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Pol Pot's Real Name: Saloth Sar
Pol Pot's real name was Saloth Sar.
Pol Pot, leader of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime, was born Saloth Sar in Kampong Thom province, Cambodia. His birth year is disputed. Most references, including Britannica, the BBC and Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal (ECCC), give May 19, 1925; other records give 1928. His surviving siblings told the New York Times in 1997 that he was born in 1925, and Pol Pot told journalist Nate Thayer the same year that he had altered dates in documents to keep a scholarship to study in France.
He studied in Paris from 1949, joined communist circles there and returned to Cambodia in 1953. By 1963 he had adopted the revolutionary pseudonym Pol Pot.
Under Khmer Rouge rule from 1975 to 1979, an estimated 1.5 million to 3 million Cambodians died from execution, forced labor, starvation and disease. Vietnam ousted the regime in 1979. Pol Pot died in 1998 under house arrest by his former comrades.
FAQ
When was Pol Pot born?
It is disputed: most sources say May 19, 1925, while some records say 1928.
When did Saloth Sar start using the name Pol Pot?
By 1963, according to Britannica.