I’ve seen some communists support him and I cant understand why. Was he a communist? I really know next to nothing about him other than the killing fields(overview) and that Vietnam invaded them. That second part makes me doubt he was a communist but I want to know more and was wondering if anyone could give me some reading recommendations on the subject or just give me an overview that would be much appreciated.
Do you have anything I can read from a Marxist source to get a better understanding of Cambodia at the time? It seems like a very complicated situation especially given chinas support for them and I want to learn more.
I didn’t read anything from a Marxist source tbh, I think what you can find from liberal sources is not bad since Khmer Rouge was fucking stupid and so they didn’t need to make up a ton of propaganda and lie about how bad this “communist” state was
Also it’s only complicated if you assume China’s foreign policy at the time was logical and well thought out (it wasn’t). Afaik they backed Pol Pot mostly because the ClA was backing him, China was allying with the US at the time against USSR post Sino-Soviet split, and Vietnam was allied with USSR
Do you have a source for the CIA backing Pol Pot that sounds like an interesting read? And that clears up a good bit regarding chinas support. So they basically supported them as a way to combat the USSR influence in the region after the Sino-Soviet split. Is that about right?
https://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/16/who-supported-the-khmer-rouge/
Actually they (and the USA) supported Cambodia to counter Vietnamese influence in the region. China wanted to do that because Vietnam was allied with USSR and USA wanted to do that because Vietnam is socialist