Pol Pot
1925 – 1998 Cambodian Leader of the Khmer Rouge; Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea
Khmer Rouge leader whose regime killed roughly a quarter of Cambodia's people.
- Religion
- Raised in a Buddhist family and once a temple novice, he became an atheist Communist whose regime abolished religion, defrocked and killed monks, and demolished temples.
- Affiliations
- Communist Party of Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge). No occult ties; the movement enforced a radical secular collectivism.
Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge to power in 1975 and tried to build an instant agrarian communism, emptying the cities and abolishing money, schools and religion. His regime's executions, forced labor and famine killed an estimated 1.5 to 2 million people. Driven from power by Vietnam in 1979, he died in the jungle in 1998.
Connections
- influenced Mao Zedong — Drew on Maoist ideas of agrarian revolution and received Chinese backing.
In the timeline
- 1975 – 1979 Khmer Rouge seizes power in Cambodia mentioned
- 1978 Vietnam ousts Pol Pot from power central figure