Pol Pot
Subtitle: Anatomy of a Nightmare
Edition: First Owl Books edition (2)
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Published: 2006
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 576
ISBN-13: 9780805080063
Copyright date: 2004
Subjects: Southeast Asia - History; Modern - 20th Century; Government - General; History; Biography / Autobiography; History: World; Presidents & Heads of State; Asia - Southeast Asia; History / Southeast Asia; Biography And Autobiography
First sentence: THE VILLAGE OF Prek Sbauv extends along the east bank of the River Sen, which flows southward from the town of Kompong Thom to the Great Lake, the Tonle Sap.
Description: Philip Short observed Pol Pot at close quarters during the one and only official visit Pol ever made abroad, to China in 1975. He was struck by Pol Pot's charm and charisma, yet, soon after, the leader would emerge as the architect of one of the most radical and ruthless experiments in social engineering ever undertaken. His egalitarian utopia released a reign of terror that would result in one in every five Cambodians - more than a million people - perishing in the killing fields of from hunger.

Why did it happen? How did an idealistic dream of justice and prosperity mutate into one of humanity's worst nightmares? To answer these questions, Short traveled through Cambodia, interviewing former Khmer Rouge leaders and sifting through previously closed archives around the world. Key figures, including Khlen Samphan and Ieng Sary, Pol Pot's brother-in-law and foreign minister, speak here for the first time.

Philip Short's masterly narrative reveals how Pol Pot engineered his country's desolation, fashining the definitive portrait of the man who headed one of the most enigmatic and terrifying regimes of modern times.

(back cover)
Notes: A John Macrae Book