ABSTRACT
In 1975, the Communist Khmer Rouge achieved victory in its revolutionary war against the US-supported government of Lon Nol. Declaring a new state—the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea—the Khmer Rouge sought to totally restructure Cambodian society by eliminating all "modern" elements. The history of the Cambodian people—the Khmers—goes back to the ancient kingdom of Funan, which occupied the area that is Cambodia, southern Laos, Malaya, South Vietnam, and parts of Thailand. In 1863, the French rescued Cambodia from total annihilation by the Siamese and Vietnamese by declaring it a French protectorate. During the 1930s, French colonial authorities began to plant rubber trees, and rubber quickly became the primary commodity of Cambodia and eventually the primary export item. In the summer of 1988, China voiced its support for a negotiated settlement in Cambodia after a complete Vietnamese withdrawal, and the Vietnamese signaled their willingness in exchange for much needed economic assistance from the West.
