ABSTRACT
The early history of communism in Indochina revolves almost entirely around various Vietnamese groups resisting French colonialism. In 1930, under the leadership of Vietnamese nationalist and communist Ho Chi Minh, three communist-oriented groups were united under the banner of the newly founded Vietnamese Communist Party. The Cambodian representatives to the Indochinese Communist Party were almost exclusively ethnic Vietnamese and Chinese holding little influence within Khmer culture and society. In the eyes of some Cambodian communists—particularly those who were strongly nationalist—Vietnamese adherence to the dictates of proletarian internationalism seemed to be little more than thinly veiled aggressive expansionism. The growing legacy of bitterness between the Vietnamese and the Khmer communists originating in the period would become a central factor in later stages of the revolution. The Vietnamese withdrew from Cambodia and the Cambodians held their elections, but there were to be no elections throughout Vietnam.
