Pol Pot (CNN News)

[Bud Cline]

Pol Pot
Former Cambodian Communist Leader
1925 - 1998
Born: Saloth Sar, May 19, 1925 in Kompong Thom Province, Cambodia
Education: Lived in Buddhist monastery for six years; Studied carpentry for one year at a technical school in Phnom Penh; Studied radio electronics in Paris (1949).
Military Service: Assumed leadership role in guerrilla warfare.
Occupation: Military and political leader.
Early Years: Taught at private school in Phnom Penh (1954-1963).
Political Career: Joined anti-French resistance under Ho Chi Minh (1940s); Joined Cambodian Communist Party (1946); While a student in Paris, engaged in revolutionary activities (1949-53); Fled from Phnom Penh because police suspected his Communist activities (1963); Built up Cambodian Communist Party, served as party secretary (1963- 1975); Led Khmer Rouge guerrilla forces in overthrow of Lon Nol regime (1975); Prime minister of new Khmer Rouge government (1976-1979); Headed Khmer Rouge forces in mountains of southwestern Cambodia against Hanoi-backed government (1975-1985); Alleged removed from military and political leadership of Khmer Rouge (1985).

Pol Pot
1925 - 1998

Pol Pot, whose name became synonymous with the Khmer Rouge guerrillas and genocide, was born into a peasant family in Cambodia. He spent six years of his youth in a Buddhist monastery, including two years as a Buddhist monk. He studied carpentry at a technical school in the nation's capital and joined the anti-French resistance organized by Ho Chi Minh. He entered the Cambodian Communist Party in 1946. In 1949 Pol studied radio electronics in Paris, France, on a scholarship. He spent more time on his clandestine Communist activities than studying radio, and failed his examinations and returned to Cambodia in 1953.

Pol Pot taught at a private school from 1954 to 1963 but had to flee the capital when the police discovered his Communist activities. From that time on, he devolved himself to building up the Cambodian Communist Party and serving as its secretary. In 1975 he led the Khmer Rouge in its overthrow of the government of Norodom Sihanouk and the military government of Lon Nol. Between 1975 and 1979 Pol Pot was prime minister of the infamous "killing fields" Communist government . His radical Maoist version of Communism centered on a return to a utopian agricultural society and rejection of modern urban life. The populations of Cambodia's cities were forced to evacuate the cities, move to the countryside and engage in agricultural labor. In the forced mass exodus, the government caused the deaths of an estimated 2 million Cambodians through imprisonment, torture, overwork, starvation and execution. Finally in 1979, a border dispute led to a Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia which overthrew Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge government and installed a regime friendly to the Vietnamese.

Pol Pot fled to southwestern Cambodia where he led a Khmer Rouge insurgency against the Vietnamese-backed central government. China and Thailand in the 1980s supported a three-party guerrilla alliance that included the Khmer Rouge and royalists against the Vietnamese-supported government of Premier Hun Sen. The government would not negotiate with the Khmer Rouge as long as Pol Pot remained its leader.

In 1985, Pol Pot was allegedly removed from military and political leadership of the Khmer Rouge, but he stayed in the Khmer Rouge in an ill-defined defense position. In 1991 the Khmer Rouge signed a peace treaty officially ending the Cambodian war. In 1992 Prince Sihanouk denounced the Khmer Rouge and allied with Hun Sen, upsetting the balance of power. The Khmer Rouge withdrew from the peace process, resumed fighting, and in 1993 boycotted a national election. Royalists won the election, a new constitution reestablished the monarchy, and Norodom Sihanouk again became king.

In the mid-1990s, the Khmer Rouge suffered reverses due to internal factionalism and government military offensives against them. The Khmer Rouge split apart in 1996 and its moderate faction based in the north defected to the government. Hard-liners under Pol Pot stayed in their mountain jungle stronghold.

Pol Pot died on April 15, 1998 in Bangkok, Thailand, evading prosecution for the deaths of as many as 2 million of his countrymen.

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[John Bridge]

Yep, one fine fella, that Pol Pot.

[cx]

So what's your point, Bud? That all that was because he was a carpenter for a year? I take offense!

Thanks for posting all that. I wasn't aware of any of the parts in the 60s or after the early 80s. Just knew him from his activities in the 70s.

Yeah, real sweetheart.

John: Were you ever involved in any of our activities in Cambodia, where we never really had any forces, wink, wink? Worked a year with an Army crypto operator who had stories if you could afford enough beer. One of the things I remember well was his comment that they could always tell on the ground in which country they actually were by the aircraft that extracted them: Viet Nam, US military; Cambodia, Air America. I was still dumb enough when I got out of the USCG that I gave thought to flying with Air America for the big bucks. Crazy times.

[John Bridge]

CX,

From my rear echelon vantage point, and in my position as chief bottle washer for the brigade personnel setup, I could (if I wanted to) attend the commander's briefing each morning in the Tactical Operations Center (TOC). It was a huge bunker in which all the staff people could assemble at once without getting wiped out by rocket or mortar fire.

The way the Cambodian territorial thing was usually handled was in context with the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which as you know covered quite a bit of Cambodia. So operations would take place along the "trail," but officially not in Cambodia, which as you also know was against the orders of the commander-in-chief (Johnson, in my case).

I ran into a Coast Guard VN vet in a bar in Phoenix years ago, and we struck up a dialog. Until then I had not known the CG types were even deployed in-country. Well, this guy opened my eyes. Told me about missions he'd been on not only in Vietnam but also in Cambodia and Laos. He related it in a manner wherein you knew he had been there.

Anyway, the khmer rouge was around back then, of course, but Pol Pot hadn't come to the fore.

What a bunch of utter shit the whole thing was, eh?

But, God, it was exciting.

The Air America thing ought to be the subject of another post, but no, I didn't know of its existence until long after I quit the Army. Used to brush shoulders with CIA types in the base camp, though. I mean, they were the only civilians carrying. Real cagey, eh?

[Rob Z]

One of my favorite pictures of my Dad is of him holding a captured AK47 in Cambodia. He is really tan and very thin. It's a cool picture.

I never have understood how our military thought they could keep a whole segment of the war secret. John, Kelly, what was it that spilled the beans to the media? I was only 5 then, so you'll have to excuse my lack of knowledge on this one.

Rob

[JC]

Jane Fonda? I dunno

You guys probably laugh at how little us "youngsters" really understand about the war..huh?

Can't say I know very many people who like her for what she did.

[Bud Cline]

Jane Fonda, enemy sympathizor, traitor, or just plain stupid? Her Viet Nam War, Hanoi Radio Speech is here in another thread of her own. Check her out.