Pol Pot: Cambodian Genocide

Pol Pot, the main leader of the Khmer Rouge in the Cambodian Genocide, was in March 1925. His birth name was Saloth Sar. He was offered a scholarship by the French government to study electronics at the Ecole Francaise d’Electronique et d’Informatique in Paris. When Saloth was in Paris, he joined the Khmer Students’ Association, and the French Communist Party. These groups basically fought for freedom for French peasants. However, Saloth was forced by the university to return back to Cambodia in 1952, after failing his exams for the past 3 years. Shortly after return in 1953, Sar became a part of the Khmer Viet Minh, which was the Cambodian communist party in the 1950s. The party disbanded in 1954, so Sar joined the Kampuchean People’s Revolutionary Party in 1955, shortly after Prince Sihanouk was elected as leader of Cambodia. After joining, Saloth Sar officially changed his name to Pol Pot. In 1964, Pol Pot, who was supported by Vietnam at the time, began to revolt against Prince
To stop the Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge send many field workers to fight. Thousands of Cambodians were killed. In December, 1978, the Vietnamese troops were able to fight their way deep into Cambodia. Phnom Penh was captured by Vietnam on January 7, 1979. The Khmer Rouge was forced into Thailand, and received aid from China and Thailand. However, even with aid, the Khmer Rouge was unable to take back Cambodia. In 1982, a new Cambodian government was formed, with Vietnam’s aid. The Khmer Rouge still existed until 1999, when all members had either been killed or
U.N. Involvement The United Nations did not really have any involvement in Cambodia at the time that the KPRP took power. The U.N. did not have troops, monitors or anything else within the country. The U.N. also did not have any real policy formed. When the foreign troops left in April of 1975 the Khmer Rouge took control of the entire country from 1975 to