Pol Pot

== Early life ==

=== Childhood: 1925–1941 ===
Pol Pot was born in the village of [[Prek Sbauv]], outside the city of [[Kampong Thom city|Kampong Thom]].{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=7|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=15}} He was named Saloth Sâr, the word ''sâr'' ("white, pale") referencing his comparatively light skin complexion.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=18}} French colonial records placed his birth date on 25 May 1928,{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=7}} but biographer [[Philip Short]] argues he was born in March 1925.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=15}}

[[File:Prek Sbauv.JPG|thumb|left|[[Prek Sbauv]], the village where Pol Pot was born and spent his early years]]
His family was of mixed [[Chinese Cambodian|Chinese]] and [[Khmer people|ethnic Khmer]] heritage, but did not speak [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and lived as though they were fully Khmer.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=18}} His father Loth, who later took the name Saloth Phem, was a prosperous farmer who owned nine hectares of rice land and several draft cattle.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=8|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=15, 18}} Loth's house was one of the largest in the village and at transplanting and harvest time he hired poorer neighbors to carry out much of the agricultural labour.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=15}} Sâr's mother, Sok Nem, was locally respected as a pious Buddhist.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=8}} Sâr was the eighth of nine children (two girls and seven boys),{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=8}} three of whom died young.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=16}} They were raised as [[Theravada Buddhism|Theravada Buddhists]], and on festivals travelled to the Kampong Thom monastery.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=20}} Despite his family's prosperous origins, in an interview with [[Yugoslavia|Yugoslav]] television in 1977, Pol Pot claimed that he was born into a "poor, peasant family".<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|last=Jones|first=Christopher|date=20 December 1981|title=In the Land of the Khmer Rouge|work=[[New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/20/magazine/in-the-land-of-the-khmer-rouge.html}}</ref>

[[List of monarchs of Cambodia|Cambodia was a monarchy]], but the [[French Protectorate of Cambodia|French colonial regime]], was in political control of the country at the time.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=14}} Sâr's family had connections to the Cambodian royalty: his cousin Meak was a consort of King [[Sisowath Monivong]] and later worked as a [[ballet]] teacher.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=8|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=16–17}} When Sâr was six years old, he and an older brother were sent to live with Meak in [[Phnom Penh]]; informal adoptions by wealthier relatives were then common in Cambodia.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=8}} In Phnom Penh, he spent 18 months as a novice monk in the city's Vat Botum Vaddei monastery, learning [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] teachings and to read and write the [[Khmer language]].{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=9|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=20–21}}

In summer 1935, Sâr went to live with his brother Suong and the latter's wife and child.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=23}} That year, he began an education at a [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] primary school, the École Miche,{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=17|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=23}} with Meak paying the tuition fees.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=17}} Most of his classmates were the children of French bureaucrats and Catholic [[Vietnamese Cambodians|Vietnamese]].{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=17}} He became literate in [[French language|French]] and familiar with [[Christianity]].{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=17}} Sâr was not academically gifted and was held back two years, receiving his Certificat d'Etudes Primaires Complémentaires in 1941 at the age of 16.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=28}} He continued to visit Meak at the king's palace, and it was there that he had some of his earliest sexual experiences with some of the king's concubines.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=27}}

=== Later education: 1942–1948 ===
While Sâr was at the school, the [[King of Cambodia]] died. In 1941, the French authorities appointed [[Norodom Sihanouk]] as his replacement.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=17|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=28–29}} A new junior middle school, the Collége Pream Sihanouk, was established in Kampong Cham, and Sâr was selected as a [[boarding school|boarder]] at the institution in 1942.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=18|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=28}} This level of education afforded him a privileged position in Cambodian society.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=22}} He learned to play the [[violin]] and took part in school plays.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=19|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=31}} Much of his spare time was spent playing [[association football|football]] (soccer) and [[basketball]].{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=20|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=31}} Several fellow pupils, among them [[Hu Nim]] and [[Khieu Samphan]], later served in his government.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=19}} During the new year vacation in 1945, Sâr and several friends from his college theatre troupe went on a provincial tour in a bus to raise money for a trip to [[Angkor Wat]].{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=32–33}} In 1947, he left the school.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=21}}

That year, he passed exams that admitted him into the [[Lycée Sisowath]], meanwhile living with Suong and his new wife.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=36}} In summer 1948, he sat the ''brevet'' entry examinations for the upper classes of the Lycée, but failed. Unlike several of his friends, he could not continue on at the school for a [[baccalauréat]].{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=21|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=42}} Instead, he enrolled in 1948 to study carpentry at the Ecole Technique in [[Russey Keo]], in Phnom Penh's northern suburbs.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=21|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=42–43}} This drop from an academic education to a vocational one likely came as a shock.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=42}} His fellow students were generally of a lower class than those at the Lycée Sisowath, though they were not peasants.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=22}} At the Ecole Technique, he met [[Ieng Sary]], who became a close friend and later a member of his government.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=22}} In summer 1949, Sâr passed his ''brevet'' and secured one of five scholarships allowing him to travel to France to study at one of its engineering schools.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=42–43}}

During the [[World War II|Second World War]], [[Nazi Germany]] invaded France, and in 1941 the Japanese ousted the French from Cambodia, with Sihanouk proclaiming his country's independence.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=31}} After the war ended, France reasserted its control over Cambodia in 1946,{{sfn|Short|2004|p=34}} but allowed for the creation of a new constitution and the establishment of various political parties.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=21|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=37}} The most successful of these was the [[Democratic Party (Cambodia)|Democratic Party]], which won the [[1946 Cambodian general election|1946 general election]].{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=23–24|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=37}} According to historian David Chandler, Sâr and Sary worked for the party during its successful election campaign;{{sfn|Chandler|1992|pp=23–24}} conversely, Short maintains that Sâr had no contact with the party.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=42}} Sihanouk opposed the party's left-leaning reforms and in 1948 dissolved the National Assembly, instead [[Rule by decree|ruling by decree]].{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=24}} The [[Việt Minh]] attempted to establish a nascent communist movement, but it was beset by ethnic tensions between the Khmer and Vietnamese. News of the group was censored from the press, and it is unlikely Sâr was aware of it.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=40–42}}

=== Paris: 1949–1953 ===
[[File:Entrée Abbesses originelle.jpg|thumb|upright|Sâr arrived in Paris on 1 October 1949. Paris pictured in 1950.]]

Access to further education abroad made Sâr part of a tiny elite in Cambodia.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=43}} He and the 21 other selected students sailed from [[Saigon]] aboard the SS ''Jamaïque'', stopping at [[Singapore]], [[Colombo]], and [[Djibouti]] en route to [[Marseille]].{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=25, 27|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=45}} In January 1950, Sâr enrolled at the [[EFREI|École française de radioélectricité]] to study [[radio electronics]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=49}} He took a room in the [[Cité Universitaire]]'s Indochinese Pavilion,{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=28}} then lodgings on the rue Amyot,{{sfn|Short|2004|p=49}} and eventually a [[bedsit]] on the corner of the rue de Commerce and the rue Letellier.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=51}} Sâr earned good marks during his first year. He failed his first end-of-year exams but was allowed to retake them and narrowly passed, enabling him to continue his studies.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=53}}

Sâr spent three years in Paris.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=28}} In summer 1950, he was one of 18 Cambodian students who joined French counterparts in traveling to the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|FPR Yugoslavia]] to volunteer in a labour battalion building a motorway in [[Zagreb]].{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=30|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=50}} He returned to Yugoslavia the following year for a camping holiday.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=51}} Sâr made little or no attempt to assimilate into French culture{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=30}} and was never completely at ease in the French language.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=49}} He nevertheless became familiar with French literature; one of his favorite authors being [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]].{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=34}} His most significant friendships in the country were with Ieng Sary, who had joined him there, Thiounn Mumm and [[Keng Vannsak]].{{sfn|Chandler|1992|pp=28–29}} He was a member of Vannsak's discussion circle, whose ideologically diverse membership discussed ways to achieve Cambodian independence.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=52, 59}}

In Paris, Ieng Sary and two others established the Cercle Marxiste ("Marxist Circle"), an organisation arranged in a [[clandestine cell system]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=63}} The cells met to read Marxist texts and hold [[Self-criticism (Marxism–Leninism)|self-criticism]] sessions.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=64}} Sâr joined a cell that met on the rue Lacepède; his cell comrades included Hou Yuon, Sien Ary, and Sok Knaol.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=63}} He helped to duplicate the Cercle's newspaper, ''Reaksmei'' ("The Spark"), named after [[Iskra|a former Russian paper]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=68}} In October 1951, Yuon was elected head of the Khmer Student Association (AEK; ''l'Association des Etudiants Khmers''), establishing close links between the organisation and the leftist [[Union Nationale des Étudiants de France]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=62}} The Cercle Marxiste manipulated the AEK and its successor organisations for the next 19 years.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=63}} Several months after the Cercle Marxiste's formation, Sâr and Sary joined the [[French Communist Party]] (PCF).{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=22–28|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=66}} Sâr attended party meetings, including those of its Cambodian group, and read its magazine, ''Les Cahiers Internationaux''.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=66}} To many young people in France and Cambodia, communism seemed to be the future; the [[Chinese Communist Party]] won the [[Chinese Civil War]] and the French Communist Party was one of the country's largest,<ref>{{harvnb|Chandler|1992|p=27} "'They became Communists when it was the popular thing to do—during the early 1950s under the unstable Fourth Republic in France when a Communist-controlled resistance movement in Cambodia bravely confronted the French colonial rulers. This period marked the heyday of the Communist party of France. The Khmer students' time in Paris coincided with the last years of Stalin's life and the apotheosis of the cult of personality surrounding him. The Communist party, one of the strongest in France, was considered the most Stalinist party outside eastern Europe. The years 1949-1953 also marked the victory of communism in China and the confrontation between Communist and anticommunist armies in the Korean War. To many young Khmer and millions of young people in France, communism seemed to be the wave of the future.'"}}</ref> attracting the votes of around 25% of the French electorate.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=69 }}

[[File:Mao, Bulganin, Stalin, Ulbricht Tsedenbal.jpeg|thumb|left|In Paris, Pol Pot was inspired by the writings of [[Mao Zedong]] and [[Joseph Stalin]] (pictured together in 1949) on how to conduct a revolution]]
Sâr found many of [[Karl Marx]]'s denser texts difficult, later saying he "didn't really understand" them.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=66}} But he became familiar with the writings of [[Soviet leader]] [[Joseph Stalin]],{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=34|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=67}} including ''[[The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)]]''.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=66}} Sâr also read Mao's work, especially ''[[On New Democracy]]'', a text outlining a [[New Democracy|framework for carrying out a revolution in colonial and semi-colonial, semi-feudal societies]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=70}} Alongside these texts, Sâr read the [[anarchism|anarchist]] [[Peter Kropotkin]]'s book on the [[French Revolution]], ''The Great Revolution''.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=72}} From Kropotkin he took the idea that an alliance between intellectuals and the peasantry was necessary for revolution; that a revolution had to be carried out without compromise to its conclusion to succeed; and that egalitarianism was the basis of a [[communist society]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=74}}

In Cambodia, growing internal strife resulted in King Sihanouk dismissing the government and declaring himself prime minister.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=76–77}} In response, Sâr wrote an article, "Monarchy or Democracy?", published in the student magazine ''Khmer Nisut'' under the pseudonym "Khmer daom" ("Original Khmer").{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=39|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=79}} In it, he referred positively to Buddhism, portraying Buddhist monks as an anti-monarchist force on the side of the peasantry.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=80}} At a meeting, the Cercle decided to send someone to Cambodia to assess the situation and determine which rebel group they should support; Sâr volunteered for the role.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=83}} His decision to leave may also have been because he had failed his second-year exams two years in a row and thus lost his scholarship.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=28|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=65, 82}} In December, he boarded the ''SS Jamaïque'',{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=42|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=82}} returning to Cambodia without a degree.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|pp=28, 42}}