Yesterday I finished Philip Short's Pol Pot, a biography of the man and of the Khmer Rouge movement. I have a slight problem with histories, mostly because I tend to gloss over names and it takes a while before I am able to distinguish between what Ieng Sary and In Sopheap are up to.
I've been on a bit of a dictator kick, and have been interested in Communism for a while. Having slogged through Mao recently, and planning a trip to Cambodia, Pol Pot seemed like a logical choice. What struck me most about the rise and fall of Khmer Rouge was, once gaining a glorious victory over a rather despotic King, their complete and monstrous incompetence in ruling the country. No money! Collective meal times! Inability to centralize government! Parts, like a ban on foraging for food, despite famine, and disallowing the phrase "thank you", along with the ceaseless starvation and terrorizing of the Cambodians struck me as something that might happen if you place a 12 year old with a chip on his shoulder in power and had the Chinese arm him to the teeth.
I won't ruin the details for you, but basically Pol had everyone in power killed (along with a bunch of Vietnamese, random foreign journalists and a bunch of other random Cambodians) and provoked the Vietnamese into invading, ending his rule after about 3 years. When he died he was cremated on a pile of garbage and tires. I guess not all of our Communist leaders can get the Mao-Lenin-Ho Chi Min treatment...I wonder if they'll do the same for Castro.
Worth a read, if you're into that kind of thing: 8/10? 4 stars? 3 and a half forks?
...I can't wait to get to Cambodia and shoot a cow with an AK-47.
EDIT: Just watched The Killing Fields. Heavy.
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