Saloth Sar "Pol Pot"
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea
In office 1963 – 1979
Preceded by	Tou Samouth
Succeeded by	None (party dissolved)
Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia)
In office May 13, 1975 – January 7, 1979
Preceded by	Khieu Samphan
Succeeded by	Pen Sovan
Born	May 19, 1925(1925-05-19) Kampong Thum Province, Cambodia
Died	April 15, 1998 (aged 72) Cambodia
Political party	Khmer Rouge
Spouse	Khieu Ponnary (deceased) Mea Son

Saloth Sar (May 19, 1925 – April 15, 1998), also known as Pol Pot, was the leader of the communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge. The Communist Party of Kampuchea was a Communist party in Cambodia. List of Heads of Government of Cambodia (1945-Present Protectorate of Cambodia (1945-1949 King Norodom Sihanouk ( 18 March Events 1497 - Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola. Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1325 - Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal. 1558 - France takes Calais, the last continental Year 1979 ( MCMLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1979 Gregorian calendar) Khieu Samphan (born July 27 1931) was the president of the state presidium of Democratic Kampuchea ( Cambodia) from 1976 until 1979 Pen Sovan (born 1936) was the first Prime Minister of the Hanoi -backed People's Republic of Kampuchea. Events 1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships 110 men and Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Kampong Thom is a province of Cambodia. Its capital is Kampong Thom, a picturesque town on the banks of the Stung Saen river The Kingdom of Cambodia ( formerly known as Kampuchea (, transliterated: Preăh Réachéanachâkr Kâmpŭchea) is a country in South East Events 1450 - Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years' War, the French attack and nearly annihilate English Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) The Kingdom of Cambodia ( formerly known as Kampuchea (, transliterated: Preăh Réachéanachâkr Kâmpŭchea) is a country in South East The Khmer Rouge (ខ្មែរក្រហម Kmae Krɑhɑɑm was the Communist ruling political party of Cambodia &mdashwhich it renamed Khieu Ponnary ( 1920 - 1 July 2003) was the first wife of Pol Pot, sister of Khieu Thirith and sister-in-law to Ieng Sary Events 1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships 110 men and Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1450 - Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years' War, the French attack and nearly annihilate English Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based The Khmer Rouge (ខ្មែរក្រហម Kmae Krɑhɑɑm was the Communist ruling political party of Cambodia &mdashwhich it renamed He was the Prime Minister of Cambodia (officially renamed Democratic Kampuchea under his rule) from 1976 to 1979, having been de facto leader since mid-1975. This article is about the government position For other uses see Prime Minister (disambiguation. The Kingdom of Cambodia ( formerly known as Kampuchea (, transliterated: Preăh Réachéanachâkr Kâmpŭchea) is a country in South East Democratic Kampuchea (កម្ពុជាប្រជាធិបតេយ្យ (Kampuchéa Démocratique Vietnamese: Kampuchea Dân chủ) was a During his time in power Pol Pot imposed a version of agrarian collectivization whereby city dwellers were relocated to the countryside to work in collective farms and forced labor projects with the goal of restarting civilization in "Year Zero". Agrarianism is a social and Political philosophy which stresses the viewpoint that the cultivation of plants or Farming leads to a fuller and happier life The term Year Zero, applied to the takeover of Cambodia in 1975 by the Khmer Rouge, is an analogy to the Year One of the French Revolutionary The combined effect of slave labour, malnutrition, poor medical care and executions had an estimated death toll of 750,000 to 1. 7 million (approximately 26% of the population at that time). ^[1]

In 1979, he fled into the jungles of southwest Cambodia after an invasion by neighboring Vietnam, which led to the collapse of the Khmer Rouge government. Vietnam (ˌviːɛtˈnɑːm Việt Nam) officially In 1997, Pol Pot was overthrown and imprisoned by other Khmer Rouge leaders. He died in 1998 while under house arrest.

Biography

Early life (1925-1961)

Pol Pot was born in Prek Sbauv in Kampong Thom Province in 1925 to a moderately wealthy family of Chinese-Khmer descent. Prek Sbauv is a small fishing village alongside the Sen River in northeastern Cambodia. Kampong Thom is a province of Cambodia. Its capital is Kampong Thom, a picturesque town on the banks of the Stung Saen river The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following A person who resides in and holds citizenship of the People's Republic of China (including Hong The Khmer people are the predominant Ethnic group in Cambodia, accounting for approximately 90% of the 14 ^[2][3] In 1935, he left Prek Sbauv to attend the École Miche, a Catholic school in Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh ( Khmer: ភ្នំពេញ official Romanization Phnum Pénh; pʰnum pɯɲ is the Capital As his sister Roeung was a concubine of the king, he often visited the royal palace. Concubinage is the state of a woman or youth in an ongoing quasi-matrimonial relationship with a man of higher social status In 1947, he gained admission to the exclusive Lycée Sisowath but was unsuccessful in his studies. His future first wife, Khieu Ponnary, her sister, (née Khieu Thirith) Ieng Thirith and Khieu's future husband, Ieng Sary also attended the Lycée. Khieu Ponnary ( 1920 - 1 July 2003) was the first wife of Pol Pot, sister of Khieu Thirith and sister-in-law to Ieng Sary Ieng Thirith (born 1932 Battambang Province was a member of the Khmer Rouge Central Committee Ieng Sary (born October 24, 1925, Loeung Va Tra Vinh) was a powerful figure in the Khmer Rouge.

After switching to a technical school at Russey Keo, north of Phnom Penh, he qualified for a scholarship that allowed for technical study in France. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. He studied radioelectricity at the EFR in Paris from 1949 to 1953. EFREI ( École d'Ingénieurs des Technologies de l'Information et du Management) (lit Engineering School of Information Technologies and Management) is a French Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city He also participated in an international labour brigade building roads in Yugoslavia in 1950. After the Soviet Union recognized the Viet Minh as the government of Vietnam in 1950, French Communists (PCF) took up the cause of Vietnam's independence. The Việt Minh (abbreviated from Việt Nam Ðộc Lập Ðồng Minh Hội, English "League for the Independence of Vietnam" was a National liberation The French Communist Party ( French: Parti communiste français or PCF) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of The PCF's anti-colonialism attracted many young Cambodians, including Pol Pot. Anti-imperialism, strictly speaking is a term that may be applied to or movement opposed to some form of Imperialism. In 1951, he joined a communist cell in a secret organization known as the Cercle Marxiste which had taken control of the Khmer Student's Association (AER) that same year. Within a few months, Pol Pot also joined the PCF. Historian Philip Short has said that Pol Pot's poor academic record was a considerable advantage within the anti-intellectual PCF, who saw uneducated peasants as the true proletariat and helped him to quickly establish a leadership role for himself among the Cercle Marxiste.

As a result of failing his exams in three successive years, he was forced to return to Cambodia in January 1954. He was the first member of the Cercle to return to Cambodia and was given the task of evaluating the various groups rebelling against the government. He recommended the Khmer Viet Minh, and in August 1954, Pol Pot along with Rath Samoeun travelled to the Viet Minh Eastern Zone headquarters in the village of Krabao at the Kompong Cham/Prey Veng border area of Cambodia. Kampong Cham is a province in the east of Cambodia. Its capital is Kampong Cham. Prey Veng is a province of Cambodia. Its capital is Prey Veng.

Pol Pot and the others found that the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP) was little more than a Vietnamese front organization. The Communist Party of Kampuchea was a Communist party in Cambodia. In 1954, the Cambodians at the Eastern Zone Headquarters split into two groups. Due to the Geneva peace accord of 1954 expelling all Viet Minh forces and insurgent, one group followed the Vietnamese back to Vietnam as cadres to be used by Vietnam in a future war to liberate Cambodia. The other group, including Pol Pot, returned to Cambodia.

After Cambodian independence following the 1954 Geneva Conference, right and left wing parties struggled against each other for power in the new government. Archaeological evidence indicates that parts of the region now called Cambodia were inhabited from around 1000-2000 BCE by a Neolithic culture that may have migrated from South Eastern The Geneva Conference ( May 8 – July 21, 1954) was a conference between many countries that agreed to end hostilities and restore Peace in Left-right politics or the Left-right political spectrum is a common way of classifying political positions political ideologies, or political parties King Norodom Sihanouk played the parties against each other while using the police and army to suppress extreme political groups. Names and titles Since his abdication Sihanouk's official Cambodian title (short version the most-widely used is Preah Karuna Preah Bat Sâmdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk Preahmâhaviraksat Corrupt elections in 1955 led many leftists in Cambodia to abandon hope of taking power by legal means. The communist movement, while ideologically committed to armed struggle in these circumstances, did not launch a rebellion because of the weakness of the party. Guerrilla warfare is the unconventional warfare and combat with which a small group of combatants use mobile tactics (ambushes raids etc

After his return to Phnom Penh, Pol Pot became the liaison between the above-ground parties of the left (Democrats and Pracheachon) and the underground communist movement. He married Ponnary on July 14, 1956. Events 1223 - Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father Philip II of France. She returned to Lycee Sisowath but now as a teacher, while he taught French literature and history at Chamraon Vichea, a new private college. ^[4]

The path to rebellion (1962-1968)

In January 1962, the government of Cambodia rounded up most of the leadership of the far-left Pracheachon party ahead of parliamentary elections due in June. The newspapers and other publications of the party were also closed. This event effectively ended any above-ground political role for the communist movement in Cambodia. In July 1962, the underground communist party secretary Tou Samouth was arrested and later killed while in custody. The arrests created a situation where Pol Pot could become the de facto deputy leader of the party. When Ton Samouth was murdered, Pol Pot became the acting leader of the communist party. At a party meeting attended by at most eighteen people in 1963, he was elected Secretary of the central committee of the party. In March 1963, Pol Pot went into hiding after his name was published in a list of leftist suspects put together by the police for Norodom Sihanouk. Names and titles Since his abdication Sihanouk's official Cambodian title (short version the most-widely used is Preah Karuna Preah Bat Sâmdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk Preahmâhaviraksat He fled to the Vietnamese border region and made contact with Vietnamese units fighting against South Vietnam. "RVN" redirects here RVN is also the former callsign of a TV station in Wagga Wagga New South Wales Australia

In early 1964, Pol Pot convinced the Vietnamese to help the Cambodian Communists set up their own base camp. The central committee of the party met later that year and issued a declaration calling for armed struggle. The declaration also emphasized the idea of "self-reliance" in the sense of extreme Cambodian nationalism. The term nationalism can refer to an Ideology, a sentiment, a form of Culture, or a Social movement that focuses on the Nation In the border camps, the ideology of the Khmer Rouge was gradually developed. The party, breaking with Marxism, declared rural peasant farmers to be the true working class proletarian and the lifeblood of the revolution. Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. This is in some sense explained by the fact that none of the central committee were in any sense "working class". All of them had grown up in a feudal peasant society. Feudalism, a term first used in the early modern period (17th century in its most classic sense refers to a Medieval Europe Political system composed The party adapted elements of Theravada Buddhism to justify their non-standard communism. History Origin of the school The Theravāda school is ultimately derived from the Vibhajjavāda (or 'doctrine of analysis' grouping which was a continuation Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices

After another wave of repression by Sihanouk in 1965, the Khmer Rouge movement under Pol Pot rapidly grew. Many teachers and students left the cities for the countryside to join the movement.

In April 1965, Pol Pot went to North Vietnam to gain approval for an uprising in Cambodia against the government. North Vietnam refused to support any uprising because of agreements being negotiated with the Cambodian government. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN or less commonly Vietnamese Democratic Republic (Việt Nam Dân Chủ Cộng Hòa was a Country on the northern half of Vietnam Sihanouk promised to allow the Vietnamese to use Cambodian territory and Cambodian ports in their war against South Vietnam.

After returning to Cambodia in 1966, Pol Pot organized a party meeting where a number of important decisions were made. The party was officially but secretly renamed the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK). The Communist Party of Kampuchea was a Communist party in Cambodia. Lower ranks of the party were not informed of the decision. It was also decided to establish command zones and prepare each region for an uprising against the government.

In early 1966 fighting broke out in the countryside between peasants and the government over the price paid for rice. Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge was caught by surprise by the uprisings and was unable to take any real advantage of them. But the government's refusal to find a peaceful solution to the problem created rural unrest that played into the hands of the Communist movement.

It wasn't until early 1967 that Pol Pot decided to launch a national uprising, even after North Vietnam refused to assist it in any real way. The uprising was launched on January 18, 1968 with a raid on an army base south of Battambang. Events 350 - Generallus Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans and proclaims himself Emperor Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Battambang (pronounced /bɐtdəmbɒŋ/ (the Siamese name was Phratabong founded during the height of the Khmer empire in the 11th The Battambang area had already seen two years of great peasant unrest. The attack was driven off by the army, but the Khmer Rouge had captured a number of weapons, which were then used to drive police forces out of Cambodian villages.

By the summer of 1968, Pol Pot began the transition from a party leader working with a collective leadership into the absolutist leader of the Khmer Rouge movement. Where before he had shared communal quarters with other leaders, he now had his own compound with a personal staff and a troop of guards. Outsiders were no longer allowed to approach him. Rather, people were summoned into his presence by his staff.

The path to power (1969-1975)

The movement was estimated to consist of no more than 1500 regulars, but the core of the movement was supported by a number of villagers many times that size. While weapons were in short supply, the insurgency was still able to operate in twelve of nineteen districts of Cambodia. In the middle of the year Pol Pot called a party conference and decided on a change in propaganda strategy. Up to 1969, the Khmer Rouge had been very anti-Sihanouk. Opposition to Sihanouk was at the center of their propaganda. Names and titles Since his abdication Sihanouk's official Cambodian title (short version the most-widely used is Preah Karuna Preah Bat Sâmdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk Preahmâhaviraksat But it was decided at the conference to shift the party's propaganda to be against the right-wing parties of Cambodia and their supposed pro-American attitudes. The party ceased to be anti-Sihanouk in public statements, but in private the party had not changed its view of him.

The road to power for Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge was opened by the events of January 1970 in Cambodia. Sihanouk, while out of the country, ordered the government to stage anti-Vietnamese protests in the capital. The protesters quickly went out of control and wrecked the embassies of both North and South Vietnam. Sihanouk, who had ordered the protests, then denounced them from Paris and blamed unnamed individuals in Cambodia for them. These actions, along with intrigues by Sihanouk's followers in Cambodia, convinced the government that he should be removed as head of state. Head of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a Monarchic or Republican Nation-state The National Assembly voted to remove Sihanouk from office. Afterward, the government closed Cambodia's ports to Vietnamese weapons traffic and demanded that the Vietnamese leave Cambodia.

The North Vietnamese reacted to the political changes in Cambodia by sending Premier Phạm Văn Đồng to meet Sihanouk in China and recruit him into an alliance with the Khmer Rouge. Phạm Văn Đồng ( March 1, 1906 – April 29, 2000) was an associate of Hồ Chí Minh. Pol Pot was also contacted by the Vietnamese who now offered him whatever resources he wanted for his insurgency against the Cambodian government. An insurgency is a violent internal uprising against a sovereign government that lacks the organization of a revolution Pol Pot and Sihanouk were actually in Beijing at the same time but the Vietnamese and Chinese leaders never informed Sihanouk of the presence of Pol Pot or allowed the two men to meet. Shortly after, Sihanouk issued an appeal by radio to the people of Cambodia to rise up against the government and support the Khmer Rouge. In May 1970, Pol Pot finally returned to Cambodia and the pace of the insurgency greatly increased.

Earlier, on March 29, 1970, the Vietnamese had taken matters into their own hands and launched an offensive against the Cambodian army. Events 1461 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton - Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Year 1970 ( MCMLXX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A force of 40,000 Vietnamese quickly overran large parts of eastern Cambodia reaching to within 15 miles (24 km) of Phnom Penh before being pushed back. Phnom Penh ( Khmer: ភ្នំពេញ official Romanization Phnum Pénh; pʰnum pɯɲ is the Capital In these battles the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot played a very small role.

In October 1970, Pol Pot issued a resolution in the name of the Central Committee. The resolution stated the principle of independence mastery which was a call for Cambodia to decide its own future independent of the influence of any other country. The resolution also included statements describing the betrayal of the Cambodian Communist movement in the 1950s by the Viet Minh. This was the first statement of the anti-Vietnamese/self sufficiency at all costs ideology that would be a part of the Pol Pot regime when it took power years later.

Through 1971, the Vietnamese (North Vietnamese and Viet Cong) did most of the fighting against the Cambodian government while Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge functioned almost as auxiliaries to their forces. Pol Pot took advantage of the situation to gather in new recruits and to train them to a higher standard than previously was possible. Pol Pot also put resources of Khmer Rouge organizations into political education and indoctrination. While accepting anyone regardless of background into the Khmer Rouge army at this time, Pol Pot greatly increased the requirements for membership in the party. Students and so-called middle peasants were now rejected by the party. Those with clear peasant backgrounds were the preferred recruits for party membership. These restrictions were ironic in that most of the senior party leadership including Pol Pot came from student and middle peasant backgrounds. They also created an intellectual split between the educated old guard party members and the uneducated peasant new party members.

In early 1972, Pol Pot toured the insurgent/Vietnamese controlled areas and Cambodia. He saw a regular Khmer Rouge army of 35,000 men taking shape supported by around 100,000 irregulars. Irregular military refers to any non-standard military Being defined by exclusion there is a lot of variance in what comes under the term China was supplying five million dollars a year in weapons and Pol Pot had organized an independent revenue source for the party in the form of rubber plantations in eastern Cambodia using forced labor.

After a central committee meeting in May 1972, the party under the direction of Pol Pot began to enforce new levels of discipline and conformity in areas under their control. Minorities such as the Chams were forced to conform to Cambodian styles of dress and appearance. The Cham people ( Vietnamese: người Chăm or người Chàm) are an ethnic group in Southeast Asia. These policies, such as forbidding the Chams from wearing jewelry, were soon extended to the whole population. A haphazard version of land reform was undertaken by Pol Pot. Land reforms (also Agrarian reform, though that can have a broader meaning is an often- controversial alteration in the societal arrangements whereby government Its basis was that all land holdings should be of uniform size. The party also confiscated all private means of transportation at this time. The 1972 policies were aimed at reducing the peoples of the liberated areas to a sort of feudal peasant equality. These policies were generally favorable at the time to poor peasants and extremely unfavorable to refugees from towns who had fled to the countryside.

In 1972, the Vietnamese army forces began to withdraw from the fighting against the Cambodian government. Pol Pot issued a new set of decrees in May 1973 which started the process of reorganizing peasant villages into cooperatives where property was jointly owned and individual possessions banned.

The Khmer Rouge advanced during 1973. After they reached the edges of Phnom Penh, Pol Pot issued orders during the peak of the rainy season that the city be taken. The orders led to futile attacks and wasted lives among the Khmer Rouge army. By the middle of 1973, the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot controlled almost two-thirds of the country and half the population. Vietnam realized that it no longer controlled the situation and began to treat Pol Pot as more of an equal leader than a junior partner.

In late 1973, Pol Pot made strategic decisions about the future of the war. His first decision was to cut the capital off from contact from outside supply and effectively put the city under siege. The second decision was to enforce tight command on people trying to leave the city through the Khmer Rouge lines. The city people were considered like a disease that needed to be contained so that it would not infect areas run by the Khmer Rouge. He also ordered a series of general purges. In History and Political science, to purge is to remove people considered by the group in power to be "undesirable" from a Government, Political Former government officials, along with anyone with an education, were singled out in the purges. A set of new prisons was also constructed in Khmer Rouge run areas. The Cham minority attempted an uprising around this time against attempts to destroy their culture. While the uprising was quickly crushed, Pol Pot ordered that harsh physical torture be used against most of those involved in the revolt. As previously, Pol Pot tested out harsh new policies against the Cham minority before extending them to the general population of the country.

The Khmer Rouge also had a policy of evacuating urban areas to the countryside. When the Khmer Rouge took the town of Kratie in 1971, Pol Pot and other members of the party were shocked at how fast the liberated urban areas shook off socialism and went back to the old ways. Various ideas were tried to re-create the town in the image of the party, but nothing worked. In 1973, out of total frustration, Pol Pot decided that the only solution was to send the entire population of the town to the fields in the countryside. He wrote at the time "if the result of so many sacrifices was that the capitalists remain in control, what was the point of the revolution?". Shortly after, Pol Pot ordered the evacuation of the 15,000 people of Kompong Cham for the same reasons. The Khmer Rouge then moved on in 1974 to evacuate the larger city of Oudong.

Internationally, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were able to gain the recognition of 63 countries as the true government of Cambodia. A move was made at the United Nations to give the seat for Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge. The government prevailed by two votes.

In September 1974, Pol Pot gathered the central committee of the party together. As the military campaign was moving toward a conclusion, Pol Pot decided to move the party toward implementing a socialist transformation of the country in the form of a series of decisions. The first one was that after their victory, the main cities of the country would be evacuated with the population moved to the countryside. The second was that money would cease to be put into circulation and quickly be phased out. The final decision was the party's acceptance of Pol Pot's first major purge. In 1974, Pol Pot had purged a top party official named Prasith. Prasith was taken out into a forest and shot without any chance to defend himself. His death was followed by a purge of cadres who, like Prasith, were ethnically Thai. The Thai (or Tai) are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries Pol Pot offered as explanation that the class struggle had become acute and that a strong stand had to be made against the enemies of the party. Class struggle is the active expression of Class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective

The Khmer Rouge were positioned for a final offensive against the government in January 1975. At the same time at a press event in Beijing, Sihanouk proudly announced Pol Pot's "death list" of enemies to be killed after victory. The list, which originally contained seven names, expanded to twenty-three, including all the senior government leaders along with the military and police leadership. The rivalry between Vietnam and Cambodia also came out into the open. North Vietnam, as the rival socialist country in Indochina, was determined to take Saigon before the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh. Indochina, or the Indochinese Peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. Shipments of weapons from China were delayed and in one instance the Cambodians were forced to sign a humiliating document thanking Vietnam for shipments of what were in fact Chinese weapons.

In September 1975, the government formed a Supreme National Council with new leadership, with the aim of negotiating a surrender to the Khmer Rouge. It was headed by Sak Sutsakhan who had studied in France with Pol Pot and was cousin to the Khmer Rouge Deputy Secretary Nuon Chea. Pol Pot's reaction to this was to add the names of everyone involved to his post-victory death list. Government resistance finally collapsed on September 17, 1975. Events 1176 - The Battle of Myriokephalon is fought 1462 - The Battle of Świecino (or Battle of Żarnowiec Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979)

Skulls of Khmer Rouge victims

The Khmer Rouge came to Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975. Phnom Penh ( Khmer: ភ្នំពេញ official Romanization Phnum Pénh; pʰnum pɯɲ is the Capital Events 69 - After the First Battle of Bedriacum, Vitellius becomes Roman Emperor. Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A new government was formed, at first with Khieu Samphan as prime minister and leader of the nation, but since holding an inferior position in the party, Khieu Samphan was obliged to hand Pol Pot the post, confirming him as prime minister and head of government on May 13, consolidating his power and making him de facto dictator of Cambodia. Khieu Samphan (born July 27 1931) was the president of the state presidium of Democratic Kampuchea ( Cambodia) from 1976 until 1979 The Communist Party of Kampuchea was a Communist party in Cambodia. List of Heads of Government of Cambodia (1945-Present Protectorate of Cambodia (1945-1949 King Norodom Sihanouk ( 18 March Events 1497 - Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola. Khieu Samphan was instead made head of state after the abdication of Norodom Sihanouk in January 1976, as the new constitution was adapted and a republic proclaimed. The current title of the Head of State of Cambodia is King.This is a complete list of all Heads of States of Cambodia, both Presidents, Names and titles Since his abdication Sihanouk's official Cambodian title (short version the most-widely used is Preah Karuna Preah Bat Sâmdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk Preahmâhaviraksat
The name of the country was now officially changed to Democratic Kampuchea. The Khmer Rouge tried to impose the concept of "Year Zero" and targeted Buddhist monks, Western-educated intellectuals, educated people in general, people who had contact with Western countries or with Vietnam, the crippled and lame, and the ethnic Chinese, Laotians and Vietnamese. Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices Laos (ˈlɑːoʊs or /ˈlaʊs/ officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a Landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma The Vietnamese people (người Việt or vi ''người Kinh'' are an Ethnic group originating from what is now northern Vietnam and southern China. Some were put in the S-21 camp for interrogation involving torture in cases where a confession was useful to the government. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a museum in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Many others were summarily executed. Confessions forced at S-21 were extracted from prisoners through such methods as removing toenails with pliers, suffocating a prisoner repeatedly, and skinning a person while alive.

Immediately after the fall of Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge began to implement reforms following the concept of "Year Zero" ideology and placed the former king, Norodom Sihanouk, in a purely figurehead role. Names and titles Since his abdication Sihanouk's official Cambodian title (short version the most-widely used is Preah Karuna Preah Bat Sâmdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk Preahmâhaviraksat The Khmer Rouge ordered the complete evacuation of Phnom Penh and all other recently captured major towns and cities. Those leaving were told that the evacuation was due to the threat of severe American bombing and it would last for no more than a few days.

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge had been evacuating captured urban areas for many years, but the evacuation of Phnom Penh was unique in scale. The first operations to evacuate urban areas occurred in 1968 in the Ratanakiri area and were aimed at moving people deeper into Khmer Rouge territory to better control them. From 1971-1973, the motivation changed. Pol Pot and the other senior leaders were frustrated that urban Cambodians were retaining old habits of trade and business. When all other methods had failed, evacuation to the countryside was adopted to solve the problem.

Pol Pot adopted the Maoist idea that peasants were the true working class. Maoism, variably and officially known as Mao Zedong Thought ( is a variant of Marxism derived from the teachings of the late Chinese leader In 1976, people were reclassified as full-rights (base) people, candidates and depositees - so called because they included most of the new people who had been deposited from the cities into the communes. Depositees were marked for destruction. Their rations were reduced to two bowls of rice soup, or "juk" per day. This led to widespread starvation.

The Khmer Rouge leadership boasted over the state-controlled radio that only one or two million people were needed to build the new agrarian communist utopia. Agrarianism is a social and Political philosophy which stresses the viewpoint that the cultivation of plants or Farming leads to a fuller and happier life Utopia is a name for an ideal community taken from the title of a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional Island in the As for the others, as their proverb put it, "To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss. "

Hundreds of thousands of the new people, and later the depositees, were taken out in shackles to dig their own mass graves. A mass grave is a grave containing multiple usually unidentified human corpses Then the Khmer Rouge soldiers beat them to death with iron bars and hoes or buried them alive. A Khmer Rouge extermination prison directive ordered, "Bullets are not to be wasted. " These mass graves are often referred to as The Killing Fields. The Killing Fields were a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime during its rule of the country

The Khmer Rouge also classified by religion and ethnic group. They abolished all religion and dispersed minority groups, forbidding them to speak their languages or to practise their customs. These policies had been implemented in less severe forms for many years prior to the Khmer Rouge's taking power.

According to François Ponchaud's book Cambodia: Year Zero, "Ever since 1972 the guerrilla fighters had been sending all the inhabitants of the villages and towns they occupied into the forest to live and often burning their homes, so that they would have nothing to come back to. " The Khmer Rouge refused offers of humanitarian aid, a decision which proved to be a humanitarian catastrophe: millions died of starvation and brutal government-inflicted overwork in the countryside. Humanitarian aid (also called succour) is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes typically in response to humanitarian crises To the Khmer Rouge, outside aid went against their principle of national self-reliance. An autarky is an economy that is self-sufficient and does not take part in International trade, or severely limits trade with the outside world

Property became collective, and education was dispensed at communal schools. Children were raised on a communal basis. Even meals were prepared and eaten communally. Pol Pot's regime was extremely paranoid. Political dissent and opposition were not permitted. Political dissent refers to any expression designed to convey dissatisfaction with or opposition to the policies of a governing body People were treated as opponents based on their appearance or background. Torture was widespread. Torture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental is intentionally In some instances, throats were slit as prisoners were tied to metal bed frames.

Thousands of politicians and bureaucrats accused of association with previous governments were executed. A bureaucrat is a member of a Bureaucracy, usually within an institution of the Government. Phnom Penh was turned into a ghost city, while people in the countryside were dying of starvation, illnesses, or execution. Starvation (also called inanition) is a severe reduction in Vitamin, Nutrient, and Energy intake and is the most extreme form of

The casualty list from the civil war, Pol Pot's consolidation of power, and the later intervention by Vietnam is disputed. A civil war is a War between a State and domestic political actors that are in control of some part of the territory claimed by the state Different estimates vary from 750,000 to over two million. Credible Western and Eastern sources^[5] put the death toll inflicted by the Khmer Rouge at 1. 6 million. A specific source, such as a figure of 3 million deaths between 1975 and 1979, was given by the People's Republic of Kampuchea. François Ponchaud suggested 2. 3 million—although this includes hundreds of thousands who died prior to the CPK takeover and has been disputed;^[6] the Yale Cambodian Genocide Project^[1] estimates 1. 7 million; Amnesty International estimated 1. Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is a Western based international Non-governmental organization which defines its mission as "to 4 million; and the United States Department of State, 1. 2 million. Khieu Samphan and Pol Pot, who could be expected to give underestimations, cited figures of 1 million and 800,000, respectively.

Pol Pot aligned the country politically with the People's Republic of China and adopted an anti-Soviet line. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES This alignment was more political and practical than ideological. Vietnam was aligned with the Soviet Union so Cambodia aligned with the rival of the Soviet Union and Vietnam in Southeast Asia. China had been supplying the Khmer Rouge with weapons for years before they took power.

In 1976, Sihanouk ceased to be head of state. Some sources say that he was deposed and placed under house arrest. Other sources suggest he resigned. In either case, Sihanouk continued to serve the regime until the end and made the front of the UN security council in New York during the Vietnamese invasion. Pol Pot became the Prime Minister of Cambodia while his colleague Khieu Samphan served as President and official head of state. Khieu Samphan (born July 27 1931) was the president of the state presidium of Democratic Kampuchea ( Cambodia) from 1976 until 1979

In December 1976, Pol Pot issued directives to the senior leadership to the effect that Vietnam was now an enemy. Defenses along the border were strengthened and unreliable deportees were moved deeper into Cambodia. Pol Pot's actions were in response to the Vietnamese Communist Party's fourth Congress which approved a resolution describing Vietnam's special relationship with Laos and Cambodia. It also talked of how Vietnam would forever be associated with the building and defense of the other two countries.

Conflict with Vietnam

Main article: Cambodian-Vietnamese War

In 1977, relations with Vietnam began to fall apart. There were small border clashes in January mostly due to Vietnamese activity on the border. Pol Pot tried to prevent border disputes by sending a team to Vietnam. The negotiations failed which resulted in even more border disputes. On April 30, the Cambodian army, backed by artillery, crossed over into Vietnam. Events 313 - Roman emperor Licinius unifies the entire Eastern Roman Empire under his rule In attempting to explain Pol Pot's behavior, one region-watcher suggested that Cambodia was attempting to intimidate Vietnam, by irrational acts, into respecting or at least fearing Cambodia to the point they would leave the country alone. However, these actions only served to anger the Vietnamese people and government against the Khmer Rouge.

In May 1977, Vietnam sent its air force into Cambodia in a series of raids. In July, Vietnam forced a Treaty of Friendship on Laos which gave Vietnam almost total control over the country. In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge commanders in the Eastern Zone began to tell their men that war with Vietnam was inevitable and that once the war started their goal would be to recover parts of Vietnam, (Khmer Krom) which used to be part of Cambodia, in which its people were struggling to fight for independence from Vietnam. It is not clear whether these statements were the official policy of Pol Pot.

In September 1977, Cambodia launched division-scale raids over the border which once again left a trail of murder and destruction in villages. A division is a large Military unit or formation usually consisting of around ten to thirty thousand soldiers The Vietnamese claimed that around 1,000 people had been killed or injured. Three days after the raid, Pol Pot officially announced the existence of the formerly secret Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and finally announced to the world that the country was a Communist state. In December, after having exhausted all other options, Vietnam sent 50,000 troops into Cambodia in what amounted to a short raid. The raid was meant to be secret. The Vietnamese were defeated and driven back. Upon being defeated, Vietnamese army promised to return with support from Soviet Union. Pol Pot's actions made the operation much more visible than the Vietnamese had intended and created a situation which falsely made Vietnam look weak.

After making one final attempt to negotiate a settlement with Cambodia, Vietnam decided that it had to prepare for a full war. Vietnam also tried to pressure Cambodia through China. However, China's refusal to pressure Cambodia and the flow of weapons from China into Cambodia were both signs that China also intended to act against Vietnam.

In late 1978, in response to threats to its borders and the Vietnamese people, Vietnam invaded Cambodia to overthrow the Khmer Rouge. While Vietnam could justify the invasion on the basis of self-defense, it quickly became clear that Vietnam intended to stay in Cambodia and turn it into a dependent state similar to Laos. Laos (ˈlɑːoʊs or /ˈlaʊs/ officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a Landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma

The Cambodian army was defeated, the regime was toppled and Pol Pot fled to the Thai border area. The Kingdom of Thailand (ˈtaɪlænd ราชอาณาจักรไทย, râːtɕʰa-ʔaːnaːtɕɑ̀k-tʰɑj In January 1979, Vietnam installed a new government under Heng Samrin, composed of Khmer Rouge who had fled to Vietnam to avoid the purges. Heng Samrin (born 1934) is a Cambodian Communist politician Heng was born in Prey Veng province Cambodia Pol Pot eventually regrouped with his core supporters in the Thai border area where he received shelter and assistance. At different times during this period, he was simultaneously located on both sides of the border. The military government of Thailand used the Khmer Rouge as a buffer force to keep the Vietnamese away from the border. The Thai military also made money from the shipment of weapons from China to the Khmer Rouge. Eventually Pol Pot was able to rebuild a small military force in the west of the country with the help of the People's Republic of China. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES The PRC also initiated the Sino-Vietnamese War around this time. The Sino–Vietnamese War, also known as the Third Indochina War, was a brief but bloody border war fought in 1979 between the People's Republic of China (PRC

In the following years, the Vietnamese made attempts to suppress Pol Pot's remaining forces, but never sought to destroy them. Vietnam used the existence of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge forces to justify their continued military occupation of the country. They had no interest in destroying the Khmer Rouge because they were useful to Vietnam's overall plans for Cambodia.

After the Khmer Rouge were driven from power by the Vietnamese in 1979, the United States and other Western powers refused to allow the Vietnamese-backed Cambodian government to take the seat of Cambodia at the United Nations. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The seat, by default, remained in the hands of the Khmer Rouge. These countries considered that however negative allowing the Khmer Rouge to hold on to the seat was, recognizing Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia was worse. Also, representatives of these countries argued that both claimants to the seat were Khmer Rouge governments, due to the fact that Vietnam's Cambodian government was formed from ex-Khmer Rouge cadres.

Aftermath (1979-1998)

The U. S. opposed the Vietnamese military occupation of Cambodia, and in the mid-1980s supported insurgents opposed to the regime of Heng Samrin, approving $5 million in aid to the Khmer People's National Liberation Front of former prime minister Son Sann and the pro-Sihanouk ANS in 1985. The Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF was a political front organized in 1979 in opposition to the Vietnamese installed People's Republic of Kampuchea Son Sann (1911-2000 was a Cambodian politician born in Phnom Penh on October 5 1911 Regardless of this, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge remained the best-trained and most capable of the three insurgent groups who, despite sharply divergent ideologies, had formed the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK) alliance three years earlier. The Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK was a coalition government in exile composed of Norodom Sihanouk's FUNCINPEC party the Party of Democratic Kampuchea China continued to funnel extensive military aid to the Khmer Rouge, and critics of U. S. foreign policy claimed that the U. S. was indirectly sponsoring the Khmer Rouge due to U. S. assistance given the CGDK in keeping control of the United Nations "seat" of Cambodia. ^[7][8][9] The U. S. refused to recognize the Cambodian government installed by the army of Vietnam or to recognize any Cambodian government operating while Cambodia was under the military occupation of Vietnam. In December 1984, the Vietnamese launched a major offensive and overran most of the Khmer Rouge and other insurgent positions.

Pol Pot fled to Thailand where he lived for the next six years. His headquarters was a plantation villa near Trat. He was guarded by Thai Special Unit 838.

Pol Pot officially resigned from the party in 1985, but continued as de facto Khmer Rouge leader and dominant force within the anti-Vietnam alliance. He handed day to day power to Son Sen, his hand-picked successor. Son Sen ( June 12, 1930 &ndash June 10, 1997) was a member of Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea / Opponents of the Khmer Rouge claimed that they were sometimes acting in an inhumane manner in territory controlled by the alliance but none of the forces fighting in Cambodia could be said to have clean hands.

In 1986, his new wife Mea Son gave birth to a daughter named Sitha. Shortly after, Pol Pot moved to China for medical treatment for cancer. He remained there until 1988.

In 1989, Vietnam withdrew from Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge established a new stronghold area in the west near the Thai border and Pol Pot relocated back into Cambodia from Thailand. Pol Pot refused to cooperate with the peace process, and kept fighting the new coalition government. The Khmer Rouge kept the government forces at bay until 1996, when troops started deserting. Several important Khmer Rouge leaders also defected. The government had a policy of making peace with Khmer Rouge individuals and groups after negotiations with the organization as a whole failed. In 1995 Pol Pot experienced a stroke that paralyzed the left side of his body.

Pol Pot ordered the execution of his life-long right-hand man Son Sen on June 10, 1997 for attempting to make a settlement with the government. Events 1190 - Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the Sally River while leading an army to Jerusalem Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar Eleven members of his family were killed also, although Pol Pot later denied that he had ordered this. He then fled his northern stronghold, but was later arrested by Khmer Rouge military Chief Ta Mok. Ta Mok, which means "Grandfather Mok" in Khmer was the Nom de guerre of Chhit Choeun (c In November he was subjected to a show trial for the death of Son Sen and sentenced to lifelong house arrest. The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly Public trial. In Justice and Law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or electronic monitoring) is a measure by which

Death

Pol Pot dead

On the night of April 15, 1998 the Voice of America, of which Pol Pot was a devoted listener, announced that the Khmer Rouge had agreed to turn him over to an international tribunal. Voice of America ( VOA) is the official external radio and Television broadcasting service of the United States federal government. According to his wife, he died in his bed later in the night while waiting to be moved to another location. Ta Mok claimed that his death was due to heart failure. ^[10] Despite government requests to inspect the body, it was cremated a few days later at Anlong Veng in the Khmer Rouge zone, raising suspicions that he committed suicide. Cremation is the act of reducing a Corpse by burning, generally in a crematorium furnace or crematory fire Anlong Veng is the name of a district in Oddar Meanchey province in Cambodia.

See also

• Cambodia under Pol Pot
• Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
• Cambodian Civil War
• Loung Ung

Notes

Further reading

• Denise Affonço: To The End Of Hell: One Woman's Struggle to Survive Cambodia's Khmer Rouge. Denise Affonço is an author who wrote about her terrible sufferings under the Khmer Rouge in a powerful memoir To The End Of Hell ( La Digues Des Veuves (With Introductions by Jon Swain and David Chandler. Jon (John Anketell Brewer Swain is an award-winning British journalist and writer who was portrayed by Julian Sands in the 1984 Oscar -winning David P Chandler is a American Historian who is regarded as one of the foremost western scholars of Cambodia's modern history ) ISBN 978-0955572951
• Philip Short: Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare. Philip Short (born 17 April, 1945) is a journalist and author 2005. ISBN 0-8050-6662-4
• David P. Chandler/Ben Kiernan/Chanthou Boua: Pol Pot plans the future: Confidential leadership documents from Democratic Kampuchea, 1976-1977. David P Chandler is a American Historian who is regarded as one of the foremost western scholars of Cambodia's modern history Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn. 1988. ISBN 0-938692-35-6
• David P. Chandler: Brother Number One: A political biography of Pol Pot. Westview Press, Boulder, Col. 1992. ISBN 0-8133-3510-8
• Stephen Heder: Pol Pot and Khieu Samphan. Clayton, Victoria: Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, 1991. ISBN 0-7326-0272-6
• Ben Kiernan: "Social Cohesion in Revolutionary Cambodia," Australian Outlook, December 1976
• Ben Kiernan: "Vietnam and the Governments and People of Kampuchea", Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars (October-December 1979)
• Ben Kiernan: The Pol Pot regime: Race, power and genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press 1997. ISBN 0-300-06113-7
• Ben Kiernan: How Pol Pot came to power: A history of Cambodian communism, 1930-1975. New Haven, Conn. : Yale University Press 2004. ISBN 0-300-10262-3
• Ponchaud, François. Cambodia: Year Zero. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978
• Vickery, Michael. Cambodia: 1975-1982. Boston: South End Press, 1984

External links

• A meeting with Pol Pot Elizabeth Becker of The New York Times
• Pol Pot's death confirmed CNN International
• Interview with P. Short, UCLA International Institute
• Cambodian Genocide: material compiled by Dr Stuart D Stein
• Cambodian Genocide Program, 1994-2008