In the late 1970s, up to 3 million people died in the Killing Fields of the Cambodian genocide
In the late 1970s, up to 3 million people died in the Killing Fields of the Cambodian genocide. Few horrors compare to the Killing Fields of the Cambodian genocide. Over four short years, from 1975 to 1979, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge systematically exterminated up to 3 million people. The people of Cambodia had to live in fear, knowing that they might be the next one dragged out to the Killing Fields. The chances of being chosen were indeed high – by the end of the massacre, the Khmer Rouge had wiped out nearly 25 percent of the population. The nightmare began in Phnom Penh, with the end of the Cambodian Civil War. It was the last stronghold of the right-wing, military-led Khmer Republic, and with its fall, Cambodia came into the hands of the dictator Pol Pot and his communist Khmer Rouge regime. When the Khmer Rouge emerged from the civil war victorious and marched down the streets, thousands of terrified people fled, some ru...