ABSTRACT
Born in 1926, Keo Meas devoted his entire life to the Cambodian Communist movement. And like many revolutionaries, his initial foray into Communism came via his desire to liberate his homeland from colonial domination. Soon after the Second World War, at the age of 15, Meas dropped out of his teacher training courses at the Phnom Penh Teacher Training College to join a Khmer Viet Minh group in Svay Rieng province. In 1950 he was one of only 21 Cambodian members of Ho Chi Minh’s Indochinese Communist Party (ICP). Having proven himself, he was appointed Commissar of the Action Committee for Phnom Penh, and in 1952 he traveled to Beijing. He was the first Khmer to meet Chairman Mao Zedong.
