Pol Pot was the Cambodian equivalent of Germany's Hitler, attempting to purify the nation through massive genocidal ethnic cleansing. Generally assumed to be born as Saloth Sar on between January and May on the 25th of a month, 1925, in an unknown village just north of Phnom Penh, he was raised as a normal child. However, his academic pursuits were less than satisfying. At the age of six he was sent to live with his brother for two years of schooling, after which he promptly enrolled in a Catholic (or ministerial) school. Six years quickly flew by as Saloth learned the general foundation of his knowledge, as well as a foreign language--French--that would later come back to haunt him.
Saloth failed his school's final exams, and was thrown out. He did, however, qualify for a funded scholarship to learn radio electronics at a university in Paris, France. In 1949 he left for Paris.
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Romanian President Nicolae Ceaucescu and his wife,...
Prison where Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge tortured ...Shortly after he arrived, he was given his first taste of true Communism, in the odd form of the French Communist Party. He focused mainly on the FCP instead of his schoolwork, and lost his scholarship in 1953, upon which he then returned to Cambodia. Immediately after his return, he joined the Indochina Communist Party.
During the 1954 elections, the democratic and communist parties lost to Prince Sihanouk's current government, so Saloth began to teach at a school. He often enlightened his students in the ways of Communist thought. Sihanouk, however, foresaw this Communist problem and quickly began a crackdown operation, most likely to make the newfound opposition "disappear." Saloth fled to the surrounding jungles along with other Communists, where he sadly stayed there for seven long years, avoiding detection by police and military forces.
Vietnamese forces lined the opposite side of the jungles, and openly...