Abridged from Andy Carvin's excellent site, "From Sideshow to Genocide: Stories of the Cambodian Holocaust"

2. Independence, and the Beginnings of War in Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh

At the conclusion of World War II, the French reasserted themselves into Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam's Cochin China, largely with the hopes of molding a new Indochina run by pro-French democratic constitutions. In northern Vietnam, though, Ho Chi Minh, nationalist leader of the communist guerrilla force known as the Viet-Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh (League for the Independence of Vietnam, or Viet Minh for short), refused to allow Bao Dai and his French-supported monarchy to run the nation's affairs. On August 2, 1945 - before the allies could stop him - Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh forces entered Hanoi, declaring the birth of a new Vietnamese state. The French, needless to say, did not accept Ho's authority; with the help of British troops they eventually forced Ho to sign a truce in 1946. The truce, though, did not hold for long. In 1947, the French chased Ho Chi Minh and his supporters out of Hanoi. The Viet Minh regrouped in the bush and began a war of attrition against the French.

Meanwhile in Cambodia, as the Japanese withdrew, King Sihanouk appointed Son Ngoc Thanh as prime minister. Sihanouk hated Son but he recognized that his political rival would bear the brunt of French retribution because of his new official government position. As expected, Son was eventually arrested by the allies and exiled. King Sihanouk now focused his efforts on negotiating independence from the French and expanding his own authority. The French granted Cambodia significant autonomy in 1949, though the economy and the military were still in the hands of the colonists.

Because of France's long-standing influence in Cambodia, certain young middle-class Cambodians were fortunate enough to receive scholarships for study in Paris. During the late 40s and early 50s, many of these students became enamored with left-wing French intellectualism, preferring to spend more time on private political gatherings than on their homework. Among these student activists, a handful of them joined the French communist party, including four young men with strong anti-colonial and socialist leanings - Son Sen, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Saloth Sar, who would later be known as Pol Pot. Saloth Sar, who came to France to study radio electronics, eventually flunked out of his scholarship because of his excessive time spent on politics. Khieu Samphan, on the other hand, was scholarly to the point of being obsessive; in 1959 he wrote a dissertation arguing for an agrarian collectivist society as an end to traditional Cambodian feudalism and class structure. For these four particular students and their friends, this time spent in France planted the ideological seeds that would later destroy their homeland.

In February 1953, Norodom Sihanouk traveled to France and demanded complete Cambodian sovereignty. When the French ignored his requests (to no one's surprise), Sihanouk hit the road, visiting Europe and the United States and lambasting the French. The French, who were losing the war with Ho Chi Minh's forces, were in no position to stop Sihanouk's antics, so in October they allowed the king to declare Cambodia's independence.

France suffered its greatest Indochina defeat with the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, when besieged French troops were decimated in the far northwest of North Vietnam over the course of 55 days of bombardment. In what the world hoped would be a final settlement to the Indochina conflict, Geneva played host to peace accords in May 1954, just as the Dien Bien Phu siege was coming to an end. At the July conclusion of the accords, Vietnam was recognized as two separate, sovereign governments: a communist North Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh, and a pro-French South Vietnam led by prime minister Ngo Dinh Diem, who had been appointed by emperor Bao Dai. The Geneva accords also proclaimed that Laos and Cambodia would be guaranteed their right to remain neutral, nonaligned nations.

The accords also scheduled Cambodia's first national democratic elections. King Sihanouk stunned the world and abdicated the throne, giving the crown to his father, Prince Suramarit. By relinquishing his claim to the monarchy, Prince Sihanouk (as he was now known) was free to pursue his political aspirations and run for office. There was a high likelihood of him winning the election given his popularity among the masses - his face was one of the only recognizable faces on the ballot for many rural Cambodians.

Sihanouk created his own political movement, Sangkum Reastr Niyum (People's Socialist Community), which was a severe blow to the three major opposition parties, including the so-called Liberals, a conservative group made up of landowners and business leaders; the Democrats, left-wing activists who supported a modern, French-style republic; and the Pracheachon, a pro-communist party made up of monks, teachers, and French-educated intellectuals. Many Cambodians, especially the Liberals and Democrats, quickly joined the Sangkum, abandoning their former parties in the fear of appearing to be against this burgeoning national movement.

In 1955, Prince Sihanouk was elected the Cambodian head of state. By 1963, his overwhelming authority and strong-arm tactics had purged much of the opposition out of politics, causing some of the Pracheachon politicians and their communist supporters to flee into the Cambodian wilderness. Among these exiles were Son Sen, Ieng Sary and Saloth Sar, who had returned to Cambodia from France to become active members of a secretive communist movement initially supported by North Vietnam. Though none of the three men openly participated in public politics, they feared their subversive communist activities had been compromised when their names were published on a list of "34 subversives" compiled by the Sihanouk government. The three soon escaped into the wilderness of eastern Cambodia and vanished. Sihanouk later labeled these oppositionists as "Red Khmers" - or in French, les Khmer Rouges.

1. The Fall of Angkor and French Colonialism
2. Independence, and the Beginnings of War in Vietnam
3. The War Comes to Cambodia
4. US Involvement in Cambodia
5. The Coming of the Khmer Rouge
6. Cambodia Under Pol Pot
7. The Vietnamese Invasion
8. Rebuilding Cambodia