The Khmer Rouge's New Vanguard: How Pol Pot Took Over

In July 1962, the secretary of the Cambodian communist party, Tuo Samouth, left his house in Phnom Penh at night and never came back. Nobody has ever established with certainty who killed him. What is certain is who replaced him.

Time Period Covered: 1960 to 1963

How did Pol Pot become leader of the Khmer Rouge? What did prominent communists like Khieu Samphan do in Sihanouk's Cambodia? Were there limits to Sihanouk's power and tightrope act?

We begin with a reflection on how Cambodian history can permeate even seemingly mundane spaces, before looking in on a secret communist seminar led by the new leader of the Khmer Rouge. This episode revisits some loose ends left as the Cambodian communists began taking their own steps toward a movement independent of the Vietnamese, as well as how the roles in that party began taking shape. We learn about the mysterious death of Tuo Samouth, and the circumstances that precede the vitally important year of 1963.

Sources

Philip Short Pol Pot: History of a Nightmare
David Chandler The Tragedy of Cambodian History, Brother Number One, A History of Cambodia
Ben Kiernan How Pol Pot Came to Power
Milton Osbourne Sihanouk
Elizabeth Becker When the War was Over
Norodom Sihanouk My War with the CIA

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