ABSTRACT
Most studies of the Khmer Rouge have concentrated on their rise, or their period in power. There has been little scholarly attention focused on the movement since it fell from power in early 1979, except as a “problem” in the larger polity and the UN peace process of the early 1990s. This chapter outlines the history of the movement over this period, and identifies the reasons for its rebirth in the 1980s and its final collapse in the 1990s. The way in which the movement collapsed was shaped by the Stalinist outlook and behaviour of the leadership, and had significant parallels with the self-destruction of the Democratic Kampuchea regime of 1975-1979. Khmer Rouge officials began referring to the ruling entity in their zones as the Party of Democratic Kampuchea. China, the US and ASEAN forced Cambodia’s non-Communist groups to join with the Khmer Rouge in a government-in-exile created in 1981, the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea.
