The Khmer Rouge was a powerful radical group of people who followed the communist ways and ruled Cambodia by fascism, radical military force, and a very strong family like chain of command to control Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge used many tactics to take over Cambodia from the original Cambodian government, including the United States sponsorship to start a civil war and kill around two million Cambodians, in what now matches up with only the Holocaust as one of the largest genocide's in the twentieth century. The Khmer Rouge era ended, reigned and started with their brutality against the Cambodian people.
The Khmer Rouge is infamous for their slaughter of almost two million Cambodians. They are also well known for the fact that since the genocide of the Cambodians, none of the members have been tried in court (Brunner 1). The Khmer Rouge controlled Cambodia for four hellish years. Pol Pot was the Khmer Rouge's first real leader. He organized the Khmer Rouge into taking over the Cambodian government by guerilla warfare and tactical political appointments to draw more people to the Khmer ways. Pol Pots real name was Saloth Sar. Pol Pot was his revolutionary name (Chandler 6). The reason behind him changing his name is not exactly known, although it was common to do so when coming to power and wanting to conceal your identity. In some cases it was even done to inspire the group of people you were leading such as Stalin meaning, "steel" (Brunner 1). Pol Pots name had no meaning behind it as far as scholars can tell. Pol Pots date of birth was believed to be May 25, 1928 (before he was identified as Saloth Sar), but there was another date that was also believed to be his birth date at the time. The reason for this uncertainty is because of his concealment of many things about his life. It took more than a year to identify him exactly as Saloth Sar (Chandler 8). Pol Pot was originally a teacher and the secretary of the Cambodian Communist party since 1960.