This is a modern history assessment task for the Indochina conflict:
POL POT
Born in 1925, Pol Pot was originally named Saloth Sar. Growing up in the Kompong Thom province of Cambodia, his family was relatively successful and prosperous. In his early years, he served with the anti-French resistance under Ho Chi Minh and became part of the Indochinese Communist Party. In 1948 he went to Paris, under a scholarship, where he joined the French Communist Party and furthered his left-wing activities. This was unsuccessful, forcing Pot to return back to Cambodia where he became a teacher. He then began fighting with the Cambodian and Vietnamese communists who had been increasing their strength considerably since WW2.
Pol Pot became resentful of the Vietnamese when he was unable to rise in the ranks of the Vietnamese Communist Party. This turned him against his neighbour, increasing his intent in taking over their government.
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Romanian President Nicolae Ceaucescu and his wife,...
Prison where Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge tortured ...In 1963 he went into the jungle and established the Khmer Rouge, a communist rebel army aimed at attacking the government. The Khmer Rouge emerged as a strong force that used guerrilla warfare. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge became anti-Vietnam and pro-communist, and eventually took over Lon Nol's government in 1975. Pol Pot was installed as prime minister and preceded to enforce unreasonable and ruthless laws on the peasants. He directed the evacuation of Cambodian cities, forcing virtually the entire population into the countryside to work as peasants. His regime seemed a close parallel to that of Hitler, and over the next three years 2 million people, about 20% of the population, are estimated to have perished through execution, disease, starvation, and overwork.
Pol Pot was deposed by the Vietnamese army in January 1979 and he and his supporters fled to the Thai-Cambodian border where...