ABSTRACT
The strategy that enabled the Khmer Rouge to prosecute successfully their struggle against the ancien regime held the seeds of self-destruction for the Utopia they hoped to construct. The group of Khmer students from Paris were like the angels who were ejected from heaven; they promised Utopia and they were delivered unto Pandemonium. As early as 1970, there were reports of Khmer Rouge attacks on Vietnamese communist units operating in Cambodia. On December 3, Radio Hanoi announced the formation of the Khmer National United Front for National Salvation (KNUFNS). As Vo Nguyen Giap and the KNUFNS took Phnom Penh, the top personnel of the government of Democratic Kampuchea retreated with the rump of their army to well-prepared strongholds in the vast expanses of forest. Programs to restore the cultural heritage of Kampuchea have been established by the new regime. The Chinese Communist Party and state have also given longstanding support to various Kampuchean communist factions.
