Pol Pot


Saloth Sar (May 19, 1925 - April 15, 1998), better known as Pol Pot, was the
leader of the Khmer Rouge and the Prime Minister of Cambodia from 1976 -
1979. During his rule up to two million Cambodians were killed.

He was born in Prek Sbauv in what was then a part of French Indochina but is
now in the province of Kompong Thom, Cambodia. In 1949, he won a scholarship
to study radio engineering in Paris. During his study, he became a
communist, and joined an emergent Khmer communist group. In 1953, he
returned to Cambodia.

At that time, a communist-led revolt was taking place against the French
occupation of Indochina. The centre of this uprising was in Vietnam, but it
also took place in Cambodia and Laos. Saloth Sar joined the Viet Minh, but
found that they regarded only Vietnam of importance, not Laos and Cambodia.

In 1954, the French left Indochina, but the Viet Minh also withdrew to North
Vietnam, and King Norodom Sihanouk called elections. Sihanouk abdicated, and
formed a political party. Using his popularity and some intimidation, he
swept away the communist opposition and gained all of the government seats.

Pol Pot fled Sihanouk's secret police and spent twelve years in hiding,
training recruits. In the late 1960s, Sihanouk's head of internal security,
Lon Nol took brutal action against the revolutionaries, known as Khmer
Rouge. Pol Pot started an armed uprising against the government, supported
by the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Prior to 1970, the Khmer Rouge was an insignificant factor in Cambodian
politics. However, in 1970 American-backed General Lon Nol deposed Sihanouk,
because the latter was seen as supporting the Viet Cong.

In protest, Sihanouk threw his support to Pol Pot's side. That same year,
Richard Nixon ordered a military incursion into Cambodia in order to destroy
Viet Cong sanctuaries bordering on South Vietnam. Sihanouk's popularity,
along with the United States invasion of Cambodia, and subsequent bombings
by the US (which continued illegally even after Congress voted to suspend
them) drove many to Pol Pot's side and soon Lon Nol's government controlled
only the cities.

It has been argued that the Khmer Rouge may not have come to power without
the destabilization of the Vietnam War, particularly of the American bombing
campaigns to 'clear out the Vietamese sanctuaries' in Cambodia. William
Shawcross argued this point in his 1979 book Sideshow.

When the United States left Vietnam in 1973 the Viet Cong left Cambodia, but
the Khmer Rouge continued to fight. Unable to maintain any sort of control
over the country, Lon Nol's government soon collapsed. On April 17, the
Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh and Lon Nol fled to the United States of
America. Sihanouk was returned to power in 1975, but soon found himself
side-lined by his more radical Communist colleagues, who had little interest
in his plans of restoring the monarchy.

By early 1976 the Khmer Rouge hardliners grew tired of tolerating Sihanouk's
antics, and placed him under house arrest. The existing government was
quickly dismantled and Prince Sihanouk was removed as the nation's head of
state. Cambodia became a Communist republic, and Khieu Samphan became the
first president.

On May 13, 1976 Pol Pot had been appointed Prime Minister of Cambodia, and
began to implement sweeping socialist reforms to the nation. Politicians and
bureaucrats were killed, and all other inhabitants were driven out of the
city into the countryside where they were forced to do physical labour.
Phnom Penh was turned into a ghost city, and many died of starvation,
illnesses or execution. Education, religion, private possessions and
families were abolished. Pol Pot became paranoid, and saw internal and
external Vietnamese plots everywhere. Enormous numbers of suspects were
tortured and killed. One paticuarly gruesome tactic was the widespread
mining of civilian areas. Pol Pot was quite fond of the "effectiveness" of
landmines as a way subduing Cambodia's population into compliance, and
praised them as his "perfect soldiers."

The death toll from the Pol Pot terror is estimated at somewhere between
900,000 and 2 million.

Some believe that under Pol Pot's regime Cambodia was the country that came
the closest to existing as a pure communalist state. Pol Pot believed that
Communism was incompatible with an industrial civilization and thus
attempted to deurbanize society and eliminate all forms of industry.
Collective farms were implemented as the sole form of egalitarian,
subsistence living, and the campaigns of killings were implemented as a way
of eliminating the intellectual opposition of those who refused to
participate in the system.

In late 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia. The Cambodian army was easily
defeated, and Pol Pot fled to the Thai border. In January 1979, Vietnam
installed a puppet government under Heng Samrin, composed of Khmer Rouge who
had fled to Vietnam to avoid the purges. This was followed by widespread
defections to the Vietnamese by Khmer Rouge officials in Eastern Cambodia,
largely motivated by the fear that they would be accused of collaboration
even if they did not defect. Pol Pot retained a sufficient following to keep
fighting in a small area in the west of the country. At this point the PRC,
which had earlier supported Pol Pot, attacked, creating a brief Sino-Vietnam War.

Pol Pot, an enemy of the Soviet Union, also gained support from Thailand and
the US. In particular, the US and the PRC vetoed the allocation of
Cambodia's United Nations General Assembly seat to a representative of Heng
Samrin's government. Influenced by realpolitik the US directly and
indirectly supported Pol Pot, who espoused radically revised variant of
Maoism adapted to Khmer nationalism. Envisaging a perfectly egalitarian
agrarianism, the Khmer Rouge favored a direct route to communism, thus
bypassing the intermediate stage of socialism. Anti-modern and isolationist,
Pol Pot was quite the opponent of Soviet orthodoxy. Because he was
anti-Soviet, the United States, Thailand and People's Republic of China
considered him preferable to the pro-Vietnamese government.

At times, the United States directly and indirectly supported Pol Pot and
his hostility against the Soviet Union. The US attempted to foster an
anti-Vietnamese alliance between Pol Pot, Sihanouk and the nationalist, Son
San. In pursuit of this end, Pol Pot officially resigned in 1985, but
continued as de facto Khmer Rouge leader and dominant force within the
alliance. There were continued reports of Khmer Rouge atrocities from areas
controlled by the alliance.

In 1989, Vietnam withdrew from Cambodia. 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 the demoralised
troops started deserting. Several important Khmer Rouge leaders also
defected.

In 1997, Pol Pot executed his life-long right hand Son Sen for wanting to
make a settlement with the government, but then he himself was arrested by
Khmer Rouge military chief Ta Mok, and was sentenced to lifelong house
arrest. In April of 1998, Ta Mok fled into the forest following a new
government attack, and took Pol Pot with him. A few days later, on April 15,
1998, Pol Pot died, reportedly of a heart attack.