The beginning of the Khmer Rouge Army...

The Khmer Rouge started with a group named the Pol Pot faction. All the members in this group began their “political active careers” as students. All of them are also born in families without traditions and economic necessity, including Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Saloth Sar (Pol Pot). Ieng Sary, Son Sen, and Saloth Sar are actually from landowning families. Among a selected group of Cambodian students, all four of them won government scholarships to Paris. At Paris, they were exposed to different volatile ideas such as socialism, nationalism, communism, anti-imperialism, and neocolonialism. Later, most of the students that went to Paris joined the Khmer Students’ Association (KSA). There were many groups in the association, and one of them strongly opposed the king, the monarchy, and French imperialism. After joining the KSA, between the years 1949 and 1951, Saloth Sar, Ieng Sary, Rath Samoeurn, and Sien An became a part of the French Communist Party (PCF). Then in 1951, Saloth Sar, Ieng Sar, and Thioun Mum (KSA member) went to the Berlin Youth Festival at East Berlin as KSA delegates. After their return “they abandoned purely theoretical discourse with their new-found understanding that action is essential” (pp.49).

Apparently, Saloth Sar, Ieng Sary, and many future members of the Khmer Rouge were taught at a young age about extreme political issues and joined many corporations. This really affected their way of thinking and actions, especially the trip to the Berlin Youth Festival. With all these influences, Saloth Sar, Ieng Sary, and Rath Samoeurn started studying the “techniques of subversion and revolutionary organization” (Etcheson, pp.50). In 1952, the KSA published an open letter denouncing King Samolech Norodom Sihanouk, signed by Ieng Sary, Saloth Sar, Rath Samoeurn, Hou Yuon, Khieu Thirith, Thioum Mum, and Sien Au. Through this letter, Sikanouk liked Hou Yuon’s devotion to the people and to democracy. This is where conflicts started between Saloth Sar and Hou Yuon. At the meeting, Saloth Sar said to Hou Yuon “It is I who will direct the revolutionary organization! I will become the secretary general...I will control the ministers, and I will see to it that there is no deviation from the line fixed by the central committee in the interests of the people” (pp.50, 51).

Source: Etcheson, Craig. The Rise and Demise of Democratic Kampuchea. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1984.

\Home / Before / During / After

Interactivities / Experiences / Author's Page / Reference / Site Map