Philip Short refers to his book on Mao in his preface to "Pol Pot:Anatomy to a Massacre" and, while acknowledging Mao's extraordinary beastliness (the man was probably responsible for over 50 million deaths) he highlights Mao's pretentions to greatness not unlike Napoleon's or Alexander's. It is fitting that after he died his body was burned on a funeral pyre comprised of old tires and broken furniture. Pol Pot himself seems an unremarkable person. Short has a detailed account of that event, the philosphy behind it and the human consequences. The most interesting part of the book to me was the fall of Phnom Penh in April 1975 and the subsequent forced evacuation of that city and other Cambodian cities by the Khmer Rouge. In this book, I appreciated the author's search for the root causes of the Khmer Rouge's inhumanity. Those stories are readily available elsewhere. Short's account may be too dispassionate for many people as he focuses on Khmer Rouge philosophies and programs, rather than recounting endless atrocity stories. The writer avoids polemics and gave me a sense of confidence that he is presenting the ghastly story of Pol Pot and Cambodia as objectively as possible. "Pol Pot" is a thorough, readable, and well-researched account of Cambodian politics from about 1950 until the death of Pol Pot in 1998. The Khmer Rouge was a movement that ran amok. Perhaps, insane outbreaks are hot-wired in the human psyche to occur now and then - in the same way that lemmings commit mass suicide by running over cliffs. I didn't find his theory - that the mass-murder was consistent with Khmer culture and history - very persuasive, but I don't have a better one to offer in its place. It may be impossible to explain why Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge government caused the deaths of more than one million - possibly two million -Cambodians during their 4 year rule (1975-1979) The author, Philip Short, made an effort to do so in this book. In his second year in power Pol Pot decided to impr Very large numers of people died as a result. As there was no money this policy was backed up by brutality. All citizens were forced to work on the land and to produce rice. Money was abolished and a barter economy was put in place. Short shows that aid would have been available and closing down the cities of Cambodia was simply lunacy. Whilst Pol Pot faced a real problem, Phnompen had been swelled by refugees and it would have been difficult to feed them his solution was moronic and the product of a simple ideology. This figure includes the killing of what could be seen as class enemies. Short suggests that this stupid move costs the deaths of around 20,000. Once in power he started to show how stupid and how brutal he was. Nothing in achieving power suggested that Pol Pot had any real ability. Lon Nol was an incompetent leader and the Cambodian communists with huge numbers of recruits armed by the Vietnamese were able to achieve power. The bombings led to plentiful recruits for the Cambodian Communists and the North Vietnamese armed them to safeguard their flank. The Vietnamese also had to fight against the attacks of Lon Nol. The initial bombings and invasion by the American backed South Vietnamese forced the communist forces deep into Cambodia. In addition the US supported a coup to oust Shinouk and he was replaced by Lon Nol who with US support started a campaing against the Vietnamese forces in Cambodia. The aim was to restrict the movement of arms and supplies to the Vietnamese forces fighting in the south and to prop up the American backed government. Nixon the US president widened the war by bombing eastern Cambodia and then later invading it. For this freedom of movement the Vietnamese did not try to oust Shinouk. The Vietnamese had a de-facto agreement with Shinouk the head of state of Cambodia that they could occupy parts of the eastern provinces of Cambodia so that they could supply their forces fighting in what was South Vietnam. His organisation was a small one which was run as a puppet organisation by the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. He repeatedly failed his teacher training exams and came to run what became the Cambodian Communist Party because of the unexpected deaths of those above him. Pol Pot was a person of medicore talents. The author Short makes the case that Pol Pot (real name Saloth Sar) rather than trying to commit genocide against his people introduced a slave state and the deaths were a side product. This book gives his history against that of Cambodia and the region as a whole. After his overthrow museums were opened celebrating his infamy. Pol Pot (a title rather than a name meaning brother number one) has the reputation of commiting genocide against his own people.
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