Pol Pot

Pol Pot (formerly Saloth Sar, May 19, 1925 - April 15, 1998) was the former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Cambodia (Khmer Rouge) and Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976 to 1979. He was a far-leftist whose far-left policies were widely condemned by the international community. Pol Pot, who organized the resistance to French colonization, launched the Khmer Rouge movement in 1975, overthrew the former pro-US regime of Lon Nol, established a one-party dictatorship, and welcomed Prince Sihanouk, who was later forced to "retire" and placed under house arrest. During his rule, he collectivized agriculture, forcing all urban residents to work on collective farms in the countryside and ordering the massacre of dissidents. Under his rule, the currency was abolished, but the ideals of communism were not realized and the country's economy collapsed. During his rule, he was responsible for the Khmer Rouge Massacre, which killed more than 1.7 million Cambodians and was a major sinner in Cambodia's history. To commemorate the end of the massacre, the day the Vietnamese army captured Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh in 1979, January 7 has finally become a public holiday in Cambodia, called Victory Over the Genocide Day. Because of the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia in 1979, he fled to the mountains and set up guerrilla groups to resist the Vietcong, and for a while he was unaccounted for and rumors of his death were circulating. On July 22, 1997, Pol Pot became a prisoner in the Khmer Rouge base of Anlong Bun. He was publicly tried by the Khmer Rouge for ordering the killing of "Defense Minister" Song Thanh and his family in June and for "committing a serious massacre against the people and the country," and was sentenced to life in prison, where he died the following year.