Pol Pot¡¦s regime has had a lasting impact on Cambodia. The after-effects of the ¡¥Killing Fields¡¦ of 1975-1978 will most likely last well into the 21st Century, and Cambodia may well never fully recover from the wounds they sustained during this time.

Pol Pot was born Saloth Sar on May the 19th, 1925fxfx to a wealthy peasant family. He had a privileged upbringing, attending private schools. In 1948, he received a scholarship to study electrical engineering in Paris, where he set up his own Communist cell with his fellow Cambodian students. He then failed his exams, lost his Government scholarship and returned to Cambodia. He took up a job as a teacher in a private school, and helped set up a Communist Party in Cambodia. He became Party Secretary (leader) of the Cambodian Communists in 1966. The neutral Prince Sihanouk savagely repressed his leftist opposition, labelling...