Observing Pol Pot at close quarters during the one and only official visit he ever made abroad, to China in 1975, Philip Short was struck by the Cambodian leader's charm and charisma. Yet Pol Pot's utopian experiments in social engineering would result in the death of one in every five Cambodians--more than a million people. How did an idealistic dream of justice and prosperity mutate into one of humanity's worst nightmares? To answer these questions, Short traveled through Cambodia, interviewing former Khmer Rouge leaders and sifting through previously closed archives around the world. Key figures, including Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary, Pol's brother-in-law and foreign minister, speak here for the first time. -- Publisher description.

"A John Macrae book."

Acknowledgments -- List of illustrations -- Note on pronunciation -- Maps -- Sar --- City of light --- Initiation to the Maquis --- Cambodian realities --- Germinal --- Sudden death of reason --- Fires of purgation --- Men in black --- Future perfect --- Model for the world --- Stalin's microbes -- Utopia disbound -- Afterword -- Dramatis personae -- Notes and sources -- Index.