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| 1973 |
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| Early in the year, in an effort to prop up the Khmer Republic, the U.S. dropped twice as many bombs on Cambodia as had been dropped on Japan in World War II. This bombing was politically unpopular in the U.S., and by the end of 1973, the U.S. Congress forced an end to the bombing. Rather than help the war effort, the bombing alienated the Cambodian populace and enhanced the appeal of the Communists as they recruited followers to their cause. | 1 |
| By the end of the year, Communist forces of the Khmer Rouge, largely trained and equipped by Vietnam, controlled two-thirds of Cambodia, including the ruins at Angkor. | 2 |
| Public services broke down in Phnom Penh under the combined stress of the Lon Nol regime's ineptness and the 2 million refugees who fled to the city from the rural areas. | 3 |
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| 1975 |
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| As the year opened, Phnom Penh was surrounded by the Communists. When they seized control, Lon Nol, a few advisers, and the U.S. embassy staff abandoned the city and flew to safety. | 4 |
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| Aug |
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| Kampuchea, the name adopted by the Khmer Rouge to refer to the state, signed a cooperation agreement with China, planning to use this as a check on Vietnam's long history of intrusions in Cambodian affairs. | 5 |
| The Khmer Rouge, under the leadership of Pol Pot (pseudonym of Saloth Sar), are believed to have executed tens of thousands once they gained power. Initially, the executions focused on the so-called “exploiting classes”: army officers, civil servants, teachers, and so on. This first wave of executions subsided by mid-1976. | 6 |
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