Intelligent Report "Communism and Cambodia"
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Intelligence Report
Summary
The story of Communism in Cambodia began in 1945, when a group of Cambodian patriots , called the Khmer Issaraks, took to the hills to start a rebellion against the French. Within two years, they were in contact with the Communist Viet Minh in neighboring Vietnam. In short
order, the Viet Minh attempted to take over the Khmer independence movement. Their effort
split the rebels in two. One faction consisted of the old Khmer Issaraks. The other became the Khmer Viet Minh, controlled by the Indo-China Communist Party under the direction of Ho Chi Minh.
By 1950, the Communists had set up a Central Office of Cambodia, located in the southwestern province of Kampot. Although the Office was under the titular leadership of a Khmer with the alias Son Ngoc Minh, Vietnamese advisors actually ran it. They reported to Nam Bo ( the "Southern Departpent") ,an early version of today's Central Office of South Vietnam (COSVN).
In late 1950 Ho Chi Minh dissolved the Indo-China Communist Party, which supposedly encompassed Laos and Cambodia as well as Vietnam. Early the next year he formed the Vietnamese Lao Dong Party, with the understanding that the other two countries would get
their own parties shortly there after . Despite frequent attempts, the Viet Minh were unable to
get a Cambodian Party going for several years.
Meanwhile the Viet Minh effort in Cambodia ran into heavy weather. The root of their problem was threefold. First , they gave Cambodia their lowest priority . ...
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PART 111: THE QUIET YEARS (1954-1959)
Sihanouk Takes Hold
King Sihanouk emerged from Geneva a national hero. His diplomats had outmaneuvered the cold warriors of East and West. The royal claim to have won independence was now indisputable. So he got on with the job of consolidating power. The disarray of the opposition made his task simpler. With the French gone, Son Ngoc Thanh found himsexf in
the northwestern wilderness, a rebel without a cause. On his return to Phnom Penh under an amnesty granted after the Accords, Thanh demanded an audience with Sihanouk,
but received instead a contemptuous rebuff. "You would not serve His Majesty The King at the critical hour when he was accomplishing his royal mission," Sihanouk said loftily, and left Thanh
to his own devices. Thanh became an inveterate schemer. Son Ngoc Minh went to Hanoi. Although five days after the breakup of the Genev.; Conference Minh had proclaimed
that the "political struggle was about to begin, '' he left the dirty work to cadres staying behind, poorly organized .and few in number. Another Cambodian Communist leader, Hou Youn, was still in Paris superintending Khmer students for the French Communist Party.*
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Sihanouk decided, in early 1955 to put his popularity to the test, and called a nationwide referendum on his policies of the t w o previous years. He won 99% of the vote. Shortly there
after, he abdicated as king, took on the title of,"Prince," and formed his own political group, the Sangkum, to compete in elections due in September.
In July, the Communists announced the formation of a political front to take part in the elections. They named it the Pracheachon ("People's") Group. Running on a strong anti-Communist platform, the Sangkum won in a landslide, with 82% of the vote. Despite (or perhaps because of) strong propaganda support from Hanoi, the Pracheachon Group got only 4%, mostly from the Chinese and Vietnamese minorities. A third party, the Democratic,
got the remaining twelve percent. The Pracheachon Group never recovered' from its
September drubbing. Although Hou Youn returned from Paris in 1956 to become the Group's leader, it failed to catch fire among ethnic Khmers.
By 1958, its fortunes had sunk so low that its candidates withdrew from scheduled
elections. Apparently on the theory that Hou Youn was more dangerous as an out than an-in, Sihanouk admitted him in to the Sangkum Party in 1958 and put him in the cabinet.
There he carped and schemed in various roles through the early sixties, all the while maintaining a discreet liaison with Vietnamese Communists in Phnom Penh. A recent report alleges that his principal contact was a North Vietnamese newspaperman who in reality was a case officer for Hanoi's Ministry of Public Security.*
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* Hou Youn dropped out of sight in 1967. A number of reports state he is now with the rebels.
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