Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
How did Pol Pot rise to Power?
72
How did Pol Pot rise to Power?
How was Pol Pot removed from power?
Pol Pot began as an ordinary individual. He struggled through school and ended up receiving a scholarship for radio electronics in Paris. This scholarship allowed him to have access with the Communist Party in France. It was here that Pot began to practice Marxism and Leninism. These ideologies prompted him to focus on more revolutionary ideals and not his school work. This choice caused him to loose his scholarship, and return to Phnom Penh. In 1962 Pot became the secretary of the Communist party in Cambodia. He was afraid of being arrested so he fled Phnom Penh the following year. In 1970 the current prince Norodom Sihanouk was overthrown. In his place was Lon Nol, who had support from the United States of America. A civil war broke out in Cambodia in attempt to contain communism. Ultimately the Khmer Rouge army led by Pol Pot took control of Cambodia and embarked on building a new Cambodia.
Pol Pot attempted to invade Vietnam. His goal was to seize more territory and therefore gain more power. In 1978 when Pot planned to invade Vietnam, the Vietnamese troops crossed the Cambodian border. This allowed in a successful attempt to overthrow Pol Pots Khmer Rouge.
Interesting Facts
The Khmer Rouge was extremely violent in that they bashed babies heads into trees. One of Pol Pots hobbies was dancing, even though he was terrible.
How did Pol Pot use the four techniques of dictatorship to maintain his power?
Force and terror was inflicted upon everyone. Pol Pot allowed for starvation and forced labor. This forced labor resulted in many deaths along with executions. If you did not align with Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, you were punished. The punishment would be public. This public punishment falls into scapegoating, and propaganda because anyone who revolted was seen as the reason for this violence. This instilled fear, and caused conformity to the rules. Civil servants were also scapegoated. All of the doctors, teachers and others were stripped of their belongings and title. Pot instituted a new educational system and wanted everyone to work in the rice fields and help with the agricultural industry. This reflected the ideals of indoctrination, because he was educating the people to his reforms.
Khmer Rouge Flag
How did Pol Pot justify his rejection to liberalism?
Pol pot rejected liberalism by completely cutting off ties with this so called "old society." He planned to follow Mao Zedong's "Great Leap Forward." This was the idea of purification. Foreign influences caused a disruption in the purification, so to correct this one has to cut off ties with the world. Pol Pot eliminated foreign languages, medicine, and embassies. People became slaves, money was useless as inflation was high, and media companies no longer existed. Health care was revoked from citizens. Pol Pot eliminated the freedoms citizens have in a liberal society.