Khmer Rouge Takes Phnom Penh: Cambodia's Nightmare Begins
A man named Lon Nol fled the capital just hours before the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975. They didn't stop at the palace; they forced two million people to march out of the city, stripping them of shoes and watches. Families were separated in the chaos, sent to die in rice fields or execution pits within months. That surrender didn't end a war; it started a four-year nightmare that erased a nation's soul. You won't remember the date, but you'll never forget the silence of a country that stopped breathing.
April 17, 1975
51 years ago
Key Figures & Places
Cambodia
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Khmer Rouge
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Phnom Penh
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Cambodian Civil War
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Cambodian government forces
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Khmer Rouge
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Democratic Kampuchea
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Phnom Penh
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Pol Pot
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Cambodia
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Norodom Sihanouk
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Lon Nol
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Cambodian Civil War
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Cambodian genocide
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Fall of Phnom Penh
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Khmer National Armed Forces
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Geschichte Kambodschas
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What Else Happened on April 17
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