Pol Pot was always fearful of assassination. When he addressed party gatherings, those attending were strip-searched before going into his presence. Pol Pot was frequently ill, and recurring gastric problems led him to think his cooks were trying to poison him. He probably spent much of his time, as he had always done, reviewing files and talking with his close associates. Out of his depth, with an entire country to manage, he must have worked into the night to get on top of dossiers assembled for him at S-21 and flowing up from the various ministries and zones. These provided his vision of the world—with Cambodia surrounded by enemies and the country itself seen as concentric circles with the party leadership at the center.

In late 1976 Khieu Ponnary and Khieu Thirith’s mother arrived in Cambodia from France. Her daughters failed to visit her for two months, although Thirith sent her children to see their grandmother, who, like Nuon Chea’s mother, disliked the revolution and resented its attacks on family life. When Thirith and Ponnary’s nonrevolutionary sister, Thirath—also a former schoolteacher—died of illness in early 1977, Thirith thought she had been killed and demanded an investigation. Thirith and Son Sen’s wife, Yun Yat, had minor posts in the government, as did Ieng Sary’s children and some of his cousins-in-law. Yun Yat, along with only half a dozen high-ranking officials, had access to confessions from S-21. Khieu Ponnary, on the other hand, held no official positions and seems to have been ill much of the time. At one meeting in 1978, when she was assisted onto the dais, she was cheered by those attending as the “mother of the revolution” (me padevat). After that, she disappeared from view. It was widely believed that she had become insane. The effects of this illness and of her absence on Pol Pot are impossible to assess.37

War with Vietnam

As we have seen, clashes with Vietnamese forces had followed the Red Khmer’s seizure of power in 1975. Islands had been occupied and recaptured by both sides, and Vietnamese troops were slow to withdraw from Cambodian territory, particularly in the northeast. At the heart of these disputes lay wounded Cambodian pride, suspicions of Vietnamese patronage, and disagreement over the sea border between the two countries. The last component was crucial, since sizable petroleum deposits were known to exist offshore. The Cambodians wanted the Vietnamese to honor the agreements they had made with Sihanouk in the 1960s concerning Cambodia’s “existing frontiers.” The Vietnamese, however, were no longer willing to do this because “new phenomena” (the petroleum deposits) had overtaken their promises. The Cambodians saw this response as a betrayal and refused to negotiate.