One of our political parties wants us to try Socialism policies in America, a theme that comes up every four years in our national election. It's not a new idea. Other countries have tried socialism, and we don't want their results. The story of what happened in Cambodia is the theme of this week's posts, re-posts from five years ago on this blog.
A boy who had been educated in Cambodia's elite schools went to Paris, France, and became a follower of Marxist-Leninist communism there. Returning in 1953, he joined communist forces fighting the Cambodian government. The boy was Pol Pot.
Eventually he led his armies to defeat the government, and took control of Cambodia's politics and economy in 1975. His goal was to create an "agrarian socialist society," so he forced people out of cities and onto collective farms. His vision demanded social uniformity. His solution to dissent was to kill dissenters.
"Following the examples of Stalin and Mao, Pol Pot brutally murdered more than one million Cambodians in the infamous Killing Fields of
1975-1979 as he implemented his vision of communist utopia. He
abolished private property, money, prices, commerce, and even cities—a full descent into barbarism.
"Death
sentences were levied against any number of “class enemies.” Simply
being a former civil servant, student, artist, or capitalist of any
variety—including a “street noodle vendor or a motorcycle taxi driver”—was enough to earn a spot in one of Pol Pot’s mass graves."
from FEE
(cont'd tomorrow)
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