24. The Southeast Asian Genocidaires
Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge was one of the twentieth century’s wackiest – and deadliest – extremist groups. They were led by Saloth Sar, better known to history as Pol Pot (1925 – 1998), a communist revolutionary who led his extremist followers into seizing power in 1975. The Khmer Rouge renamed the country Democratic Kampuchea, then transformed it into a nightmarish ideological tyranny, masterfully depicted in the 1984 movie, The Killing Fields.
During the Khmer Rouge’s years in power, about a quarter of Cambodia’s population was killed in a horrific genocide. The horror was made even worse by its irrationality. In an attempt at social engineering, Cambodian cities were evacuated, and the urban masses were forcibly converted into peasants toiling on poorly run collective farms. Roughly three million were murdered or starved to death before the nightmare ended when the Khmer Rouge were driven from power in 1979.