Pol Pot

A gripping and definitive portrait of the man who headed one of the most enigmatic and terrifying regimes of modern times

Pol Pot was the architect of a revolution, the radical egalitarianism of which exceeded any other in history. His vision of utopia was enforced by a reign of terror in which a fifth of Cambodia's population - more than a million people - perished. A supposedly gentle, carefree land of slumbering temples and smiling peasants became a concentration camp of the mind, a lave state where absolute obedience was enforced on the killing fields.

Why did it happen? How did an idealistic dream of justice and prosperity mutate into one of humanity's worst nightmares? Here, the former Khmer Rogue Head of State, Pol's brother-in-law and scores of others speak for the first time at length about their beliefs and motives. But Pol Pot and his cohorts did not act alone. The West - and above all the US, through its role in the Vietnam War - must share responsibility for a disaster, the horrors of which bear disturbing parallels with other tragedies unfolding today. (back cover)