ABSTRACT
In early 1979 and for the first time since the 1950s, Cambodia was controlled by a foreign power. Almost immediately after capturing Phnom Penh, the Vietnamese helped their Cambodian proteges establish the People's Republic of Kampuchea. Its leading officials were Democratic Kampuchea (DK) military officers who had defected to Vietnam in 1978, Cambodians who had lived in Vietnam since the 1950s, and members of ethnic minorities untainted by service to DK. Vietnamese forces pursued DK armed remnants into the northwest, civil authorities did nothing to prevent this less-organized movement of people or the informal revival of trade. China and other powers, faced with the task of improving DK's image while continuing to punish Vietnam, began pressuring Prince Norodom Sihanouk to return to political life. Before 1979 it was difficult for any Cambodian government to contemplate an alliance with Vietnam. The friendship cobbled together by Sihanouk and the Vietnamese Communists collapsed as soon as Sihanouk was overthrown.
