Pol Pot was born on Saloth Sar; 19 May 1925 – 15 April 1998 and was a Cambodian revolutionary, dictator, and politician who ruled Cambodia as Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea between 1976 and 1979.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,210 |
Pol Pot was born on Saloth Sar; 19 May 1925 – 15 April 1998 and was a Cambodian revolutionary, dictator, and politician who ruled Cambodia as Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea between 1976 and 1979.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,210 |
Pol Pot transformed Cambodia into a one-party state called Democratic Kampuchea.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,211 |
In declining health, Pol Pot stepped back from many of his roles in the movement.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,212 |
Pol Pot was born in the village of Prek Sbauv, outside the city of Kampong Thom.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,213 |
Pol Pot was named Saloth Sar, the word sar referencing his comparatively light skin complexion.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,214 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,215 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,216 |
Pol Pot learned to play the violin and took part in school plays.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,218 |
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 Letelier.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,219 |
Pol Pot failed his first end-of-year exams but was allowed to retake them and narrowly passed, enabling him to continue his studies.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,220 |
Pol Pot returned to Yugoslavia the following year for a camping holiday.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,221 |
Pol Pot nevertheless became familiar with French literature, one of his favorite authors being Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,222 |
Pol Pot was a member of Vannsak's discussion circle, whose ideologically diverse membership discussed ways to achieve Cambodian independence.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,223 |
Pol Pot helped to duplicate the Cercle's newspaper, Reaksmei, named after a former Russian paper.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,224 |
Pol Pot believed the Khmer Viet Minh's relationship to the Viet Minh and thus the international Marxist–Leninist movement made it the best group for the Cercle Marxiste to support.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,225 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,226 |
Pol Pot continued to oversee many of the Marxist–Leninists' underground communications; all correspondence between the Democratic Party and the Pracheachon went through him.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,227 |
Pol Pot took over from Sary as the Secretary of the North East Zone.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,228 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,229 |
Pol Pot's residence was set up on the northern side of the Chinit river; entry was strictly controlled.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,230 |
In early 1972, Pol Pot embarked on his first tour of the Marxist-controlled areas across Cambodia.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,231 |
In May 1973, Pol Pot ordered the collectivisation of villages in the territory it controlled.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,233 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,234 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,235 |
Pol Pot left Saukham Khoy as acting president, although he too fled aboard a departing US Navy ship just twelve days later.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,236 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,237 |
In China, Pol Pot received medical treatment for his malaria and gastric ailments.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,238 |
Pol Pot then relocated to the city's tallest structure, the 1960s-built Bank Buildings, which became known as "K1".
FactSnippet No. 1,113,240 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,241 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,242 |
Pol Pot instead wanted to double or triple the country's population, hoping it could reach between 15 and 20 million within a decade.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,243 |
Pol Pot tried repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, to get him to change his mind.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,244 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,245 |
Pol Pot described the new state as "a precious model for humanity" with a revolutionary spirit that outstripped that of earlier revolutionary socialist movements.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,246 |
In September 1976, Pol Pot publicly revealed that Angkar was a Marxist–Leninist organisation.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,247 |
In September 1977, at a rally in the Olympic Stadium, Pol Pot then revealed that Angkar was a pseudonym for the CPK.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,248 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,249 |
Pol Pot initiated a series of major irrigation projects across the country.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,250 |
The government became aware of this, and by the end of 1976 Pol Pot acknowledged food shortages in three quarters of the country.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,251 |
Pol Pot suspected senior military figures were behind the bombing and, although unable to prove who was responsible, had several army officers arrested.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,252 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,254 |
Pol Pot believed that Vietnam was committed to expansionism and thus was a threat to Cambodian independence.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,255 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,256 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,257 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,258 |
Large photographs of Pol Pot began to be placed in communal dining halls, while oil paintings and busts of him were produced.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,259 |
Pol Pot ordered a purge of the Eastern Zone, with over 400 CPK cadres from the area being sent to S-21.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,260 |
Aware that they would be killed on Pol Pot's orders, increasing numbers of Eastern Zone troops began rebelling against the Khmer Rouge government.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,261 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,262 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,264 |
Pol Pot cautioned the army to avoid direct confrontations which would incur heavy losses and instead adopt guerrilla tactics.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,265 |
In July 1979, Pol Pot established a new headquarters, Office 131, on the western flank of Mount Thom.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,266 |
The group members stopped wearing uniform black outfits; Pol Pot himself started wearing jungle green fatigues and later Thai-made safari suits.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,267 |
Pol Pot proposed a new Movement of Nationalists that would replace the party, although this failed to fully materialise.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,268 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,269 |
In 1983, Pol Pot travelled to Bangkok for a medical check-up; there he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,270 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,271 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,273 |
Pol Pot agreed to these terms, fearing that if he refused the other factions would all unite against the Khmer Rouge.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,274 |
Pol Pot established a new headquarters along the border, near Pailin.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,275 |
Pol Pot called on the Khmer Rouge to redouble their efforts in gaining support across Cambodia's villages.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,276 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,277 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,278 |
Pol Pot suffered from aortic stenosis and no longer had access to follow-up treatment for his earlier cancer.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,279 |
Pol Pot spent increasing amounts of time with his family, in particular his daughter.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,280 |
Pol Pot had grown suspicious of Son Sen and in June 1997 ordered his assassination.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,281 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,282 |
Mok rallied troops loyal to him at Anlong Veng, informing them that Pol Pot had betrayed their movement, and then headed to Kbal Ansoang.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,283 |
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".
FactSnippet No. 1,113,284 |
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".
FactSnippet No. 1,113,285 |
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".
FactSnippet No. 1,113,286 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,287 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,288 |
Pol Pot considered himself a communist, and described his CPK as adhering to a "Marxist–Leninist viewpoint", albeit one that had been adapted to Cambodian conditions.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,289 |
Pol Pot took up ideas of orthodox Marxism–Leninism but, contrary to Marx and Lenin's concepts, he believed in the ideal of an entirely self-sufficient and agrarian socialist society that would be entirely free from all foreign influences.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,290 |
In re-interpreting the revolutionary role of classes and questioning the Marxist focus on the proletariat, Pol Pot embraced the idea of a revolutionary alliance between the peasantry and the intellectuals, an idea that Short linked to his reading of Peter Kropotkin while he was in Paris.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,291 |
Pol Pot disbanded his Communist Party during the 1980s because he wanted to emphasise his desire to wage a unified national struggle against the Vietnamese occupation.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,292 |
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 Marxist–Leninist states.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,293 |
Pol Pot's government was totalitarian, and he has been described as a dictator.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,294 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,295 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,296 |
Pol Pot was highly reclusive, obsessed with secrecy, and fearful of the threat of assassination.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,297 |
Pol Pot's recorded statements to small gatherings often sound more brutal than those he made to larger groups, but he never gives the impression that he is raising his voice or losing his equanimity.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,298 |
Pol Pot displayed what Chandler called a "genteel charisma", and what Short described as a "magnetic personality".
FactSnippet No. 1,113,299 |
Chandler noted that when meeting with people, Pol Pot displayed an "apparent warmth" and was known for his "slowly uttered words".
FactSnippet No. 1,113,300 |
Pol Pot was friendly, and everything he said seemed very sensible.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,301 |
Pol Pot suffered from malaria and intestinal ailments, which left him ill several times a year whilst he was in power.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,302 |
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".
FactSnippet No. 1,113,303 |
Pol Pot had a nationalistic attitude and displayed little interest in events outside Cambodia.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,304 |
Pol Pot was self-righteous, and typically rejected compromise or attempts to gain a consensus.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,305 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,306 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,307 |
Chandler noted that while "Cambodia's revolution" under Pol Pot produced "millions of victims", it had some beneficiaries.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,308 |
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.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,309 |
Pol Pot met with Pol Pot, but was murdered shortly afterward; the culprit was never identified.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,310 |
Pol Pot told her he was hot during the day and cold at night.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,311 |
Pol Pot's held a feast in his honor, slaughtering a pig at his gravesite.
FactSnippet No. 1,113,312 |