The events in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 both invite and defy comparison. When held against particular aspects of the policy of extermination and annihilation (Ausrottungsund Vernichtungspolitik) of the Third Reich, not only the strikingly different cultural context but also the deviant political developments (providing the external conditions of the Khmers Rouges atrocities) appear to impede any direct comparisons. Because the atrocities committed in Democratic Kampuchea require specific elaboration and elucidation, attempts have been made to place the violence of the Khmers Rouges within the same category as other revolutions that have distinguished themselves by an exorbitant amount of bloodshed. Moreover, the heavy American bombardments of 1973 are sometimes evoked to describe the disposition on the part of the Khmers Rouges to resort to unrestricted violence after 1975. However,