Kamputsea pol pot biography

Khmer Rouge History

Khmer (pdf)

Significant portions of the following historical overview were contributed by DC-Cam from Khamboly Dy’s “A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979).”

Overview

The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), otherwise known as the Khmer Rouge, took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975. The CPK created the state of Democratic Kampuchea in 1976 and ruled the country until January 1979. The party’s existence was kept secret until 1977, and no one outside the CPK knew who its leaders were (the leaders called themselves “Angkar Padevat”).

While the Khmer Rouge was in power, they set up policies that disregarded human life and produced repression and massacres on a massive scale. They turned the country into a huge detention center, which later became a graveyard for nearly two million people, including their own members and even some senior leaders.

The Rise of the Khmer Rouge

The Cambodian communist movement emerged from the country’s struggle against French colonization 1940s, and was influenced by the Viet

Pol Pot, leader of Cambodia’s genocidal government, dies in his sleep

Pol Pot, the architect of Cambodia’s killing fields, dies of apparently natural causes while serving a life sentence imposed against him by his own Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer Rouge, organized by Pol Pot in the Cambodian jungle in the 1960s, advocated a radical communist revolution that would wipe out Western influences in Cambodia and set up a solely agrarian society. In 1970, aided by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, Khmer Rouge guerrillas began a large-scale insurgency against Cambodian government forces, soon gaining control of nearly a third of the country.

By 1973, secret U.S. bombings of Cambodian territory controlled by the Vietnamese communists forced the Vietnamese out of the country, creating a power vacuum that was soon filled by Pol Pot’s rapidly growing Khmer Rouge movement. In April 1975, the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, overthrew the pro-U.S. regime, and established a new government, the Kampuchean People’s Republic.

As the new ruler of Cambodia, Pol Po

Pol Pot

Cambodian communist leader (1925–1998)

In this Cambodian name, the surname is Pol. In accordance with Cambodian custom, this person should be referred to by the given name, Pot.

Pol Pot

In office
22 February 1963 – 6 December 1981
DeputyNuon Chea
Preceded byTou Samouth (1962)
Succeeded byPosition abolished (party dissolved)
In office
25 October 1976 – 7 January 1979
PresidentKhieu Samphan
Deputy
Preceded byKhieu Samphan (acting)
Succeeded byNuon Chea (1981)
In office
14 April 1976 – 27 September 1976
PresidentKhieu Samphan
Deputy
Preceded byKhieu Samphan (acting)
Succeeded byNuon Chea (acting)
In office
1977–1979
In office
1981–1985
Preceded byHimself
(as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea)
Succeeded byKhieu Samphan
Born

Saloth Sâr


(1925-05-25)25 May 1925
Prek Sbauv, Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia, French Indochina
Died15 April 1998(1998-04-15) (aged 72)
Choam, Trapeang Prei [km], Anlong V

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