Who supported Pol Pot?

Answer 1

Pol Pot ( Saloth Sat ) was supported by Mao Zedong in China. His Red Khmer took power in April 1975 during the fall of South Vietnam, the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Kingdom of Laos. Pol Pot and his revolutionaries were greeted by many Cambodians who had enough of the ruling monarchy!

Mao Zedong in China knew that Pol Pot was a support of his agrarian based Stalinist ideology. Also Pol Pot stood in opposition to Moscow based Stalinism. United Vietnam was based on Soviet Stalinism and this strengthen his hatred for Vietnamese. The Red Khmer were also nationalists and Khmer supremacists.

By 1978 they had killed thousands of Vietnamese peasants and more then 1,3 million of their own people. Vietnam invaded Cambodia in December 1978 and forced Pol Pot into the jungle.

But because of the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, Pol Pot found new allies. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher opposed the ''Socialist'' Republic of Vietnam and they choose to support the Red Khmer. Pol Pot made a coalition with Khmer monarchists to fight the People's Republic of Kampuchea. In the UN, the USA and British made sure that only Pol Pot's flag was allowed to fly. Until 1993 the seat of Cambodia in the UN was taken by a Pol Pot supporter.

The main supporters of Pol Pot until 1993 were

- Mao Zedong ( until 1976 )
- Ronald Reagan
- Margaret Thatcher