Categories
Pol Pot
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| Pol Pot | |
|---|---|
| |
| Personal life | |
| Date and place of birth | May 19, 1928 Kampong Thom Province, French Indochina |
| Parents | Pen Saloth Sok Nem |
| Claimed religion | Roman Catholic (rejected) Buddism (rejected) Atheism |
| Education | Wat Botum Vaddei Buddist Monastery, 1934–35 École Miche Catholic School, Phnom Penh 1935-43 Collège Preah Sihanouk at Kampong Cham 1943-47 Lycée Sisowath in Phnom Penh 1948–49 École Francaise de radio-électricité, Paris, France, 1949–52 |
| Spouse | Khieu Ponnary Mea Son |
| Children | Sitha (daughter) |
| Date & Place of Death | April 15, 1998 (aged 69) Northern Cambodia |
| Manner of Death | Heart failure (official) Suicide (unofficial) |
| Place of burial | Cremated |
| Dictatorial career | |
| Country | Cambodia |
| Military service | n/a |
| Highest rank attained | n/a |
| Political beliefs | Communism |
| Political party | Communist Party of Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge) |
| Date of dictatorship | January 5, 1976 |
| Wars started | Cambodian civil war (aka "killing fields") |
| Number of deaths attributed | 1,800,000 to 2,500,000 est. |
Pol Pot (born Saloth Sar) (May 19, 1928 – 1998) was a Cambodian dictator and mass murderer responsible for killing 1 to 3 million Cambodians in the late 1970s, nearly a third of the Cambodian population. Anyone thought to be intellectual was murdered, including the killing of people simply for knowing a foreign language or even merely wearing glasses. Pol Pot held power through a combination of enormous charm and complete ruthlessness. Among Communists, he is infamous for being a Communist who apparently did not even like to read the works of Marx[Citation Needed].
Biography[edit]
Pol Pot was born as the second son of a successful landowner, who had connections the royal court. His real name was Saloth Sar, what he often denied probably to protect his family. Pol Pot was educated by Buddhists and at a private Catholic institution in Phnom Penh. Later he moved to Paris, where he became involved with the French Communist Party. 1953 he returned to Cambodia. In September 1960 Pol Pot founded the Workers Party of Kampuchéa together with others. The party became a guerilla army and grew in influence.[1]
When Pol Pot took over Cambodia in 1975, he abolished private property, money, schools and religion and converted everything back to an agricultural society.[2] He emptied the cities. His Khmer Rouge government fell in 1979 when the Communist country of Vietnam invaded Cambodia after a series of violent border confrontations, and Pol Pot fled to the northern jungle with his forces. Pol Pot was popular in China because they believed Cambodia would be a counterbalance to Vietnam, which was friendly with the Soviet Union. The Chinese support for Pol Pot was a reason he was not ousted earlier or disowned by the Communist movement.
It was during the communist-sponsored Cambodian genocide that future Obama CIA director John Brennan openly declared himself a communist.
An Oscar-winning film about his dictatorship, The Killing Fields brought a wider knowledge of his atrocities, but only years after they had taken place. The United States and other Asian nations have been accused of supporting him in order to counter Vietnam next door.[3]
There was a bloody power struggle within the Khmer Rouge in 1997. Pol Pot was then arrested by his former supporters in July 1997. They charged him with treason but a "people's tribunal" merely sentenced him to house arrest for life.
See also[edit]
- List of dictators
- Friendly dictator
- Dictatorship of the proletariat
- List of Communist States
- List of Socialist States
- Death toll of communism
References[edit]
- ↑ http://www.notablebiographies.com/Pe-Pu/Pol-Pot.html#ixzz3eMfOGqK2
- ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8350313.stm
- ↑ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-rouge/khmer-rouge-jailer-says-u-s-contributed-to-pol-pot-rise-idUSTRE5351VF20090406 Link label
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