Pol Pot
Saloth Sar (better known as Pol Pot) (January 25, 1925[1][2] – April 15, 1998) was the leader of Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. His government was called the Khmer Rouge, a group of peasant revolutionaries who turned Cambodia into a military dictatorship officially called Democratic Kampuchea. Between 1.7 and 2.5 million Cambodians were killed by his regime (a regime is a government based on a certain world view). Pol Pot was thrown out of power in January, 1979, when the Vietnamese Communists liberated Kampuchea.
Pol Pot’s family was a good family, and really connected with the royal family. His brother, Loth Suong, was a palace clerk, and his cousin was a wife to Prince Sisowat Monivong and had a son named Kossarak. His connection helped him get a scholarship to France.
His father’s name was Pen Saloth and his mother’s, Sok Nem. Pol Pot had eight siblings. His family was thriving, but alone. Pol Pot’s childhood was fairly normal. Pol Pot’s real name is Saloth Sar. No one knows his real birthday. Two guesses are 1925 or May 25, 1928. He grew up in a nice place. His village was about two miles from Kompong Thom’s capital. Kompong Thom was a province. Back then, that part of Cambodia was part of France.
In 1949, he went to France and studied about radio electronics, but got distracted because of Marxism, which is like communism. He didn’t study, and his scholarship was taken away.
In 1953, he went back to Cambodia and became communist. The following year, Cambodia became free from France.
In 1962, he became the leader of Communist party in Cambodia. This party was hidden, and the prince, Prince Sihanouk, did not like Pol Pot or the Communists. Pol Pot went to the jungle and created a guerrilla force called the Khmer Rouge, literally Red Cambodians.
In 1969-1973 the US bombed Cambodian sanctuaries attempting to get rid of the North Vietnamese, but only drove them deeper into the country. The US also made it so that the peasants run to cities.
In 1970, the US got rid of Prince Sihanouk and unknowingly made Pol Pot more popular. They also made Prince Sihanouk mad, and so he joined Pol Pot. This created a whole lot of confusion.
The Khmer Rouge was a guerilla force made of teenagers. Guerilla means that they hid and ambushed people, rather than be visible. They were the source of Pol Pot’s power.
After these series of events, people started to like Pol Pot and really dislike America. In 1970, Prince Sihanouk alliance with Pol Pot, but that only gave Pol Pot an advantage.
On April 17, 1975, Pol Pot went into Phnom Penh, the capital, and took control. He planned for a “super great leap forward”, inspired by Mao’s Great Leap Forward. The second in command was Noun Chea, also called “Brother Number Two”. Noun Chea said later that the mass killing was a mistake. Pol Pot took all the city people and drove them towards fields, where they will work and work and work. A lot of people died on the way to the fields. Even more died in the fields from hunger, thirst, overwork, and sickness. They would only get a 180 gram can of rice every day, and they were harvesting fruits and rice. Every tenth day was a rest day, and so were the festivals. Needless to say, Pol Pot didn’t use his power nicely. The government took over anything that had to do with money. Religion was illegal. Teenagers had to be part of the army and children learned how to set mines and make traps. People getting together were not allowed. Only two people or less were allowed to see each other. Marriages were arranged, not because they loved each other, but because they were forced to. They had to marry in big groups. Muslims were forced to eat pork, or die. It is against their religion for Muslims to eat pork. At Tuol Sleng, a former school, converted to a prison, people gave lies about being spies, because they wanted to stop being tortured. The Khmer Rouge took pictures of people about to be tortured and killed. Chinese, Muslims, and Vietnamese people were attacked. Pol Pot wanted to get rid of everything that had to do with social classes and foreigners.
The worst part is that Pol Pot didn’t know that he was doing bad things. After the Vietnamese and underground Cambodian parties got Pot Pol Pot out of power in 1979, he went to a zone near Thailand called Pailin and tried to get control of Cambodia again. Eventually the Khmer Rouge broke up in the early 1990s. He died peacefully in the woods, never admitting that he did wrong.
That time was horrible. There are books about survivors, because if you survived, it was worth writing about. One in seven people died. Some people still support Pol Pot. After he died, some people started praying to him, like he was a god. Some even dug up parts of his bone and took them away like special amulets and charms. Pailin had casinos and little people singing karaoke and a man who was not well in the head being forced to fight a kid. In general, rather inappropriate for kids.
[change] References
Nguyen Thi Dieu. "Pol Pot." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2012.Web. 20 Nov. 2012. FRONTLINE/WORLD. Cambodia - Pol Pot's Shadow. The Story. PBS, n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/cambodia/thestory.html>.
The History Place, Genocide in the 20th Century. The History Place, n.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2012. <http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/pol-pot.htm>.
