Pol Pot

=== 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}}