Communism & Cambodia
http://www.foia.cia.gov/CPE/ESAU/esau-53.pdf.
Son Ngoc Minh was not Khmer, he was a Vietnamese spy.
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The Viet Cong knew of the split developing in the Cambodian government, and viewed with dismay the growing strength of the "right-wing clique." Therefore Sihanouk's overthrow on 18 March 1970, although startling perhaps in the immediate sense, was not for the Communists a
strategic surprise . Within a few days of the Prince's fall , COSVN had activated its contingency plans, and was distributing detailed marching orders to its subordinate commands
COSVN's orders had four main parts .
First , Vietnamese Communist regulars were to invade Cambodia.
Second, the Khmer Communist Party, Army, and political apparatus were to be expanded as rapidly as possible . Third, the Vietnamese Communists were to supply the
Cambodian Communists with large numbers of advisors.
Finally , a countrywide command structure was to be perfected from national through hamlet levels. The Vietnamese Communist invasion of Cambodia began in early April 1970. Simultaneously, Muoi Cuc, who had been head or deputy head of COSVN since 1954, became the Viet Cong's chief advisor to the Khmer Communists. By mid-summer, according to enemy statistics, the Communists claimed to control some two-and-a-half million of Cambodia's seven million people. ................