I Am Pol Pot is the book for those who want to know what it was like INSIDE the leadership of the Khmer Rouge

By SJ Otto

It was in August of 2011 that I finished writing and published my book I Am Pol Pot. We all know that Pol Pot is not considered a hero by many people in the world today. According to most Marxists he is discredited and accused of miss-rule. Still, for years I have found this man interesting and his short lived government was known for its many strange attempts to rule.

Unlike most governments in Asia, he originally avoided building a personality cult. For the fist two years of his rule, most of his subjects didn't know his name. It was after those years that some of his allies, such as Kim Il Sung, of North (Democratic People's Republic of) Korea, finally convinced him to create a leadership cult of personality. He did too little too late. His popularity never went that far up.

Few government had ever tried to do what he did. He ran the country through the nameless, faceless Angkar Padévoat, usually just referred to as the Angkar. The country had no mass newspaper for the people. They communicated through radio. The Communist Party of Kampuchea had newspaper that only went to the upper party members. The writings of Pol Pot were mixed in with other party members most of the time. So there were no official books by the countries leadership, as is usually the case in such countries as North Korea or China.

We all have heard about the millions of people killed during that government, but my book is designed to take a look inside the leadership of Democratic Kampuchea (the official Khmer Rouge name for the country). The Khmer Rouge were officially known as the Communist Party of Kampuchea, until they were overthrown in 1979. They were called the Party of Democratic Kampuchea after they fell from power.  

My book is based on several historical accounts, from various sources and a look at Democratic Kampuchea's own documents. There are also excerpts from the regimes official "sayings of Kampuchea." This book is a fiction reenactment of events leading up to the Kampuchean revolution and reenactments of events during the reign of Democratic Kampuchea.

Plenty of books have been written about WHAT THEY DID. My book lets the reader know WHY THEY DID WHAT THEY DID.  

This book, I Am Pol Pot is available at Barns and Noble. It can be purchased as an e-book. It can also be bought as a paperback at Amazon.

This is your opportunity to learn about the internal workings of the Khmer Rouge and Democratic Kampuchea.