The Khmer Rouge initially had been trained by the Vietnamese, but from the early 1970s they had been resentful and suspicious of Vietnam and Vietnamese intentions. Scattered skirmishes between the two sides in 1975 had escalated into open warfare by the end of 1977. The Cambodians were no match for the Vietnamese forces, despite continuing infusions of Chinese aid. In December 1978 a large Vietnamese army moved into Cambodia, brushing aside the Democratic Kampuchean forces. Within two weeks the government had fled Phnom Penh for Thailand, and the Vietnamese had installed a puppet regime—called the People’s Republic of Kampuchea—consisting largely of Cambodian communists who had deserted Pol Pot in 1977–78.

Over the next decade, under the relatively benign tutelage of the Vietnamese, Cambodia struggled back to its feet. Private property was restored; schools reopened, and some Buddhist practices were reintroduced; cities were repopulated; and, with freedom of movement, internal trade flourished. At the same time, at least 500,000 Cambodians, including some 100,000 associated with the communists, fled to Thailand in the aftermath of Democratic Kampuchea’s fall and because of the hardship, uncertainty, and disorder that accompanied the installation of the new regime. Of those, perhaps 200,000 people, including most of the surviving members of Cambodia’s educated elite, sought refuge in other countries, while the rest came under the control of three resistance groups camped along the Thai-Cambodian border: Norodom Sihanouk and his followers, the Khmer Rouge, and the noncommunist Khmer People’s National Liberation Front (renamed the Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party in 1992) under the leadership of Son Sann (a former prime minister). Those groups were supported financially by foreign powers, including the United States, who were eager to oppose Vietnam. Thousands of Cambodians continued to enter Thailand in the 1980s, and by the end of the decade those in refugee camps were thought to exceed 300,000.

In 1982 an uneasy alliance was reached among the three groups opposing the Vietnamese-backed regime in Phnom Penh, and a government-in-exile was established with Sihanouk as president and Son Sann as prime minister. That government, despite recognition by the United Nations, received little support from Cambodians inside the country and was largely ineffectual. The member groups of the coalition continued independently to resist the Phnom Penh regime, the larger and better-equipped forces of the Khmer Rouge being the most effective.

The 1990s

The political stalemate that developed among the four groups vying for power was broken in the late 1980s when international political pressure, an economic boycott of Cambodia led by the United States, and a reduction in aid from the Soviet Union contributed to Vietnam’s decision to withdraw its forces from Cambodia, which was completed in 1989. Freed from Vietnamese tutelage, the Phnom Penh government took two initiatives that sharply increased its popularity. It legalized property ownership, which created a real-estate boom in Phnom Penh. More significantly, it openly encouraged the practice of Buddhism, and hundreds of Buddhist monasteries were restored, often with funds provided by Cambodians living overseas. One result of the resurgence of Buddhism was that thousands of young Cambodian males became Buddhist monks, even if only for a brief time, as in most cases. The withdrawal of the Vietnamese also allowed the resistance factions to seek through negotiation the political objectives that they had been unable to obtain by military action against the Phnom Penh government; they were encouraged in that endeavor by their foreign patrons.

The negotiations, which had been conducted for some time and which had intensified after 1989, led in 1991 to two significant results. The first was the creation of a largely ceremonial coalition government under a Supreme National Council (SNC) chaired by Sihanouk and composed of representatives of the government and the three factions. Although the SNC was recognized by the United Nations, effective control in most of Cambodia remained in the hands of the Phnom Penh regime. The second and more-important result was the conclusion of a peace agreement among the factions that also provided for a popularly elected government. The UN Security Council, with the backing of the factions, endorsed the treaty and agreed to establish in the country a peacekeeping operation consisting of both soldiers and civil servants under the control of a United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia that would monitor progress toward conducting elections, temporarily run several government ministries, and safeguard human rights.

The operation, inaugurated in January 1992, was difficult to implement, notably because the Khmer Rouge refused to disarm and cooperate, the UN machinery for such an innovative mission was cumbersome, and the ruling party in Phnom Penh was unwilling to cede day-to-day political power to the UN. Nonetheless, more than 300,000 refugees were repatriated from Thailand under UN auspices in 1992–93, and in July 1993 national elections were held under UN supervision. Those were arguably the first free and fair elections in Cambodian history. More than 90 percent of the registered voters went to the polls, and by a clear majority they chose candidates from the United National Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful, and Cooperative Cambodia (Funcinpec), a royalist political faction sponsored by Prince Sihanouk, who had returned home in 1992 after 12 years of residence in China and North Korea. The incumbent Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and the former prime minister, Hun Sen, refused to accept the results of the election. In a deal brokered by Prince Sihanouk and approved by the UN, the victorious royalists, led by Sihanouk’s son, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, agreed to form a coalition with the CPP, with Ranariddh as first prime minister and Hun Sen as second prime minister. Under the new constitution, Cambodia became a kingdom again, and Sihanouk became its monarch for the second time.

Because the CPP controlled the army, the judiciary, and the police, it soon dominated the coalition, and Prince Ranariddh, despite his position, was unable to influence events. The Khmer Rouge movement collapsed in the mid-1990s as it lost foreign backing, its leaders quarreled among themselves, and thousands of supporters defected to the government and were offered positions in the Cambodian army. In 1997 Hun Sen staged a coup against his coalition partners, deposed Ranariddh, and tightened his control over the country. The brutality of the coup alarmed foreign donors and delayed Cambodia’s entry into ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).

By 1998 Pol Pot was dead, the Khmer Rouge movement had fallen apart, and for the first time in 30 years Cambodia was at peace. In March Prince Ranariddh, who had fled the country after the coup, was tried in absentia and convicted on charges that included attempting to overthrow the government. He was subsequently pardoned by his father and returned to Cambodia to participate in internationally monitored elections to the National Assembly in July that were deemed relatively free and fair. The CPP captured the largest number of seats, and Hun Sen returned as prime minister, but since the CPP did not have the necessary two-thirds majority in the chamber to govern outright, it was forced to form a second coalition government with Funcinpec. Ranariddh was named president of the assembly.