The Causes Of The Cultural Revolution And The Khmer Rouge

The Cultural Revolution was a political and social movement launched by Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong. The Khmer Rouge was a communist organization under the leadership of Pol Pot which took control of Cambodia by force. Although the Cultural Revolution was a movement launched by Mao Zedong and the Khmer Rouge was a regime led by Pol Pot, the two revolutions have similar origins, objectives, and outcomes.

_____, the Cultural Revolution and the Khmer Rouge have different origination. The Cultural Revolution was a movement launched by Communist leader Mao Zedong. _____, the Khmer Rouge was a communist guerrilla organization which took power under the leadership of Pol Pot.

_____, the causes of the Cultural Revolution and the Khmer
In 1962, Mao Zedong began an attempt to purify the Communist Party and eliminate capitalist and anti-socialist ideas. Not only was Mao against right-wing officials, but he also wanted absolute control of the party hierarchy. Mao Zedong was dissatisfied with changes implemented in the Soviet Union and did not want China to adopt “similar and softer versions of Socialism” (http://gcsehistory.org.uk/modernworld/maos_china/culturalrevolution.htm). By launching the Cultural Revolution, Mao aimed to replace his designated successors with leaders more faithful to his current thinking and reaffirm the role of the Chinese Communist Party. The Cultural Revolution aimed to bring education, art and literature in line with Communist ideology. Similarly, the Khmer Rouge aimed to achieve the ideal Communist model as well. As soon as the Khmer Rouge came to power, the organization “began to implement their radical Maoist and Marxist-Leninist transformation program” (http://www.cambodiatribunal.org/history/cambodian-history/khmer-rouge-history/). “In order to achieve the ‘ideal’ communist model, the Khmer Rouge believed that all Cambodians must be made to labor for a federation of collective farms” (http://worldwithoutgenocide.org/genocides-and-conflicts/cambodian-genocide). Pol Pot’s objective was to nationalize and centralize the peasant farming society in Cambodia in accordance with the Chinese Communist agricultural model. “Pol Pot envisioned the creation of a ‘new’ Cambodia based on the Maoist-Communist model and wanted to restore the country to an agrarian society based on Maoist ideals”