Last day of Phnom Penh: assault on April 16, 1975

57

Airfield Pochentong. Soldiers carry ammunition unloaded from an airplane

The capture of Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975 was, of course, the greatest triumph of the Khmer Rouge in all of them. history. On this day, they turned from partisans into the ruling organization and power in Cambodia, which they renamed Democratic Kampuchea.

However, the battles for Phnom Penh themselves (the Khmers pronounce this name a little differently: Pnompin) were very poorly reflected in the literature. So much so that there may be a false impression that the Khmer Rouge allegedly had no problems, just entered the city without resistance and began to commit outrage there.



My research in this topic also showed that the history of the last day of Phnom Penh (meaning the Republican Phnom Penh) is more complex and interesting than is commonly believed. The sources were: the same Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times and the book of the former chief of the General Staff of the Khmer Republic, Lieutenant General Sat Sutsakan.

For Singapore, these were important events that took place very close to them, across the Gulf of Thailand. Reds were everywhere: in Vietnam, in Cambodia, in Thailand, in Malaysia, and even Singapore itself had enough of its Maoists. It was very important for them to know whether the “red tide” would be limited to southeastern Indochina or to move on to them, which depended, in particular, on the important issue of when to sell out property and go to Europe.

General Sutsakan was the chief of the General Staff in the last days of the defense of Phnom Penh and fled the city at the very last moment. He is the highest ranking witness to these events. The memories of the Khmer Rouge are unknown to me, and it’s hard to even say if they exist at all.

Environment


Lieutenant General Sat Sutsakan returned to Phnom Penh at the most suitable time, February 20, 1975, and returned from New York, where he participated in the 29th UN General Assembly as part of the delegation of the Khmer Republic. Three weeks later, on March 12, 1975, he was appointed chief of the General Staff of the Khmer Republic.

At this time, the fighting took place within a radius of about 15 km from Phnom Penh. In the north-west, in Khmer Krom, there was the 7th division, in the west, 10 km from the Pochentong airfield, along the highway No. 4 in Bek Chan, there were parts of the 3rd division. In the south, in Takmau, along the highway No. 1 and along the Bassak River, the 1st Division defended itself. To the east of Phnom Penh was the Mekong, where the positions were defended by a parachute brigade and local auxiliary units.

The Mekong, which has long been an important transport artery connecting Phnom Penh with South Vietnam, was already lost by this time. The Khmer Rouge blocked the movement of ships along the river in January 1975. On January 30, the last ship arrived in the city. In early February, the Khmer Rouge captured the left (eastern) shore of the Mekong River directly opposite the capital, but by February 10 they were knocked out of there. In mid-February 1975, the Khmer Marines attempted to open a message on the Mekong, but failed to do so. Thus, since February 1975, the city has been surrounded, and the only thread connecting it with the Allies was the Pochentong airfield, on which transport planes that delivered ammunition, rice, fuel landed. In early February 1975, the Khmer Rouge attempted to storm the airfield, which was repelled with great damage to them.

On March 9, 1975, the Khmer Rouge attacked the positions of the 7th division in Prek Phneu, 19 km from Phnom Penh, but even then their attacks were repelled.

The city was, according to rough estimates, about 3 million people, mostly refugees. The capital was subjected to rocket attacks; since January 20, water and electricity have been cut off in most of Phnom Penh. Military supplies of fuel were available for 30 days, ammunition for 40 days, and rice for 50 days. True, reporters mentioned that the Lonnol soldiers hardly received any food and therefore ate human beings from the corpses of the Khmer Rouge they had killed.


It was a fierce war. That is the reason for the stubbornness of the Lonnol soldiers. In the photo military dependent - children of soldiers next to a stack of boxes with shells to a 105-mm howitzer; the wives and children of the soldiers were in position with them, and therefore the Lonnol soldiers fought primarily for their families

The number of opposing parties is now almost impossible to determine any exact. Khmer Rouge was 25-30 thousand people. Lonnolovsky soldiers were in the capital of the order of 10-15 thousand, not counting garrisons in other cities. But it is definitely impossible to say, the command of the Lonnol forces itself did not have exact numbers; headquarters documentation, of course, disappeared.

Crash defense


The Khmer Rouge in anticipation of an imminent victory attacked in different places, gradually shaking the defense of the capital. At the end of March, they again managed to capture the left bank of the Mekong opposite Phnom Penh, from where rocket attacks began on March 27.

On the morning of April 2, 1975, Marshal Lon Nol and his family flew by helicopter to the Pochentong airfield, where he was waiting for the plane. On it, the head of the Khmer Republic flew to Bali, formally making a visit to Indonesia. Then he moved to Hawaii, where he bought a villa for the money taken in Phnom Penh.

The Khmer Rouge gradually squeezed the forces of the 7th Division on the northern flank of the defense of Phnom Penh; there was a threat of a breakthrough. According to the Singapore newspaper, it seems that even the Khmer Rouge made a breakthrough, but this information was inaccurate. On April 4, 1975, a counterattack was carried out, in which about 500 soldiers, M113 armored personnel carriers and aircraft, which managed to fill the gap in defense, participated. True, Sutsakan writes that the last reserves were thrown onto the northern flank, which were destroyed in a few hours of intense battle. Whether he meant this counterattack mentioned in the newspaper, or some other fights, is not clear.

Apparently, Sutsakan was right that the reserves were no longer there, the defense was falling apart before our eyes. By April 11, 1975, the Khmer Rouge pushed east part of the 3rd division so that the fighting went 350 meters from the strip of Pochentong airfield. The northern flank collapsed, and already on April 12 the Khmer Rouge began to shell the city from 81-mm mortars.


The Phnom Penh defense scheme in late March - early April 1975: 1 - an approximate perimeter of defense in mid-March 1975; 2 - an approximate line of defense on April 11-13, 1975; 3 - an approximate line of defense on the morning of April 16, 1975. Blue badges: Lon Nol army, red - Khmer Rouge forces


April 13, 1975, Monivong Boulevard. This is a long boulevard going from the Monivong bridge in the south of the city to the Japanese bridge in the north through the entire center. Smoke on the horizon rises above the burning ammunition depot on highway 5

On April 13, President of the Khmer Republic Saukam Hoi fled from Phnom Penh along with his associates in 36 helicopters. The U.S. Embassy followed suit. The last plane landed in Pochentong was taken by the embassy staff, and after it there were no more planes.

In the early morning of April 14, 1975, the Khmer Rouge took the airfield. The time can be set fairly accurately, as Sutsakan writes that at 10:45 a government building was bombed; two 250-pound bombs exploded 20 yards from the building in which it is located. The American journalist Sydney Shanberg also mentions this blow. The bombs were dropped by the T-28 Trojan, captured by the Khmer Rouge in Pochentong, along with a pilot and ground personnel. It took some time to persuade the pilot to become the first pilot of Democratic Kampuchea, to prepare the departure, to take off himself. So we can assume that the Khmer Rouge took the airfield no later than 8 a.m. on April 14, 1975.

After lunch, according to Sutsakan, the news came that the Khmer Rouge had knocked out the 1st division from Takmau. Phnom Penh's defense was completely destroyed.

Last fights


The rest of the day on April 14, night and all day on April 15, 1975, there were battles on the outskirts of the city. Apparently, the battles were very stubborn. Even on foot you can walk from Pochentong to the center of Phnom Penh in 3-4 hours, and the Khmer Rouge in a day and a half reached only the outskirts of the capital. They were held back by defense and counterattacks, and every step to the capital cost them blood. Only in the evening of April 15, 1975, the Khmer Rouge entered the western sector of Phnom Penh and started street fighting.


April 15, 1975: Lonnol troops north of the Tuol Cork region (west of Phnom Penh); Khmer Rouge advancing from the northwest, from the side of the railway

The shelling set fire to a vast area lined with wooden houses along the banks of the Bassak River, not far from Monirong Bridge. The night of April 16, 1975 was bright: residential areas were burning, then an army warehouse with fuel and ammunition caught fire and exploded.

By the morning of April 16, the Khmer Rouge captured the entire western sector of Phnom Penh and besieged Queen's University, which had been turned into a strong point. The Lonnol troops occupied the sector of the capital, from north to south, about 5 km long and 3 km wide from west to east. They had nowhere to retreat. On three sides were the Khmer Rouge, and behind them was the Mekong, followed by the Khmer Rouge.


The suburbs of Phnom Penh were still that place. It is therefore not surprising that the Khmer Rouge tried to break into the city along the main roads

Last day of Phnom Penh: assault on April 16, 1975

Fire in urban areas and the flight of residents. The photo was taken, obviously, in the evening of April 15, 1975.

The main efforts of the Khmer Rouge on April 16 focused on the assault from the south. At night, in the southern sector, on the outskirts, as follows from the last report of Sydney Shanberg, there was a continuous battle, mortar shelling. Lonnolovtsy threw their M113s into battle, and the Khmer Rouge fired direct-fire missiles and set fire to houses. In the morning, the Khmer Rouge managed to break through the defenses and cross the Bassak River over the United Nations Bridge. After that, they began to make their way along Preah Norodom Boulevard towards the presidential palace. At noon on April 16, an S-46 aircraft circled over Phnom Penh, aimed at transporting foreign journalists who remained in the city. The pilot negotiated on the walkie-talkie with reporters sitting in the Le Phnom hotel, but could not land. A photograph was taken from his side, in which smoke was clearly visible over the battle areas.

Yes, this was far from a triumphant entry into the city for the Khmer Rouge; they had to fight for every street and every house. Fights went all day and all night from April 16 to April 17, 1975. Command of the Lonnol forces was virtually no longer there; units and units fought according to their own understanding. In any case, Sat Sutsakan did not write anything about these battles in his book. However, as can be seen from subsequent events, the battles went on all night and even in the morning, breaking up into battles for individual positions and houses.


Last day of Phnom Penh: assault on April 16, 1975. 1 - Queen's University; 2 - Radio Phnom Penh and the Ministry of Information of the Khmer Republic; 3 - Olympic stadium, from which General Sutsakan flew off on the morning of April 17; 4 - presidential palace

Around midnight, the Prime Minister of the Khmer Republic, Long Boret, Sutsakan, and several other leaders sent a telegram to Beijing to Sihanouk with a peace proposal. They awaited an answer, deliberated and decided what they would do next. They had plans to create a government in exile, to continue resistance, but the circumstances were already stronger than them. Heavy night At 5:30 a.m. on April 17, they were still conferring at the Prime Minister’s house, deciding to fight. At 6 a.m. an answer came from Beijing: Sihanouk rejected their offer.

The war is lost. Khmer Rouge is on the way, there will be no peace, no opportunities for resistance. Sutsakan writes that he and Prime Minister Long Boret were sitting at his house on April 8 at about 17 a.m. and were silent, awaiting a denouement. She was unexpected. General Thach Reng appeared in the house, who invited them to fly; he remained with special forces and several helicopters. Then they went to the Olympic stadium of Phnom Penh, where there was a landing site. After some fuss with the engine at 8:30 a helicopter with Sutsakan on board took off and an hour later arrived in Kompong Thom. There were troops still resisting the Khmer Rouge. In the afternoon, the helicopter flew to the area of ​​the Cambodian-Thai border. The general flew away last; The prime minister, who wished to transfer to another helicopter, could fly away and was later arrested by the Khmer Rouge.

At about 9 a.m. on April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge seized the whole city. Captured Brigadier General May Sichang at 9.30 in the morning on Radio Phnom Penh gave the order to surrender and lay down weapon. The Khmer Rouge Command is located in the building of the Ministry of Information. The Singapore newspaper published the name of the first red commandant of the city - Hem Ket Dara, calling him a general. However, this was hardly a major commander, because he is not mentioned in any other source.



Surrendering Lonnol Soldiers

Consequences of victory


The victory of the Khmer Rouge was, of course, triumphant. They did not deny themselves the pleasure of celebrating the victory and already in the afternoon of April 17 staged a rally with banners.


Triumphant winners and Phnom Penh residents greeting them

But the victory was inconclusive. Clashes with groups and groups of soldiers who did not want to surrender flared up in the capital. Some of the Lonnol soldiers escaped from the city and joined the anti-communist troops. One can imagine what kind of people they were: those who were ready to fight the Communists to the last bullet and devour meat from the corpses of the murdered Communists. Already in June 1975, Uncle Sihanouk, Brigadier-General Prince Norodom Chandrangsal led anti-communist detachments, numbering about 2 thousand people, who fought in the Phnom Penh region, in the provinces of Compongspa and Swirieng. There were other anti-communist groups. The Khmer Rouge needed a whole dry season from October 1975 to May 1976 to defeat these units and basically end the resistance.

As for the well-known eviction of the inhabitants of Phnom Penh, it is explained by the fact that for the entire mass of the population that accumulated in it there was not enough rice and water. On May 5, 1975, a Singapore newspaper reported that people were drinking water from air conditioners and eating leather goods: signs of acute thirst and acute hunger. This is not surprising in view of the long blockade of the city, the expenditure and destruction of rice stocks, as well as the destruction of water supply. The Khmer Rouge did not have vehicles to provide the city with food. Therefore, to drive the population to rice and water was a very reasonable decision. At the same time, the deserted capital became more secure. Moreover, a ban on entry into Phnom Penh was imposed; only workers from the surrounding villages were brought into the city. But even with such security measures in the capital, the Khmer Rouge was far from always calm.

This information allows only in the most general terms to restore the circumstances of the battle for Phnom Penh. However, they also show that the last day of Phnom Penh was not at all what it is often imagined.
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57 comments
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  1. +5
    14 July 2020 06: 24
    What is "woe to the vanquished", these people have learned in full ... and from the one and the other side ...
  2. -4
    14 July 2020 08: 35
    The most brutal massacre, and the most brutal regime of the 20th century, established by the "Khmer Rouge", comparable to the "Bandervism in Ukraine.
  3. +9
    14 July 2020 09: 16
    I wonder how it was supplied to the city before the war? Before you write nonsense, you might probably think that rice was going to the city along the river and the peasants who were joyful would bring it there if they paid them, but of course it is easier to turn the townspeople into peasants than to establish an economy.
    1. +10
      14 July 2020 10: 10
      Well, half of the Potovites officially considered all the townspeople to be parasites. They were deliberately made "toilers" by driving them out of the cities.
  4. -2
    14 July 2020 13: 30
    What bourgeois and revisionist sources do not write about

    There has been a civil war in Kampuchea since the late 1960s, in 1970 General Lon Nol came to power, who proclaimed the creation of the Khmer Republic. To support him, the armed forces of the United States and South Vietnam invaded Cambodia and launched massive bombardments of the southern and eastern regions where the Khmer Rouge (Cambodian Communists) were located.

    Over the course of several years of “carpet” bombing, the United States dropped as many tons of explosives into these areas as were dumped on Germany in the last two years of World War II. As a result, more than a million people died and became disabled. Then these losses will be attributed to the "bloody regime" of Pol Pot.

    The slanderers emphasize that the entire urban population of the country was forcibly evicted to agricultural communes, where they had to work every day on rice fields, which, of course, did not like the city loafers, who later composed fairy tales about the horrors of the Polpot regime, as there supposedly just destroyed.

    But the eviction to the village was a necessary measure, because General Lon Nol’s regime ruined agriculture by its actions, agricultural production was only one fourth of the level of 1969, industrial production - only one eighth. Three-quarters of the enterprises were destroyed, two-thirds of the rubber plantations were destroyed .. Three-quarters of the railroads and highways became unusable. All this economic failure was also blamed on Pol Pot.

    But, having come to power, the Pol Pot government has set three main tasks that need to be addressed immediately:
    1. Stop the policy of ruining the peasantry, end corruption and usury;
    2. Eliminate the eternal dependence of Kampuchea on foreign countries;
    3. To restore order in the country after the anarchy of the civil war.

    The entire population of the country was divided into three main categories. The first - the "main people" - included residents of regions that since the beginning of 1970 had lived in areas liberated by partisans, they were most affected by the attacks of American aircraft. These were people who felt a sense of gratitude to the Communists for liberation from age-old oppression.

    The second part is the “new people”. These are residents of cities and villages that have been in the territory temporarily occupied by the Americans for a long time or under the control of the puppet forces of Lon Nol. This part of the population had to undergo re-education.

    And, finally, the third category consisted of rotten intelligentsia, reactionary clergy, people who served in the state apparatus, officers of the Lonnolovo army. This category of population should have been subjected to large-scale purges.

    But was there really such a large-scale terror in Kampuchea against its population that bourgeois and revisionist scribes call "genocide"? No one can give exact numbers. Therefore, showing mountains of skulls in films about Kampuchea. they call different tsir from 1 million to 3 million .. dead in Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979.

    But this does not mean that they are all victims of the Pol Pot regime. Anyone could be in these graves. These were those who died from massive American bombing, and the victims of the Lonolovskaya military, and the graves of the partisans who fought for the country's freedom against the French colonialists, these could be the remains of old times.
    1. +4
      14 July 2020 13: 57
      To justify the forcible transformation of citizens into peasants is beyond
      1. +8
        14 July 2020 17: 25
        Quote: Kronos
        To justify the forcible transformation of citizens into peasants is beyond

        And what is better: leave them in the city to die of starvation, or take them out to the village where they could soak themselves ?.
        1. +2
          14 July 2020 18: 03
          It was better not to divide people into categories, this is not a communist approach
          1. +5
            14 July 2020 18: 15
            Quote: Kronos
            It was better not to divide people into categories, this is not a communist approach

            Communists divide the people into classes (working class, peasantry, bourgeoisie), in Kampuchea they were called categories. Local specifics.
            1. +1
              14 July 2020 18: 17
              This does not imply any kind of re-education which Pol Pot embodied
              1. +1
                14 July 2020 23: 32
                Quote: Kronos
                This does not imply any kind of re-education which Pol Pot embodied

                Who does not work shall not eat. In my opinion, all urban parasites were forced to work. In Soviet Russia, the bourgeoisie was also taken out to public work. for example, to clear railway tracks, etc.
                1. +2
                  15 July 2020 01: 00
                  Who said they did not work in cities? Vietnam had no less problems than Pol Pot, but they didn’t think of the policy of re-education or transferring the townspeople to peasants.
                  1. 0
                    15 July 2020 08: 19
                    Quote: Kronos
                    Who said they did not work in cities?

                    Where did you work? Everything was closed and destroyed, only prostitutes honestly worked.
      2. 0
        14 July 2020 19: 59
        Of course beyond. It is much more humane to give them the opportunity to die in the shattered cities without provisions and work. It's "civilized", isn't it?
      3. +1
        18 July 2020 21: 22
        Yes, no, everything is correct for all urban loafers on the fields. For example, what are you producing, can I ask?
    2. +6
      14 July 2020 14: 46
      Colleagues Green, if the Poltovites are communists, and in Vietnam then there were anti-communists, because they opposed Pol Pot?
      1. VIP
        +4
        14 July 2020 17: 30
        In that case, Heng Samrin was a puppet of Vietnam, and the Soviet Union supported the anti-communists?
      2. +3
        14 July 2020 17: 39
        Quote: Astra wild
        Colleagues Green, if the Poltovites are communists, and in Vietnam then there were anti-communists, because they opposed Pol Pot?

        Pol Pot was a supporter of Maoism and, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, built peasant socialism, because there was practically no working class in Kampuchea. On this basis, he had a conflict with ethnic Vietnamese living in Kampuchea, which was heated by Mao Zedong, and who at that time pursued a policy of rapprochement with the United States. Hence the military conflicts between China and Kampuchea with Vietnam, which recognized the hegemony of the USSR.
    3. VIP
      +7
      14 July 2020 17: 39
      It means that in the Soviet Union they all thought up about half the soldiers. At that time, Pol Pot was perceived as Satan. Uncle had a Pol Pot dog, people spat and he remade into Fields
      1. +2
        14 July 2020 17: 50
        Quote: V I P
        So in the Soviet Union they all thought up about half the soldiers

        Yes, they supported American propaganda .. At that time, the political leadership of the USSR had already begun to focus on the West. I'm in the 80s talked with cadets from Kampuchea, they didn’t say anything terrible.
    4. +1
      14 July 2020 19: 43
      Quote: Alexander Green
      But was there really such a large-scale terror in Kampuchea against its population that bourgeois and revisionist scribes call "genocide"?

      At that time there were no bourgeois and revisionist scribblers; we lived then in the USSR. And many saw, met, precisely with these victims of genocide.
      1. -2
        14 July 2020 23: 35
        Quote: tihonmarine
        At that time there were no bourgeois and revisionist hacks, we lived then in the USSR

        Unfortunately, there were already, revisionists first appeared in 1961 when developing a new Program of the CPSU, and then confirmed the flight of American astronauts to the moon, which was not there.
        1. +2
          15 July 2020 01: 01
          Flight proven long ago
          1. 0
            15 July 2020 08: 17
            Quote: Kronos
            Flight proven long ago

            Only the astronaut Leonov, who worked in one of the American funds.
    5. +1
      15 July 2020 18: 47
      But this does not mean that they are all victims of the Pol Pot regime. Anyone could be in these graves

      That's right. In the mid-70s, the clumsiness of anti-Krasnokhmer propaganda surprised me - they, of course, were guys without prejudice towards the civilian population, but where in the impoverished Asian country they found 3 million intellectuals to hammer them with hoes, it was always a mystery to me.
      1. +3
        15 July 2020 20: 35
        What does the intelligentsia have to do with it? They killed the townspeople, apparently realized that they could not be re-educated. I recently read the story of a Khmer who returned to the village, where he killed his whole family with hoes before his eyes. The peasants looked away - we supposedly had nothing against you, but there was such an order, if we had not executed it, we ourselves would have ...
        1. +1
          15 July 2020 22: 02
          The materials about the Khmer Rouge talked specifically about the intelligentsia, this was the oakiness of propaganda.
  5. +7
    14 July 2020 14: 37
    "The Khmer Rouge did not have a vehicle to provide the city with food" they had no desire to take care of the residents of the city!
    It would be a desire, but you can find transport: 1) they had armored personnel carriers, tanks. I absolutely will not believe that their army was completely lacking cars.
    2) Lonnolovtsy left a bunch of vehicles.
    1. +3
      14 July 2020 23: 58
      The daily diet of a million people is 500 tons of rice. Water - 3000 tons for drinking and 1000 tons for cooking. The water supply did not work and it took time to fix it.
      If in Phnom Penh there were 3 million people of all (residents, refugees, Khmer Rouge, prisoners of war), then they needed 1500 tons of rice and 12 thousand tons of water per day. A month - 45 thousand tons of rice and 360 thousand tons of water. Plus fuel for cooking. They were not capable of such cargo transportation.
      1. +3
        15 July 2020 20: 45
        Were they ready to supply their army with food and ammunition? Those. Did the logistics work? Saigon will be larger than Phnom Penh - and nothing, as it was fed. A strange fashion has now gone - to justify the Maoist fascists.
        1. -1
          15 July 2020 21: 08
          Does the political instructor burn up? laughing
  6. +2
    14 July 2020 15: 06
    For me, Lon Nol is an American henchman. He and his environment are different: Sunsakan, Long Boret and others are absolutely indifferent, but the fate of the little girl near the shells and many is tragic. I can’t imagine without tears what was waiting for them
    1. VIP
      +1
      14 July 2020 16: 36
      Purely female emotions
      1. +4
        14 July 2020 20: 27
        I am a woman and I can’t calmly perceive this.
      2. +3
        15 July 2020 20: 42
        "Purely feminine emotions" - i.e. for men to rejoice in the suffering of children?
    2. +1
      14 July 2020 19: 45
      Quote: Astra wild
      I can’t imagine without tears what was waiting for them

      The best thing is that she would have been taken at the age of 12 to the "children's" death battalions.
  7. +7
    14 July 2020 15: 29
    Quote: Cartalon
    I wonder how it was supplied to the city before the war? Before you write nonsense, you might probably think that rice was going to the city along the river and the peasants who were joyful would bring it there if they paid them, but of course it is easier to turn the townspeople into peasants than to establish an economy.

    On March 18, 1970, Lon Nol carried out a military coup and began mass repression against all who did not want Kampuchea to be involved in the Vietnam War. A month later, in April 1970, South Vietnamese and American troops entered Kampuchea at the invitation of Lon Nol. A patriotic front is being formed to liberate Kampuchea from foreign occupation, which includes a number of parties, including the Khmer Rouge, and King Norodom Sihanouk. The war for liberation continues until April 1975 and then, according to the underestimated government estimates, 700 thousand people (10% of the population) died. Only from February to August 1973, US aviation dropped 257 thousand tons of bombs. The main objective is watering facilities for the production of rice, roads, bridges and fertilizer production. Destroying 75% of livestock. Rice production fell from 3,8 million tons in 1970 to 0,76 million tons in 1974, or 5 times. This is direct genocide. Part of the people fled to the capital Phnom Penh and the population of the city from 600 thousand increased to more than 2 million. But terror and genocide did not break the resistance of the people. By the end of 1973, the People’s Liberation Army already numbered 70 thousand. It consisted of peasant youth whose parents died in the bombing or from the thugs of Lon Nol. The Khmer Rouge beat one of many groups, but they became a vanguard bistro mainly because of their exceptionally effective economic policy, the organization of cooperatives, which literally saved people from starvation. It can be argued that the Khmer Rouge saved at least two million Cambodians from starvation.
    The situation after the capture of Phnom Penh in April 1975 - hunger and epidemics began in February, hundreds of thousands of starving and sick people were beaten in the streets. There was no external help, no food, no medicine, no transport, no electricity, no water supply. One kilogram of rice in 1974 cost 80 rial in Phnom Penh, in February 1975 with the onset of hunger - 340 rial and 1979 after the administration of the Khmer Rouge - 8 rial.
    According to the independent Fimland questionnaire commission, by May 1981 (after the Vietnamese occupation) the population of Kampuchea was 6,7 million people and 600 thousand refugees in Thailand. The total number of victims of the period 1970-81 is 900 thousand people, of whom at least 700 thousand were during the reign of Lon Nol and the American bombing until April 1975. Of the remaining 200 thousand, about 75 thousand victims of the Khmer Rouge and the rest died in the war with Vietnam and during the Vietnamese occupation only until May 1981.
    1. VIP
      +2
      15 July 2020 15: 24
      Kostadinov, if Pol Pot is so good would you like him to manage with you?
      I'm glad that he was burned. Sorry for not living
  8. VIP
    +1
    14 July 2020 16: 31
    "there were about 10-15 thousand, not counting the garrisons in other cities", but what have other cities to do with when talking about Phnom Penh?
    Author, and who commanded the Khmer Rouge? After all, they had a centralized command, otherwise it is not possible.
    Pol Pot already had an army and a good one, and the presence of an army presupposes the presence of a centralized command
    1. +4
      14 July 2020 23: 11
      It is not known, it was not indicated in the sources available to me.
      Actually, I wrote an article and acutely felt how incomplete this story is. I would like to add to her the memories of the Lonnolovsky soldier or officer, a former Khmer Red. But go and find now these old people (those who fought in the 70s, now 60 years old and more) in Cambodia, Thailand or where they settled.
      I don’t even hope to find the documents.
  9. +5
    14 July 2020 21: 37
    Quote: Alexander Green
    Quote: V I P
    So in the Soviet Union they all thought up about half the soldiers

    Yes, they supported American propaganda .. At that time, the political leadership of the USSR had already begun to focus on the West. I'm in the 80s talked with cadets from Kampuchea, they didn’t say anything terrible.

    For me, 70-80 years is the best time of my life and I am not comfortable that this period is being blasphemed for the sake of some dubious communists.
    I’ve looked at biographies: Hyun Samrina, Hun Sena, they were with Paul Then, perhaps, less smeared, but ... I’m convinced: there are no real Leninists and there weren’t, and if so they’re conditional communists
    1. +1
      14 July 2020 23: 53
      Quote: Astra wild
      I am convinced that there are no real Leninists there and there haven’t been, and if so they are conditional communists

      And no one says that there were Leninists. Mao Zedong recognized neither Leninism, nor the leadership of the Comintern, nor the Stalinist leadership .. Pol Pot, on the other hand, was guided only by Maoism. And by that time revisionists had appeared in the USSR who had rejected the Leninist doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat, so neither Khrushchev, nor Brezhnev, nor Andropov, nor Gorbachev and their supporters were Leninists. They are all to blame for making the USSR a raw materials appendage of the West
  10. +3
    15 July 2020 09: 17
    It's very fashionable now to rewrite history. The usual pursuit of "fried". They say, you had a false, wrong story, I’ll turn everything over now and give you the right one. We went through this after the collapse of the USSR. It would seem that now there is a more even, neutral view of history, but no, there are "revolutionaries".
    In the series of programs on the History channel about those events, the actions of the USSR were soberly assessed. And in principle, the USSR was right. Initially, the Soviet leadership wanted to eagerly enlist the Khmer Rouge socialists and was ready to recognize them, but managed to respond in time to a report by orientalists who had warned of future problems with Paul Pot. The program included the accounts of eyewitnesses who were then in Phnom Penh. These were our journalists and embassy workers. After the capture of Phnom Penh there began a specific terror, mass executions. In my opinion, in those programs there was a more balanced analysis of events.
    1. 0
      15 July 2020 09: 37
      Here is a well-weighted dock. movie [media = https: //www.youtube.com/watch? v = oWYyX8e0Op4]
      here's another
      1. VIP
        +3
        15 July 2020 15: 42
        I don’t know who it is necessary to be, after such a film, to still praise Pol Pot.
        The question is, what kind of devil in Moscow were engaged in political correctness and for 2 years they hung noodles about the Cambodian version?
    2. +4
      15 July 2020 11: 07
      Then explain what such orientalists advised to recognize the Khmer Republic (an ally of the United States and South Vietnam) and establish diplomatic relations with it?
      And why didn’t these orientalists explain that an absurd situation is developing when the USSR is in relations with a country that is actively fighting with its ally, the SRV?
      1. 0
        21 July 2020 09: 13
        Then another DRV. SRV since 1976, after unification.
  11. 0
    15 July 2020 16: 50
    Quote: VIP
    I don’t know who it is necessary to be, after such a film, to still praise Pol Pot.
    The question is, what kind of devil in Moscow were engaged in political correctness and for 2 years they hung noodles about the Cambodian version?

    A politician does not need to be praised / condemned before or after a propaganda film. The West used slander against Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot in the USSR - so the communists themselves admit these crimes. This became part of the Satanization of socialism under Reagan. It was then that the famine of 1932-33 in the USSR and Pol Pot were used as symbols of "communist terror".
  12. 0
    15 July 2020 17: 08
    Quote: VIP
    Kostadinov, if Pol Pot is so good would you like him to manage with you?
    I'm glad that he was burned. Sorry for not living

    If foreign troops occupied your country and their local servants exterminated 10% of the population, including killing your parents and want to starve you, then did you go to serve them or resist together with Pol Pot? Good or bad Pol Pot a fair assessment of the story will be.
    And in the treasure, the Inquisition burned thousands of people and now the Pope apologizes about it.
    1. +3
      15 July 2020 20: 40
      Pol Potu history has already given a fair assessment. The ogre-maoist ..
  13. 0
    15 July 2020 23: 22
    More about Pol Pot
    In 1965, the US-Vietnamese war began, refugees reached Cambodia, and the United States accused Cambodia of hiding partisans, without declaring war, began carpet bombing of its territory. Prince Sihanouk protested, but the United States staged a military coup and put General Lon Nol in power, who was a real bloody dictator who shot people for any disagreement with his policy, only for a direct look in the eyes of any rich person was supposed to be shot on the spot.

    No one knows how many people died during the reign of Lon Nol (1970-1975). American sources, for example, report that from carpet bombings and mined rice fields and jungles, not a single civilian was killed !!! And this despite the fact that about 3 million tons of ammunition were dropped on the territory of Cambodia, In addition, thousands of tons of Orange were sprayed from planes into the jungle, causing the country to lose 80% of the rice fields and 50% of the villages that turned into a desert, where the people who survived the bombing were miserable, and officials in Phnom Penh were fat, which led to a civil war.

    In 1975, having been defeated in Vietnam, the United States stopped helping Lon Nole, who fled to the United States, leaving a destroyed and devastated country. Pol Pot began to put things in order by radical methods, distributed to the poor all the money of the central bank so that they bought up all the goods, after which the bank was blown up. So two birds with one stone were killed at once: the rich and the poor were gone, and the civil war was stopped.
    At the same time, the city was declared a hotbed of evil and the process of relocating the urban population to agricultural provinces began. Naturally, everything could not go smoothly, there were excesses in the field, accompanied by the death of people. Moreover, the performers were, as a rule, underage boys of 14-15 years old, whose parents were killed during the American bombing.

    But the country freed itself from external influence and returned to its traditional way of life, gradually increasing the export potential of rice. For the first time in the country, they began to make irrigation systems on a scientific basis, which made it possible to get 2-3 crops of high-quality rice per year, which was supplied around the world. Many of the leaders even defended real dissertations in the field of agriculture.

    But they began to quarrel with neighbors and other ethnic groups. After that, the army of Vietnam invaded the country, which led to the overthrow of the regime. And here the inconsistencies read. "Tiran" Pol Pot, unlike Lon Nol, does not run anywhere, calmly retired to his native village, where he lived a simple life without any protection until 1998 and died his death. Many of his associates also lived to a very old age, But the most amazing thing is now For over 30 years now, the country has been ruled by one of Pol Pot’s closest associates, Hun Sen (“Khmer Rouge Commander”), as prime minister.

    A "museum of genocide" was created in Phnom Penh, where there is practically nothing: several skulls with bullet holes, several photographs of Khmer Rouge and several fresh drawings that shoot infants. And no documents, decrees or other documentary evidence. Almost no one visits the museum due to the lack of interest of the local population.
    So the real life of Pol Pot and his role in the country does not fit in with official world history. The memory that he left among the people of his country does not correspond in any way with the myth of a bloody tyrant. Therefore, Pol Pot is a victim of mythologization, which made his household name, and which was written to please the United States and in which all of humanity believes.
    1. VIP
      +1
      17 July 2020 08: 25
      One of the closest associates of Pol Pot. From the "changed shoes", like all the elites. We have the same thing: Khrushch, "marked", Yeltsin, and the same in Ukraine. Everywhere "overshoes"
    2. 0
      21 July 2020 09: 18
      Hun Sen is Heng Samrin's associate. They went over to the side of Vietnam, even when the Pol Pot regime existed.
  14. -1
    16 July 2020 17: 27
    Quote: Alexander Green
    Therefore, Pol Pot is a victim of mythologization, which made him a household name, and which was written to please the United States and in which all of humanity believes.

    Fortunately, and despite very little exposure, not all humanity believes in this mythologization. In the first place, the majority of the Cambodian people do not believe in it. Then there is the Finnish questionnaire commission, which investigated the issue in 1981. There is also a well-known French lawyer, Jacques Verge.
  15. 0
    25 August 2020 10: 09
    "How often he is introduced." They certainly didn't read the honest Singaporean newspapers. Probably even now the truth (on any topic) can only be gleaned from Singapore newspapers.

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