Survival in the Killing Fields

Ok so I know not everybody is as interested in history as I am, but I'm currently reading a book for my history 198 class called Survival in the Killing Fields by Haing Ngor. It is the story of this man's true account in Cambodia during the revolution that resulted in the Khmer Rouge-Pol Pot Regime.

Naturally, Cambodians are very gentle they almost have a lazy sort of attitude, Haing Ngor describes his regular life until the Khmer Rouge and the Lon Nol with U.S. backing are at civil war near the South Vietnam/Cambodia border. Most of them think that if the Khmer Rouge win then life will simply go back to the way it was. Then their old leader Sihanouk will come back to power and everything will be fine. It doesn't happen this way the U.S. describe the spread of communism by the "domino effect" and that is exactly what is happening. When the deadly civil war ends the Khmer began evacuating the major cities and forcing the "new" people or the city people to harsh work and punishment. Horrible racial discrimination against the Chinese, Chams (Hindu worshippers, typically farmers), and Vietnamese are among the groups that were almost certain that if their origin was found out that they would be executed.

I'll stop explaining the story, but this book is very interesting in that these people had their culture stripped away, and that was everything to them. The Khmer persectued so many in this horrible holocaust. Over 1,000,000 died during this period for no reason but racial discrimination.

I'm not by any means trying to force feed this to anyone, but I just found it interesting the stories that this man recollected over these years and the horrible torture that these human beings went through.