From that point on Lon Nol's regime "rested on nothing more than [his] personal hold over the army" (Total 41). In 1972 after Sirik Matak resigned Lon Nol dissolved his cabinet and declared himself as Chief of State and Commander and Chief of the armed forces (Double 30). But Lon Nol's regime was "unable to withstand the Khmer Rouge rebel forces" (Encarta, "Lon Nol") and succumbed to Pol Pot's Communist Party of Kampuchea.
<Tab/>Pol Pot, a "smooth featured soft-spoken former school teacher" (Chandler 102) born Saloth Sar, was the man behind the massacre. Pol Pot first joined the communist movement when he was at school in Paris but upon failing out he returned to Cambodia to help establish a communist government there. It was in Paris that he met his soon to be conspirators Khieu Samphon and Hou Younn. Pol Pot worked his way up the political ladder in the "Worker's Party of Kampuchea (later renamed the Communist Party of Kampuchea, or CPK)" (Encarta, "Pol Pot"). In 1963 he along with Khieu Samphon established CPK rebel faction in the mountains. Khieu Samphon and Hou Younn were elected to government positions in the 1966 open election. They used their positions to extended their support without suspicion when Sihanouk was overthrown. "The past was officially forgotten" (Hello 38) and Sihanouk appointed Khieu Samphon as the Minister of Defense and Deputy Premier, and Hou Younn as the Minister of the Interior, Communal Reforms and Cooperatives (Sihanouk 46).…
