Pol Pot

== Reception and legacy ==
Chandler described Pol Pot as one of "the visionary leaders of Cambodian history" for his attempts to radically transform the country.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=187}} By 1979, his name was internationally recognised as a byword for mass killings and chaos.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=169}} In its obituary notice for Pol Pot, ''[[The New York Times]]'' referred to him as the creator of "one of the 20th century's most brutal and radical regimes".<ref>{{cite news |last=Mydans |first=Seth |title=Death of Pol Pot; Pol Pot, Brutal Dictator Who Forced Cambodians to Killing Fields, Dies at 73 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/17/world/death-pol-pot-pol-pot-brutal-dictator-who-forced-cambodians-killing-fields-dies.html |website=The New York Times |date=17 April 1998 |access-date=4 February 2020 |archive-date=7 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190807192707/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/17/world/death-pol-pot-pol-pot-brutal-dictator-who-forced-cambodians-killing-fields-dies.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
Both the [[BBC News]] and ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine blamed his government for "one of the worst mass killings of the 20th century".<ref>{{cite news |title=Khmer Rouge: Cambodia's years of brutality |date=16 November 2018 |publisher=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-10684399 |access-date=4 February 2020 |archive-date=21 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200221204813/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-10684399 |url-status=live }}; {{cite news |first=Casey |last=Quackenbush |date=7 January 2019 |title=40 Years After the Fall of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia Still Grapples With Pol Pot's Brutal Legacy |url=https://time.com/5486460/pol-pot-cambodia-1979/ |magazine=Time |access-date=4 February 2020 |archive-date=7 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607044409/https://time.com/5486460/pol-pot-cambodia-1979/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2009, [[Deutsche Welle]] described Pol Pot's government as having initiated one of the "world's most infamous political experiments",<ref>{{cite news |last=de Launey |first=Guy |title=30 Years Since Fall of Pol Pot |date=7 January 2009 |publisher=[[Deutsche Welle]] |url=https://www.dw.com/en/30-years-since-fall-of-pol-pot/a-5213109 |access-date=4 February 2020 |archive-date=4 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200204195554/https://www.dw.com/en/30-years-since-fall-of-pol-pot/a-5213109 |url-status=live }}</ref> while Short referred to the Khmer Rouge as "the most radical revolutionary movement of modern times".{{sfn|Short|2004|p=433}} Writing for the U.S. socialist magazine ''[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]]'' in 2019, the Dutch socialist Alex de Jong characterised Pol Pot's government as a "genocidal regime" and noted that the name of the Khmer Rouge had become "synonymous with murder and repression".<ref>{{cite news |last=de Jong |first=Alex |date=April 2019 |title=Inside the Khmer Rouge's Killing Fields |website=Jacobin |url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/04/khmer-rouge-james-tyner-cambodia-violence |access-date=4 February 2020 |archive-date=4 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200204193318/https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/04/khmer-rouge-james-tyner-cambodia-violence |url-status=live }}</ref> Many Cambodians who lived through his administration later referred to it as ''samai a-Pot'' ("the era of the contemptible Pot").{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=119}}

The idea that the deaths which occurred under Pol Pot's government should be considered [[genocide]] was first put forward by the Vietnamese government in 1979 after the revelations of the killings committed at Tuol Sleng prison.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=446}} The Vietnamese-backed PRK administration swiftly opened the prison to visitors as the "Genocide Museum".{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=168}} Short argued that while Pol Pot's administration was clearly responsible for [[crimes against humanity]], it was misleading to accuse it of genocide because it never sought to eradicate an entire population.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=446}}

Chandler noted that while "Cambodia's revolution" under Pol Pot produced "millions of victims", it also had some beneficiaries.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=168}} Those who were empowered by the Khmer Rouge administration either "probably believed" Pol Pot's claims regarding the construction of a socialist society or "vigorously pretended that they did", according to Chandler.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=161}} Chandler also noted that Pol Pot's supporters believed that it was "his clear-sighted strategies and tactics that had wrested control of Cambodia from the United States and its feudal puppets" and that he had "uprooted enemies from the party, encouraged vigilance, built the alliance with China, and masterminded the Four Year Plan."{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=157}} During the war with Vietnam, many Cambodians revered Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge forces as nationalists who were defending the country.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=186}} Internationally, his movement received support from such countries as China, Thailand, and the United States during that conflict because they saw it as a bulwark against Vietnam and thus Vietnam's key ally, the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=167}}

Various groups visited Pol Pot's government while it was in power. The small Canadian Communist League (Marxist–Leninist), for instance, sent a delegation to meet with him in Phnom Penh in December 1978.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=163|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=396}} Another sympathiser who visited Pol Pot that year was the Scottish communist [[Malcolm Caldwell]], an [[Economic history|economic historian]] based at London's [[School of Oriental and African Studies]]. He met with Pol Pot, but was murdered shortly afterward; the culprit was never identified.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=161–62|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=394–95}}<ref>{{cite news |last=Anthony |first=Andrew |title=Lost in Cambodia |website=The Guardian |date=10 January 2010 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/10/malcolm-caldwell-pol-pot-murder |access-date=4 January 2020 |archive-date=13 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181213223430/https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/10/malcolm-caldwell-pol-pot-murder |url-status=live }}</ref> Also in 1978, the Khmer Rouge met with delegates of the Swedish Cambodian Friendship Association, whose members openly sympathised with the Khmer Rouge.<ref name="BBC">{{cite news |first=Guy |last=De Launey |title=Ex-Khmer Rouge admirer says sorry |publisher=BBC News |date=19 November 2008 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7735881.stm |access-date=4 February 2020 |archive-date=14 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200914115538/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7735881.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> One of its members, Gunnar Bergström, later noted that in the 1970s he had been a Vietnam war protestor who had become dissatisfied with the Soviet Union and believed that the Cambodian government was building a society based on freedom and equality.<ref name="Salva"/> In his view, the Khmer Rouge regime was "an example to the [[Third World]]".<ref name="BBC"/> Bergström noted that he and his fellow members had heard about atrocities that were taking place but "did not want to believe them".<ref name="Salva">{{cite news |first=Ana |last=Salvá |title=Swedish man who dined with Khmer Rouge's Pol Pot 40 years ago: I regret it |website=This Week in Asia |date=4 May 2019 |url=https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3008706/swedish-man-who-dined-khmer-rouges-pol-pot-40-years-ago-i-regret |access-date=4 February 2020 |archive-date=28 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128183620/https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3008706/swedish-man-who-dined-khmer-rouges-pol-pot-40-years-ago-i-regret |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Cultic activities around Pol Pot's tomb ===
{{See|Cult of personality|List of cults of personality#Cambodia}}
A number of [[cult]]ic activities and practices have been observed around Pol Pot's grave.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last=Guillou|first=Anne Yvonne|date=2018|title=The "Master of the Land": cult activities around Pol Pot's tomb|url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02531875|journal=Journal of Genocide Research|language=en|volume=20|issue=2|pages=275–289|doi=10.1080/14623528.2018.1459169|s2cid=81694769}}</ref> People from [[Anlong Veng District|Anlong Veng]], but also from other parts of Cambodia, go to his grave to make offerings of food on certain holy days, including the [[Festival of the Dead]] and the [[Cambodian New Year]]. Some people make daily offerings of food, as well as more significant offerings such as a pig's head and court music sang by an orchestra.<ref name=":5" /> Amanda Pike, an [[Investigative journalism|investigative journalist]] who has visited Cambodia, states that some of Pol Pot's supporters still cling to his memory and ideology and she also states that some fervent believers still worship him.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Pike|first=Amanda|date=October 2002|title=Cambodia - Pol Pot's Shadow.|url=https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/cambodia/thestory.html|access-date=|website=[[Public Broadcasting Service]]}}</ref> She reports that these people dig through Pol Pot's ashes and snatch up fragments of his bones to take away as [[talisman]]s.<ref name=":2" /> Cambodian villagers say that they dream of Pol Pot and afterwards they win the lottery or become cured from [[malaria]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|last=Pike|first=Amanda|date=October 2002|title=Anlong Veng - Pol Pot's Grave|url=https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/cambodia/diary06.html|archive-date=|access-date=|website=[[Public Broadcasting Service]]}}</ref> In addition, people kneel down near his grave and start praying. They chant: "All your children are here, Grandpa. Don't say that we've forgotten you". They ask for good health and for their children to be educated, just like Pol Pot was.<ref name=":4" /> When asked about why they go to Pol Pot's grave, some say they knew him personally. Others say that they go to pay their respects to a former leader. Most seem to perceive that some part of the world thinks of Pol Pot in a negative light, however they insist that he was a supporter of the common farmer and a defender of Cambodia.<ref name=":4" /> There have also been cases of people dreaming of Pol Pot and [[sleepwalking]] all the way to his grave.<ref name=":4" />