Soon after, following a Central Committee meeting, DK radio announced that Pol Pot had resigned as prime minister and had turned the job over to Khieu Samphan. Although the rationale for the changes was not announced, it seems likely that they responded to public relations imperatives. Having Pol Pot out in the open was a liability. Until 1997, after he had fallen from power, he granted no further interviews to the press. Efforts by journalists over the years to talk to him or to take his picture were unsuccessful. In 1990 an American television network, through Thai intermediaries, offered Pol Pot $300,000 for an interview. He refused.11

In a talk to some of his supporters in Phnom Malai in January 1981, however, Pol Pot seems to have dropped his guard for a moment. One of his supporters, interviewed later in the year, provided this account:

Pol Pot spoke as the representative of the military. He said that he knows that many people in the country hate him and think he’s responsible for the killings. He said that he knows many people died. When he said this he nearly broke down and cried. He said he must accept responsibility because the line was too far to the left, and because he didn’t keep proper track of what was going on. He said he was like the master in a house who didn’t know what the kids were up to, and that he trusted people too much. For example, he allowed [Chhim Samauk] to take care of central committee business for him, Savan to take care of intellectuals, and [Sao Phim] to take care of political education ... These were the people to whom he felt very close, and he trusted them completely. Then in the end ... they made a mess of everything ... They would tell him things that were not true, that everything was fine, but that this person or that was a traitor. In the end they were the real traitors. The major problem had been cadre formed by the Vietnamese.12