Tou Samouth

Tou Samouth, known reverently as 'Achar Sok', was born circa 1915 in Cochinchina. Ordained as a Buddhist monk at Wat Ounalom in Phnom Penh, he taught Pali before his temple was bombed by Allied air strikes in 1945, driving him into the anti-colonial resistance.

Samouth led the United Issarak Front fighting French colonial rule and in 1951 became the first General Secretary of the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party (precursor to the Communist Party of Kampuchea). Favoring rural nationalist mass mobilization over dogmatic terror, Samouth was abducted on July 20, 1962, by secret police under Lon Nol and executed; following his death, Saloth Sar (Pol Pot) seized party leadership.