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The Life of Pol Pot

Pol Pot, whose actual name is Saloth Sar, was born on May 19, 1928, near Anlong Veng, Cambodia. Pol Pot’s father was a very influential person among the aristocracy. The king of Cambodia paid him frequent visits. Due to this, Pol Pot became a very patriotic nationalist who would later be willing to do anything for his country. Being the second son in his family, Pol Pot was a mediocre student. Failing to pass his exams, he was forced to learn mechanics and carpentry. After obtaining a scholarship from the government to study radio technology in Paris, Pol Pot became involved in the French Revolution and the first influences of communism began. After returning to Cambodia, Pol Pot became a prominent member of the Workers Party of Kampuchea (WPK), later becoming known as the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK). As tensions grew between Lon Nol and the CPK, war broke out where the CPK, later known as the Khmer Rouge overthrew Lon Nol’s US backed regime and started an infamous four-year period in which the cultural heritage of Cambodia was nearly lost. After his short but terrorizing reign, Pol Pot’s regime was overthrown by the Vietnamese. He later died of heart failure on April 15, 1998.

Pol Pot's Ideology

While studying in France, Pol Pot became influenced by the movement of the anti-French protestors. After returning to Cambodia, Pol Pot had been greatly influenced by communism and had also learnt about the glory of the Angkor civilization. This combination of political ideology and the knowledge of the power wielded by the ancient civilization made him passionate about restoring Cambodia to its former glory in the days of Angkor. In Pol Pot’s own words, he wanted to “Revive this glorious period of Cambodian history”. One of Pol Pot’s greatest communist influences was Mao, who managed to make China a communist country. Many historians believe that communism is not a bad idea. However, it is the way in which Pol Pot went about trying to enforce this idea and achieve his goal that cannot be comprehended. Pol Pot is not the only leader to try and enforce his communist views on the country; people like Stalin and Mao have also made the same mistakes. Pol Pot believed that the greatest advantage that Angkor had was the amount of rice it grew. The only way he could recreate a civilization like Angkor was to become the leader of the Democratic Kampuchea (DK), as Cambodia was known then.

What Did He Do To Achieve His Goal?

When Pol Pot came to power in 1975, he called that year “Year Zero”. This was to signify that this year would be the start of an old yet new civilization. Pol Pot was very keen to replicate the system that was used in ancient Angkor. The day after he came to power, Pol Pot ordered everyone who was living in the cities to vacate and move to rural areas elsewhere. Those who refused were killed. These rural areas became known as communes or labour camps. In these communes, everyone had to work, eat and sleep there. It became like a small village in which everyone did the same thing every day. The only thing the people would do all day was grow rice. Rice growing was probably the most important aspect of the Angkor civilization according to Pol Pot. To reinforce the fact that everyone was equal (idea of communism), Pol Pot ordered that everyone be dressed in the same black clothes made of the same materials. While the people moved out of the cities, the Khmer Rouge picked out intellectuals and monks and killed them in wide open fields. These fields today are known as the killing fields. Pol Pot believed that the people who had had a proper education would realise that the Khmer Rouge were going to end up killing everyone. To stop the rest of the population rebelling, Pol Pot murdered the “critical thinkers”. The monks also held a very influential position within the society so they had to be killed too. While conducting these mass killings, Pol Pot was very careful not to let the public know that he was masterminding everything. Therefore, he created a non-existent being called Angka. Whenever orders were given to the people working in the communes, they would be told that Angka was ordering them. This underlined the fact that some superior authority who was not to be questioned was giving them orders. As time went on, Angka became a God to the people working in the communes. Another, and one of the most inhumane practices that he enforced was the use of child soldiers. These children were easy to brainwash and were taught to hate their family. The rapid advance in technology enabled these child soldiers to become the most fearful law enforcers for the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot murdered anyone who he thought was remotely opposing him. In total, he was responsible for the genocide of over one and a half million Cambodians, intellectuals, monks, soldiers and even some Vietnamese after relationships between the two countries began to deteriorate.

Comparison with Ho Chi Minh

There are many similarities between Pol Pot and Ho Chi Minh. For a start, they are not known by their actual names. Pol Pot is Saloth Sar and Ho Chi Minh is Nguyen Sinh Cung. Also, they both have the same birth date – May 19th and the same cause of death. Another similarity is that both the leaders were influenced by people who were protesting against their leader. A greater part of their influence however, came when they were abroad, whether studying or being part of an anti-government movement. Another and perhaps the greatest similarity is that both Pol Pot and Ho Chi Minh wanted their countries to be independent. There are also some differences between the two leaders. For example, Ho Chi Minh did not want to recreate an ancient civilization like Pol Pot. All he wanted was his country’s freedom from colonialism. Also, Pol Pot tried to achieve his goal in a very radical and extreme way whereas Ho Chi Minh preferred making treaties and becoming allies with other people with the same goal. Pol Pot however, wanted to cut off Cambodia from the outside world. One way he did this was to cease trade in and out of Cambodia. The starkest difference between the two leaders is how they are viewed in the eyes of their people today. Ho Chi Minh is considered “The Father of the Nation” for Vietnam and there is even a city named after him. Pol Pot on the other hand, is viewed as a mass murderer and is despised by most Cambodians today for his part in making Cambodia one of the most impoverished nations in the world.

Works Cited

Produced by Atulya Ravishankar 8JMa