The Khmer Rouge seize control of Phnom Penh.

The Khmer Rouge are overthrown by the Vietnamese military. Pol Pot and his top aides flee to Cambodia’s “Wild West” border with Thailand. Cvil war erupts and a massive refugee crisis ensues.

“The Killing Fields,” a Roland Joffe film starring Haing Ngor as “The New York Times” reporter Dith Pran is released.

Haing Ngor wins the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Dith Pran.

After 10 years of occupation, Vietnam withdraws from Cambodia. The conflict risked becoming such a quagmire it was dubbed “Vietnam’s ‘Vietnam.’”

The Berlin Wall falls. The East-West stalemate that saw Cambodia used as a proxy-war for the big powers has crumbled. The international community turns its attention toward “fixing” long-neglected Cambodia.

Cambodia’s four warring factions - including the Khmer Rouge - sign the Paris Peace Accords, ushering a massive United Nations peacekeeping mission into Cambodia.

The Khmer Rouge pull out of the peace deal. This will eventually be seen as a gross strategic miscalculation on their part.

The UN-supervised elections are hailed as a massive success.

Cambodia begins to form its new government. The only hitch? Incumbent Prime Minister Hun Sen refuses to step down. The UN cobbles together a compromise: election winner, Prince Norodom Ranariddh is the First Prime Minister; Hun Sen is the Second Prime Minister.

United Nations peacekeepers withdraw from Cambodia, once again heralding their $2 billion mission a success.

Second PM Hun Sen overthrows Prince Ranariddh in a coup-d’état.

Hun Sen overturned the results of the Cambodia’s first ever democratic election - and its a $2 billion price tag.

With compassion fatigue setting in, the UN, ASEAN, EU and the rest of the international community go through the motions of objecting. But ultimately - they collectively shrug.

Haing Ngor is murdered in Los Angeles in what authorities call a robbery gone wrong.

Journalist Nate Thayer “finds” Pol Pot - the first outsider to see him since 1978.
The Khmer Rouge put Pol Pot on “trial” in their stronghold, Anlong Vent - a gambit intended to help the Khmer Rouge maneuver their way back into mainstream Cambodian politics.

Pol Pot dies in Anlong Veng, a Khmer Rouge stronghold. It was later confirmed to be a suicide, assisted by his wife.

Kaing Guek Euv, also known as “Duch”, testifies before Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge tribunal that Pol Pot ordered the murder of Haing Ngor.