Pol Pot

by Philip Short

  67 Six basic lessons: Stalin, Histoire, pp. 391–402. The six points are enumerated in the book’s conclusion as guidelines that all militants should learn. All are depicted as essential, but ‘revolutionary vigilance’ and the need for a flexible approach to Marx-ism-Leninism are given pride of place.

  68 He confided: Debré, Révolution, p. 86. See also Sher, thesis, pp. 133–4, quoting an unnamed former comrade of Sary. David Chandler, following Debré (whose source was Keng Vannsak), attributes these remarks to Saloth Sâr, and accordingly speculates that Sâr’s ambition to become the pre-eminent Cambodian communist leader dated back to the 1950s. I find the evidence unpersuasive. Vannsak himself says he was referring to Sary (interview). He gave talks: Pol Pot, Cai Ximei interview. He helped . . . Sisowath: Ieng Sary, interview. For the parallel with Lenin’s Iskra, see Thiounn Mumm, interview. L’Humanité: Pol Pot, Thayer interview. Referring to l’Humanité, he said simply, ‘It frightened me’—which I have taken to be a reference to the newspaper’s hectoring tone. Whatever Saloth Sâr’s faults, stridency was not one of them. Ieng Sary, by contrast, named l’Humanité as one of his favourite newspapers (Maben interview) and it was at his initiative that it was made compulsory reading in the Cercle.

  70 Seminal influence: Pol Pot told Cai Ximei (interview): ‘When I read Chairman Mao’s books, I felt they were easy to understand. I understood Stalin’s books more easily too.’According to Ping Sây (interview), On New Democracy was the first of Mao’s works that members of the Cercle studied. ‘Democratic Cambodia’: See the document issued by the ‘Comité représentatif du Sud-Est Cambodge démocratique’ on Sept. 24 1948, Haut Commissaire, Indochine, c. 77, AOM.

  72 Only book . . . understand all of it: Pol Pot, Thayer interview. Opening paragraph: Kropotkin, pp. 1–2. The phrase I have translated as ‘peasants and labourers’ is, in the original, ‘des paysans et des proletaires dans les villes’. However, in the eighteenth century the industrial proletariat did not yet exist and Kropotkin made clear (p. 283) that he was referring to ‘les artisans et toute la population laborieuse des cités.’ In this context, to use the literal translation, ‘proletarians’, would be misleading. The eighteenth-century French proletariat was the equivalent of the cyclo-pousses and coolies of 1950s Phnom Penh, not of any proletarian workforce that Marx ever dreamed of.

  73 Surrealistic encounter: Le Monde, Dec. 31 1998. Robespierre’s personality: Suong Sikoeun, interview. See also Phnom Penh Post, Nov. 15 1996; and Sher, thesis, p. 62.

  74 To the Russian . . . centre ground: Kropotkin, pp. 312,406,433 and 707–9. Ambivalence: This is a constant theme throughout Kropotkin’s book. ‘The bourgeoisie and the educated classes would have done nothing . . . if the mass of the peasants had not risen up and . . . given the discontented elements among the middle classes the possibility to fight the King and the Court’ (p. 5); ‘the bourgeoisie constantly distrusted its ally of a day, the people’ (p. 76); ‘so began, on the part of the bourgeois leaders, the systematic treason that we shall see occurring throughout the Revolution’ (p. 100); ‘in short, the bourgeoisie and the intellectuals, the defenders of property rights, worked so hard to break the élan of the people that they halted the Revolution altogether’ (p. 288). See also, inter alia, pp. 107–8, 178, 206 et seq., 255, 279–81, 285, 405, 431–3, 615–16, 658. ‘Never stop half way’: Ibid., pp. 646 and 738–9.

  76 On June 4: The official French-language version of the speech, which Sihanouk delivered in Khmer, is reproduced in Bilan, pp. 125–36. Nhiek Tioulong gives unrevised excerpts in ‘Chroniques Khmères’, supra, p. 11.

  78 Special issue: ‘Lettre de l’Association des Etudiants Khmers en France à Sa Majesté Norodom Syhanouk [sic], Roi du Cambodge’, July 6 1952, in Khemara Nisut, no. 14. Unlike earlier editions, which were cyclostyled or printed in French, this issue, dated Aug. 1952, was handwritten on wax stencils in Khmer. The text quoted is from a contemporaneous French version of the letter, kindly supplied by Ben Kiernan, and from a later ms translation made by Mey Mann.

  79 Old Khmer: The usual, and literal, translation of this term—which is used to describe the autochthonous peoples inhabiting the Cardamoms and other remote parts of the country—is ‘Original Khmer’. But it would be wrong to attach too much significance to that: it does not indicate an atavistic yearning for a primitive, golden age. According to Keng Vannsak (interview), ‘It was a term that was in common use. It simply meant “Old Khmer”, or “Ancestor”, and it conveyed the image of a Brahman. It had no revolutionary significance . . . The idea was rather that of a sage.’ Other students, writing in the same issue, used the pseudonyms Khmer Neak Ngear (Khmer hereditary slave)—an allusion to the plight of the population under the monarchy—and Khmer Serei (Free Khmer). ‘Monarchy or Democracy?’: Khemara Nisut, no.14, Aug. 1952 (d. D00084, DC-Cam).

  82 ‘Reconnaissance’: Pol Pot, Cai Ximei interview. Second task: Ping Sây, interview.

  CHAPTER THREE: INITIATION TO THE MAQUIS

  85 Regimental despatch: ‘Compte-rendu de Combat du 22 Décembre 1952’, A.R.K., 4ème Bataillon, 2ème Compagnie, No. 1025/C3, pp. 1–3, in ‘Opérations de Pacification au Cambodge, Décembre 1952-Janvier 1953’, Etat-Major, 3èrme Bureau, No. 146/3, c. 10H285, SHAT. Before I went away: Pol Pot, Thaver interview; See also In Sopheap, Khieu Samphân. To Sâr: See Sammaki, Nov. 24 1954 (in c. HCC 27 [Surveillance de la presse Cambodgienne, 1951–1955], AOM), cited in Sher, thesis, pp. 610–11, where the ‘essential task’ of internal policy is described as ‘achieving national independence and internal sovereignty’.

  88 Colonial troops: Bunchan Mol, Charek Khmer, pp. 44–67; ‘Proclamation Royale’, June 21 1952, in Bilan, p. 149. For Viet Minh accounts of French atrocities, see SDECE, Bulletins de Renseignements Nos. 17574/1 of Oct. 2 1949 and 18431/1 of Oct. 24 1949, in c. 10H4120, SHAT. On Nov. 18 1951, the French commander, General Dio, felt it necessary to issue orders—‘to be read, understood and explained regularly to the cadres’—for the maintenance of ‘strict discipline. Plunder, robbery, pillage, rape, abuse of power and taking food without payment are absolutely to be avoided.’

  90 Saloth Chhay: Pol Pot, Cai Ximei interview. In Sept. 1951 French intelligence located Keo Monis SE Zone HQ as being’at Krâbao, 50 kms ENE of Prey Veng town’ (Note de Renseignement No. 1919/2, Sept. 5 1951, c. 10H4122, SHAT). In the summer of 1954, when Mey Mann went there, it was still in that area (interview). While Sâr . . . into reality: De Langlade to Salan, 156/CAB, Mar. 24 1953, c. 10H285, SHAT.

  92–4 On June 6 . . . Laos and Vietnam: Unless otherwise indicated, the following account is based on ‘Politique Intérieure, Mois de Juin 1953’, c. 10H613, SHAT. The document is unsigned, but Chandler (Tragedy, p. 328 n.53) attributes it to De Langlade on the basis of a copy sent to Washington by the US Embassy in Saigon.

  92 Secret memorandum: ‘Note Personnelle redigée par Norodom Sihanouk de Cambodge à l’intention des Etats-Unis d’Amérique et de la Grande Bretagne’, c. 10H613, SHAT.

  94 On July 3: De Langlade, ‘Politique Intérieure’, supra.

  96 Bona fides: ‘Rapport [oral] du camarade Khieu Minh, fonctionnaire-cadre de l’Ambassade Vietnamien à Phnom Penh, fait au sujet de Pol Pot et son Parti à la délégation des cadres du Comité de Recherche sur l’idéologie du CC’, Phnom Penh, May 10 1980, Doc. 32(N442)/T8243, VA. Sâr remembered: Pol Pot, Cai Ximei interview. His story of having worked as a cook is confirmed by a Vietnamese source (‘Biographie de Pol Pot’, Doc. 32(N442)/T8313, VA). Yun Soeun: He added: ‘Because I was a student from France, I was not a trustworthy cadre as far as those in the resistance group were concerned . . . So, I was not assigned any work to do.’ (Yun Soeun, confession).

  97 ‘Six Rules’: ‘Les Six Règies de Vie du Membre du Parti Communiste’, Comité Exécutif Central du Parti Lao Dong, 1951, c. BA 2346, Archives de la Préfecture de Police, Paris.

  98 ‘Real difficulty’: ‘Recherche sur le Parti Cambodgien’, Doc. 3KN/T8572, VA. Sâr himself: Pol Pot, Cai Ximei interview.

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p; 99 Ba remembered: Quoted in Kiernan, How Pol Pot, p. 123 (translation amended). Visit nearby villages: Pol Pot, Cai Ximei interview. He made friends: Ibid.; Mey Mann, interview;’Implantation Rebelle au 15 mai 1952’, EMIFT map, c. 10H4122, SHAT.

  100 After a fashion: Pol Pot, Cai Ximei interview. Unruffled manner: Both In Sopheap and Suong Sikoeun (interviews) stressed Pol Pot’s serene, monk-like demeanour as one of the sources of his charisma and hence of his power. Principal aide: Mey Mann, interview.

  102 The engine . . . 30 monks: Haut Commissariat Royal du Cambodge, No. 054A, Apr. 21 1954, c. A-O-I 166, QD.

  104–5 Sâr, Mey Mann . . . set out last: The following account relies on Mey Mann (interview). Pham Van Ba, in his interview with Kiernan (How Pol Pot, p. 155), appears to inflate his own role.

  105 Three young Khmers: Mey Mann, interview.

  CHAPTER FOUR: CAMBODIAN REALITIES

  106 Already . . . end of Cambodia: ‘De Langlade à Monsieur . . . le Commandant en Chef des Forces Terrestres . . . en Indochine’, Nov. 11 1953, c. 10H285, SHAT.

  107 Sâr was chosen . . . coming elections: In his confession (Oct. 7 1976), Keo Meas indicates that the assignment of tasks in the winter of 1954 was undertaken ‘on instructions from the brothers higher up . . . which were conveyed at first through the Vietnamese, and later on through Comrade [Saloth Sâr]’. Of the ‘brothers higher-up’, Son Ngoc Minh was in North Vietnam, and Sieu Heng in southern Vietnam (until 1956). That leaves only Tou Samouth—whom Meas noted soon afterwards took charge of the Phnom Penh Committee—as the source of these directives. Sâr’s role in liaising with the Democrats is confirmed by Keng Vannsak and Thiounn Mumm (interviews).

  108 Sâr had gone . . . united force: Keng Vannsak, interview. ‘Important role’: Ping Sây, interview. ‘Manipulating Vannsak’: Thiounn Mumm, interview.

  109 Abdication: La Grande Figure, supra, pp. 385–8.

  111 Evil genius: Keng Vannsak, interview.

  112 ‘Slaves for centuries’: Keng Vannsak, interview. Sâr recalled: Pol Pot, Cai Ximei interview.

  113 ‘Taking part in elections’: Pol Pot, Cai Ximei interview. New instructions: ‘Recherche sur le Parti Cambodgien’, Doc. 3KN. T8572, VA.

  115 ‘Rouges’: In 1956, Sihanouk used the term ‘pro-Easterners’ to designate the Pracheachon (’La Subversion au Cambodge’, Nov. 7 1956, c. CLV 20, QD). The terms ‘rouge’ and ‘rose’ occur several times in the series of articles Sihanouk published in RC on Mar. 1, 15 and 22 1958. The first printed use of the term ‘Khmer Rouge’ appears to have been in Neak Cheatniyum of July 30 1960 (see Gorce to MAE, No. 380 AS/CLV. Aug. 3 1960, c. CLV 20; and Les Echos de Phnom Penh, Aug. 4 and 11 1960, quoting Sihanouk’s speech of Aug. 2 at Thnal Rokar, Kompong Speu). Initially the group . . . serving foreign masters: Gorce to MAE, No. 130/CX, Mar. 28 1956, c. CLV 7; No. 248/R, June 14 1956, c. CLV 112; No. 618/CX, Sept. 21 1956, c. CLV 8; Direction Genérale des Affaires Politiques, ‘Situation Politique au Cambodge’, Feb. 16 1957,0. CLV 112, QD; and Chandler, Tragedy, pp. 85–7. In May 1956, the Pracheachon also set up a ‘Support Committee for Cambodian Neutrality’, whose members included Hou Yuon — who had returned from France that spring—and Sâr’s brother Chhay. It proposed a government of national union, including the Sangkum, the Pracheachon and the Democratic Party (‘La Subversion au Cambodge’, Nov. 7 1956, c. CLV 20, QD).

  116 After his return . . . from Paris: Ping Sây, Thiounn Mumm and Mey Mann, interviews. For another description of the swamp areas of Phnom Penh in the 1950s, see Chhang Song, interview, Phnom Penh, Oct. 25 2001. Even Non Suon: Keo Meas (Oct. 7 1976), Non Suon (Nov. 7 1976) and Ney Sarann (Oct. 1 1976), confessions. Black Citroën: Keng Vannsak, interview. Ping Sây was less impressed, describing the car as ‘a heap of old iron’ (interview).

  116–17 It enabled him . . . to marry: Keng Vannsak, interview.

  117 ‘Dances very well’: Suong Sikoeun, interview. She dumped him . . . equal to his own: Keng Vannsak, interview. Sâr and Khieu Ponnary . . . married: This account relies on Ping Sây (interview), especially concerning Ponnary’s role as an intermediary with the maquis; see also Keng Vannsak and Ieng Sary, interviews.

  117–18 ‘Made in heaven’: ‘Rapport [oral] du camarade Khieu Minh . . . le 10 Mai 1980’, Doc. 32(N442)/T8243, VA.

  118 Very odd union . . . scars: Chandler (Brother, p. 50); Keng Vannsak (interview) says she was nicknamed in French ‘la vieille fille’. Yet marry . . . Ponnary’s family: Mey Mann, Ping Sây, interviews. As the high point . . . No one could understand: Ieng Sary, interview. One of her students: Long Nârin, interview at Malay, June 18 2000 and May 4 and 5, 2001. ‘They lived . . . appreciate that’: Ieng Sary, interview.

  119 More outgoing . . . on her behalf: Lim Keuky, quoted in Chandler, Brother, p. 50. Cancer: Thiounn Thoeunn, interview; Moeun, interview at Anlong Veng, Dec. 12 2001.

  120 I still remember: Quoted in Chandler, Brother, p. 52 (translation modified). ‘Lifelong friend’: You Sambo, quoted in ibid., p. 51.

  121 ‘It gave us the chance’: Pol Pot, Cai Ximei interview. Judging by the situation in neighbouring Laos, where the Vietnamese had remained in force in the Pathet Lao zone, this assessment was correct. A French intelligence report, quoting a senior Pathet Lao defector in 1955, gives a vivid picture of the extent to which the Vietnamese dominated the Laotian revolution: ‘All important posts, bith civil and military, are held secretly by Viet Minh [although] they are kept out of sight as much as possible . . . The Viet Minh advisers are all-powerful . . . The Pathet Lao [leaders] can decide nothing without their approval . . . Radio reports from Pathet Lao battalion commanders are sent . . . to Hanoi, which sends back orders by the same channel. Souphanouvong and his ministers are frequently kept in ignorance of these exchanges.’ (Guibaut to Etassociés, No. 1618/CAB, Vientiane, Oct. 20 1955, c. A-O-I 166, QD). Ieng Sary claimed: Ieng Sary interview. I am grateful to Chris Goscha for helping to make the connection between Hay So and Nguyen Van Linh. The Black Paper (pp. 7, 20–21 and 70) states merely that in 1970 Hay So was one of the seven members of the COSVN and that by 1978 he had become a member of the VWPCC. The same source identifies Linh’s deputy in Phnom Penh, Teur Kam (or Tu Kun), as Nguyen Da Giang. Angker: Ping Sây, interview.

  122 We used to meet: Suong Sikoeun, interview. He organised . . . political stance: You Sambo, quoted in Chandler, Brother, p. 51; Ping Sây, interview.

  124 ‘Sulfurous’: Quoted in Chandler, Tragedy, p. 99. This time he beat . . . immediate recall: Ibid., p. 100; Daily Mirror, London, June 7 and 17, Sunday Pictorial, June 15 1958 and Keng Vannsak, interview. Vannsak identified her as Soeung Son Maly and said her role in the scandal was well known in Cambodia. British newspapers, however, gave her name as lv Eng Seng and said she was 22 years old, considerably younger than Maly at that time.

  126 Six months later . . . South Vietnam: Mathivet de la Ville de Mirmont to MAE, Telegram Nos. 696—7, Sept. 1, and idem, No. 420/AS, Sept. 7 1959, c. CLV 12, QD. See also Chandler (Tragedy, pp. 106—7), who states incorrectly that the parcel was addressed to Sihanouk; and Tran Tim Kuyen’s recollection in Cao De Thuong, Lam te . . . ton, Saigon, 1970, p. 313.

  127 Most serious of all . . . it was lifted: The best overview is again that of David Chandler, who has combed the US archives and, as a US diplomat, based in Phnom Penh in the early 1960s, was able to watch from the inside the two countries’ slow divorce (Tragedy, pp. 93, 98—9 and 101—7). See also Jennar, Clés, pp. 58—63. On the blockade, see Gorce to MAE, ‘Rapport sur l’évolution de la situation politique au Cambodge du 13 Janvier au 20 mai 1956’, A/S No. 248/R, June 14 1956, pp. 21—2, c. CLV 112, QD Sihanouk himself wrote at length about the incoherence of US policy in RC on Mar. 29 1958, well before Washington’s decision to resort to extra-legal means to try to bring him down.

  128 ‘Bleus’: Sihanouk used the term ‘bleu’ in RC of Mar. 15 and 22 1958, but it may well have had currency earlier.

  131 Celebrated incident: See Gorce to MAE, Nos. 75 AS/CLV, Feb. 22; 90 AS/CLV, Feb.
26; and 566 AS/CLV, Dec. 12 i960, c. CLV 13, QD. Sihanouk himself unwittingly cast light on what had really happened, when he explained that the young man, Reath Vath, had been found carrying a pistol and a hand-grenade at a rally where he was to speak at the end of 1959 (Sihanouk, My War, p. 113). He turned up at the US Embassy in Feb. 1960.

  132 Chinese empress: Zhou Enlai and Pham Van Dong, Beijing, Apr. 10 1967, CWIHP archives, Washington, DC. He was always punctual: Someth May, Cambodian Witness, p. 88. His younger brother: Quoted in Laura Summers’s introduction to Khieu Samphân, thesis, p. 12.

  133 French girl: The portrait relies on my own meetings with Khieu Samphân in Pailin, on the recollections of Suong Sikoeun (interview) and of other former Khmers Rouges who prefer to remain anonymous. For the French girlfriend, recollection of Nghet Chhopininto’s first wife, Nicole Bizeray, quoted in Sher, thesis, p. 143.