Who was pol pot?

According to Encyclopedia of World Biography, Pol Pot

was a key figure in the Cambodian Communist movement, becoming premier of
government of Democratic Kampuchea (DK) from 1976 to 1979. He directed the
mass killing of intellectuals, professional people, city dwellers perhaps one-fifth of
his own people.1 Based on an article namely Pol Pot, Butcher of Cambodia, his
name is synonymous with horror.2 He was a dictator who caused deaths of more than
one million people in Cambodia.3 People who were killed during his brutal regime
were buried in mass graves that became known as killing fields. 4
Pol Pot was born on 19 May 1925 as Saloth Sar. He was born at Kampung
Thong located in the central Cambodia, which was then part of French Indochina. He
was the second son in his family. His family was a conservative, prosperous and
influential small landowner. Based on the Encyclopedia, his father had social and
political connection at the royal court at the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. Pol
Pot constantly denied that he was Saloth Sar.
This circumstances occur because of a few reasons. Firstly, his family and
educational background contravened with Communist proletarian perceptions.
Secondly, his tactical and organization skills s seemed to have flourished best in an
atmosphere of extreme secrecy. Uncertainty regarding his identity still becoming
widespread even after he had become premier of the victorious Communist
Democratic Kampuchea (DK) regime on April 5 1976 in Phnom Penh.
"Pol Pot." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Retrieved November 11, 2015
from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404705193.html
1

Kallie Szczepanski. Pol Pot, Butcher of Cambodia. Retrieved November 11, 2015
from about.com: http://asianhistory.about.com/od/cambodia/p/Pol-Pot-Biography.htm
2

Extracted from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/pot_pol.shtml

Pol Pot was leader of the Khmer Rouge, a communist regime that ruled Cambodia
between 1975 and 1979, and caused the deaths of more than one million people.
3

An estimated 1.5 million people living in Cambodia were killed during the brutal
regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Their bodies were buried in mass graves that
became known as killing fields.- http://www.history.com/topics/pol-pot
4

Pol Pot early education was started in a Buddhist monastery and a private
Catholic institution in Phnom Penh and then enrolled at a technical school in the
provincial quiet and security of the town of Kompong Cham to learn carpentry. At the
age of 20 he gained opportunity to further his stud to Paris on a scholarship to study
radio and electrical technology. Unfortunately, he became absorbed in Marxism and
he ignored his studies. He started losing his focus on his study when he participated
in Marxist Circle which has been conquer by the Khmer Students Association in Paris.
Apart from that, he also involved in French Communist Party (PCF) which idolized
the uneducated rural peasantry as the true proletariat.
As a result of his remissness towards his studies, he failed and he untitled for
the scholarship. Then, he returned to Cambodia in 1953. Upon his returned, he tried
to search on the various anti-government rebel group for the PCF. Then, the Khmer
Viet Minh was reported as the most effective group. In 1954, Cambodia was fully
free from France was then led by a royal monarchy. Saloth Sar get married to a
teacher, Khieu Ponnary on July 14, 1956. Then, he worked as a lecturer in French
history and literature at Chamraon Vichea Collage.
Based on information derived from encyclopedia world of Biography, Pol
Pot, Tou Samouth, Leng Sary and a handful followers were met secretly in a room of
the Phnom Penh railroad station to found the Workers Party of Kampuchea (WPK)
on September 28, 1960. Samouth was given the position as secretary general and Pol
Pot became one of three Politburo member. However, Pol pot flourished Samouth as
party secretary on the WPKs second congress that was held on February 20, 1963.
The latter had disappeared on july 20, 1963 mysteriously. Then he was reported that
he has been killed. Whether Pol Pot was involved in Samouths murder remains
uncertain.
For the next 13 years, Pol Pot and other frontline of WPK team virtually
disappeared. They set up their main party base camp in the remote area in the forest
located at Ratanakiri. During the period, Pol Pot merging his own leadership position
in the party and successfully contested Pro-Hanoi element in the anti-Sihanouk
resistance. But, at this time, he became more careful in avoiding open breach with the

Vietnamese Communists. who were consolidating their hold on the Ho Chi Minh trial
and adjacent pockets of Cambodian Territory. On the other hand, a 1965 visit by Pol
pot to Hanoi designed to win acceptance as top party leader was hidden in mutual
mistrust. He extended stay in Beijing in the same year and remained in China for
about seven months, during which time he likely received ideological and
organizational schooling. Pol pots pro-Chinese orientation were reported to become
more pronounced upon his return to Cambodia in September 1966. Then WPK
changed its name to Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK).
Then, CPK instigated demonstrations against the Sihanouk regime now
steadily mounted. The Sihanouks blanket denunciation and execution of scores of
what his government termed the Khmer Rouge that also known as red Khmers
solidified the CPK-led opposition. Meanwhile, it made that opposition appears more
formidable than the actual circumstances. Pol Pot and other important man in CPK
again visited Hanoi and Beijing in December 1969 and January 1970, obviously for
the purposed of preparation for a final drive against the Sihanouk regime.
Nevertheless, the drive was pre-empted as on march 18 1970, a right-wing takeover
Phnom Penh ousted Sihanouk and bringing Lon Nol to the Cambodian presidency
Even though some CPK members and other Communist Praheachon resistance
leaders including Pol Pots colleague the future DK president Khieu Sampan- rallied
to Sihanouks call for united front against Lon Nol, Pol pot decided to remained aloof.
After Sihanouks fall, Hanoi started infiltrating some 1,000 Vietnamese-trained
Cambodian Communists into Cambodia. However, on orders of Pol Pot most of these
were identified and quickly killed. Despite this action and clashes with Pol Pots
followers in Kampong Chom, Hanoi dodged rupture in the interest of winning first a
decisive Communist victory throughout Indochina.
Pol Pot has been re-elected as secretary general and commander of its
Revolutionary Army in the new CPK Congress that has been held in mid-September
1971. Conflicts between Hanoi and Pol Pot became worst when CPK disagreed with
Vietnamese to negotiate with the Lon Nol regime and the United States as
Vietnamese-U. S. the discussions took place in Paris. In keeping with the Paris

Accords, the Vietnamese left some of their Cambodian Encampments in the early
months of 1973. But, CPK Revolutionary Army units quickly took their place as
Pol Pot further strengthened his power base. Clashes between Lon Nol's forces and
Pol Pot's guerrillas, as well as new "Revolutionary Army" raids on pro-Hanoi
Cambodian resistance units and on followers of Sihanouk's coalition refugee
government sustained. However, in 1974, in letters to Hanoi and Vietnamese party
leaders and in public messages, Pol Pot declared his friendship and gratitude.
The CPK and Pol Pot managed to establish hegemony over the capital when
Phnom Penh fell to several Communist Cambodian and Sihanoukist faction on 17
April 1975. Whereas, fighting between Pol Pots Revolutionary Army and
Vietnamese troops in disputed border territories and on islands in the Gulf of Thailand
still continued. Pol Pot apologized for his troops faulty map reading at a meeting
with Vietnamese representatives along the border in early June 1975. Unfortunately,
the action failed to stop the conflict that happened between Pol Pot and his associates
and the Vietnamese. In order to suggest a friendship treaty, Pol Pot once again went
to Hanoi.
Almost a year Pol Pot and the other Cambodian Communists, as well as the
embattled Norodom Sihanouk struggled for power in the newly proclaimed state of
Democratic Kampuchea. Pol Pots position as secretary general had been
reaffirmed in another CPK party congress on January 1976. Apart from that, the
congress also revealed emergent leadership rifts between Pol Pot and some outlying
zone organizations of the party. Relationship with Hanoi continued to the terrible
condition.
On 14 April 1976 after CPK-controlled elections for a new peoples
Representative Assembly and the resignation as head of State of Sihanouk, a new
DK government was announced. Pol Pot became premier after he had been officially
elected to the assembly as a delegate of a rubber workers organization.
Nevertheless, his power still was being disputed by Hanoi-influenced party
cadres and rival party zone leaders. Beginning in November 1976, Pol Pot
accelerated extensive purges of rivals, it involved cabinet minister and other top party

leaders. Its significant impact was repeated outbursts of turmoil in Kampong Thom
and Oddar Meanchey.
In the meantime, the wrath of Pol Pots social and economic reform policies
was carried out by the mystery-shrouded Angka or inner party organization, finally,
they aimed to make his name tantamount with one of the modern worlds worst
holocausts. 5The circumstances occur when power was in Pol Pots hand. He initiated
a radical experiment to create an agrarian utopia inspired in part by Mao Zedongs
Cultural Revolution which he had seen first-hand during a visit to Communist China.
He started his strategy by declaring, This is Year Zero, and that society was about to
be Purified. Capitalism, Western culture, city life, religion, and all foreign
influences were to be extinguished or demolished in favour of an extreme form of
peasant Communism.
In order to execute the plan, all foreigners were thus expelled, embassies
closed and all assistance from foreign in term of economic and medical was refused.
In addition, the use of foreign languages was also banned. Newspapers and television
stations were shut down. Radios and bicycles seized, mail and telephone usage
curtailed. Money was prohibited. All businesses were shuttered, religion banned,
education halted, health care eliminated, and parental authority revoked. As a result,
Cambodia was sealed off from the outside world.6 All the cities in Cambodias were
then forcibly evacuated, At Phnom Penh, two million people were evacuated on foot
into the countryside at gunpoint, eventually, as many as 20,000 died along the way.
Millions of Cambodian accustomed to city life were now force to be slave labour in
Pol Pots killing fields. They died because of overwork, malnutrition, disease and
starvation.

"Pol Pot." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Retrieved November 11, 2015
from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404705193.html
5

Based on article Genocide in the 20th century: Pol Pot in Cambodia 1975-1979
2,000,000 Deaths http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/polpot.htm
6

More than that, his cruel regime killed more and more innocent people up to
20,000 persons were tortured into giving false confessions at Tuol Sleng, a school that
had been converted into jail. Elsewhere, suspects were often shot immediately before
any questioning. The minority ethnic group were attack by the Khmer Rouge. Fifty
percent of the estimated 425,000 Chinese living in Cambodia in 1975 perished. In
addition, Khmer Rouge also forced Muslims to eat pork and shot those who declined.
Vietnam launched a full- scale invasion of Cambodia seeking to the end
Khmer Rouge border attacks on December 25 1978. On January 7, 1979 they
managed to take over Phnom Penh and Pol Pot was ousted. Then, the Vietnamese
installed a puppet government to detect Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot retreated into
Thailand with the leftovers of his Khmer Rouge army and initiated a guerrilla war
against a succession of Cambodian governments lasting over the next 17 years. After
a series of internal power struggles in 1990s, lastly he lost power over Khmer Rouge.
The death of this butcher was reported in April 1998 at the age of 73. His cause of
death was heart attack following his arrest. Before he could be brought to trial by an
international tribunal for the events of 1975-79.7 Pol Pot was born to be a great
leader, however he misused his great potential and became cruel to his own people
and caused a lot of death. Pol Pot will have remained as a nightmare to people in
Cambodia.

Based on http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/pol-pot.htm

References
"Pol Pot." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Retrieved November 11, 2015 from
Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404705193.html
Pol Pot. Retrieved November 11, 2015 from http://www.history.com/topics/pol-pot
Genocide in the 20th century: Pol Pot in Cambodia 1975-1979 2,000,000 Deaths. The
History Place. 1999. Retrieved November 11, 2015 from
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/pol-pot.htm
Pol Pot (1925-1998). Retrieved November 11, 2015 from BBC website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/pot_pol.shtml
Kallie Szczepanski. Pol Pot, Butcher of Cambodia. Retrieved November 11, 2015 from
about.com: http://asianhistory.about.com/od/cambodia/p/Pol-Pot-Biography.htm