Khmer nationalism One of the regime's main characteristics was its Khmer nationalism, which combined an idealisation of the Angkor Empire (802–1431) and the Late Middle Period of Cambodia (1431–1863) with an existential fear for the survival of the Cambodian state, which had historically been liquidated during periods of Vietnamese and Siamese intervention. The spillover of Vietnamese fighters from the Vietnamese–American War further aggravated anti-Vietnamese sentiments: the Khmer Republic under Lon Nol, overthrown by the Khmer Rouge, had promoted Mon-Khmer nationalism and was responsible for several anti-Vietnamese pogroms during the 1970s.Jordens in Heder and Ledgerwood (eds) (1995) Propaganda, Politics and Violence in Cambodia, M. E. Sharpe, p. 134. Some historians such as Ben Kiernan have stated that the importance the regime gave to race overshadowed its conceptions of class.
Khmer nationalism One of the regime's main characterist:ics was its Khmer nationalism, which combined an idealisation of the Angkor Empire (802–1431) and the Late Middle Period of Cambodia (1431–1863) with an existential fear for the survival of the Cambodian state, which had historically been liquidated during periods of Vietnamese and Siamese intervention. The spillover of Vietnamese fighters from the Vietnamese–American War further aggravated anti-Vietnamese sentiments the Khmer Republic under Lon Nol, overthrown by the Khmer Rouge, had promoted Mon-Khmer nationalism and was responsible for several anti-Vietnamese pogroms during the 1970s.Jordens in Heder and Ledgerwood (eds) (1995) Propaganda, Politics and Violence in Cambodia, M. E. Sharpe, p. 134. Some historians such as Ben Kiernan have stated that the importance the regime gave to race overshadowed its conceptions of class.