111 Facts About Pol Pot

Ideologically a Maoist and a Khmer ethnonationalist, Pol Pot was a leader of Cambodia's Communist movement, known as the Khmer Rouge, from 1963 to 1997.

Pol Pot served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from 1963 to 1981, during which Cambodia was converted into a one-party state.

Pol Pot transformed Cambodia into a one-party state that he called Democratic Kampuchea, seeking to create an agrarian socialist society that he believed would evolve into a communist one.

In declining health, Pol Pot stepped back from many of his roles in the movement.

Pol Pot was born in the village of Prek Sbauv, outside the city of Kampong Thom.

Pol Pot was named Saloth Sar, the word sar referencing his comparatively light skin complexion.

Pol Pot's family was of mixed Chinese and ethnic Khmer heritage, but did not speak Chinese and lived as though they were fully Khmer.

Pol Pot's father Loth, who later took the name Saloth Phem, was a prosperous farmer who owned nine hectares of rice land and several draft cattle.

Pol Pot became literate in French and familiar with Christianity.

Pol Pot learned to play the violin and took part in school plays.

Pol Pot took a room in the Cite Universitaire's Indochinese Pavilion, then lodgings on the rue Amyot, and eventually a bedsit on the corner of the rue de Commerce and the rue Letellier.

Pol Pot failed his first end-of-year exams but was allowed to retake them and narrowly passed, enabling him to continue his studies.

Pol Pot returned to Yugoslavia the following year for a camping holiday.

Pol Pot nevertheless became familiar with French literature; one of his favorite authors being Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Pol Pot was a member of Vannsak's discussion circle, whose ideologically diverse membership discussed ways to achieve Cambodian independence.

Pol Pot helped to duplicate the Cercle's newspaper, Reaksmei, named after a former Russian paper.

Pol Pot believed the Khmer Viet Minh's relationship to the Viet Minh and thus the international movement made it the best group for the Cercle Marxiste to support.

Pol Pot courted society belle Soeung Son Maly before entering a relationship with fellow communist revolutionary Khieu Ponnary, the sister of Sary's wife Thirith.

Interested in Communism, he changed his name from Saloth Sar to Pol Pot, which was short for "Political Potential".

Pol Pot and Ieng Sary left Phnom Penh for a Viet Cong encampment near Thboung Khmum in the jungle along Cambodia's border with South Vietnam.

Pol Pot took over from Sary as the Secretary of the North East Zone.

Pol Pot stressed to Le Duan that while he wanted the Vietnamese to supply the Khmer Rouge with weapons, he did not want troops: the Cambodians needed to oust Lon Nol themselves.

Pol Pot's residence was set up on the northern side of the Chinit river; entry was strictly controlled.

In early 1972, Pol Pot embarked on his first tour of the Marxist-controlled areas across Cambodia.

In 1972, Pol Pot suggested that Sihanouk leave Beijing and tour the areas of Cambodia under CPK control.

In May 1973, Pol Pot ordered the collectivisation of villages in territory that the Khmer Rouge controlled.

Pol Pot ordered the internment of many of the Khmer Rouge who had spent time in North Vietnam and were considered too sympathetic to them.

Pol Pot concluded that the Khmer Rouge should start talking openly about its commitment to making Cambodia a socialist society and launch a secret campaign to oppose Sihanouk's influence.

Pol Pot left Saukham Khoy as acting president, although he too fled aboard a departing US Navy ship just twelve days later.

On 20 April 1975, three days after Phnom Penh fell, Pol Pot secretly arrived in the abandoned city.

Pol Pot declared that "agriculture is key both to nation-building and to national defence"; he believed that unless Cambodia could develop swiftly then it would be vulnerable to Vietnamese domination, as it had been in the past.

In China, Pol Pot received medical treatment for his malaria and gastric ailments.

Pol Pot then travelled to North Korea, meeting with Kim Il Sung.

Pol Pot then relocated to the city's tallest structure, the 1960s-built Bank Buildings, which became known as "K1".

Later in 1975, Pol Pot took Ponnary's old family home in the rue Docteur Hahn as a residence, and subsequently took a villa in the south of the city for his own.

Pol Pot was aware that if left abroad, Sihanouk could become a rallying point for opposition and thus was better brought into the Khmer government itself; he hoped to take advantage of Sihanouk's stature in the Non-Aligned Movement.

Pol Pot instead wanted to double or triple the country's population, hoping it could reach between 15 and 20 million within a decade.

Pol Pot tried repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, to get him to change his mind.

Pol Pot was instead kept in his palace, which was sufficiently stocked with goods to allow him a luxurious lifestyle throughout the Khmer Rouge years.

Pol Pot described the new state as "a precious model for humanity" with a revolutionary spirit that outstripped that of earlier revolutionary socialist movements.

In reality it was more autocratic, with Pol Pot's decisions being implemented.

In September 1977, at a rally in the Olympic Stadium, Pol Pot then revealed that "Angkar" was a pseudonym for the CPK.

In September 1976, it was announced that Pol Pot had stepped down as prime minister, to be replaced by Nuon Chea, but in reality he remained in power, returning to his former position in October.

The standard of the [Cambodian] revolution of 17 April 1975, raised by Comrade Pol Pot, is brilliant red, full of determination, wonderfully firm and wonderfully clear-sighted.

Pol Pot initiated a series of major irrigation projects across the country.

The government became aware of this, and by the end of 1976 Pol Pot acknowledged food shortages in three quarters of the country.

Pol Pot suspected senior military figures were behind the bombing and, although unable to prove who was responsible, had several army officers arrested.

In November 1976, Pol Pot travelled secretly to Beijing, seeking to retain his country's alliance with China after the Gang of Four were arrested.

Pol Pot saw the Khmer Rouge as an example that should be copied by other revolutionary movements across the world and courted Marxist leaders from Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, allowing Thai Marxists to establish bases along the Cambodian border with Thailand.

Pol Pot believed that Vietnam was committed to expansionism and thus was a threat to Cambodian independence.

That month, Pol Pot travelled to Beijing, and from there to North Korea, where Kim Il Sung spoke out against Vietnam in solidarity with the Khmer Rouge.

At this point, Pol Pot ordered Cambodia's military to take an aggressive, proactive stance, attacking Vietnamese troops before the latter had the chance to act.

Plans for a personality cult revolving around Pol Pot were drawn up, based on the Chinese and North Korean models, in the belief that such a cult would unify the population in wartime.

Large photographs of Pol Pot began to be placed in communal dining halls, while oil paintings and busts of him were produced.

Pol Pot ordered a purge of the Eastern Zone, with over 400 CPK cadres from the area being sent to S-21.

Aware that they would be killed on Pol Pot's orders, increasing numbers of Eastern Zone troops began rebelling against the Khmer Rouge government.

Pol Pot sent more troops into the Eastern Zone to defeat the rebels, ordering them to slaughter the inhabitants of any villages that were believed to be harbouring any rebel forces.

Early in 1978, Pol Pot's government began trying to improve relations with various foreign countries, such as Thailand, to bolster its position against Vietnam.

In September 1978, Pol Pot began increasingly courting Sihanouk in the hope that the latter could prove a rallying point in support of the Khmer Rouge government.

That same month, Pol Pot flew to China to meet with Deng.

Pol Pot cautioned the army to avoid direct confrontations which would incur heavy losses and instead adopt guerrilla tactics.

In July 1979, Pol Pot established a new headquarters, Office 131, on the western flank of Mount Thom.

Pol Pot dropped the name "Pol Pot" and began calling himself "Phem".

The group members stopped wearing uniform black outfits; Pol Pot himself started wearing jungle green fatigues and later Thai-made safari suits.

Pol Pot proposed a new Movement of Nationalists that would replace the party, although this failed to fully materialise.

Pol Pot commented that his previous administration had been too left-wing and claimed that it had made mistakes because he had placed too much trust in treacherous individuals around him.

In 1983, Pol Pot travelled to Bangkok for a medical check-up; there he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease.

In September 1985, Pol Pot resigned as commander-in-chief of the Khmer Rouge forces in favour of Son Sen; he nevertheless continued to wield significant influence.

Pol Pot then travelled to Beijing to undergo cancer treatment at a military hospital, only returning to Cambodia in the summer of 1988.

Pol Pot deemed this too soon, for he feared that the Khmer Rouge had not gained sufficient popular support to produce significant gains in any post-war election.

Pol Pot agreed to these terms, fearing that if he refused the other factions would all unite against the Khmer Rouge.

Pol Pot established a new headquarters along the border, near Pailin province.

Pol Pot called on the Khmer Rouge to redouble their efforts in gaining support across Cambodia's villages.

Pol Pot moved to Anlong Veng, but as that was overrun in 1994 he relocated to Kbal Ansoang, on the crest of the Dangrek Mountains.

Pol Pot placed renewed emphasis on those living in Khmer Rouge territory imitating the lives of the poorest peasants and in 1994 ordered the confiscation of private transport and an end to cross-border trade with Thailand.

Pol Pot suffered from aortic stenosis and no longer had access to follow-up treatment for his earlier cancer.

Pol Pot spent increasing amounts of time with his family, in particular his daughter.

Pol Pot had grown suspicious of Son Sen and in June 1997 ordered his assassination.

Khmer Rouge cadres subsequently killed Sen and 13 of his family members and aides; Pol Pot later stated that he had not sanctioned all of these killings.

Ta Mok was concerned that Pol Pot could turn on him too.

Mok rallied troops loyal to him at Anlong Veng, informing them that Pol Pot had betrayed their movement, and then headed to Kbal Ansoang.

Pol Pot stated that his "conscience is clear" but acknowledged that mistakes were made and told Thayer that "I want you to know that everything I did, I did for my country".

Pol Pot rejected the idea that millions had died saying "To say that millions died is too much" and that "You know, for the other people, the babies, the young ones, I did not order them to be killed".

On 15 April 1998, Pol Pot died in his sleep of a heart attack.

Thayer, who was present, claimed that Pol Pot killed himself when he became aware of Ta Mok's plan to hand him over to the United States, saying that "Pol Pot died after ingesting a lethal dose of a combination of Valium and chloroquine".

Pol Pot's body was preserved with ice after an improvised embalming with formaldehyde had failed, so that his death could be verified by journalists attending his funeral.

Pol Pot's aim was to plunge the country into an inferno of revolutionary change where, certainly, old ideas and those who refused to abandon them would perish in the flames, but from which Cambodia itself would emerge, strengthened and purified, as a paragon of communist virtue.

Pol Pot disbanded his Communist Party during the 1980s in order to try to portray himself in a new, favorable light, and because most of his support came from capitalist nations.

Pol Pot stated that he was inspired by what he saw happening in India with Gandhi and Nehru.

Pol Pot said that he started off as a "nationalist and then a patriot" before reading "progressive books" and the French newspaper L'Humanite while in Paris.

Short observed that decision-making in Pol Pot's Cambodia was "unruly", making it dissimilar from the centralised, organised processes which were found in other orthodox communist states.

In re-interpreting the revolutionary role of classes and "behind the thinnest of Marxist veneers" on the proletariat, Pol Pot embraced the idea of a revolutionary alliance between the peasantry and the intellectuals.

Pol Pot's government was totalitarian, and he has been described as a dictator.

Short suggested that Pol Pot had been "an authentic spokesman" for the yearning that many Khmer felt for "the return of their former greatness", the era of the Khmer Empire.

Pol Pot repeatedly stated or implied that Cambodians were an intrinsically superior group to other ethnic or national groups and that they were immune to foreign influences.

David Chandler characterized Pol Pot as having a thirst for power, being introspective, self-effacing, and displaying self-control.

Pol Pot was described as being highly reclusive, obsessed with secrecy, and fearful of the threat of assassination.

Pol Pot never explained why he chose the pseudonym "Pol Pot", although in 1997, William T Vollmann stated that it was derived from the French phrase "politique potentiel".

Pol Pot displayed what Chandler called a "genteel charisma", and what Short described as a "magnetic personality".

Chandler noted that when meeting with people, Pol Pot displayed an "apparent warmth" and was known for his "slowly uttered words".

Pol Pot was friendly, and everything he said seemed very sensible.

Pol Pot suffered from malaria and intestinal ailments, which left him ill several times a year whilst he was in power.

Chandler suggested that the seven years that Pol Pot primarily spent in jungle encampments among his fellow Marxists had a significant effect on his world-view, and they "probably reinforced his sense of destiny and self-importance".

Pol Pot had a nationalistic attitude and displayed little interest in events outside Cambodia.

Pol Pot was self-righteous, and typically rejected compromise or attempts to gain a consensus.

Pol Pot wanted his followers to develop a "revolutionary consciousness" that would allow them to act without his guidance and was often disappointed when they failed to display this.

Pol Pot is widely regarded as one of the most brutal despots in modern history, with his regime overseeing mass atrocities that became synonymous with genocide and repression.

Short argued that while Pol Pot's administration was clearly responsible for crimes against humanity, it was misleading to accuse it of genocide because it never sought to eradicate an entire population.

Chandler noted that while "Cambodia's revolution" under Pol Pot produced "millions of victims", it had some beneficiaries.

Those who were empowered by the Khmer Rouge administration either "probably believed" Pol Pot's claims regarding the construction of a socialist society or "vigorously pretended that they did", according to Chandler.

Pol Pot met with Pol Pot, but was murdered shortly afterward; the culprit was never identified.