joe C. SGT John " Mac " McConnell SPC (Join to see) SrA Christopher Wright Maj Marty Hogan PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SP5 Robert Ruck SCPO Morris RamseyCPL Eric Escasio SPC Margaret HigginsCW5 (Join to see) SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT
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PO3 Donald Murphy
Liberals gots nothing to do with it. "Liberals" jumped straight into Korea. And Vietnam. The failure to shore up allies is a republican shortage/failure. Now while I'm one of those "we-shoulda-never-been-there" proponents, etc, the point is that we knew what would happen if and when we pulled out. So why any of that was a surprise or shock to us is anyone's guess. And the fact that we have created our own little Vietnams and Cambodia's since then, just goes to show that Nixon and Ford's nefarious activities were not a new direction that America was heading in. Had Ford been serious, a little more UN planning would have been the order of the day.
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The killing fields is the result of too many government attempts to create what it perceives to be an ideal country. As fallen, perverse people, we view other people as the source of all tension & discord. We think that our own ethnic or national group are ideal while other groups work to keep us down. This desire to be paramount works itself out as a license to exterminate the other groups. We make the huge mistake of identifying the wrong of other people while ignoring the fact that each person is his or hers' own worst enemy. I hamper my own way, interfering with my own destiny, and I am a bad fellow. When we recognize this, hopefully we cease trying to put other people down.
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