Pol Pot

[ZhukovCodeslinger]

I highly reccomend Pol Pot by Philip Short.... its a total mind screw as to how this man did what he did...

oh, a downside to the book is that you will probably have holliday in cambodia stuck in your head for a few weeks... but everyone loves DK anyway..

[Paper Hearts]

I was thinking of changing my name to Paul Pot.

[HipsterDufus]

I'll have to check that out. That whole Cambodia thing just creeps me out... Nothing like knocking off a quarter of your population.

[ZhukovCodeslinger]

I have quite a few books on Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, and Cambodian politics for an article I am writing for the Encyclopedia of World History. Ill give you reviews/recomendations if you like (to save time and reading money)

[HipsterDufus]

I have quite a few books on Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, and Cambodian politics for an article I am writing for the Encyclopedia of World History.  Ill give you reviews/recomendations if you like  (to save time and reading money)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sure. I just put the book you recommended on hold at the local library. Let me know what else you've though was decent.

[n0Mad]

Eddie Izzard mentions Pol Pot in one of his routines. Good stuff.

[ZhukovCodeslinger]

Jello Biafra was also a "Fan"...

I finished the book... I was quite surprised that at some points, it appeared that the author was being apologetic for the resulds of the Khemer Rouge Regime... it was not what they (the central committee) wanted, or intended... because the little guys implemented policy in their "own special way" etc... but by the end, he is back to a more condemning tone..

any way, im on to a book called "

The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79"

The focus is much narrower and will not cover all the intrigue that allowed them to come to power.

[pomba gira]

I recently read a chapter in "The Noonday Demon" which is a historical & cultural look at depression... this chapter is about a Cambodian woman who survived the killing fields and now counsels other women who survived the Khmer Rouge. Can't recall her name but she has been nominated for a Nobel prize. All you can think after reading about this kind of shit is "how the hell does this happen". I always wonder not so much about the victims of horrific shit like Cambodia & Rwanda, but the people who felt called on to go out & gleefully butcher their neighbors. How do you live the rest of your life knowing you committed these unimaginably heinous acts? Just do the repression & denial thing- that wasn't really me, we were all crazy, blah blah blah...? It's a mystery to me but then so are a lot of things humans do.

[ZhukovCodeslinger]

... well to cut out about 1,500 pages of explaination...

this happens in societies that see things in black and white only.

[Blackmail]

Noam Chomsky claimed it never happened so I don't need to read it.

I definately think you can make a good case that Kennedy getting us into Vietnam was a noble cause.

I'll check out the book soon, thanks Zhukov.

[ZhukovCodeslinger]

Im currently reading another title: The Pol Pot Regime: Race power and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge 1975-1979 by Ben Kiernan.

To sum up, much less about the life of Pol Pot and much more about the political aspects... Lots of 1st person accounts/interviews with surviving cambodians as well as examination of Khmer Rouge documents. its pretty good. Much more usefull info on the Regime and its policies and how they were implemented.