In 1960, Saloth Sar — better known as Pol Pot — formed the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Pol Pot looked at Mao Zedong and China’s Cultural Revolution as inspiration. The Khmer leader was both a fanatic and a nationalist. He wanted to remake society and purge it of Western influence. He also harbored deep racial and religious hatred toward both Thailand and Vietnam.

When the Khmer Rouge seized power, they began a campaign of terrorism that claimed more than 1 million lives, nearly 25% of the country’s population. Even at the height of the Khmer Rouge’s slaughter, progressive groups and Western academics denied the atrocities, sought to rationalize them, or even blamed the West for creating the conditions and the ideological atmosphere in which the Khmer Rouge operated.