The World - News from Sept. 3, 1985

Pol Pot, the shadowy Cambodian dictator who led the nation during a reign of terror from 1975 to early 1979 in which as many as 1 million of his countrymen were killed, has been retired as military commander of the Communist Khmer Rouge, a broadcast by the rebel faction said. A Khmer Rouge statement cited a retirement age of 60 for “civil and military cadres.” However, Cambodian sources in Thailand speculated that there might have been a power struggle. Thai officials said Pol Pot’s removal could help the prospects for negotiations with the Vietnamese who occupy Cambodia by meeting Hanoi’s demand for his “elimination.”