Pol Pot

by Philip Short

  287–8 Most. . . three years: Cited by Long Visalo, interview in Phnom Penh, Nov. 26 and Dec. 8 2001.

  288 ‘Extraordinary measure’: Doc. 2.5.01 in De Nike et al., p. 379. ‘Agriculture is the key’: In Sopheap, Khieu Samphân, p. 110, quoting a speech by Pol to the ‘Party Centre’ in September 1975. It may be objected that this was four months after the meetings in May, but there is no doubt that he already held these views at that time. In the following account, I have cited extracts from speeches Pol made over the next fifteen months where I am convinced that they are a restatement of positions originally adopted in May.

  289 Beg for help: Pol Pot, Four-Year Plan, p. 47. ‘Imported iron’: Pol Pot, Preliminary Explanation, p. 152. His remark is worth comparing with Khieu Samphân’s 1959 statement: ‘While it is true that it is more advantageous for a backward country to import industrial goods rather than to produce them at any given point in time, it is equally true that in the long run such a country can never really improve its industrial overhead’ (thesis, pp.78–9). Preserve our independence: Ieng Sary, interview with James Pringle, Bulletin du GRUNC, Beijing, Sept. 4 1975, pp. 12–13.

  289—90 Individuals are grouped . . . in production: Khieu Samphân, thesis, pp. 30, 53 (trans, amended) and 75–6.

  290 ‘Blueprint’: Bangkok Post, Feb. 15, 17, 19, 21, 23 and 25 1976. ‘Makes sense’: Chandler, Facing, p. 213. ‘Were they found’: Joel R. Charny, ‘Appropriate Development Aid for Kampuchea’, in Ablin and Hood, Agony, p. 250. Object lesson: Meyer, Sourire, pp. 211—17, and 283–4.

  291 ‘Not irrational’: Pierre Brocheux, in Camille Scalabrino et al., Cambodge, Histoire et Enjeux: 1945–1983, L’Harmattan, Paris, 1985, pp. 230–1. ‘Boldly to encourage . . . machines’: Pol Pot, Report, pp. 206–7;see also Standing Committee meeting of Mar. 30 1976, in Chandler et al., Pol Pot Plans, p. 3.

  292 ‘Last . . .political rights’: Heder, Occupation, p. 6; Ebihara, Revolution and Reformulation, p. 25.

  293 ‘If our people’: Pol Pot, September 27 speech. Convinced him: In Sopheap, Khieu Samphân, pp. 99–100. ‘Run really fast’: Minutes of Standing Committee meeting, Feb. 4 1976, in Doc. 32(N442)/T8355,VA. ‘No let-up’: In Sopheap, interview. He gives a slightly different version in Khieu Samphân, p. 103.

  294 How must we organise: Pol Pot’s report to the Western Zone Party Conference, Tung Padevat, June 1976. A translation is given in Chandler et al., Pol Pot Plans, pp. 13–35; for the quoted section, see pp. 20 and 26. Cutting-edge: CPK CC Resolution, June 1976, Doc. 32(N442)/T8310,VA. ‘Simplistic’: Ieng Sary, interview.

  295 Six months: Khieu Samphân, thesis, p. 79; Smith, Interpretive Accounts, p.5. Theravada Buddhism: Jerrold Schecter, The New Face of Buddhism, Coward-McCann, New York, 1967, p. 17. Recounted the experience: Sihanouk, My War, pp. 123–4. Palm sugar: Ly Hay, interview. He explained . . . following orders: Pol Pot, Talk with Khamtan. ‘Inert’: Kirk, Revolution, p. 222.

  296 Immense apparatus: Quoted in Burchett, Triangle, p. 95. Closer and closer: Pol Pot, Report, p. 207. Necessity for Work: Ieng Sary, Der Spiegel, May 2 1977.

  296—7 Two days later . . . behind them: Unless otherwise specified, this account of the Mayaguez affair is drawn from Robert Rowan’s book, The Four Days of Mayaguez, Norton, New York, 1975.

  297 Malaria: Pâng, confession, May 28 1978. To the Silver Pagoda: Phi Phuon, interview. Reassure Vietnam: Pol Pot, Talk with Khamtan. June 2 . . .geography: Kampuchea Dossier, vol. 1, p. 67.

  298 Pol offered . . . victories to come: Mosyakov, Khmer Rouge, p. 26. ‘Cordial’: Nhan Dan, Hanoi, Aug. 2 1975. Repatriation . . . other way: It is worth stressing that the repatriations did not begin in April 1975; they had been under way since August 1973. For the figure of 150,000, see Chanda, Brother Enemy, p. 16. Most sources agree that the departure of Vietnamese continued until late 1975 or early 1976 (Black Paper, p. 73; Serge Thion, ‘Chronology’, in Chandler and Kiernan, Aftermath, p. 304; Ponchaud, EFA 13, p. 17, and Vietnam-Cambodge, pp. 1237–8). Playing for time: Khieu Samphân, interview.

  298—9 Pol flew . . . not clear: These details were furnished by a Chinese historian who wishes to remain anonymous; see also Pâng, confession, May 28 1978. Siet Chhê was known to the Chinese as Du Mu, from his revolutionary alias, Turn; and Ney Sarann as Ming Shan, from his alias, Men San. Pâng was also present. Citations are taken from the transcript of the meeting held in the Chinese Central Archives. Extracts are cited in CWIHP, 77 Conversations, p. 194.

  299 ‘Better to kill’: For a description of Chinese communist extremism in the late 1920s and early 1930s, see Short, Mao, pp. 223–4, 268–75, 277–81, 306, 308–9 and 314. The slogan about killing the innocent resurfaced in Vietnam in the early 1950s, but in attenuated form: ‘Better to kill ten innocent people than let a guilty person escape’. Under the Khmers Rouges, the wording was identical to that in Jiangxi. It is unlikely that the Jiangxi slogan was known to the Vietnamese, and still less to the Khmers. One must conclude that peasant-dominated revolutions lead, in their early stages, to similar types of excesses.

  300 Entranced: See the transcript in the Chinese Central Archives of Mao’s meeting with Sihanouk, Penn Nouth, Khieu Samphân and Khieu Thirith on Aug. 27 1975, at which he explicitly endorsed the policy of evacuating the cities. ‘No. We couldn’t’: Transcript of Mao’s meeting with Le Duan, Beijing, Sept. 24 1975, held in the Chinese Central Archives.

  301 Non-committal smile: Transcript of Zhou Enlai’s meeting with Sihanouk and Khieu Samphân, Beijing, Aug. 26 1975, held in the Chinese Central Archives. See also Sihanouk, World Leaders, pp. 99–100. Failed to agree: See the transcripts of Pol’s meetings with Hua Guofeng in Beijing on Sept. 29 and 30 1977 for an example of one such disagreement over the role of non-ruling communist parties in South-East Asia (Doc. 32(N442)/T8300,VA). Four days later . . . greet them: Ieng Sary and Mey Mak, interviews.

  301–2 Deng told him . . . discontinued: According to the Vietnamese-language text (Doc. 32(N442)/T8300, supra), the military agreement was signed in Beijing on Feb. 6 1976 by Son Sen and Wang Hongwen, then ranked third in the Chinese leadership and Vice-Chairman of the CPC CC Military Commission. Given the content and importance of the agreement, a leader at Wang’s level would have been expected to participate (Deng Xiaoping could not sign because by then he was under house arrest). De Nike et al. (p. 381) mistakenly identify the Chinese signatory as Wang Shangrong, a Deputy Chief of the Chinese General Staff who led the negotiating team which drew up the accord.

  302 More than three hundred . . . to China: Ibid. Chinese technicians were normally rotated through Cambodia for stays of three to six months (Quan Yuhui, interview). According to Tuon, a Jarai cadre who handled liaison between ‘870’ (the CPK CC General Office) and the Chinese and North Korean aid missions, there were never more than a thousand Chinese in Cambodia at any one time (interview, Pailin, Nov. 20 2001). In 1976, Cambodia sent 471 air-force trainees and 157 naval trainees to China. According to Kân (interview), they remained there for up to two years. 300 million: Fang Weizhong (ed.), Zhonghua renmin gongheguo jingi dashiji, Social Science Press, Beijing, 1984, p. 552, quoted in Ross, Tangle, p. 75.

  303 ‘Greatly eased’: Chandler et al., Pol Pot Plans, p. 15 (where this phrase is translated as ‘maximally softened’). Medical check-up: Páng, confession, May 28 1978.

  304 Hou Yuon . . . house arrest: Ping Sây and Suong Sikoeun, interviews.

  305–6 We must fix . . . masses: Cited in In Sopheap, Khieu Samphân, pp. 108–10.

  306 Three tons: Ibid. For the reference to paddy, and not milled rice, see Pol Pot, Report, p. 187, and Abbreviated Lesson, p. 220. Two tons: Sihanouk, speech to parliament, quoted in Massenet to MAE, No. 1295/AS, July 23 1963, in c. CLV 16, QD. In May . . . state power: Pol, quoted in In Sopheap, Khieu Samphân, p. 106. Non Suon: Non Suon, confession, Jan. 16 1977. That summer: Criddle and Butt Mam, Destroy, p. 50. Denise Alfonso also remembered being shown specimens of the new currency at a village thirty miles south of Phnom Penh, apparently in July 1
975 (De Nike et al., p. 443). See also Pich Chheang, interview, Anlong Veng, Dec. 10–11 2001; and Doc. No. 3, Sept. 19 1975, quoted in Kiernan, Regime, p. 94.

  307 Mok favoured . . . views: Phi Phuon, interview. The State . . . this matter: In Sopheap, Khieu Samphân.

  308 September 19: Doc. no. 3, Sept. 19 1975, quoted in Kiernan, Regime, p. 99. Laurence Picq was told when she arrived in Phnom Penh in October 1975 that ‘money had been abolished’ (Horizon, p. 11). I found myself . . . kept: Thiounn Mumm, interview. He once told: Pol Pot, Preliminary Explanation, p. 129. ‘Shortages of food . . . different regions’: Quoted in In Sopheap, Khieu Samphán, p. 109. At the CPK Standing Committee meeting in Kompong Som he also noted the plight of the urban deportees (Dossier L01022, Aug. 20–4 1975, DC-Cam).

  309 Ox: PinYathay, Stay Alive, p. 170. See also Stuart-Fox, Murderous Revolution, p. 53, where the animal is described as a buffalo. ‘Slaves we are’: Yi Tan Kim Pho, Cambodge, p.113.

  310 Along the roadside: Picq, typescript, pp. 9—11. Convoys: Ponchaud, Year Zero, pp. 31–2; Haing Ngor, Odyssey, p. 100. Both describe goods being sent to the Eastern Zone (which they assumed, wrongly, meant they were taken to Vietnam). That plunder was also sent to other Zones is clear from the discussions between Zone leaders on how the ‘booty’ should be shared out.

  311 Foreign Ministry . . . work for diplomats: This account of B-1 is drawn largely from Picq, typescript.

  312 Bank Buildings . . . increasingly close: Ieng Sary and Phi Phuon (interviews); Pâng, confession, May 28 1978. Lived apart . . . chores: Ieng Sary, interview.

  313 Cathedral: Father Ponchaud remembered having been told by an elderly colleague when he had arrived in Cambodia in 1965 that, to Khmers, the Phnom was a site of mystical power, ‘the religious and spiritual nexus, assuring the community of Heaven and Earth’. ‘If ever this country gets a nationalist government,’ the old priest had added,’the Cathedral will be the first thing to go’ (interview). But it was solidly built and took many months to demolish (In Sopheap, interview; Ong Thong Hoeung, Récit, p. 31). Rest of . . . coconut palms: Szymusiak, Stones, p. 50;Yi Tan Kim Pho, Cambodge, p. 227; PinYathay, Stay Alive, p. 76; Martin, Alimentaire, p. 358; Y Phandara, Retour, p. 67.

  314–15 Boot camp . . . hungry all the time: Long Nârin, interview. According to Laurence Picq, two students were allowed to return in December 1972 and fifteen more a month later. A third group returned in December 1973. Suong Sikoeun left Beijing in May 1974 (interview).

  315 ‘There will always . . . kill them’: Long Visalo, interview.

  316 ‘Thin as nails’: Ong Thong Hoeung, Récit, p. 10. They told us . . . mentality: Long Visalo, interview.

  316–17 How do we . . . reasonable: Ibid.

  317–18 Ultimate aim . . . evil: Picq, typescript, pp. 241; Ong Thong Hoeung, Récit, pp. 20–1.

  319 That first year: Martin, Alimentaire, p. 349. See also Yi Tan Kim Pho, Cambodge, pp. 74–5; PinYathay, Stay Alive, pp. 100 and 130. There was also severe hunger in Siem Reap (Schanberg, Death and Life, p. 45), Preah Vihear (De Nike et al., p.95) and no doubt other areas. Laurence Picq at B-I heard reports of starvation for the first time in the spring of 1976 (Horizon, p. 67), Sihanouk a few months earlier (Prisonnier, pp. 46–7).

  320 ‘Too much’: Chandler et al., Peang Sophi, p. 7; see also Kiernan, Rural Reorganisation, p. 52. Pursat . . . year was out: Szymusiak, Stones, p. 95; Kiernan and Boua, Peasants and Politics, p. 354; PinYathay, Stay Alive, pp. 102, 131–2 and 140; Schanberg, Death and Life, p. 45. ‘Narrow path’: Pol Pot, Report, p. 188.

  321 Leadership recognised . . .per day: ‘The rice ration should be two milk cans per person per day . . . If there is a shortage it will affect people’s health, and then the workforce will be reduced’ (minutes of the CPK Standing Committee meeting, Feb. 28 1976, DC-Cam). See also Pol Pot, Four-Year Plan (pp. 111–12), which sets the ration at between 1.5 and 3 milk cans per person. Given that these documents, especially Standing Committee minutes, which were circulated to fewer than ten people, were highly restricted and never intended to go further, one may assume that the views Pol expressed were those he genuinely held. ‘Most important medicine . . . among us’:. Tung Padevat, June 1976; Pol Pot, Preliminary Explanation, p. 127. One free day . . . and up to fifteen: Pol Pot, Four-Year Plan, p. 112. See also Criddle and Butt Mam, Destroy, p. 158; PinYathay, Stay Alive, p. 89; Stuart-Fox, Murderous Revolution, p. 45; Haing Ngor, Odyssey, p. 274; and Kiernan, Rural Reorganisation, p. 65. ‘There’s not enough’: Pol Pot, Preliminary Explanation, p. 158.

  322 Those we surprised: Quoted in Martin, Shattered, pp. 167–8. Couplet: Locard, Petit Livre Rouge, p. 175. Keng Vannsak argued that the phrase was intended to be taken literally—‘man was reduced to an object of profit and loss’ (quoted in Burchett, Triangle, p. 94).

  323 In Samphân’s words: Quoted by Long Visalo, interview. Incantation: Forest, Colonialisation sans heurts, p. 493.

  324 Like the monks: Minutes of CPK Standing Committee meeting, June 1 1976, DC-Cam. Called for ‘renunciation’: Ponchaud, EFA 17, pp. 4–5. ‘Renunciation of feelings’: This citation is from Pin Yathay but I have misplaced the reference to the text in which it occurs.

  325 The whole aim: George Orwell, 1984, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1970, pp. 45–6. ‘Entangled’: Pol Pot, Preliminary Explanation, p. 158.

  326 150,000: Dossier L01045, Nov. 30 1975, in which an Eastern Zone official complained to Pol that the ‘dispersal strategy’ was being obstructed by Northern and North-Western Zone leaders who were ‘refusing to accept Islamic villagers’ (DC-Cam). See also Stuart-Fox, Murderous Revolution, p. 87, and Kiernan, Eastern Zone Massacres, pp. 39—41. It may be argued, of course, that ‘dispersal’ was itself a form of racism; but in that case the same label must be accepted for such measures as school bussing in the United States to achieve desegregation. That, too, involved the dispersal of pupils of one race among those of another. Not racism: Serge Thion makes this point well in his essay, ‘Genocide as a Political Commodity’, in Kiernan, Genocide and Democracy, pp. 171–2.

  327 Glasses: I owe this detail to Michael Vickery. Not America: Prasso, p. 4. In the same spirit, when Samphán was teaching in the 1960s, he was puzzled that one of his students, an Indian girl from Pondicherry, stayed in Cambodia rather than ‘going home to India’ (I owe this anecdote to Henri Locard). ‘Not hard’:Vann Nath, Portrait, p. 24. See also Smith, Interpretive Accounts, p. 5; Ben Kiernan, ‘Letter to the Editor of The Times’, Aug. 11 1977, in JCA, vol. 7, 1977, p. 547, quoting Peang Sophi as saying that working conditions in Cambodia in 1975—6 were less arduous than in his Melbourne factory.

  327–8 Even usually critical . . . spend money: Pin Yathay, Stay Alive, p. 47; Stuart-Fox, Murderous Revolution, p. 46; Haing Ngor, Odyssey, p. 269; Ponchaud, Year Zero, p. 183, and Cathédrale, pp. 236–7; Edwards, Ethnic Chinese, p. 145.

  CHAPTER TEN: MODEL FOR THE WORLD

  329 ‘Do you intend’: Transcript of Mao’s meeting with Khieu Samphân, Ieng Sary, Sihanouk and Penn Nouth, Apr. 2 1974, Chinese Central Archives, Beijing. ‘Don’t be frightened . . . disagreement’: Transcript of Mao’s meeting with Sihanouk, Penn Nouth, Khieu Samphân and Khieu Thirith, Aug. 27 1975, Chinese Central Archives, Beijing. According to Sihanouk (Calice, Part 2, Ch. 1, p. 3), Kim II Sung also raised with the Cambodians the issue of his return.

  331 To say nothing: Ong Thong Hoeung, Récit, p. 9. More truthful . . . abroad: Osborne, Prince of Light, p. 230. See also Sihanouk, Prisonnier, pp. 17–18, for his account of similar discussions with his family in Europe in December. December 31 . . . ridiculous: Sihanouk, ibid, pp. 18–19.

  333 Diplomatic missions: ‘Speech by the Party Secretary to the Council of Ministers’, Apr. 22 1976, in Dossier D695, DC-Cam. ‘Bowled me over’. . .furgens: Sihanouk, Prisonnier, pp. 41, 66 and 70; see also pp. 32–3.

  334 Memoirs: Sihanouk, Prisonnier, pp. 82 and 85.

  334–5 But then . . . react negatively: Ibid., pp. 88–9; Minutes of CPK Standing Committee meeting, M
ar. 11 1976, Dossier D7562, DC-Cam. Sihanouk referred in particular to the accreditation of Meak Touch, the new DK Ambassador to Vientiane, whose arrival to take up his post was reported by Radio Phnom Penh on Mar. 6. The timing, while not conclusive, supports the view that the credentials issue was an important factor.

  334 Untrustworthy: These comments were made at a Standing Committee meeting on Mar. 30 1976 (Doc. 32(N442)/T8322,VA: this version gives details not contained in the Khmer-language text, Dossier D693, at DC-Cam).

  336 To Pol . . . except us: Minutes of the CPK Standing Committee meetings of Mar. 11 and 13 1976 (Dossier D7562);’Speech by the Party Secretary to the Council of Ministers’, Apr. 22 1976 (Dossier D695), DC-Cam.

  337 Fictitious: Far Eastern Economic Review, June 25 1976. This was not, as has sometimes been suggested, a journalist’s error. Cambodia continued to deny that Pol Pot was Saloth Sâr until the regime fell. Y Phandara was told by the Ambassador to China, Pich Chheang, in the spring of 1978 that Saloth Sâr ‘had died during the war’; Chinese officials at that time repeated the same thing.

  337–8 If we lose . . . struggle: Nuon Chea, Statement, p. 31.

  338 Always smooth: Ieng Sary, interview. ‘Seduced you’: Sihanouk, Prisonnier, p. 320. Very likeable: Kong Duong, interview. Parable: Mey Mak, interview.

  339 Complicated: Ieng Sary, interview. [Pol] demanded . . . disgrace: Vandy Kaonn, Cambodge, p. 137; Chou Chet, confession, May 20 1978.

  340 He would listen: In Sopheap, Khieu Samphân, pp. 95–6; I have condensed the citation, but without changing the sense. Sopheap, who gave a similar account from his own experience of attending meetings with Pol, said there was little real exchange of views after 1975 (interview). Pol Pot liked: In Sopheap, interview.