Pol Pot

“"Pol Pot Inside Evil" (2005)”

“Biography of Comrade Pol Pot, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (1978)”

“"Pol Pot remembered " by Elizabeth Becker, at BBC News (20 April 1998)”

“In April 1998 one of history's most reviled mass murderers died. This was a leader who showed his people no mercy. As ruler of Cambodia Pol Pot was responsible for killing 2 million people. That's a quarter of the country's population. During his four year reign Pol Pot tortured and starved the Cambodians to death. Men, women, children and babies were often brutally clubbed to death with hammers and buried alive. As the architect of a brutal social experiment driven by racial and political hatred Pol Pot's regime left behind a tragic legacy of misery and mass graves.”

“He was always a good husband. He tried his best to educate the children not to be traitors. Since I married him in 1985, I never saw him do a bad thing ... what I would like the world to know was that he was a good man, a patriot, a good father.”

“Dictators, perhaps because they know their own lies so well, have usually realized the power of history. Consequently, they have tried to rewrite, deny, or destroy the past. Robespierre in revolutionary France and Pol Pot in 1970s Cambodia each set out to start society from the beginning again. Robespierre’s new calendar and Pol Pot's Year Zero were designed to erase the past and its suggestions that there were alternative ways of organizing society.”

“Pol Pot makes a very powerful impression on those who hear him for the first time. After that, they want to come back... those who attend his seminars feel enlightened by his teaching, his explanations and his vision... he's like a father to us.”

“He said that he knows that many people in the country hate him so much and think he's responsible for the killings. He said that he knows many people died. When he said this he nearly broke down and cried. He said he must accept responsibility because the line was too far to the left, and because he didn't keep proper track of what was going on. He said he was like the master in a house he didn't know what the kids were up to, and that he trusted people too much.”

“I was responsible for everything so I accept responsibility and blame but show me, comrade, one document proving that I was personally responsible for the deaths.”

“We did not yet have laws or order. We were like children just learning to walk.”

“When I die, my only wish is that Cambodia remain Cambodia and belong to the West. It is over for communism, and I want to stress that.{{Failed verification|date=September 2018}}”

“Whoever wishes to blame or attack me is entitled to do so. I regret I didn't have enough experience to totally control the movement. On the other hand, with our constant struggle, this had to be done together with others in the communist world to stop Kampuchea becoming Vietnamese.{{Failed verification|date=September 2018}}”

“Tuol Sleng was a Vietnamese exhibition; a journalist wrote that. People talk about Tuol Sleng, Tuol Sleng, Tuol Sleng, but when we look at the pictures, the pictures are the same. When I first heard about Tuol Sleng, it was on VOA [Voice of America]. I listened twice.”

“There's what we did wrong and what we did right. The mistake is that we did some things against the people — by us and also by the enemy — but the other side, as I told you, is that without our struggle there would be no Cambodia right now.”

“First, I would like to tell you that I came to carry out the struggle, not to kill people. Even now, and you can look at me, am I savage person? My conscience is clear.”

“Everything I did, I did for my country.”

“The standard of the [[Russian Revolution|[Bolshevik] revolution]] of November 7, 1917, was raised very high, but Khrushchev pulled it down. The standard of Mao's [[Chinese Civil War|[Chinese] revolution]] of 1949 stands high until now, but it has faded and is wavering: it is no longer firm. The standard of the [Cambodian] revolution of April 17, 1975, raised by Comrade Pol Pot, is brilliant red, full of determination, wonderfully firm and wonderfully clear-sighted. The whole world admires us, sings our praises and learns from us.”

“Our policy was to provide an affluent life for the people. There were mistakes made in carrying it out. Several thousand people may have died.”

“We want only peace, to build up our country. World opinion is paying great attention to the threat against Democratic Kampuchea. They are anxious. They fear Kampuchea cannot oppose the Vietnamese. This could hurt the interests of the Southeast Asian countries and all of the world's countries.”

“Question 4: Why are your cities deserted today. Why have you abolished the role of money, the system of monthly wages, and the trade network? Answer (Pol Pot): We had to ask the people to go and live in the countryside in order to solve the food problem. … Staying in the cities meant starvation… As for the question of money … It is up to the people. If the people want to use money again, we will use money again. If they see that it is not necessary, it is up to them.”