Pol Pot

== Leader of Democratic Kampuchea ==
{{main|Democratic Kampuchea|Khmer Rouge Killing Fields}}

=== Establishing the new government: 1975 ===
[[File:2016 Phnom Penh, Pałac Królewski, Srebrna Pagoda (02).jpg|thumb|right|Pol Pot's government held its early meetings in the Silver Pagoda, which later served as Pol Pot's home]]

On 20 April 1975, three days after Phnom Penh fell, Pol Pot secretly arrived in the abandoned city.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=286}} Along with other Khmer Rouge leaders, he based himself in the railway station, which was easy to defend.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=109|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=286}} In early May, they moved their headquarters to the former Finance Ministry building.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=286}} The party leadership soon held a meeting at the [[Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh|Silver Pagoda]], where they agreed that raising agricultural production should be their government's top priority.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=288}} Pol Pot declared that "agriculture is key both to nation-building and to national defence";{{sfn|Short|2004|p=288}} he believed that unless Cambodia could develop swiftly then it would be vulnerable to Vietnamese domination, as it had been in the past.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=293}} Their goal was to reach 70 to 80% farm mechanisation in five to ten years, and a modern industrial base in fifteen to twenty years.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=288}} As part of this project, Pol Pot saw it as imperative that they develop means of ensuring that the farming population worked harder than before.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=294–95}}

The Khmer Rouge wanted to establish Cambodia as a self-sufficient state. They did not reject foreign assistance altogether, although they regarded it as pernicious.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=289}} While China supplied them with substantial food aid, this was not publicly acknowledged.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=289}} Shortly after the taking of Phnom Penh, Ieng Sary travelled to Beijing, negotiating the provision of 13,300 tons of Chinese weaponry to Cambodia.{{sfn|Ciorciari|2014|pp=218–19}} At the National Congress meeting in April, the Khmer Rouge declared that it would not permit any foreign military bases on Cambodian soil, a threat to Vietnam, which still had 20,000 troops in Cambodia.{{sfn|Ciorciari|2014|p=218}} To quell tensions arising from recent territorial clashes with Vietnamese soldiers over the disputed [[Wai Island]], Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, and Ieng Sary travelled secretly to Hanoi in May, where they proposed a Friendship Treaty between the two countries. In the short term, this successfully eased tensions.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=110|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=296–98}} After Hanoi, Pol Pot proceeded to Beijing, again in secret. There he met with Mao and then Deng.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=110|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=298–301}} Although communication with Mao was hindered by the reliance on translators, Mao warned the younger Cambodian against uncritically imitating the path to socialism pursued by China or any other country, and advised him to avoid repeating the drastic measures that the Khmer Rouge had imposed before.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=299–300}} In China, Pol Pot also received medical treatment for his [[malaria]] and gastric ailments.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=111|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=303}} Pol Pot then travelled to North Korea, meeting with [[Kim Il Sung]].{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=111|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=303}} In mid-July he returned to Cambodia,{{sfn|Short|2004|p=303}} and spent August touring the South-Western and Eastern Zones.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=305}}

{{Quote box
| quote =  You have a lot of experience. It's better than ours. We don't have the right to criticise you{{nbsp}}... Basically you are right. Have you made mistakes or not? I don't know. Certainly you have. So rectify yourselves; do ''rectification''!{{nbsp}}... The road is tortuous.
| source=— Mao's advice to Pol Pot, 1975{{sfn|Short|2004|p=299}}
| align = left
| width = 25em
}}

In May, Pol Pot adopted the Silver Pagoda as his main residence.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=297}} He then relocated to the city's tallest structure, the 1960s-built Bank Buildings, which became known as "K1".{{sfn|Short|2004|p=312}} Several other senior government figures—Nuon Chea, Sary, and Vorn Vet—also lived there.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=312}} Pol Pot's wife, whose schizophrenia had worsened, was sent to live in a house in [[Boeung Keng Kâng]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=312}} Later in 1975, Pol Pot also took Ponnary's old family home in the rue Docteur Hahn as a residence, and subsequently also took a villa in the south of the city for his own.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=312}} To give his government a greater appearance of legitimacy, Pol Pot organised a parliamentary election, although there was only one candidate in every constituency except in Phnom Penh.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=116|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=343–44}} The parliament then met for only three hours.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=344}}

Although Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge remained the ''de facto'' government, initially the formal government was the [[GRUNK]] coalition, although its nominal head, [[Penn Nouth]], remained in Beijing.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=304}} Throughout 1975, the Communist Party's control over Cambodia was kept secret.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=113|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=322}} At a special National Congress meeting from 25 to 27 April, the Khmer Rouge agreed to make Sihanouk the nominal [[head of state]],{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=113|2a1=Ciorciari|2y=2014|2p=218}} a status he retained throughout 1975.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=111}} Sihanouk had been dividing his time between Beijing and Pyongyang but in September was allowed to return to Cambodia.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=111|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=329–30}} Pol Pot was aware that if left abroad, Sihanouk could become a rallying point for opposition and thus was better brought into the Khmer government itself; he also hoped to take advantage of Sihanouk's stature in the [[Non-Aligned Movement]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=329}} Once home, Sihanouk settled into his palace and was well treated.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=330}} Sihanouk was allowed to travel abroad, in October addressing the UN General Assembly to promote the new Cambodian government and in November embarking on an international tour.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=330–31}}

The Khmer Rouge's military forces remained divided into differing zones and at a July military parade Pol Pot announced the formal integration of all troops into a national Revolutionary Army, to be headed by [[Son Sen]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=304}} Although a new Cambodian currency had been printed in China during the civil war, the Khmer Rouge decided not to introduce it. At the Central Committee Plenum held in Phnom Penh in September, they agreed that currency would lead to corruption and undermine their efforts to establish a socialist society.{{sfnm|1a1=Short|1y=2004|1pp=306–08|2a1=Ciorciari|2y=2014|2pp=219–20}} Thus, there were no wages in Democratic Kampuchea.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=291}} The population were expected to do whatever the Khmer Rouge commanded of them, without pay. If they refused, they faced punishment, sometimes execution.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=291}} For this reason, Short characterised Pol Pot's Cambodia as a "slave state", with its people effectively forced into [[slavery]] by working without pay.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=291}} At the September Plenum, Pol Pot announced that all farmers were expected to meet a quota of three tons of paddy, or unmilled rice, per hectare, an increase on what was previously the average yield.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|!p=122|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=306}} There he also announced that manufacturing should focus on the production of basic agricultural machinery and light industrial goods such as bicycles.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=308}}

==== Rural reform ====
From 1975 onward, all of those Cambodians who were living in rural co-operatives, meaning the vast majority of Cambodia's population, were reclassified as members of one of three groups: the full-rights members, the candidates, and the depositees.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=292}} The full-rights members, most of whom were poor or lower-middle peasants, were entitled to full rations, and able to hold political posts in the co-operatives and join both the army and the Communist Party.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=292}} Candidates could still hold low-level administrative positions.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=292}} The application of this tripartite system was uneven and it was introduced to different areas at different times.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=292}} On the ground, the basic societal division remained between the "base" people and the "new" people.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=292}} It was never Pol Pot and the party's intention to exterminate all "new" people although the latter were usually treated harshly and this led some commentators to believe extermination was the government's desire.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=292}} Pol Pot instead wanted to double or triple the country's population, hoping it could reach between 15 and 20 million within a decade.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=321}}

Within the village co-operatives, Khmer Rouge militia regularly killed those Cambodians who they deemed to be "bad elements".{{sfn|Short|2004|p=322}} A common statement used by the Khmer Rouge to those they executed was that "to keep you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss."{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=123|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=322}} Those killed were often buried by the fields, to act as fertiliser.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=322}} During the first year of Khmer Rouge rule, most areas of the country were able to stave off starvation despite significant population increases caused by the evacuation of the cities. There were exceptions, such as parts of the North-West Zone and western areas of [[Kampong Chhnang Province|Kompong Chhnang]], where starvation did occur in 1975.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=319}}

The new Standing Committee decreed that the population would work ten day weeks with one day off from labor; a system modelled on that used after the French Revolution.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=321}} Measures were taken to indoctrinate those living in the co-operatives, with set phrases about hard work and loving Cambodia being widely employed, for instance broadcast via loudspeakers or on the radio.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=323–24}} [[Neologism]]s were introduced and everyday vocabulary was altered to encourage a more collectivist mentality; Cambodians were encouraged to talk about themselves in the plural "we" rather than the singular "I".{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=324–25}} While working in the fields, people were typically segregated by sex.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=326}} Sport was prohibited.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=326}} The only reading material that the population were permitted to read was that produced by the government, most notably the newspaper ''Padevat'' ("Revolution").{{sfn|Short|2004|p=326}} Restrictions were placed on movement, with people permitted to travel only with the permission of the local Khmer Rouge authorities.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=333}}

=== Democratic Kampuchea: 1976–1979 ===
[[File:Flag of Democratic Kampuchea.svg|thumb|The [[flag of Democratic Kampuchea]]]]

In January 1976, a cabinet meeting was held to promulgate a new constitution declaring that the country was to be renamed "[[Democratic Kampuchea]]".{{sfn|Short|2004|p=332}} The constitution asserted state ownership of the means of production, declared the equality of men and women, and the rights and obligation of all citizens to work.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=332}} It outlined that the country would be governed by a three-person [[presidium]], and at the time Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge leaders expected that Sihanouk would take one of these roles.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=332}} Sihanouk was nevertheless increasingly uncomfortable with the new government and in March he resigned his role as head of state. Pol Pot tried repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, to get him to change his mind.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=114–15|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=334–35}} Sihanouk asked to be allowed to travel to China, citing the need for medical treatment, but this was denied. He was instead kept in his palace, which was sufficiently stocked with goods to allow him a luxurious lifestyle throughout the Khmer Rouge years.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=334–35}}

The removal of Sihanouk ended the pretence that the Khmer Rouge government was a united front.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=335–36}} With Sihanouk no longer part of the government, Pol Pot's government stated that the "national revolution" was over and that the "socialist revolution" could begin, allowing the country to move towards pure communism as swiftly as possible.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=341}} Pol Pot described the new state as "a precious model for humanity" with a revolutionary spirit that outstripped that of earlier revolutionary socialist movements.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=341}} In the 1970s, world communism was at its strongest point in history,{{sfn|Short|2004|p=342}} and Pol Pot presented the Cambodian example as the one which other revolutionary movements should follow.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=112|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=342}}

As part of the new Presidium, Pol Pot became the country's prime minister.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=116|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=336}} It was at this point that he took on the public pseudonym of "Pol Pot";{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=116|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=336}} as no-one in the country knew who this was, a fictitious biography was presented.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=337}} Pol Pot's key allies took the other two positions, with Nuon Chea as President of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly and Khieu Samphan as the [[List of heads of state of Cambodia|head of state]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=336}} In principle, the Khmer Rouge Standing Committee made decisions on the basis of the principle of [[democratic centralism]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=340}} In reality it was more autocratic, with Pol Pot's decisions being implemented.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=340}} The parliament which had been elected the previous year never met after 1976.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=344}} In September 1976, Pol Pot publicly revealed that the "Angkar", or "Organization", as the secretive body exercising supreme power was known, was a Marxist–Leninist organisation.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=128|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=361}} In September 1977, at a rally in the Olympic Stadium, Pol Pot then revealed that "Angkar" was a pseudonym for the CPK.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=142|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=375}} In September 1976, it was announced that Pol Pot had stepped down as prime minister, to be replaced by Nuon Chea, but in reality he remained in power, returning to his former position in October.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=128|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=362}} This was possibly a diversionary tactic to distract the Vietnamese government while Pol Pot purged the CPK of individuals he suspected of harbouring Vietnamese sympathies.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=362}} Despite their Marxist pretences, the Khmer Rouge sought to eradicate the working class, seeing it as a "decadent relic of the past".<ref>Thion, pp. 27–28</ref> The Khmer Rouge also renounced communism in 1977, with Ieng Sary stating "We are not communists{{nbsp}}... we are revolutionaries [who do not] belong to the commonly accepted grouping of communist Indochina."<ref>Michael Vickery, Cambodia: 1975–1982. Boston: South End Press, 1984, p. 288.</ref>

{{Quote box
| quote = The standard of the [Bolshevik] revolution of November 7, 1917, was raised very high, but Khrushchev pulled it down. The standard of Mao's [Chinese] revolution of 1949 stands high until now, but it has faded and is wavering: it is no longer firm. The standard of the [Cambodian] revolution of April 17, 1975, raised by Comrade Pol Pot, is brilliant red, full of determination, wonderfully firm and wonderfully clear-sighted. The whole world admires us, sings our praises and learns from us.
| source=— Pol Pot{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=288–89}}
| align = left
| width = 25em
}}

The Cambodian population were officially known as "Kampuchean" rather than "Khmer" to avoid the ethnic specificity associated with the latter term.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=327}} The Khmer language, now labelled "Kampuchean" by the government, was the only legally recognised language, and the Sino-Khmer minority were prohibited from speaking in the Chinese languages they commonly used.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=326}} Pressure was exerted on the Cham to culturally assimilate into the larger Khmer population.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=326}}

Pol Pot initiated a series of major irrigation projects across the country.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=351}} In the Eastern Zone, for instance, a huge dam was built.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=351}} Many of these irrigation projects failed due to a lack of technical expertise on the part of the workers.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=351}}

The Standing Committee agreed to link several villages in a single co-operative of 500 to 1000 families, with the goal of later forming commune-sized units twice that size.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=344}} Communal kitchens were also introduced so that all members of a commune ate together rather than in their individual homes.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=126|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=344–45}} Foraging or hunting for additional food was prohibited, regarded as individualistic behaviour.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=346}} From the summer of 1976, the government ordered that children over the age of seven would live not with their parents but communally with Khmer Rouge instructors.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=347}} The co-operatives produced less food than the government believed, in part due to a lack of motivation among laborers and the diversion of the strongest workers to irrigation projects.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=352}} Fearing criticism, many party cadres falsely claimed that they had met the government's food production quota.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=353}} The government became aware of this, and by the end of 1976 Pol Pot acknowledged food shortages in three quarters of the country.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=353}}

Members of the Khmer Rouge received special privileges not enjoyed by the rest of the population. Party members had better food,{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=345–46}} with cadres sometimes having access to clandestine brothels.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=348}} Members of the Central Committee could go to China for medical treatment,{{sfn|Short|2004|p=349}} and the highest echelons of the party had access to imported luxury products.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=346}}

==== Purges and executions ====
The Khmer Rouge also classified people based on their religious and ethnic backgrounds. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge had a policy of [[state atheism]].<ref name="Wessinger2000">{{cite book|last=Wessinger|first=Catherine|title=Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases|year=2000|publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]]|isbn=978-0815628095|page=282|quote=Democratic Kampuchea was officially an atheist state, and the persecution of religion by the Khmer Rouge was matched in severity only by the persecution of religion in the communist states of Albania and North Korea, so there were not any direct historical continuities of Buddhism into the Democratic Kampuchea era.}}</ref> Buddhist monks were viewed as social parasites and designated a "special class". Within a year of the Khmer Rouge's victory in the civil war, the country's monks were set to manual labor in the rural co-operatives and irrigation projects.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=326}}
Despite its ideological iconoclasm, many historical monuments were left undamaged by the Khmer Rouge;{{sfn|Short|2004|p=313}} for Pol Pot's government, like its predecessors, the historic state of [[Angkor]] was a key point of reference.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=293}}

Several isolated revolts broke out against Pol Pot's government. The Khmer Rouge Western Zone regional chief Koh Kong and his followers began launching small-scale attacks on government targets along the Thai border.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=354}} There were also several village rebellions among the Cham.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=354}} In February 1976, explosions in [[Siem Reap]] destroyed a munitions depot. Pol Pot suspected senior military figures were behind the bombing and, although unable to prove who was responsible, had several army officers arrested.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=354–55}}

[[File:Tuol Sleng.jpg|thumb|left|The Tuol Sleng School, also known as S-21, where those regarded as enemies of the government were tortured and killed]]

In September 1976, various party members were arrested and accused of conspiring with Vietnam to overthrow Pol Pot's government.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=359}} Over the coming months the numbers arrested grew. The government invented claims of assassination attempts against its leading members to justify this internal crack-down within the CPK itself.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=360}} These party members were accused of being spies for either the CIA, the Soviet [[KGB]], or the Vietnamese.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=134|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=367}} They were encouraged to confess to the accusations, often after torture or the threat of torture, with these confessions then being read out at party meetings.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=344, 366}} As well as occurring in the area around Phnom Penh, trusted party cadres were sent into the country's zones to initiate further purges among the party membership there.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=368–70}}

The Khmer Rouge converted a disused secondary school in Phnom Penh's [[Tuol Sleng]] region into a security prison, [[Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum|S-21]]. It was placed under the responsibility of the defence minister, [[Son Sen]].{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=130, 133|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=358}} The numbers sent to S-21 grew steadily as the CPK purge proceeded. In the first half of 1976, about 400 people were sent there; in the second half of the year that number was nearer to 1,000. By the spring of 1977, 1,000 people were being sent there each month.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=364}} Between 15,000 and 20,000 people would be killed at S-21 during the Khmer Rouge period.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=364}} About a dozen of them were Westerners.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=367}} Pol Pot never personally visited S-21.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=371}}

From late 1976 onward, and especially in the middle of 1977, the levels of violence increased across Democratic Kampuchea, particularly at the village level.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=370}} In rural areas, most of the killings were perpetrated by young cadres who were enforcing what they believed to be the government's will.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=168}} Across the country, peasant cadres tortured and killed members of their communities whom they disliked. Many cadres ate the livers of their victims and tore unborn foetuses from their mothers for use as kun krak talismans.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=371}} The CPK Central Command was aware of such practices but did nothing to stop them.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=371}} By 1977, the growing violence, coupled with poor food, was generating disillusionment even within the Khmer Rouge's core support base.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=371}} Growing numbers of Cambodians attempted to flee into Thailand and Vietnam.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=372}} In the autumn of 1977, Pol Pot declared the purges at an end.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=368}} According to the CPK's own figures, by August 1977 between 4,000 and 5,000 party members had been liquidated as "enemy agents" or "bad elements".{{sfn|Short|2004|p=368}}

In 1978, the government initiated a second purge, during which tens of thousands of Cambodians were accused of being Vietnamese sympathisers and killed.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=383}} At this point the remaining CPK members who had spent time in Hanoi were killed, along with their children.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=384–85}} In January 1978, Pol Pot announced to his colleagues that their slogan should be "Purify the Party! Purify the army! Purify the cadres!"{{sfn|Short|2004|p=384}}

==== Foreign relations ====
[[File:Nicolae Ceaușescu with Pol Pot.jpg|thumb|Pol Pot meeting with Romanian Marxist leader [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]] during the latter's visit to Cambodia in 1978]]

Outwardly, relations between Cambodia and Vietnam were warm following the establishment of Democratic Kampuchea; after Vietnam was unified in July 1976, the Cambodian government issued a message of congratulations.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=357}} Privately, relations between the two were declining. In a speech on the first anniversary of their victory in the civil war, Khieu referred to the Vietnamese as imperialists.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=356}} In May 1976, a negotiation to draw up a formal border between the two countries failed.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=356}}

On taking power, the Khmer Rouge spurned both the Western states and the Soviet Union as sources of support.{{sfn|Ciorciari|2014|p=217}} Instead, China became Cambodia's main international partner.{{sfn|Ciorciari|2014|p=215}} With Vietnam increasingly siding with the Soviet Union over China, the Chinese saw Pol Pot's government as a bulwark against Vietnamese influence in Indochina.{{sfnm|1a1=Short|1y=2004|1p=300|2a1=Ciorciari|2y=2014|2p=220}} Mao pledged $1 billion in military and economic aid to Cambodia, including an immediate $20 million grant.{{sfn|Ciorciari|2014|p=220}} Many thousands of Chinese military advisors and technicians were also sent to the country to assist in projects like the construction of the [[Kampong Chhnang (city)|Kampong Chhnang]] military airport.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=110|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=302|3a1=Ciorciari|3y=2014|3pp=226–27, 234}} The relationship between the Chinese and Cambodian governments was nevertheless marred by mutual suspicion and China had little influence on Pol Pot's domestic policies.{{sfn|Ciorciari|2014|pp=216–17}} It had greater influence on Cambodia's foreign policy, successfully pushing the country to pursue rapprochement with Thailand and open communication with the U.S. to combat Vietnamese influence in the region.{{sfn|Ciorciari|2014|p=221}}

After Mao died in September 1976, Pol Pot praised him and Cambodia declared an official period of mourning.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=128|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=361}} In November 1976, Pol Pot travelled secretly to Beijing, seeking to retain his country's alliance with China after the [[Gang of Four]] were arrested.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=362}} From Beijing, he was then taken on a tour of China, visiting sites associated with Mao and the Chinese Communist Party.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=363}} The Chinese were the only country allowed to retain their old Phnom Penh embassy.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=332}} All other diplomats were made to live in assigned quarters on the Boulevard Monivong. This street was barricaded off and the diplomats were not permitted to leave without escorts. Their food was brought to them and provided through the only shop that remained open in the country.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=332–33}} Pol Pot saw the Khmer Rouge as an example that should be copied by other revolutionary movements across the world and courted Marxist leaders from Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, allowing Thai Marxists to establish bases along the Cambodian border with Thailand.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=342}} In November 1977, Burma's [[Ne Win]] was the first foreign head of government to visit Democratic Kampuchea, followed soon after by Romania's [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=361}}

==== Number of deaths ====
[[File:Choeungek2.JPG|thumb|Skulls of Khmer Rouge victims]]
[[File:ChoeungEk-Darter-8.jpg|thumb|Mass grave in [[Choeung Ek]]]]

[[Ben Kiernan]] estimates that 1.671&nbsp;million to 1.871&nbsp;million Cambodians died as a result of Khmer Rouge policy, or between 21% and 24% of Cambodia's 1975 population.<ref name="CAS">{{cite journal|author-link=Ben Kiernan|last=Kiernan|first=Ben|s2cid=143971159|title=The Demography of Genocide in Southeast Asia: The Death Tolls in Cambodia, 1975–79, and East Timor, 1975–80|journal=Critical Asian Studies|volume=35|issue=4|pages=585–597|year=2003|doi=10.1080/1467271032000147041}}</ref> A study by French demographer Marek Sliwinski calculated slightly fewer than 2&nbsp;million unnatural deaths under the Khmer Rouge out of a 1975 Cambodian population of 7.8&nbsp;million; 33.5% of Cambodian men died under the Khmer Rouge compared to 15.7% of Cambodian women.<ref name="Locard">{{cite journal|last=Locard|first=Henri|title=State Violence in Democratic Kampuchea (1975–1979) and Retribution (1979–2004)|journal=[[European Review of History]]|volume=12|issue=1|pages=121–143|date=March 2005|doi=10.1080/13507480500047811|s2cid=144712717}}</ref> According to a 2001 academic source, the most widely accepted estimates of excess deaths under the Khmer Rouge range from 1.5&nbsp;million to 2&nbsp;million, although figures as low as 1&nbsp;million and as high as 3&nbsp;million have been cited; conventionally accepted estimates of deaths due to Khmer Rouge executions range from 500,000 to 1&nbsp;million, "a third to one half of excess mortality during the period".<ref name="Heuveline, Patrick 2001"/> However, a 2013 academic source (citing research from 2009) indicates that execution may have accounted for as much as 60% of the total, with 23,745 mass graves containing approximately 1.3&nbsp;million suspected victims of execution.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Seybolt|first1=Taylor B.|last2=Aronson|first2=Jay D.|last3=Fischoff|first3=Baruch|title=Counting Civilian Casualties: An Introduction to Recording and Estimating Nonmilitary Deaths in Conflict|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2013|isbn=978-0199977314|page=238}}</ref>

While considerably higher than earlier and more widely accepted estimates of Khmer Rouge executions, the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam)'s Craig Etcheson defended such estimates of over one million executions as "plausible, given the nature of the mass grave and DC-Cam's methods, which are more likely to produce an under-count of bodies rather than an over-estimate."<ref name="Tufts.edu"/> Demographer Patrick Heuveline estimated that between 1.17&nbsp;million and 3.42&nbsp;million Cambodians died unnatural deaths between 1970 and 1979, with between 150,000 and 300,000 of those deaths occurring during the civil war. Heuveline's central estimate is 2.52&nbsp;million excess deaths, of which 1.4&nbsp;million were the direct result of violence.<ref name="Heuveline, Patrick 2001">{{cite book|last=Heuveline|first=Patrick|chapter=The Demographic Analysis of Mortality Crises: The Case of Cambodia, 1970–1979|title=Forced Migration and Mortality|publisher=[[National Academies Press]]|year=2001|pages=102–105|isbn=978-0309073349}}</ref><ref name="Tufts.edu">{{cite web|url=https://sites.tufts.edu/atrocityendings/2015/08/07/cambodia-u-s-bombing-civil-war-khmer-rouge/|title=Cambodia: U.S. bombing, civil war, & Khmer Rouge|publisher=[[World Peace Foundation]]|date=7 August 2015|access-date=5 August 2019|archive-date=14 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714181839/https://sites.tufts.edu/atrocityendings/2015/08/07/cambodia-u-s-bombing-civil-war-khmer-rouge/|url-status=live}}</ref> Despite being based on a house-to-house survey of Cambodians, the estimate of 3.3&nbsp;million deaths promulgated by the Khmer Rouge's successor regime, the [[People's Republic of Kampuchea]] (PRK), is generally considered to be an exaggeration; among other methodological errors, the PRK authorities added the estimated number of victims that had been found in the partially-exhumed mass graves to the raw survey results, meaning that some victims would have been double-counted.<ref name="Tufts.edu"/>

An estimated 300,000 Cambodians starved to death between 1979 and 1980, largely as a result of the after-effects of Khmer Rouge policies.<ref>{{cite book|last=Heuveline|first=Patrick|title=Forced Migration and Mortality|chapter=The Demographic Analysis of Mortality Crises: The Case of Cambodia, 1970–1979|publisher=[[National Academies Press]]|year=2001|isbn=978-0-309-07334-9|page=124}} cf. {{cite news|author-link=Seymour Hersh|last=Hersh|first=Seymour M.|title=2.25&nbsp;million Cambodians Facing Starvation|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=8 August 1979}}</ref>

=== Fall of Democratic Kampuchea ===
{{main|Cambodian–Vietnamese War}}

In December 1976, the Kampuchean Communist Party Central Committee's annual plenum proposed the country ready itself for the prospect of war with Vietnam.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=363}} Pol Pot believed that Vietnam was committed to expansionism and thus was a threat to Cambodian independence.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=376}} There were renewed border clashes between Cambodia and Vietnam in early 1977, continuing into April.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=372}} On 30 April, Cambodian units, backed by artillery fire, entered Vietnam and attacked a series of villages, killing several hundred Vietnamese civilians.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=372}} Vietnam responded by ordering its Air Force to bomb Cambodian border positions.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=372}} Several months later, the fighting resumed; in September, two divisions of the Cambodian Eastern Zone entered the [[Tay Ninh]] area of Vietnam, where they attacked several villages and slaughtered their inhabitants.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=141|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=375}} That month, Pol Pot travelled to Beijing, and from there to North Korea, where Kim Il Sung spoke out against Vietnam in solidarity with the Khmer Rouge.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=145|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=375–77}}

[[File:TuolSlang4.jpg|thumb|left|Busts of Pol Pot were produced in anticipation of a [[cult of personality]] ultimately never realized. This example is displayed in the [[Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum]].]]

In December, Vietnam sent 50,000 troops over the border along a 100-mile stretch, penetrating 12 miles into Cambodia.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=150–51|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=377}} Cambodia then formally broke off diplomatic relations with Vietnam.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=151|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=377}} Cambodian forces fought back against the invaders, who had withdrawn to Vietnam by 6 January 1978.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=378}} At this point, Pol Pot ordered Cambodia's military to take an aggressive, proactive stance, attacking Vietnamese troops before the latter had the chance to act.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=389}} In January and February 1978, the Cambodian Army launched raids on various Vietnamese villages.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=151}} The Vietnamese Politburo then concluded that it must not leave Pol Pot in power, but must remove him from power before the Cambodian military strengthened further.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=378}} In 1978, it established military training camps for Cambodian refugees in southern Vietnam, forming the nucleus of a future Cambodian regime.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=152|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=379}} The Cambodian government also readied itself for war. Plans for a [[personality cult]] revolving around Pol Pot were drawn up, based on the [[Mao Zedong's cult of personality|Chinese]] and [[Kim Il-sung's cult of personality|North Korean models]], in the belief that such a cult would unify the population in wartime.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=157–58|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=361}} Large photographs of Pol Pot began to be placed in communal dining halls,{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=157}} while oil paintings and busts of him were produced.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=158}} The cult was ultimately never implemented.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=361}}

The failure of Cambodian troops in the Eastern Zone to successfully resist the Vietnamese incursion made Pol Pot suspicious of their allegiances.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=384–85}} He ordered a purge of the Eastern Zone, with over 400 CPK cadres from the area being sent to S-21.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=155|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=385}} Aware that they would be killed on Pol Pot's orders, increasing numbers of Eastern Zone troops began rebelling against the Khmer Rouge government.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=386}} Pol Pot sent more troops into the Eastern Zone to defeat the rebels, ordering them to slaughter the inhabitants of any villages that were believed to be harbouring any rebel forces.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=386}} This suppression in the east was, according to Short, "the bloodiest single episode under Pol Pot's rule".{{sfn|Short|2004|p=386}} Fleeing the government troops, many leading rebels—including Zone deputy chiefs [[Heng Samrin]] and [[Pol Saroeun]]—made it into Vietnam, where they joined the anti-Pol Pot exile community.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=386}} By August 1978, Pol Pot could only consider Mok's forces in the south-west and Pauk's in the Central Zone as being reliable.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=387}}

Early in 1978, Pol Pot's government began trying to improve relations with various foreign countries, such as Thailand, to bolster its position against Vietnam.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=381}} Many other governments in Southeast Asia sympathised with Cambodia's situation, fearing the impact of Vietnamese expansionism and Soviet influence on their own countries.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=391}} Although supportive of the Cambodians, the Chinese government decided not to send its army into Cambodia, fearing that an all-out conflict with Vietnam could provoke a war with the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=393}} Meanwhile, Vietnam was planning its full-scale invasion of Cambodia.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=390}} In December 1978, it formally launched the [[Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation|Khmer National United Front for National Salvation]] (KNUFNS), a group made up of Cambodian exiles which it hoped to install in place of the Khmer Rouge. Initially, KNUFNS was headed by Heng Samrin.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=390, 393}} Fearing this Vietnamese threat, Pol Pot wrote an anti-Vietnamese tract titled the ''Black Paper''.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=387}}

In September 1978, Pol Pot began increasingly courting Sihanouk in the hope that the latter could prove a rallying point in support of the Khmer Rouge government.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=388}} That same month, Pol Pot flew to China to meet with Deng.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=388–89}} Deng condemned Vietnamese aggression but suggested that the Khmer Rouge had precipitated the conflict by being too radical in its policies and by allowing Cambodian troops to behave anarchically along the border with Vietnam.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=389}} On returning to Cambodia, in October Pol Pot ordered the country's army to switch tactics, adopting a defensive strategy involving the heavy use of [[land mines]] to stop Vietnamese incursions. He also cautioned the army to avoid direct confrontations which would incur heavy losses and instead adopt guerrilla tactics.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=389–90}} In November 1978, the CPK held its Fifth Congress. Here, Mok was appointed the third ranked figure in the government, behind Pol Pot and Nuon Chea.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=392}} Soon after the Congress, two senior government members—Vorn Vet and Kong Sophal—were arrested and sent to S-21. This precipitated another round of purges.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=392}}

=== Vietnamese Invasion: 1978–1979 ===
{{Main|Cambodian-Vietnamese War}}

On 25 December 1978, the Vietnamese Army launched its full-scale invasion.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=395}} Its columns initially advanced into north-east Cambodia, taking [[Kratié (town)|Kratie]] on 30 December and [[Stung Treng]] on 3 January.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=395}} The Vietnamese main force then entered Cambodia on 1 January 1979, heading along Highways one and seven toward Phnom Penh.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=395}} Cambodia's forward defences failed to stop them.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=397}} With an attack on Phnom Penh imminent, in January Pol Pot ordered Sihanouk and his family to be sent to Thailand.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=396–97}} The entire diplomatic corps followed shortly after.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=396}} On 7 January, Pol Pot and other senior government figures left the city and drove to [[Pursat]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=398}} They spent two days there before moving on to [[Battambang]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=402}}

After the Khmer Rouge evacuated Phnom Penh, Mok was the only senior government figure left in the city, tasked with overseeing its defence.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=398}} Nuon Chear ordered the cadres in control of S-21 to kill all remaining inmates prior to it being captured by the Vietnamese.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=400}} However, the troops guarding the city were unaware how close the Vietnamese Army actually were;{{sfn|Short|2004|p=400}} the government had concealed the extent of the Vietnamese gains from the population.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=399}} As the Vietnamese approached, many officers and other soldiers guarding the city fled; the defence was highly disorganised.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=400–01}} There were isolated examples of Cambodian villagers killing Khmer Rouge officials in revenge.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=165|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=401}} In January, Vietnam installed a new government under Samrin, composed of Khmer Rouge who had fled to Vietnam to avoid the purges.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=409}} The new government renamed Cambodia the "[[People's Republic of Kampuchea]]".{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=165|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=409}} Although many Cambodians had initially hailed the Vietnamese as saviours, over time resentment against the occupying force grew.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=409}}

The Khmer Rouge turned to China for support against the invasion. Sary travelled to China via Thailand.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=402}} There, Deng urged the Khmer Rouge to continue a guerrilla war against the Vietnamese and to establish a broad, non-communist front against the invaders, with a prominent role given to Sihanouk.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=402–03}}
China sent its vice premier, [[Geng Biao]], to Thailand to negotiate the shipment of arms to the Khmer Rouge through Thailand.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=405}} China also sent diplomats to stay with the Khmer Rouge encampments near the Thai border. Pol Pot met with these diplomats twice before the Chinese government withdrew them for their safety in March.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=406–08}} In China, the Khmer Rouge set up their "Voice of Democratic Kampuchea" radio station, which remained their main outlet for communicating with the world.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=402}} In February, the [[Sino-Vietnamese War|Chinese attacked northern Vietnam]], hoping to draw Vietnamese troops away from the invasion of Cambodia.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=407}} As well as China, the Khmer Rouge also received the support of the United States and most other non-Marxist southeast Asian countries who feared Vietnamese aggression as a tool of Soviet influence in the region.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=406}}

On 15 January, the Vietnamese reached [[Sisophon]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=405}} Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, and Khieu Samphan then moved to [[Pailin Province|Palin]] on the Thai side of the border, and in late January relocated again, to [[Tasanh]], where Sary joined them. There, on 1 February, they held a Central Committee conference, deciding against Deng's advice about a united front.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=406}} In the second half of March, the Vietnamese moved to hem in the Khmer Rouge along the Thai border, where many of Pol Pot's troops had crossed into Thailand itself.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=408}} The Vietnamese advanced on Tasanh, from which the Khmer Rouge leaders had fled only a few hours before it was captured.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=407–08}}