The Khmer Rouge maintained control by mass public tortures and executions. Families were separated by sending men. women and children into various labor camps. scattered throughout that country. Famine and disease were epidemic between April of 1975 and January of 1979. Cambodians watched hundreds of thousands of their loved ones die by starvation and thousands more by torture. When the Khmer Rouge was overthrown in 1979 by Vietnamese troops. thousands of Cambodians fled to nearby refugee camps in Thailand and to camps in the Philippines and Indonesia. As many as 145.000plus courageous Cambodians made their way to the United States. With the assistance of the Federal Government.