Editing Pol Pot (section)

{{Short description|Cambodian communist leader (1925–1998)}}
{{pp-pc|small=yes}}
{{family name hatnote|lang=Cambodian|Pol|Pot}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Pol Pot
| native_name         = {{nobold|ប៉ុល ពត}}
| image               = PolPot.jpg
| caption             = Pol Pot in 1978
| office              = [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea]]
| deputy              = [[Nuon Chea]]
| term_start          = 22 February 1963
| term_end            = 6 December 1981
| predecessor         = [[Tou Samouth]] (1962)
| successor           = ''Position abolished'' (party dissolved)
| office2             = [[List of prime ministers of Cambodia|Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea]]
| deputy2             = {{ubl|[[Ieng Sary]]|[[Son Sen]]|[[Vorn Vet]]}}
| president2          = [[Khieu Samphan]]
| term_start2         = 25 October 1976
| term_end2           = 7 January 1979
| predecessor2        = [[Khieu Samphan]] (acting)
| successor2          = [[Nuon Chea]] (1981)
| president3          = [[Khieu Samphan]]
| deputy3             = {{ubl|[[Ieng Sary]]|[[Son Sen]]|[[Vorn Vet]]}}
| term_start3         = 14 April 1976
| term_end3           = 27 September 1976
| predecessor3        = [[Khieu Samphan]] (acting)
| successor3          = [[Nuon Chea]] (acting)
| office4             = Commander-in-chief of [[Kampuchea Revolutionary Army]]
| term_start4         = 1977
| term_end4           = 1979
| office5             = [[Party of Democratic Kampuchea|General Secretary of the Party of Democratic Kampuchea]]
| term_start5         = 1981
| term_end5           = 1985
| predecessor5        = Himself<br/>{{small|(as General Secretary of the [[Communist Party of Kampuchea]])}}
| successor5          = [[Khieu Samphan]]
| birth_name          = Saloth Sâr
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1925|5|25|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Prek Sbauv]], [[Kampong Thom Province]], [[French protectorate of Cambodia|Cambodia]], [[French Indochina]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1998|4|15|1925|5|19|df=y}}
| death_place         = Choam, {{ill|Trapeang Prei|km|ឃុំត្រពាំងប្រីយ៍}}, [[Anlong Veng District|Anlong Veng]], [[Oddar Meanchey Province|Oddar Meanchey]], [[Khmer Rouge unrecognized government (1994–1998)|Cambodia]]<br>{{coord|14.353862|N|104.121282|E}}
| resting_place_coordinates = {{coord|14.342910|N|104.057948|E}}
| education           = [[EFREI]] (no degree)
| resting_place       = Choam, {{ill|Trapeang Prei|km|ឃុំត្រពាំងប្រីយ៍}}, Anlong Veng, Oddar Meanchey, Cambodia
| spouse              = {{plainlist|
*{{marriage|[[Khieu Ponnary]]|1956|1979|end=divorced}}
*{{marriage|Mea Son|1986}}
}}
| children            = Sar Patchata<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pol-pot%E2%80%99s-daughter-weds|title=Pol Pot's daughter weds|work=[[The Phnom Penh Post]]|date=17 March 2014|access-date=29 June 2014|archive-date=10 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810083417/http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pol-pot%E2%80%99s-daughter-weds|url-status=live}}</ref>
| party               = {{ubl|[[Party of Democratic Kampuchea]] (1981–1993)|[[Communist Party of Kampuchea]] (1960–1981)}}
| otherparty          = [[French Communist Party]] (1950s)
| signature           = Pol Pot signature.svg
| serviceyears        = 1963–1997
| allegiance          = {{ubl|[[Khmer Rouge]]|[[Democratic Kampuchea]]}}
| rank                = [[General officer|General]]
| branch              = [[Kampuchea Revolutionary Army]]
| battles             = {{ubl|[[Vietnam War]]|[[Cambodian Civil War]]|[[Cambodian–Vietnamese War]]}}
| native_name_lang    = km
| office1             = Leader of [[Cambodia]]
| term_label1         = ''[[De facto]]''
| term_start1         = 17 April 1975
| term_end1           = 7 January 1979
| president1          = [[Norodom Sihanouk]]<br>[[Khieu Samphan]]
| primeminister1      = [[Penn Nouth]]<br>''Himself''
| predecessor1        = [[Sak Sutsakhan]]
| successor1          = [[Pen Sovan]]{{efn|as [[General Secretary]] of the [[Cambodian People's Party|Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party]]}}<br>[[Heng Samrin]]{{efn|Head of State of the [[People's Republic of Kampuchea]]}}
}}
{{Contains special characters|Khmer}}
{{Communism sidebar}}

'''Pol Pot'''{{efn|{{IPAc-en|UK|p|ɒ|l|_|ˈ|p|ɒ|t}} {{respell|pol|_|POT}}, {{IPAc-en|US|p|oʊ|l|_|ˈ|p|ɒ|t}} {{respell|pohl|_|POT}}; {{langx|km|ប៉ុល ពត|Pŏl Pôt}}, {{IPA|km|pol pɔːt|pron}}.}} (born '''Saloth Sâr''';{{efn|{{langx|km|សាឡុត ស|Salŏt Sâ|links=no}}, {{IPA|km|saːlot sɑː|pron}}.}} 19 May 1925 – 15 April 1998) was a Cambodian politician, revolutionary, and dictator who ruled the [[communist state]] of [[Democratic Kampuchea]] from 1976 until [[Cambodian–Vietnamese War|his overthrow]] in 1979. During his reign, his administration oversaw [[Cambodian genocide|mass atrocities]] and he is widely believed to be one of the most brutal [[Despotism|despots]] in modern world history. Ideologically a [[Maoism|Maoist]] and [[Khmer nationalism|Khmer ethnonationalist]], Pot was a leader of Cambodia's Communist movement, known as the [[Khmer Rouge]], from 1963 to 1997. He served as [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea|General Secretary]] of the [[Communist Party of Kampuchea]] from 1963 to 1981, during which Cambodia was converted into a [[one-party state]]. Between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge perpetrated the [[Cambodian genocide]], in which an estimated 1.5–2&nbsp;million people died—approximately [[#Number of deaths|one-quarter of the country's pre-genocide population]]. In December 1978, [[Cambodian–Vietnamese War|Vietnam invaded Cambodia]] to remove the Khmer Rouge from power. Within two weeks Vietnamese forces occupied most of the country, ending the genocide and [[Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation|establishing a new Cambodian government]], with the Khmer Rouge restricted to the rural hinterlands in the western part of the country.

Born to a prosperous farmer in [[Prek Sbauv]], [[French Protectorate of Cambodia|French Cambodia]], Pol Pot was educated at some of Cambodia's most elite schools. Arriving in Paris in October 1949 on an academic scholarship, he later joined the [[French Communist Party]] in 1951 while studying at [[EFREI|École française de radioélectricité]]. Returning to Cambodia in 1953, he involved himself in the [[Viet Minh#Khmer Việt Minh|Khmer Viet Minh]] organisation and its guerrilla war against King [[Norodom Sihanouk]]'s newly independent government. Following the Khmer Viet Minh's 1954 retreat into [[North Vietnam]], Pol Pot returned to [[Phnom Penh]], working as a teacher while remaining a central member of Cambodia's [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] movement. In 1959, he helped formalise the movement into the Kampuchean Labour Party, which was later renamed the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK). To avoid state repression, in 1962 he relocated to a jungle encampment and in 1963 he became the CPK's leader. In 1968, he relaunched [[Cambodian Civil War|the war]] against Sihanouk's government. After [[Lon Nol]] ousted Sihanouk in a [[Cambodian coup of 1970|1970 coup]], Pol Pot's forces sided with the deposed leader against [[Khmer Republic|the new government]], which was bolstered by the United States military. Aided by the [[Viet Cong]] militia and [[People's Army of Vietnam|North Vietnamese troops]], Khmer Rouge forces advanced and controlled all of Cambodia by 1975.

Pol Pot transformed Cambodia into a one-party state that he called Democratic Kampuchea, seeking to create an [[agrarian socialist]] society that he believed would evolve into a [[communist society|communist one]]. [[Year Zero (political notion)|Year Zero]] was an idea put into practice by Pol Pot where he believed that all cultures and traditions must be [[Cultural genocide|completely destroyed]] and a new revolutionary culture must replace it starting from scratch. "Year Zero" was announced by the Khmer Rouge on [[Fall of Phnom Penh|April 17, 1975]], where everything before that date must be purged. The Khmer Rouge emptied the cities, frogmarched Cambodians to [[labor camp]]s and relocated the urban population to [[Collective farming|collective farms]], where mass executions, abuse, torture, malnutrition and disease were rampant. In the [[Killing Fields]], more than 1.3&nbsp;million people were executed and buried in mass graves. Pursuing complete [[egalitarianism]], money, religion, and private property were abolished and all citizens were forced to wear the same black clothing. Repeated [[purge]]s of the CPK generated growing discontent; by 1978, Cambodian soldiers were mounting a rebellion in the east.

After several years of Khmer Rouge incursions and massacres on Vietnamese territory, [[Cambodian–Vietnamese War|Vietnam invaded Cambodia]] in December 1978. By January 1979, Pot and the Khmer Rouge had been toppled. The surviving Khmer Rouge members retreated to the scattered jungles near the Thai border, from where they continued to fight and raid. Severely weakened, they were hunted down by Vietnamese soldiers until their withdrawal in 1989. In declining health, Pol Pot stepped back from many of his roles in the movement. In 1998, the Khmer Rouge commander [[Ta Mok]] placed Pot under house arrest. Pol Pot died shortly afterward.

During his rise to power which occurred at the high point of the communist movement's potency across the world, Pot proved to be divisive to the international communist movement. Many claimed that he deviated from orthodox [[Marxism–Leninism]], but China supported his government as a bulwark against Soviet influence in Southeast Asia. Regarded as a [[totalitarian]] dictator guilty of [[crimes against humanity]], he has been widely denounced internationally for his role in the Cambodian genocide.