Cambodia: Year Zero

I was intrigued by my own ignorance of Pol Pot’s life.  My only previous exposure to the leader was when my old high school history teacher bought a fish and named it Pol Pot.  She explained that Pol Pot was a Communist dictator, and thus a fitting replacement for the previous fish who had recently passed on (Karl Marx).  Other than this informal event, I had no experience with Pol Pot.  I had no idea which country he was associated with, when he lived, or what he did during his lifetime.  After this reading, I began to question why Pol Pot is not better known in American high schools.  I would postulate that its connected to the fact that high school history tends to be very American-centric.  While the Cambodian atrocities are significant in the course of human events,  it is not well connected to American policy and history.  Its main connection comes in its form as small piece in the larger puzzle of the Cold War.  I would also argue that it doesn’t fit the simplistic narratives that are easier to explain to adolescents.  Murky gray areas of policy are hard to effectively illustrate.  Many players committed terrible acts, and it is difficult to see exactly where the moral imperatives lie.  Did the United States have an obligation to intervene?  Would that create lasting change?  Would it lead to a conflict similar to the interventions in Korea and Vietnam?  Would the American public accept such action?  These are difficult questions for anybody to attempt to answer, and most especially for young people.  However, I would argue that ignoring these difficult questions is a greater disservice.  Some of these questions can perhaps never be answered in a retrospective fashion.  But that doesn’t mean that the questions should not be posed.  Indeed, simply exposing adolescents to these difficult questions better prepares them for interactions in the “real world”, which is filled with gray areas and complex situations.  As such, I would like to see more difficult topics, such as the events in Cambodia, be covered.