Pol Pot, originally named Saloth Sar, was born in 1928 in Prek Sbaur, near Kompong Thom, into a family of prosperous farmers. His older brother, Loth Suong, described him as a sweet-natured child. However, the transformation of Pol Pot from an innocent boy to a notorious mass murderer remains a complex enigma.

At the age of six, he moved to Phnom Penh to live with his brother, where he enjoyed a relatively privileged upbringing due to their family’s connections, including a cousin who danced at the royal court. Despite his affluent background, Pol Pot’s academic performance was average. He attended the newly established Collège Norodom Sihanouk in 1942 but left without passing any exams. He later enrolled at the Lycée Sisowath in Phnom Penh, and by 1949, he was among a hundred students selected to study in France.

While in Paris, Pol Pot became involved with the French Communist Party alongside friends Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan. This exposure to radical ideologies significantly influenced him, and he met Khieu Ponnery, an educated Cambodian woman who later became his first wife. Upon returning to Cambodia in 1952, he joined the Indochina Communist Party and began advocating for socialism in his homeland. Gradually, he became more secretive, isolating himself from his family and adopting the alias “Pol.” He was an active member of the Cambodian Communist Party, eventually rising through the ranks to become Party Secretary.

In 1963, political support shifted as Sihanouk’s regime began to persecute socialists. Pol Pot and other party leaders fled to the border with Vietnam, where they received support from North Vietnamese comrades and later the Chinese, whom Pol admired for their Cultural Revolution. Living in the jungles of northeastern Cambodia, Pol Pot developed a vision for a Marxist-Leninist state and cultivated a deep admiration for peasant life. By the time the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975, he was poised to implement his disastrous “Four Year Plan” aimed at establishing an agrarian society.

The Khmer Rouge leaders, including Pol Pot, operated under a collective identity known as “Angkar,” which means “the Organization.” This central committee consisted of thirteen members, with Pol Pot as the unchallenged leader. He was also referred to as “Brother Pol” and later as “Brother Number One” when he became prime minister of Democratic Kampuchea in 1976. His closest allies included Nuon Chea, “Brother Number Two,” and Ieng Sary, “Brother Number Three.”

As paranoia set in among the Khmer Rouge leadership, they began to suspect infiltration by traitors. This led to a brutal purge, resulting in the interrogation and execution of around 20,000 party members and their families at Toul Sleng torture prison. While it remains unclear whether Pol Pot directly ordered these actions, he was undoubtedly aware of and likely endorsed them. After the Vietnamese forces liberated Cambodia in 1979 and exposed the regime’s atrocities, Pol Pot fled to Thailand, denying any responsibility for the crimes committed under his rule.

Pol Pot was sentenced to death in absentia by a Cambodian tribunal. He lived in relative obscurity in Thailand until the mid-1980s when he divorced Khieu Ponnery, who had descended into madness, and remarried, having a daughter named Malee. In 1993, he returned to northern Cambodia, where he continued to lead guerrilla attacks against the new Cambodian government from a Khmer Rouge stronghold near Anlong Veng.

The Khmer Rouge’s disintegration began in 1996 when Ieng Sary defected, signaling the end of their influence. Paranoia consumed Pol Pot, leading him to order the execution of his long-time associate Sun Sen and his family. This act led to his trial by his own party, resulting in a life sentence. Eleven months later, Pol Pot died in 1998, reportedly from natural causes, and his remains were cremated in a haphazard manner on a pyre of old tires and rubbish.

Pol Pot’s reign of terror left an indelible mark on Cambodia, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 2 to 2.5 million people, a dark legacy that continues to haunt the nation today.