Psychological Effects of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge

Pol Pot . . . Leader of the Khmer Rouge

When people think of human genocide, mass executions, unbearable torture, and blatant brutality towards members of the human race, most immediately think of Adolf Hitler or Sadaam Hussein. However, one that is not as well recognized as Hitler or Hussien is Saloth Sar, also known as Pol Pot. When I first heard the names Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime, I had no clue who or what they were. After conducting research, however, I became aware that what Hitler is to a person of Jewish faith, Pol Pot is to most Cambodians. In the years during the Khmer Rouge reign in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, Pol Pot sucessfully murdered around 650,000 people from urban areas of Cambodia and about 675,000 people from the rural areas via "execution, starvation, overwork, disease, and denial of medical care" (Kiernan 4). In most situations, Pol Pot killed the intellectuals of Cambodia because he saw them as a threat to his Communist ideas, and he considered the peasants to be the "true working class of Cambodia" (Tep 81). When most hear of the number of fatalities that occurred in during the reign of Pol Pot, most shudder to think of the pain and suffering that the victims went through, and more than likely, immediately identify Pol Pot as a madman without any human feelings or emotions. Although the brutality and monstrosity of the Khmer Rouge caused insurmountable amounts of suffering for those who were killed, as well as those who survived, the only way to really understand the executions in Cambodia is to look at the goals that Pol Pot was attempting to reach with his plan.

Although acknowledging that Pol Pot's actions have logical reasons behind them seems to be repugnant for those who were killed, the only way to truly understand Pol Pot is to put him in a rational light. According to Steven Vincent, those who carried out the torture and executions saw the murders as a "logical step in eliminating Cambodia's poverty, corruption, and disease" (1). Most of us in the United States would consider human genocide to be barbaric, devilish, corrupt, irrational, the list could go on. However, when we look at the situation through the eyes of Pol Pot, we see that genocide, execution, and torture was the only way he thought that he could purify his country. Also, he punished people working in the rice fields with severe beatings in order to make them work harder and/or faster. In Pol Pot's mind, these whippings, probably prevented others from "slacking off" and taught them a lesson. Although we usually do not beat children to the point of death or severe injury, do we not give them spankings to correct their behavior? His actions were extreme, and we definitely do not have to agree with the way he carried out the "purification" of his country. However, when we emotionally detach ourselves from the executions, we can see logic (however rational or irrational it may be) behind the motives and actions of Pol Pot.

Regardless of the logic behind Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge's actions, most would agree with the fact that the brutality and the suffering the victims endured is tragic. Most people hate to see others enduring pain and suffering. However, as much sympathy as we can feel for those victims, we will never entirely understand the actual effects of the monstrosity that occurred in Cambodia unless we personally went through it. The various methods of torture and execution included "electric shock, fingernail extraction, and near-drowning in vats of water, as well as merciless beatings and roasting on heated metal bedframes" (Branigin 1). Obviously, we can see the suffering that the victims of Pol Pot physically endured, but what about the others? What about those who watched their friends, family, and even perfect strangers go through all of this torture, yet they came out alive? What about the prison guards and officials of the Khmer Rouge regime who carried out the torture? Indeed, all of these groups of people suffered in different ways. In one article, Richard Rechtman analyzes the psychological effects that the Cambodian Khmer Rouge regime caused. In the article, he discusses one of his patients who had recurring dreams of what he survived/witnessed in the Killing Fields of Cambodia (Rechtman 8). Although he survived, the patient said that he felt as if he belonged among those who had been killed in the mass executions of the Khmer Rouge regime (8). Also, Rechtman points out that the executioners had to mentally force themselves to believe that those who were killed did not contribute to the country and thus, must be executed (5).

After hearing of all of the trauma, torture, and executions that the people of Cambodia endured, many (myself included) may have a hard time sypathizing with Pol Pot and those who carried out the murders and and torture sessions. However, when we step back to look at who all have suffered, we realize that even the "barbarians" endured some form of psychological pain. For example, according to Rechtman, the prison guards and Khmer Rouge officials had to dehumanize the victims in order to make themselves believe that Cambodia would be better off without them (5). Also, Rechtman discusses S21 The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, a documentary in which two survivors meet with the executioners from Tuol Sleng. In the documentary, the prison guards, "without any guilt, without any awareness of the horror they describe, they merely and clearly expose the daily job of an ordinary extermination prison guard: insulting, hitting, and killing. As they put it, they never thought they were killing human beings" (Rechtman 4). Although these officials do not suffer in the same way that victims and survivors do, this documentary presents the obvious psychological dehuminization effects of continual murder. We see that the brutality and monstrosity of mass genocide is long-lasting, and it extends much farther than those who were murdered. It also included the witnesses-- whether it be with recurring nightmares or shakes or coldsweats with the mention of Pol Pot's name, as well as the killers and executioners who served under the leadership of Pol Pot.