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Pol Pot was born in 1925, into a peasant family in the Kompong Thom Province of Cambodia. Several of his relatives worked in the palace in Phnom Penh, so his family was respected well. He went to school in Phnom Penh and soon after in 1949, was awarded a scholarship to study electrical technology in Paris. However, he wasn't quite focused on his studies, and instead, spent more time involved in student committees.
Pol Pot returned to Cambodia in 1953 where he worked as a teacher to support himself. Meanwhile, Pol Pot worked in the radical underground to form an opposition to the monarchy of the King. In 1960 Pol Pot and his fellow communists formed the "Cambodian Communist Party Group." King Sihanouk later gave this party the infamous name, "Khmer Rouge."
A few years later in 1967 the Khmer Rouge began its military campaign against the Cambodian government. But it was only until 1977 when the Khmer Rouge finally took full control of the country after its attack on the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. During the five years under Pol Pot's rule, the Khmer Rouge governed Cambodia ruthlessly with constant acts of brutality towards citizens. Nearly two million Cambodians during Pol Pots "experiment" with peasant communism,
In 1979 Pol Pot and his party were attacked and oppressed by a Vietnamese invasion. The Khmer Rouge fled to Thailand, where they established a new military base. After many battles with the Cambodian government, Pol Pot and his communist party signed a peace agreement in 1991.
Eventually Pol Pot's harsh tactics turned on him in the end, where even his own men were revolting against him, and in the end, captured him. April 5th 1999, Pol Pot died from a heart attack before he could be brought to court.
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