Talk:Pol Pot

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[edit] Info from Zbigniew Brzezinski

The article on Zbigniew Brzezinski gives the following information, which seems to be missing from this article. Can it be included?

In 1981 Brzezinski revealed that he encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot. This was part of a wider policy of forcing the Vietnamese out of Cambodia by funding anti-Vietnamese guerrilla groups that the U.S. helped create.[1] Between 1979 and 1981, the World Food Program, which was strongly under US influence, provides nearly $12 million in food aid to Thailand. Much of this aid makes its way to the Khmer Rouge.[2] In January 1980 the US started funding Pol Pot while he was in exile. The extent of this support was $85m from 1980 to 1986.[3] Brzezinski's support of the Khmer Rouge was a continuation of the friendly relations the US had with the Khmer Rouge during the presidency of Gerald Ford. Kissinger had already asked Thailand's foreign minister in 1975 to tell the Khmer Rouge that the US would be friends with them.[4] Brzezinski himself however denied that his administation helped China fund Pol Pot in a letter he sent to the New York Times in 1998.[5]

- TheMightyQuill (talk) 21:42, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Pictures

Obviously not in support of Pol Pot, but I wondered if this article is POV in the picture portrayal. It shows his basic picture, then Khmer Rouge victims' skulls (while certainly relevant and tragic) and then the man himself dead. But that is all the article shows. I don't even see why a death picture is necessary - sure he was tyrant dictator, POV perhaps, but there must be more pictures added to neutralize the article. I would put a non-neutrality template on the page, but probably better to just discuss it here first ~ GoldenGoose100 (talk) 15:24, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

It looks like the first portrait is labelled as fair use, so there is clearly a shortage of PD images. If you can find some, that would be great. - TheMightyQuill (talk) 16:23, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
Photos of Pol Pot are extremely rare. A bit of background reading is necessary to understand why. Many "intelectual" liberals refuse to critize socialist or communist governments because they admire them as the utopian ideal form of government. Most decline, or are reluctant, to criticize those communist regimes which have failed most terribly, and which resulted in the murders of millions of people. There are some contributors and editors here who prefer to gloss over the atrocities and mass murders commited by Pol Pot and his Khmer rouge comrades and cadre in the name of political change. Some attempt to revise their own perspective of history here. Knowledge is power. It is always better for the sake of historical accuracy and understanding our world to tell it like it is (or was). Dr. B. R. Lang (talk) 14:02, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
That's funny, your little rant about liberals didn't contribute at all to my understanding of why photos of Pol Pot are so rare. Perhaps he was too busy killing people to sit for a portrait? Considering the original request for more pictures was made because, visually, the article focuses mostly on his atrocities (whereas, Hitler's article has no photos of Auschwitz), I doubt the "evil liberal historical revisionists" have taken control yet... - TheMightyQuill (talk) 14:37, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
The political administration of Cambodia under the Khmer rouge began by removing the citizenry from and abandoning the capital city of the counry. Virtually all individuals who were educated, those who spoke a second language, and even those who wore corrective lenses were summarily executed and dumped in mass graves known as Killing fields. We'll have to work together really hard to find photographs from that period of history. Thanks for your interest and contributions to this effort. Dr. B. R. Lang (talk) 18:44, 10 June 2008 (UTC)