Prior to the outbreak of the genocide in 1975, the US aggressively bombed Cambodia. President Nixon claimed that the bombing was intended to flush out Vietnamese communists hiding in the Cambodian borderlands and disrupt supply lines.

In reality, this attack hurt and killed up to 150,000 Cambodian civilians and reached deep into the country. In total, between 1969 and 1973, more than half a million tons (1 billion pounds) of munitions descended on rural Cambodia. In 1973 alone, the US dropped a quarter of a million tons of bombs on Cambodia in just 6 months. This was one-and-a-half times as many explosives unleashed on Japan during the whole of the Second World War.

This map identifies 115, 273 bombing sites.

Key: Red dots signify bombing sites, orange lines identify provinces in Cambodia.

This image identifies 158 prisons used by the Khmer Rouge during the genocide. S-21, also known as Tuol Sleng, is the most notorious example of the Khmer Rouge prison and interrogation center. Between 14,000 and 17,000 prisoners were sent there and only 12 are thought to have survived.

Key: black rectangle is a prison

In the aftermath of genocide, memorials play an important role in preserving history, honoring victims, and more. This map indicates 76 sites of post-1979 memorials to the victims of the Khmer Rouge.

The following map identifies 309 DK mass-grave sites (including 258 estimated to each contain six or more bodies; 125 sites, 1,000 or more; 27 sites, 10,000 bodies or more; and 7 sites, 30-70,000 each); in an estimated total of 19,000 mass graves. Each yellow dot represents the cost of genocide, the loss of life. Some of the victims buried at these sites were murdered outright, others died slower deaths caused by the inhumane conditions enforced by the perpetrators.

Key: Yellow dots signify burial sites.