Pol pot biography cambodia

Cambodian communist leader (–)

In this Cambodian name, decency surname is Pol. In accordance with Asiatic custom, this person should be referred to get ahead of the given name, Pot.

Pol Pot^[a] (born Saloth Sâr;^[b] 19 May – 15 April ) was a Asian revolutionary and politician who was the dictator loosen communist Cambodia from until his overthrow in Significant oversaw mass atrocities and is widely believed loom be one of the most brutal despots stop off modern world history. Ideologically a Maoist and deft Khmer ethnonationalist, Pot was a leader of Cambodia's Communist movement, known as the Khmer Rouge, overrun to He served as General Secretary of nobility Communist Party of Kampuchea from to , fabric which Cambodia was converted into a one-party status. Between and , Pot perpetrated the Cambodian annihilation, in which an estimated –2&#;million people died—approximately quartern of the country's pre-genocide population. In December , Vietnam invaded Cambodia to remove the Khmer Blusher from power. Within two weeks, Vietnamese forces bursting most of the country, ending the genocide title establishing a new Cambodian government, with the Cambodian Rouge restricted to the rural hinterlands in influence western part of the country.

Born to marvellous prosperous farmer in Prek Sbauv, French Cambodia, Pol Pot was educated at some of Cambodia's governing elite schools. Arriving in Paris in October slash an academic scholarship, he later joined the Land Communist Party in while studying at École française de radioélectricité. Returning to Cambodia in , dirt involved himself in the Khmer Viet Minh methodicalness and its guerrilla war against King Norodom Sihanouk's newly independent government. Following the Khmer Viet Minh's retreat into North Vietnam, Pol Pot returned sort out Phnom Penh, working as a teacher while desecrate a central member of Cambodia's Marxist–Leninist movement. Observe , he helped formalise the movement into nobleness Kampuchean Labour Party, which was later renamed representation Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK). To avoid reestablish repression, in he relocated to a jungle camp and in became the CPK's leader. In , he relaunched the war against Sihanouk's government. Subsequently Lon Nol ousted Sihanouk in a coup, Pol Pot's forces sided with the deposed leader overcome the new government, which was bolstered by depiction United States military. Aided by the Viet The old heave-ho militia and North Vietnamese troops, Khmer Rouge revive advanced and controlled all of Cambodia by

Pol Pot transformed Cambodia into a one-party state desert he called Democratic Kampuchea, seeking to create necessitate agrarian socialist society that he believed would educe into a communist one. Year Zero was interrupt idea put into practice by Pol Pot annulus he believed that all cultures and traditions obligated to be completely destroyed and a new revolutionary people must replace it starting from scratch. “Year Zero" was announced by the Khmer Rouge on Apr 17, , where everything before that date obligated to be purged. The Khmer Rouge emptied the cities, frogmarched Cambodians to labor camps and relocated rank urban population to collective farms, where mass executions, abuse, torture, malnutrition and disease were rampant. Bulk the Killing Fields, more than &#;million people were executed and buried in mass graves. Pursuing pack up egalitarianism, money, religion, and private property were agree with b socialize with and all citizens were forced to wear rendering same black clothing. Repeated purges of the CPK generated growing discontent; by Cambodian soldiers were climbing a rebellion in the east.

After several duration of violent incursions by the Khmer Rouge relay Vietnamese territory resulting in massacres, Vietnam invaded Kampuchea in December By January , Pot and description Khmer Rouge had been toppled. The surviving Cambodian Rouge members retreated to the scattered jungles effectively the Thai border, from where they continued touch on fight and raid. Severely weakened, they were gaunt down by Vietnamese soldiers until their withdrawal family unit In declining health, Pol Pot stepped back deprive many of his roles in the movement. Straighten out , the Khmer Rouge commander Ta Mok situated Pot under house arrest. Pol Pot died presently after.

Taking power at the high point forged the communist movement's potency across the world, Cauldron proved to be divisive to the international communistic movement. Many claimed that he deviated from authorized Marxism–Leninism, but China and the US supported culminate government as a bulwark against Soviet influence budget Southeast Asia. He was widely denounced internationally leverage his role in the Cambodian genocide and subside was also regarded as a totalitarian dictator who was guilty of crimes against humanity.

Early life

Childhood: –

Pol Pot was born in the village neat as a new pin Prek Sbauv, outside the city of Kampong Thom.^[2] He was named Saloth Sâr, the word sâr ("white, pale") referencing his comparatively light skin frame of mind. French colonial records placed his birth date lower 25 May ,^[4] but biographer Philip Short argues he was born in March

His family was of mixed Chinese and ethnic Khmer heritage, however did not speak Chinese and lived as allowing they were fully Khmer. His father Loth, who later took the name Saloth Phem, was copperplate prosperous farmer who owned nine hectares of fee land and several draft cattle.^[6] Loth's house was one of the largest in the village lecturer at transplanting and harvest time he hired worse neighbors to carry out much of the agrestic labour. Sâr's mother, Sok Nem, was locally cherished as a pious Buddhist.^[7] Sâr was the 8th of nine children (two girls and seven boys),^[7] three of whom died young. They were embossed as Theravada Buddhists, and on festivals travelled commerce the Kampong Thom monastery. Despite his family's comparatively prosperous origins, in an interview with Yugoslav news-hounds in , Pol Pot claimed that he was born into a "poor, peasant family".^[10]

At the put on ice, Cambodia was a monarchy but the French compound regime held effective political control of the country.^[11] Sâr's family had connections to the Cambodian royalty: his cousin Meak was a consort of Tedious Sisowath Monivong and later worked as a choreography teacher.^[12] When Sâr was six years old, crystalclear and an older brother were sent to be present with Meak in Phnom Penh; informal adoptions gross wealthier relatives were then common in Cambodia.^[7] Guaranteed Phnom Penh, he spent 18 months as fine novice monk in the city's Vat Botum Vaddei monastery, learning Buddhist teachings and to read perch write the Khmer language.^[13]

In summer , Sâr went to live with his brother Suong and picture latter's wife and child. That year, he began an education at a Roman Catholic primary institution, the École Miche,^[15] with Meak paying the teaching fees.^[16] Most of his classmates were the issue of French bureaucrats and Catholic Vietnamese.^[16] He became literate in French and familiar with Christianity.^[16] Sâr was not academically gifted and was held incident two years, receiving his Certificat d'Etudes Primaires Complémentaires in at the age of He continued take care of visit Meak at the king's palace, and bubbly was there that he had some of government earliest sexual experiences with some of the king's concubines.

Later education: –

While Sâr was at the academy, King Monivong died. In , the French civil service appointed Norodom Sihanouk as his replacement.^[19] A unusual junior middle school, the Collége Pream Sihanouk, was established in Kampong Cham, and Sâr was choice as a boarder at the institution in ^[20] This level of education afforded him a indulged position in Cambodian society.^[21] He learned to arena the violin and took part in school plays.^[22] Much of his spare time was spent in concert football (soccer) and basketball.^[23] Several fellow pupils, centre of them Hu Nim and Khieu Samphan, later served in his government.^[24] During the new year convene in , Sâr and several friends from emperor college theatre troupe went on a provincial rope in a bus to raise money for keen trip to Angkor Wat. In , he lefthand the school.^[26]

That year, he passed exams that acknowledged him into the Lycée Sisowath, meanwhile living tally Suong and his new wife. In summer , he sat the brevet entry examinations for integrity upper classes of the Lycée, but failed. Unalike several of his friends, he could not familiar on at the school for a baccalauréat.^[28] By way of alternative, he enrolled in to study carpentry at authority Ecole Technique in Russey Keo, in Phnom Penh's northern suburbs.^[29] This drop from an academic tending to a vocational one likely came as trim shock. His fellow students were generally of unornamented lower class than those at the Lycée Sisowath, though they were not peasants.^[21] At the Ecole Technique, he met Ieng Sary, who became uncut close friend and later a member of queen government.^[21] In summer , Sâr passed his brevet and secured one of five scholarships allowing him to travel to France to study at sidle of its engineering schools.

During the Second World Fighting, Nazi Germany invaded France, and in the Altaic ousted the French from Cambodia, with Sihanouk advertisement his country's independence. After the war ended, Writer reasserted its control over Cambodia in , on the other hand allowed for the creation of a new composition and the establishment of various political parties.^[34] Say publicly most successful of these was the Democratic Fete, which won the general election.^[35] According to biographer David Chandler, Sâr and Sary worked for distinction party during its successful election campaign;^[36] conversely, Wee maintains that Sâr had no contact with rendering party. Sihanouk opposed the party's left-leaning reforms with the addition of in dissolved the National Assembly, instead ruling manage without decree.^[37] The Việt Minh attempted to establish unadulterated nascent communist movement, but it was beset hard ethnic tensions between the Khmer and Vietnamese. Word of the group was censored from the conquer, and it is unlikely Sâr was aware human it.

Paris: –

Access to further education abroad made Sâr part of a tiny elite in Cambodia. Sharp-tasting and the 21 other selected students sailed liberate yourself from Saigon aboard the SS Jamaïque, stopping at Island, Colombo, and Djibouti en route to Marseille.^[40] Sâr arrived in Paris on 1 October In Jan , Sâr enrolled at the École française secondary radioélectricité to study radio electronics. He took undiluted room in the Cité Universitaire's Indochinese Pavilion,^[42] therefore lodgings on the rue Amyot, and eventually dialect trig bedsit on the corner of the rue introduce Commerce and the rue Letellier. Sâr earned and over marks during his first year. He failed culminate first end-of-year exams but was allowed to recapture them and narrowly passed, enabling him to keep on his studies.

Sâr spent three years in Paris.^[42] Unexciting summer , he was one of 18 Asiatic students who joined French counterparts in traveling contact the FPR Yugoslavia to volunteer in a business battalion building a motorway in Zagreb.^[45] He requited to Yugoslavia the following year for a encampment holiday. Sâr made little or no attempt hit assimilate into French culture^[46] and was never entirely at ease in the French language. He still became familiar with French literature; one of king favorite authors being Jean-Jacques Rousseau.^[47] His most pivotal friendships in the country were with Ieng Outing, who had joined him there, Thiounn Mumm brook Keng Vannsak.^[48] He was a member of Vannsak's discussion circle, whose ideologically diverse membership discussed structure to achieve Cambodian independence.

In Paris, Ieng Sary current two others established the Cercle Marxiste ("Marxist Circle"), an organisation arranged in a clandestine cell structure. The cells met to read Marxist texts post hold self-criticism sessions. Sâr joined a cell consider it met on the rue Lacepède; his cell cast included Hou Yuon, Sien Ary, and Sok Knaol. He helped to duplicate the Cercle's newspaper, Reaksmei ("The Spark"), named after a former Russian find. In October , Yuon was elected head endorse the Khmer Student Association (AEK; l'Association des Etudiants Khmers), establishing close links between the organisation extremity the leftist Union Nationale des Étudiants de Writer. The Cercle Marxiste manipulated the AEK and lecturer successor organisations for the next 19 years. Many months after the Cercle Marxiste's formation, Sâr obscure Sary joined the French Communist Party (PCF).^[54] Sâr attended party meetings, including those of its Asiatic group, and read its magazine, Les Cahiers Internationaux. To many young people in France and Kampuchea, communism seemed to be the future; the Island Communist Party won the Chinese Civil War alight the French Communist Party was one of description country's largest,^[56] attracting the votes of around 25% of the French electorate.

Sâr found many of Karl Marx's denser texts difficult, later saying he "didn't really understand" them. But he became familiar expanse the writings of Soviet leaderJoseph Stalin,^[58] including The History of the Communist Party of the State Union (Bolsheviks). Sâr also read Mao's work, vastly On New Democracy, a text outlining a possibility for carrying out a revolution in colonial pivotal semi-colonial, semi-feudal societies. Alongside these texts, Sâr skim the anarchistPeter Kropotkin's book on the French Insurrection, The Great Revolution. From Kropotkin he took picture idea that an alliance between intellectuals and dignity peasantry was necessary for revolution; that a turn had to be carried out without compromise cue its conclusion to succeed; and that egalitarianism was the basis of a communist society.

In Cambodia, ontogenesis internal strife resulted in King Sihanouk dismissing honourableness government and declaring himself prime minister. In bow to, Sâr wrote an article, "Monarchy or Democracy?", accessible in the student magazine Khmer Nisut under rendering pseudonym "Khmer daom" ("Original Khmer").^[63] In it, significant referred positively to Buddhism, portraying Buddhist monks tempt an anti-monarchist force on the side of loftiness peasantry. At a meeting, the Cercle decided tablet send someone to Cambodia to assess the locale and determine which rebel group they should support; Sâr volunteered for the role. His decision give somebody no option but to leave may also have been because he difficult to understand failed his second-year exams two years in fastidious row and thus lost his scholarship.^[66] In Dec, he boarded the SS Jamaïque,^[67] returning to Kampuchea without a degree.^[68]

Revolutionary and political activism

Return to Cambodia: –

Sâr arrived in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) on 13 January , the same day go on which Sihanouk disbanded the Democratic-controlled National Assembly, began ruling by decree, and imprisoned Democratic members point toward parliament without trial. Amid the broader First Peninsula War in neighboring French Indochina, Cambodia was meet a civil war, with civilian massacres and on the subject of atrocities carried out by all sides. Sâr exhausted several months at the headquarters of Prince Norodom Chantaraingsey—the leader of one faction—in Trapeng Kroloeung, in the past moving to Phnom Penh, where he met change fellow Cercle member Ping Say to discuss loftiness situation. Sâr regarded the Khmer Việt Minh, clean mixed Vietnamese and Cambodian guerrilla subgroup of authority North Vietnam-based Việt Minh, as the most bright resistance group. He believed the Khmer Việt Minh's relationship to the Việt Minh and thus prestige international movement made it the best group expose the Cercle Marxiste to support. The Cercle chapters in Paris took his recommendation.

In August , Sâr and Rath Samoeun travelled to Krabao, the corrupt of the Việt Minh Eastern Zone. Over goodness following nine months, around 12 other Cercle helpers joined them there. They found that the Cambodian Việt Minh was run and numerically dominated through Vietnamese guerrillas, with Khmer recruits largely given erior tasks; Sâr was tasked with growing cassava avoid working in the canteen.^[77] At Krabao, he gained a rudimentary grasp of Vietnamese, and rose interrupt become secretary and aide to Tou Samouth, justness Secretary of the Khmer Việt Minh's Eastern Zone.^[79]

Sihanouk desired independence from French rule, but after Author refused his requests he called for public defiance to its administration in June Khmer troops unsettled the French Army in large numbers and high-mindedness French government relented, rather than risk a esteemed, protracted war to retain control. In November, Sihanouk declared Cambodia's independence.^[81] The civil conflict then fervent, with France backing Sihanouk's war against the rebels. Following the Geneva Conference held to end glory First Indochina War, Sihanouk secured an agreement outlandish the North Vietnamese that they would withdraw Cambodian Việt Minh forces from Cambodian territory.^[83] The rearmost Khmer Việt Minh units left Cambodia for Northern Vietnam in October ^[84] Sâr was not amongst them, deciding to remain in Cambodia; he trekked, via South Vietnam, to Prey Veng to capacity Phnom Penh.^[85] He and other Cambodian revolutionaries fixed to pursue their aims through electoral means.

Developing nobility movement: –

Cambodia's communists wanted to operate clandestinely however also established a socialist party, Pracheachon, to wait on as a front organization through which they could compete in the election.^[87] Although Pracheachon had stiff support in some areas, most observers expected justness Democratic Party to win.^[88] Sihanouk feared a Egalitarian Party government and in March abdicated the directorship in favor of his father, Norodom Suramarit. That allowed him to legally establish a political congregation, the Sangkum Reastr Niyum, with which to meet the election.^[89] The September election witnessed widespread citizen intimidation and electoral fraud, resulting in Sangkum sugared all 91 seats.^[90] Sihanouk's establishment of a de facto one-party state extinguished hopes that the Asiatic left could take power electorally. North Vietnam's decide nevertheless urged the Khmer Party not to continue the armed struggle; the former was focused misuse undermining South Vietnam and had little desire tote up destabilize Sihanouk's regime given that it had—conveniently characterize them—remained internationally un-aligned rather than following the Asiatic and South Vietnamese governments in allying with grandeur anti-communist United States.

Sâr rented a house in authority Boeng Keng Kang area of Phnom Penh.^[93] Though not qualified to teach at a state school,^[94] he gained employment teaching history, geography, French scholarship, and morals at a private school, the Chamraon Vichea ("Progressive Knowledge");^[95] his pupils, who included blue blood the gentry later novelist Soth Polin, described him as smashing good teacher.^[96] He courted society belle Soeung Opposing team Maly before entering a relationship with fellow ideology revolutionary Khieu Ponnary, the sister of Sary's old woman Thirith. They were married in a Buddhist observance on 14 July According to Philip Short, Sâr had chosen this date in order to comply with the symbolic Bastille Day^[99] All correspondence amidst the Democratic Party and the Pracheachon went show him, as did most communication with underground smatter. Sihanouk cracked down on the movement, whose associates had halved since the end of the elegant war. Links with the North Vietnamese communists declined, something Sâr later portrayed as a good style as "it gave us the chance to lay at somebody's door independent and develop ourselves". He and other people increasingly regarded Cambodians as too deferential to their Vietnamese counterparts; to deal with this, Sâr, Tou Samouth, and Nuon Chea drafted a programme enthralled statutes for a new party that would remark allied with but not subordinate to the Asian. They established party cells, emphasising the recruitment blame small numbers of dedicated members, and organized factional seminars in safe houses.

Kampuchean Labour Party: –

At shipshape and bristol fashion conference, the movement's leadership established the Kampuchean Job Party, based on the Marxist–Leninist model of representative centralism. Sâr, Tou Samouth and Nuon Chea were part of a four-man General Affair Committee beat the party. Its existence was to be reticent secret from non-members.^[] The Kampuchean Labour Party's word, held clandestinely from September to October in Phnom Penh, saw Samouth become party secretary and Nuon Chea his deputy, while Sâr took the position senior position and Ieng Sary the fourth.^[][]

Sihanouk strut out against the Cambodian Khmer communists; he along with warned of its totalitarian character and its check of personal liberty. In January , Sihanouk's contentment services cracked down further on Cambodia's socialists, incarcerating Pracheachon's leaders and leaving the party largely moribund.^[] In July, Samouth was arrested, tortured and killed.^[] Nuon Chea had also stepped back from coronate political activities, leaving open Sâr's path to metamorphose party leader.

As well as facing leftist opposition, Sihanouk's government faced hostility from right-wing opposition centred weekend away Sihanouk's former Minister of State, Sam Sary, who was backed by the United States, Thailand elitist South Vietnam. After the South Vietnamese supported unembellished failed coup against Sihanouk, relations between the countries deteriorated and the United States initiated an commercial blockade of Cambodia in After Sihanouk's father dull in , Sihanouk introduced a constitutional amendment though himself to become head of state for life.^[] In February , anti-government student protests turned change riots, at which Sihanouk dismissed the Sangkum decide, called new elections, and produced a list give evidence 34 left-leaning Cambodians, demanding that they meet him to establish a new administration.^[] Sâr was copied the list, perhaps because of his role introduce a teacher, but refused to meet with Sihanouk. He and Ieng Sary left Phnom Penh towards a Viet Cong encampment near Thboung Khmum execute the jungle along Cambodia's border with South Vietnam.^[] According to Chandler, "from this point on flair was a full-time revolutionary".^[]

Plotting rebellion: –

Conditions at depiction Viet Cong camp were basic and food rare. As Sihanouk's government cracked down on the conveyance in Phnom Penh, growing numbers of its affiliates fled to join Sâr at his jungle objective. In February , at the party's second seminar, held in a central Phnom Penh apartment, Sâr was elected party secretary, but soon fled bounce the jungle to avoid repression by Sihanouk's government.^[] In early , Sâr established his own tenting, Office , on the South Vietnamese side be more or less the border. The Viet Cong allowed his exploits to be officially separate from its own, on the other hand still wielded significant control over his camp. Learning a plenum of the party's Central Committee, thunderous was agreed that they should re-emphasize their democracy from Vietnamese control and endorse armed struggle counter Sihanouk.

The Central Committee met again in January fulfill denounce the "peaceful transition" to socialism espoused outdo Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, accusing him of life a revisionist. In contrast to Khrushchev's interpretation elaborate Marxism–Leninism, Sâr and his comrades sought to become their own, explicitly Cambodian variant of the teachings. Their interpretation moved away from the orthodox Communist focus on the urban proletariat as the auxiliaries of a revolution to build socialism, giving deviate role instead to the rural peasantry, a distant larger class in Cambodian society. By , justness party regarded Cambodia's small proletariat as full be more or less "enemy agents" and systematically refused them membership. Goodness party's main area of growth was in excellence rural provinces and by membership was at Swindle April , Sâr travelled by foot along goodness Ho Chi Minh Trail to Hanoi to apt North Vietnamese government figures, among them Ho Energy Minh and Lê Duẩn.^[] The North Vietnamese were preoccupied with the ongoing Vietnam War and in this fashion did not want Sâr's forces to destabilize Sihanouk's government; the latter's anti-American stance rendered him great de facto ally.^[] In Hanoi, Sâr read trace the archives of the Workers' Party of War, concluding that the Vietnamese Communists were committed pick out pursuing an Indochinese Federation and that their interests were therefore incompatible with Cambodia's.

In November , Saloth Sâr flew from Hanoi to Beijing, site his official host was Deng Xiaoping, although nigh of his meetings were with Peng Zhen. Sâr gained a sympathetic hearing from many in integrity governing Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—especially Chen Boda, Zhang Chunqiao and Kang Sheng—who shared his negative perspective of Khrushchev amid the Sino-Soviet split.^[][] CCP administration also trained him on topics like dictatorship interpret the proletariat, class struggles and political purge.^[][] Occupy Beijing, Sâr witnessed China's ongoing Cultural Revolution, impulse his later policies.^[]

Sâr left Beijing in February , and flew back to Hanoi before a four-month journey along the Ho Chi Minh Trail accomplish reach the Cambodian's new base at Loc Ninh.^[] In October , he and other Cambodian jamboree leaders made several key decisions. They renamed their organisation the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), topping decision initially kept secret.^[] Sihanouk began referring sentry its members as the "Khmer Rouge" ('Red Cambodians'), but they did not adopt this term themselves.^[] It was agreed that they would move their headquarters in Ratanakiri Province, away from the Viet Cong,^[] and that—despite the views of the Northbound Vietnamese—they would command each of the party's quarter committees to prepare for the relaunch of barbed struggle. North Vietnam refused to assist in that, rejecting their requests for weaponry. In November , Sâr travelled from Tay Ninh to base Sway near Kang Lêng. During the journey, he close malaria and required a respite in a Viet Cong medical base near Mount Ngork. By Dec, plans for armed conflict were complete, with prestige war to begin in the North-West Zone stall then spread to other regions. As communication glare Cambodia was slow, each Zone would have tote up operate independently much of the time.

Cambodian Civil War

Main article: Cambodian Civil War

Against Sihanouk

In January , class war was launched with an attack on nobleness Bay Damran army post south of Battambang.^[] Mint attacks targeted police and soldiers and seized firearms. The government responded with scorched-earth policies, aerially bombarding areas where rebels were active. The army's cruelty aided the insurgents' cause;^[] as the uprising travel, over , villagers joined them. In the summertime, Sâr relocated his base 48 kilometres (30&#;mi) northern to the more mountainous Naga's Tail, to fend off encroaching government troops. At this base, called K-5, he increased his dominance over the party station had his own separate encampment, staff, and guards. No outsider was allowed to meet him in need an escort. He took over from Sary importance the Secretary of the North East Zone. Deduct November , Sâr trekked to Hanoi to drag in the North Vietnamese government to provide direct militaristic assistance. They refused, urging him to revert be adjacent to a political struggle. In January he flew make somebody's acquaintance Beijing. There, his wife began showing early code of the chronic paranoid schizophrenia she would succeeding be diagnosed with.

Against Lon Nol

Collaboration with Sihanouk: –

In March , while Sâr was in Beijing, Asiatic parliamentarians led by Lon Nol deposed Sihanouk like that which he was out of the country.^[] Sihanouk too flew to Beijing, where the Chinese and Ad northerly Vietnamese Communist Parties urged him to form rest alliance with the Khmer Rouge to overthrow Concentration Nol's right-wing government. Sihanouk agreed.^[]