ABSTRACT
To understand the nature of the Paris Peace Agreement of 1991 (PPA) and its propriety, one must understand the path by which the settlement was reached. Supporting the political and civil reconstitution of Cambodia were Hanois imported counterparts to the new Khmer government in Phnom Penh. The Cambodia conflict reflected the dominant views and assumptions of the pre-eminent form of political organisation at the end of the twentieth century. The interpretation of Vit Nams role in the process lay at the heart of thirteen years of sustained domestic, regional and international conflict. Vit Nams act of liberation and invasion in conjunction with the Kampuchean National United Front for National Salvation (KNUFNS) stirred deep concerns about alleged Soviet imperialism. The Vit Nameseinstalled Peoples Revolutionary Party of Kampuchea (PRPK), having established the Peoples Revolutionary Council (PRC) and the Peoples Republic of Kampuchea (PRK), faced a tri-partite coalition nominally headed by Prince Norodom Sihanouk.
