Khmer Rouge Propaganda

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the Pol Pot regime maintained its stronghold over the Cambodian people, through a thorough understanding and manipulation of its peoples' psychological and sociological structures. The first part of the paper looks at how the regime laid the foundations for a successful propaganda machine. It explains that this was done through dismantling important social structures of traditional Cambodian society; the family, Buddhist religion, urban cities, schools and universities. It then looks at how the regime successfully used its propaganda machine to both punish and discourage dissent. This was done through radio broadcasts, the use of artwork, the institution of "memory sickness" and through long-term strategies like the education of children. It concludes that in its quest for a spartan, collectivized and homogeneous society, the Pol Pot regime resulted instead in a devastated land and people.

From the Paper:

"Within a week of their assent into power, preying on people's fears of the US bombings in nearby Vietnam, Khmer Rouge soldiers drove the residents of Phnom Penh, Battambang out of the cities and into the countryside. Thousands of the evacuees, mostly the elderly and the very young, died in the mass exodus. Upon reaching the countryside, the city residents were forced to engage in agricultural labor. The new farmers were labeled "new people." The new people faced much resentment from the established farmers or "old people" who already tilled the fields and who were treated more favorably by the Khmer Rouge regime (Chandler 1999: 1)."

More papers on Khmer Rouge Propaganda:

• Research Paper # 97003 : "Khmer Rouge & Cambodian Education"
• Analytical Essay # 29573 : "Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: