Pol Pot

=== 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>