The New Generation in Kampuchea

Despite this, genuine Kampuchean communism did arise. This was primarily because of two major developments in the fifties. The first was the Geneva Conference on Indochina in 1954. Here the Cambodian communists suffered a reversal as they were "left out in the cold" by the Vietnamese in the general struggle against the French. The Cambodian communists were forced either to retreat to Vietnam, or, the ones who wanted to continue the struggle, go underground.

The second factor was the new generation of left wing intellectuals, many of whom had been educated in France in the forties and fifties. These included Khieu Samphan, Head of State for Democratic Kampuchea, Pol Pot, Prime Minister, leng Sary and Son Sen, both Deputy Prime Ministers.

These men were to make up the core of the new Communist Party of Kampuchea which was formed on the 27 September 1960, and which from its beginnings adopted a very independent stance, especially in relation to the Vietnamese.