Cambodia - Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Northern Thailand - page 562

In 1907 the French pressured Thailand into returning the northwest provinces of Bat-
tambang, Siem Reap and Sisophon, bringing Angkor under Cambodian control for the
first time in more than a century.
Led by King Norodom Sihanouk (r 1941-55 and 1993-2004), Cambodia declared inde-
pendence on 9 November 1953.
Independence & Civil War
The period after 1953 was one of peace and prosperity, and a time of creativity and optim-
ism. Dark clouds were circling, however, as the war in Vietnam began sucking in neigh-
bouring countries. As the 1960s drew to a close, the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong
were using Cambodian territory in their battle against South Vietnam and US forces,
prompting devastating American bombing and a land invasion into eastern Cambodia.
In March 1970, Sihanouk, now serving as prime minister, was overthrown by General
Lon Nol, and took up residence in Beijing. Here he set up a government-in-exile that al-
lied itself with an indigenous Cambodian revolutionary movement that Sihanouk had
dubbed the Khmer Rouge. This was a defining moment in contemporary Cambodian his-
tory: talk to many former Khmer Rouge fighters and they all say that they 'went to the
hills' to fight for their monarch and knew nothing of Marxism or Mao.
Khmer Rouge Rule
Upon taking Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975 - two weeks before the fall of Saigon - the
Khmer Rouge implemented one of the most radical and brutal restructurings of a society
ever attempted. Its goal was to transform Cambodia - renamed Democratic Kampuchea -
into a giant peasant-dominated agrarian cooperative, untainted by anything that had come
before. Within days, the entire populations of Phnom Penh and provincial towns, includ-
ing the sick, elderly and infirm, were forced to march into the countryside and work as
slaves for 12 to 15 hours a day. Intellectuals were systematically wiped out - having
glasses or speaking a foreign language was reason enough to be killed. The advent of Kh-
mer Rouge rule was proclaimed Year Zero.
Leading the Khmer Rouge was Saloth Sar, better known as Pol Pot. As a young man,
he won a scholarship to study in Paris, where he began developing the radical Marxist
ideas that later metamorphosed into extreme Maoism. Under his rule, Cambodia became a