Title: Pol Pot
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)
Subjects: Politics and government, Political atrocities, Genocide, Prime ministers, Biography, history, atrocities, Cambodia, biography, Dictators, Pol pot, 1925-1998, Rode Khmer, Dictatuur
Places: Cambodia, Angkor Wat, China, USA, Vietnam, Phnom Penh, Paris, Phnom Penh Teacher Training College, Southern China, North Vietnamese Embassy, Mount Kulen, Stung Treng
People: Pol Pot, Khmer Rogue, Khieu Samphan, Ke Pauk, Yun Yat, Ranariddh Sihanouk, Saloth Sâr, Ieng Sary, Keng Vannsak, Rath Samoeun, Son Ngoc Minh, Keo Meas, Khieu Ponnary, Deng Ziaoping, Nuon Chea, Heng Samrin, Buddha, Jacqueline Kennedy, Queen Kossamak, Lon Nol, Khmer Serei, Mao Zedong (1893-1976)
Time periods: 1975-1979