Pol Pot

I was born Saloth Sâr (May 19, 1925 – April 15, 1998), but I’m better known as Pol Pot . I was the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976 to 1979, having been de facto leader since mid-1975. During mt time in power I created an aggressive regime of agricultural reform, designed to create a utopian Communist society. I was born in Prek Sbauv in what was then a part of French Indochina but which is now in the province of Kompong Thom. In 1934 my parents sent me to Phnom Penh to be educated at Wat Botum Vaddei, a large Buddhist monastery. After a year there, I went to live with my brother and his brother's wife, and began attending the Ecole Miche. I later went to Collège Preah Sihanouk at Kampong Cham in 1943. During this time there I enjoyed playing football and played the roneat (a bamboo xylophone). In 1947 I passed the end-of-year exams and was selected to attend Lycée Sisowath. In 1949, I won a scholarship to study radio engineering in Paris. During my studies, I became a communist and joined the French Communist Party. In 1953, returned to Kampuchea. At that time, a communist-led revolt was taking place against the French occupation of Indochina. The centre of this uprising was in Vietnam, but it also took place in Kampuchea and Laos. I joined the Viet Minh, but found that they regarded only Vietnam of importance, not Laos or Kampuchea. In 1954, the French left Indochina, but the Viet Minh also withdrew to North Vietnam, and King Norodom Sihanouk called elections. Sihanouk abdicated and formed a political party. Sihanouk swept away the communist opposition and gained all of the government seats. I fled Sihanouk's secret police and spent seven years in hiding, training recruits. In the late 1960s, Sihanouk's head of internal security, Lon Nol, took action against the revolutionaries, known as the Communist Party of Kampuchea. I started an armed uprising against the government, supported by the People's Republic of China (PRC). Prior to 1970, the Communist Party of Kampuchea already had a significant rebellion in the country site. However, in 1970, the pro-western General Lon Nol overthrew Sihanouk, because the latter was seen, By President Richard Nixon, as supporting the Viet Cong and North Vietnam. In protest, Sihanouk threw his support to the Communist Party of Kampuchea’s side. That same year, U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered a military incursion into Kampuchea in order to destroy Viet Cong sanctuaries bordering on South Vietnam. Sihanouk's popularity, along with the U.S. incursion into Cambodia, drove many to my side and soon Lon Nol's government controlled only the cities. When the U.S. left Vietnam in 1973, the Viet Cong left Kampuchea but my party continued to fight. Unable to maintain any sort of control over the country, Lon Nol's government soon collapsed. On April 17, 1975, the Communist Party of Kampuchea took Phnom Penh and Lon Nol fled to the United States of America. Norodom Sihanouk was returned to power in 1975, but soon found himself side-lined by our leadership, who had little interest in his plans of restoring the monarchy. Vietnam invaded Kampuchea to overthrow our government. Our army was defeated, and we fled to the Thai border. In January 1979, Vietnam installed a puppet government under Heng Samrin, composed of former cadre who had joined with the traitors who collaborated with Vietnam. I retained a sufficient following and formed a resistance group to keep fighting in a small area in the west of the country.
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