Pol Pot

About Pol Pot

The Cambodian dictator responsible for one of the worst genocides in history. Pol Pots Khmer Rouge regime killed an estimated 1.5 to 2 million Cambodians, about a quarter of the population, from 1975 to 1979. He evacuated cities, abolished money, and targeted educated people for execution. The killing fields of Cambodia shocked the world. Pol Pot was driven from power by a Vietnamese invasion in 1979 but continued a guerrilla war. He died in 1998, never tried for his crimes. The Khmer Rouge tribunal convicted some of his lieutenants decades later.