Ideology

Ideology played an important role in the genocide. Pol Pot was influenced by Marxism�"Leninism and he wanted to transform Cambodia into an entirely self-sufficient agrarian socialist society that would be free from foreign influences. Stalin's work has been described as a "crucial formative influence" on his thought. Also heavily influential was Mao's work, particularly On New Democracy. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was one of his favorite authors, according to historian David Chandler (1992, p. 32). In the mid-1960s, Pol Pot reformulated his ideas about Marxism�"Leninism to suit the Cambodian situation with goals such as bringing Cambodia back to an alleged mythic past of the powerful Khmer Empire, eradicating corrupting influences, such as foreign aid and Western culture, and restoring Cambodia's agrarian society.

Pol Pot's strong belief that Cambodia needed to be transformed into an agrarian utopia stemmed from his experience in Cambodia's rural northeast�"where he developed an affinity for the agrarian self-sufficiency of the area's isolated tribes�"while the Khmer Rouge gained power. Attempts to implement these goals (formed upon the observations of small, rural communes) into a larger society were key factors in the ensuing genocide. One Khmer Rouge leader said that the killings were meant for the "purification of the populace." The Khmer Rouge virtually forced Cambodia's entire population to divide itself into mobile work teams. Michael Hunt has written that it was "an experiment in social mobilization unmatched in twentieth-century revolutions." The Khmer Rouge used an inhumane forced labor regime, starvation, forced resettlement, land collectivization, and state terror to keep the population in line. The Khmer Rouge's economic plan was aptly named the "Maha Lout Ploh", a direct allusion to the "Great Leap Forward" of China that caused tens of millions of deaths in the Great Chinese Famine.

Blockade: The effort by the North to keep ships from entering or leaving Southern ports.

Volunteer: Someone who does something because they want to, not because they need to. Most Civil War soldiers, especially in the beginning of the War, were volunteers. Men joined the armies on both sides because they wanted to fight for their cause.

Border States: The states of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri. Although these states did not officially join the Confederacy, many of their citizens supported the South.

Industry: Manufacturing goods from raw materials, such as cloth from cotton or machine parts from iron.

Casualty: A soldier who was wounded, killed, or missing in action.