Democratic Kampuchea

The Khmer Rouge–ruled state that governed Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Its leaders imposed forced collectivization, mass displacement, and political purges, causing the deaths of roughly 1.5 to 2 million people.

Khmer Rouge: A Cambodian communist movement that seized power in 1975 and ruled until Vietnam overthrew it in 1979. The movement supplied the state’s leadership, armed forces, and governing ideology.
Cambodian Civil War: The 1970–1975 conflict between the Khmer Republic and communist insurgents in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge took power after five years of civil war and the collapse of the republic.
Pol Pot: The Khmer Rouge leader who served as prime minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976 to 1979. He directed the regime’s revolutionary project and its coercive policies.
Cambodian–Vietnamese War: The conflict between Vietnam and Democratic Kampuchea that culminated in Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia in December 1978. Border clashes and Vietnamese intervention brought the regime’s control of Phnom Penh to an end.
Angkar: The Khmer Rouge’s deliberately impersonal name for its governing organization and authority. Invoking Angkar made party rule seem omnipresent while concealing who issued orders.
Fall of Phnom Penh: The Khmer Rouge capture of Cambodia’s capital on April 17, 1975, ending the civil war. The takeover began Democratic Kampuchea’s rule and the forced evacuation of the capital.
Nuon Chea: A senior Khmer Rouge ideologue and Democratic Kampuchea’s deputy secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea. His senior party role linked him to the design and enforcement of regime policy.
People's Republic of Kampuchea: The Vietnamese-backed Cambodian state established in 1979 after the overthrow of Democratic Kampuchea. It replaced the Khmer Rouge government but faced international opposition and Khmer Rouge resistance.
Forced collectivization: The coercive transfer of land, labor, and production into collectively controlled systems. The regime abolished private property and reorganized agriculture around collective labor.
Khmer Republic: The Cambodian republic led by Lon Nol from 1970 until its defeat by the Khmer Rouge in 1975. The state replaced the republic whose wartime crisis helped the Khmer Rouge gain power.

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