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David P. Chandler

Brother Number One: A Political Biography Of Pol Pot

by David P Chandler (Author)

3.9 21 ratings

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In the tragic recent history of Cambodiaa past scarred by a long occupation by Vietnamese forces and by the preceding three-year reign of terror by the brutal Khmer Rougeno figure looms larger or more ominously than that of Pol Pot. As secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) since 1962 and as prime minister of Democratic Kampuchea (DK), he has been widely blamed for trying to destroy Cambodian society. By implementing policies whose effects were genocidal, he oversaw the deaths of more than one million of his nation's people.The political career of Saloth Sar (b. 1928), better known by his nom de guerre Pol Pot, forms a critical but largely inaccessible portion of twentieth-century Cambodian history. What we know about his life is sketchy: a comfortable childhood, three years of study in France, and a short career as a schoolteacher preceded several yearsspent mostly in hidingas a guerrilla and the commander of the victorious army in Cambodia's civil war. His career reached a climax when he and his associates, coming to power, attempted to transform their country along lines more radical than any attempted by a modern regime. Driven into hiding in 1979 by invading Vietnamese forces, Pol Pot maintained his leadership of a Khmer Rouge guerrilla army in exile, remaining a power and a threat. Even now, as the Khmer Rouge take their controversial place in the new coalition government, Pol Pot likely continues to be a hidden force.In this political biography, David P. Chandler throws light on the shadowy figure of Pol Pot. Basing his study on interviews and on a wide range of sources in English, Cambodian, and French, the author illuminates the ideas and behavior of this enigmatic man and his entourage against the background of postWorld War II events, providing a key to understanding this horrific, pivotal period of Cambodian history.

ISBN-10

0813309271
ISBN-13

978-0813309279
Publisher

Westview Press
Publication date

October 20, 1992
Language

English
Dimensions

6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
Print length

272 pages
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3.9 out of 5

21 global ratings

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Savanna Khet

One Star

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2017

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It's hard to believe that a-five-year-old can remember that much!

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Brian

Excellent, Exhaustive...Exhausting... More of an academic thesis than a work for the laity

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2008

Very detailed extrapolation/speculation about the political maneuverings in the highest level of government during the nightmarish reign of the Khmer Rouge (1974-79). The problem is that Cambodia was so insular at that time, and so few top-level leaders survived the numerous purges, that most of this book is by necessity a painstaking reconstruction from source documents. I don't doubt that the field needs a book like this... but rigorous academic works such as this tend by nature to be slow and dry reading for the lay public. It is a fascinating, morbid, horrible chapter in human history, and very relevant to current politics, especially if you are sympathetic to the view that Pol Pot's reign may have been a sponsored experiment of oligarchical collectivists who continue to hold sway in the World Bank and IMF today.
I gave it four stars as a compromise: I would say it deserves 5 stars if you have a professional interest in the subject, but if you are a tourist reading up on the country, or somebody who is just kind of curious and wondering why there was a genocide in Cambodia, I would give it three stars, and recommend you start with lighter fare.

3 people found this helpful

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An early work

Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2006

This is an early, perhaps one of the first full length, biographies of Pl Pot, the man who lead the Cambodian genocide. A prodigy of a middle class family he went to France where he became a radical communist and journeyed back with other Cambodians he had met where the led a long revolution against the government of Cambodia that lasted from 1965-1975. Upon gaining power they emptied the cities and some 2 million of an overall population of only 8 million, died in Cambodia. He suppressed and committed genocide against the Muslim Chams of Cambodia and he deported and murdered almost a quarter of a million Vietnamese. Despite the fact that he also destroyed the Chinese community of Cambodia he was supported by China. In 1976 the Vietnamese invaded and Pol Pot fled into the mountains. He and his movement, the Khmer Rouge, survived up until 2003. This book is therefore outdated but well written. Only two journalists, both of whome supported the genocide, were in Cambodia during the war and therefore there was little knowledge at the time.

Seth J. Frantzman

3 people found this helpful

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Luc REYNAERT

The way to make friends is not to kill people

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2003

Prof. Chandler discovered the real face behind Pol Pot (Saloth Sar), the initially enigmatic leader of the Red Khmer in Cambodia. He wrote a hallucinatory and tragic biography.
The background of Pol Pot is common for many Communist Party (CP) members. He was recruited by the local CP when he studied in a foreign country. For Pol Pot, it was in France where the CP was totally controlled by the USSR and her Stalinist doctrine. The USSR recruited foreign members everywhere in order to use them as antennas all over the world.
When Pol Pot took power in Cambodia, he applied the Stalinist doctrine ruthlessly.
The similarities with Stalin are eminently striking: power struggle at the top of the party and liquidation of the old fellows, savage party purges, murderous goulags, indiscriminate collectivization, ethnic cleansing, deportation, show trials, forced confessions under torture, affectionate with little daughter, considering as enemies of the State those Khmer who came from a foreign country, fear of assassination, suspicious, dictatorial (didn't accept the slightest form of criticism).
Under Pol Pot, it went even so far that people who 'knew' an enemy where executed. The result: a genocide. Even children and BABIES were put to death.
David Chandler shows us that Pol Pot was really a dedicated communist, a party man, an organization man, a utopian thinker who believed in his killer's utopia till the end: "I did everything for my country".
A blatant lie: he did it only for his Khmer country and only for those Khmer who (were forced to) agree(d) with him. In other words, his utopia was more than nationalism, it was racism. For Pol Pot knew that 'Class and hatred had produced the victory. So hatred had to be maintained'.
This book contains excellent explanations of the background of the Cambodian conflict with Vietnam, and how Cambodia became a chess piece in a world conflict between the US, China and the USSR. Pol Pot's regime was supported by the US, because Cambodia was an enemy of Vietnam, who was an ally of the USSR.
This book stresses also the disastrous role of the feudalist king Norodom Sihanouk and the decisive influence of the US bombings of Cambodia, which turned part of the Khmer peasantry in favour of the Red Khmer.
Pol Pot's regime is a shame for Western intelligentsia, because some of his cronies (Khieu Samphan) studied like Pol Pot at Western universities.
This terrible biography is a reminder of the deadly dangers of utopian doctrines, if they can be implemented by a totally convinced individual who possesses a dictatorial power in a single ountry. As David Chandler states: the genocide would have continued, if Pol Pot had stayed in power.
A must read.

11 people found this helpful

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John Creech

No detail left aside

Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2012

This book could only be written by a person who possessed the determination to hunt for elusive details of Pol Pot's life. The book makes a fascinating study of what may have influenced the genocidal leader's decision making and how he obtained this position of power. Pol Pot is very different from the iconic mad men like Mao Tse Tung, or Joseph Stalin, but it is from their revolutions that he was inspired. The book is part sky view of the political landscape and part dissection of Pol Pot's mind from what evidence he has left. It is like putting together the pieces of a crime scene that happens to be an entire country with over 1 million dead victims.

2 people found this helpful

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Steve

A construct of conspiratorial proportion.

Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2014

It's hard work, not like reading a t shirt.

I got stuck on the disappearance of Lon Nol, until I realised it was an editorial in one print and a cross eyed reread in another.
Strange how a history book can create a zombi president then produce a stupid mistake to surprise no one left.

Much preferred the movie.

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bibliobiblio

Strictly for the Student of Cambodia.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 21, 2007

Verified Purchase

This book is a difficult read. So much is unknown about Pol Pot. The author cannot uncover where Pol Pot was for much of his life, so I found the biographical part of the book patchy.

The book is definitely not for those with a passing interest in Pol Pot or Cambodia. This book is strictly for the student of this man, and the chaos that engulfed this part of the world during his lifetime.

Readers who have a passing interest in the man, and this period in history, should seek a general book on the subjects.

5 people found this helpful

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