What year did pot pol claim it was?

Answer 1

Pol Pot claimed that his regime was taking his country back to 'Year Zero'. By this he meant that he was attempting to disregard all political, technological, social and cultural advances of the past few thousand years, and was trying to re-create human history all over again by going right back to square one. He did this because he wanted to bypass what he regarded as all the mistakes and errors that have been made as civilization has developed, and to 'try again' by making an 'ideal' society. It was a completely insane idea, carried out with appalling brutality, genocide and cruelty; it was also hypocritical, since his Khmer Rouge army used modern weapons that were themselves a product of the civilization he so discredited!