Question 1

True or false: The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 until its overthrow in 1979.

Accepted Answer

True. The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, seized power in April 1975 and governed Cambodia until Vietnamese forces captured Phnom Penh in January 1979.

Question 2

True or false: The Khmer Rouge was a democratic political party that won a free election in 1975.

Accepted Answer

False. The Khmer Rouge seized power through a civil war and never held a free election. Their rule was a brutal communist dictatorship.

Question 3

True or false: The Khmer Rouge was supported militarily by the United States during the Cambodian Civil War.

Accepted Answer

False. The U.S. supported the Lon Nol government against the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge was backed by China and North Vietnam, not the United States.

Question 4

True or false: The Khmer Rouge is responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 to 2 million Cambodians.

Accepted Answer

True. Through executions, starvation, disease, and forced labor, the Khmer Rouge regime caused the deaths of roughly one-quarter of Cambodia's population from 1975 to 1979.

Question 5

True or false: The Khmer Rouge adopted a policy of religious tolerance for all faiths.

Accepted Answer

False. The Khmer Rouge persecuted Buddhists, destroyed temples, and banned religious practices. Religion was seen as a threat to the regime's ideology.

Question 6

True or false: The Khmer Rouge used the Cambodian flag with a white Angkor Wat on a blue background.

Accepted Answer

False. The flag of Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge) had a red background with a yellow Angkor Wat outline. The blue flag with white Angkor Wat is the modern Cambodian flag.

Question 7

True or false: The Khmer Rouge forced millions of Cambodians from cities into rural labor camps.

Accepted Answer

True. After taking power, the Khmer Rouge emptied cities, sending people to collective farms for forced agricultural labor in a radical agrarian revolution.

Question 8

True or false: The Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998 while under house arrest.

Accepted Answer

True. Pol Pot died on April 15, 1998, in his jungle compound near the Thai border, where he was held by former Khmer Rouge colleagues.

The Khmer Rouge Trivia Questions