Pol Pot

== Revolutionary and political activism ==

=== Return to Cambodia: 1953–1954 ===
[[File:Norodom Sihanouk 1941.jpg|thumb|upright|[[King Sihanouk]] disbanded the Cambodian government and National Assembly before securing independence from French colonial rule in 1953.]]

Sâr arrived in Saigon on 13 January 1953, the same day on which Sihanouk disbanded the [[Democratic Party (Cambodia)|Democratic]]-controlled [[National Assembly of Cambodia|National Assembly]], began [[Rule by decree|ruling by decree]], and imprisoned Democratic members of parliament without trial.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=83}} Amid the broader [[First Indochina War]] in neighboring [[French Indochina]], Cambodia was in a civil war,{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=85–86}} with civilian massacres and other atrocities carried out by all sides.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=88–89}} Sâr spent several months at the headquarters of Prince [[Norodom Chantaraingsey]]—the leader of one faction—in Trapeng Kroloeung,{{sfn|Short|2004|p=87}} before moving to Phnom Penh, where he met with fellow Cercle member Ping Say to discuss the situation.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=89}} Sâr regarded the [[Khmer Việt Minh]], a mixed Vietnamese and Cambodian guerrilla subgroup of the North Vietnam-based Việt Minh, as the most promising resistance group. He believed the Khmer Việt Minh's relationship to the Việt Minh and thus the international movement made it the best group for the Cercle Marxiste to support.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=89–90}} The Cercle members in Paris took his recommendation.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=90}}

In August 1953, Sâr and Rath Samoeun travelled to Krabao, the headquarters of the Việt Minh Eastern Zone.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=90, 95}} Over the following nine months, around 12 other Cercle members joined them there.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=96}} They found that the Khmer Việt Minh was run and numerically dominated by Vietnamese guerrillas, with Khmer recruits largely given menial tasks; Sâr was tasked with growing [[cassava]] and working in the canteen.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=44|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=96}} At Krabao, he gained a rudimentary grasp of [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]],{{sfn|Short|2004|p=100}} and rose to become secretary and aide to [[Tou Samouth]], the Secretary of the Khmer Việt Minh's Eastern Zone.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=45|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=100}}

Sihanouk desired independence from French rule, but after France refused his requests he called for public resistance to its administration in June 1953. Khmer troops deserted the French Army in large numbers and the French government relented, rather than risk a costly, protracted war to retain control.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=92–95}} In November, Sihanouk declared Cambodia's independence.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=44–45|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=95}} The civil conflict then intensified, with France backing Sihanouk's war against the rebels.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=101}} Following the [[Geneva Conference (1954)|Geneva Conference]] held to end the First Indochina War, Sihanouk secured an agreement from the [[North Vietnam]]ese that they would withdraw Khmer Việt Minh forces from Cambodian territory.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=45–46|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=103–04}} The last Khmer Việt Minh units left Cambodia for North Vietnam in October 1954.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=46|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=104}} Sâr was not among them, deciding to remain in Cambodia; he trekked, via [[South Vietnam]], to [[Prey Veng (city)|Prey Veng]] to reach Phnom Penh.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=46|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=104–05}} He and other Cambodian revolutionaries decided to pursue their aims through electoral means.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=105}}

=== Developing the movement: 1955–1959 ===
Cambodia's communists wanted to operate clandestinely but also established a socialist party, [[Pracheachon]], to serve as a [[front organization]] through which they could compete in the 1955 election.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=48}} Although Pracheachon had strong support in some areas, most observers expected the Democratic Party to win.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=46, 48|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=106}} Sihanouk feared a Democratic Party government and in March 1955 abdicated the throne in favor of his father, [[Norodom Suramarit]]. This allowed him to legally establish a political party, the [[Sangkum Reastr Niyum]], with which to contest the election.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=49|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=109–10}} The [[1955 Cambodian general election|September election]] witnessed widespread voter intimidation and electoral fraud, resulting in Sangkum winning all 91 seats.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=49, 51|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=110–12}} Sihanouk's establishment of a ''de facto'' one-party state extinguished hopes that the Cambodian left could take power electorally.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=112–13}} North Vietnam's government nevertheless urged the Khmer Party not to restart the armed struggle; the former was focused on undermining South Vietnam and had little desire to destabilize Sihanouk's regime given that it had—conveniently for them—remained internationally un-aligned rather than following the Thai and South Vietnamese governments in allying with the anti-communist [[United States]].{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=113–14}}

Sâr rented a house in the [[Chamkar Mon District|Boeng Keng Kang]] area of Phnom Penh.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=47|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=116}} Although not qualified to teach at a state school,{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=54}} he gained employment teaching history, geography, French literature, and morals at a private school, the Chamraon Vichea ("Progressive Knowledge");{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=52|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=120}} his pupils, who included the later novelist [[Soth Polin]], described him as a good teacher.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=54|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=120}} He courted society belle Soeung Son Maly{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=116–17}} before entering a relationship with fellow communist revolutionary [[Khieu Ponnary]], the sister of Sary's wife Thirith.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=117}} They were married in a Buddhist ceremony in July 1956.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=52|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=118}} All correspondence between the Democratic Party and the Pracheachon went through him, as did most communication with underground elements.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=116}} Sihanouk cracked down on the movement, whose membership had halved since the end of the civil war.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=120}} Links with the North Vietnamese communists declined, something Sâr later portrayed as a good thing as "it gave us the chance to be independent and develop ourselves.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=121}} He and other members increasingly regarded Cambodians as too deferential to their Vietnamese counterparts; to deal with this, Sâr, Tou Samouth, and [[Nuon Chea]] drafted a programme and statutes for a new party that would be allied with but not subordinate to the Vietnamese.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=121–22}} They established party cells, emphasising the recruitment of small numbers of dedicated members, and organized political seminars in safe houses.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=122}}

=== Kampuchean Labour Party: 1959–1962 ===
At a 1959 conference, the movement's leadership established the Kampuchean Labour Party, based on the Marxist–Leninist model of [[democratic centralism]]. Sâr, Tou Samouth and Nuon Chea were part of a four-man General Affair Committee leading the party.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=135–136}} Its existence was to be kept secret from non-members.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=62}} The Kampuchean Labour Party's conference, held clandestinely from September to October 1960 in Phnom Penh, saw Samouth become party secretary and Nuon Chea his deputy, while Sâr took the third senior position and Ieng Sary the fourth.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=61–62|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=138}}<ref name="Tyner">{{cite book |last1=Tyner |first1=James A. |title=From Rice Fields to Killing Fields: Nature, Life, and Labor under the Khmer Rouge |date=2017 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |location=Syracuse, NY |isbn=978-0815635567 |page=38 |url=http://syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu/fall-2017/from-rice-fields.shtml |access-date=23 January 2019 |archive-date=14 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190314045834/http://www.syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu/fall-2017/from-rice-fields.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

Sihanouk spoke out against the Cambodian Khmer communists; he also warned of its [[totalitarianism|totalitarian]] character and its suppression of personal liberty.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=139–40}} In January 1962, Sihanouk's security services cracked down further on Cambodia's socialists, incarcerating Pracheachon's leaders and leaving the party largely moribund.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=63|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=140}} In July, Samouth was arrested, tortured and killed.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=63–64|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=141}} Nuon Chea had also stepped back from his political activities, leaving open Sâr's path to become party leader.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=141}}

As well as facing leftist opposition, Sihanouk's government faced hostility from right-wing opposition centred on Sihanouk's former Minister of State, [[Sam Sary]], who was backed by the United States, [[Thailand]] and South Vietnam.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=124–25}} After the South Vietnamese supported a failed coup against Sihanouk, relations between the countries deteriorated and the United States initiated an economic blockade of Cambodia in 1956.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=127}} After Sihanouk's father died in 1960, Sihanouk introduced a constitutional amendment allowing himself to become head of state for life.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=60|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=131–32}} In February 1962, anti-government student protests turned into riots, at which Sihanouk dismissed the Sangkum government, called new elections, and produced a list of 34 left-leaning Cambodians, demanding that they meet him to establish a new administration.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=66|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=142–43}} Sâr was on the list, perhaps because of his role as a teacher, but refused to meet with Sihanouk. He and Ieng Sary left Phnom Penh for a [[Viet Cong]] encampment near Thboung Khmum in the jungle along Cambodia's border with South Vietnam.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=67|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=144}} According to Chandler, "from this point on he was a full-time revolutionary".{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=67}}

=== Plotting rebellion: 1962–1968 ===
Conditions at the Viet Cong camp were basic and food scarce.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=145}} As Sihanouk's government cracked down on the movement in Phnom Penh, growing numbers of its members fled to join Sâr at his jungle base.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=146}} In February 1963, at the party's second conference, held in a central Phnom Penh apartment, Sâr was elected party secretary, but soon fled into the jungle to avoid repression by Sihanouk's government.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=66|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=141–42}} In early 1964, Sâr established his own encampment, Office 100, on the South Vietnamese side of the border. The Viet Cong allowed his actions to be officially separate from its own, but still wielded significant control over his camp.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=146}} At a plenum of the party's Central Committee, it was agreed that they should re-emphasize their independence from Vietnamese control and endorse armed struggle against Sihanouk.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=146}}

The Central Committee met again in January 1965 to denounce the "peaceful transition" to socialism espoused by Soviet Premier [[Nikita Khrushchev]], accusing him of being a [[Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionist]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=147}} In contrast to Khrushchev's interpretation of Marxism–Leninism, Sâr and his comrades sought to develop their own, explicitly Cambodian variant of the ideology.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=148}} Their interpretation moved away from the orthodox Marxist focus on the urban proletariat as the forces of a revolution to build socialism, giving that role instead to the rural peasantry, a far larger class in Cambodian society.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=148–49}} By 1965, the party regarded Cambodia's small proletariat as full of "enemy agents" and systematically refused them membership.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=149}} The party's main area of growth was in the rural provinces and by 1965 membership was at 2000.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=152}} In April 1965, Sâr travelled by foot along the [[Ho Chi Minh Trail]] to [[Hanoi]] to meet North Vietnamese government figures, among them [[Ho Chi Minh]] and [[Lê Duẩn]].{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=74|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=156–57}} The North Vietnamese were preoccupied with the ongoing [[Vietnam War]] and thus did not want Sâr's forces to destabilize Sihanouk's government; the latter's anti-American stance rendered him a ''de facto'' ally.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=70–71|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=157}} In Hanoi, Sâr read through the archives of the [[Communist Party of Vietnam|Workers' Party of Vietnam]], concluding that the Vietnamese Communists were committed to pursuing an Indochinese Federation and that their interests were therefore incompatible with Cambodia's.{{sfn|Short|2004|pp=158–59}}

In November 1965, Saloth Sâr flew from Hanoi to [[Beijing]], where his official host was [[Deng Xiaoping]], although most of his meetings were with [[Peng Zhen]].{{sfn|Short|2004|p=159}} Sâr gained a sympathetic hearing from many in the governing [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP)—especially [[Chen Boda]], [[Zhang Chunqiao]] and [[Kang Sheng]]—who shared his negative view of Khrushchev amid the [[Sino-Soviet split]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://news.ifeng.com/history/2/shidian/200804/0410_2666_485387_4.shtml|title=西哈努克、波尔布特与中国|website=news.ifeng.com|language=zh|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191220095259/http://news.ifeng.com/history/2/shidian/200804/0410_2666_485387_4.shtml|archive-date=20 December 2019|access-date=6 December 2019}}</ref>{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1pp=76–77|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=159–60}} CCP officials also trained him on topics like [[dictatorship of the proletariat]], [[class struggles]] and [[Purge|political purge]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mTlMDwAAQBAJ&q=Maha+lout+ploh&pg=PT77|title=Brother Number One: A Political Biography Of Pol Pot|last=Chandler|first=David P.|year=2018|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-0-429-98161-6|language=en|access-date=6 December 2019|archive-date=4 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804010826/https://books.google.com/books?id=mTlMDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT77&lpg=PT77&dq=Maha+lout+ploh|url-status=live}}</ref> In Beijing, Sâr witnessed China's ongoing [[Cultural Revolution]], influencing his later policies.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=70}}[[File:Banner of the Communist Party of Kampuchea.svg|thumb|right|The flag of the [[Communist Party of Kampuchea]], a group whose members were informally known as the "Khmer Rouge"]]

Sâr left Beijing in February 1966, and flew back to Hanoi before a four-month journey along the Ho Chi Minh Trail to reach the Cambodian's new base at [[Lộc Ninh, Bình Phước|Loc Ninh]].<ref name=":1" />{{sfn|Short|2004|p=161}} In October 1966, he and other Cambodian party leaders made several key decisions. They renamed their organisation the [[Communist Party of Kampuchea]] (CPK), a decision initially kept secret.{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=79|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2pp=161–62}} Sihanouk began referring to its members as the "[[Khmer Rouge]]" ('Red Cambodians'), but they did not adopt this term themselves.{{sfn|Chandler|1992|p=207}} It was agreed that they would move their headquarters in [[Ratanakiri Province]], away from the Viet Cong,{{sfnm|1a1=Chandler|1y=1992|1p=70|2a1=Short|2y=2004|2p=162}} and that—despite the views of the North Vietnamese—they would command each of the party's zone committees to prepare for the relaunch of armed struggle.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=162}} North Vietnam refused to assist in this, rejecting their requests for weaponry.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=170}} In November 1967, Sâr travelled from [[Tay Ninh]] to base Office 102 near Kang Lêng. During the journey, he contracted [[malaria]] and required a respite in a Viet Cong medical base near Mount Ngork.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=172}} By December, plans for armed conflict were complete, with the war to begin in the North-West Zone and then spread to other regions.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=173}} As communication across Cambodia was slow, each Zone would have to operate independently much of the time.{{sfn|Short|2004|p=174}}