Landmines in Cambodia: Past, Present, and Future By Wade C. Rober ...

of the country. In March of 1963, a list of suspected Communist affiliates, which included Saloth’s name, was turned in to King Norodom Sihanouk. Saloth went into hiding near the Cambodia–Vietnam border.

By late 1964, Saloth had persuaded the North Vietnamese to assist in establishing a Cambodian flavor of Communism inside his own country. Financial support and armament were provided to enable the effort. Support of Communist ideals grew rapidly in the northeast of Cambodia. One year after receiving support from the Vietnamese, Saloth met with North Vietnamese leaders in an attempt to receive their support for a Cambodian-led government overthrow. Support was denied because of a previous agreement between Norodom Sihanouk and the North Vietnamese. Specifically, Sihanouk and the North Vietnamese agreed to limit the expansion of a Communist movement within Cambodia in exchange for North Vietnamese passage through Cambodia to assist in its war efforts with South Vietnam. Saloth immediately began establishing plans to break away from the command of the Vietnamese. Importantly, however, Saloth realized current relations feeding the financial pipeline of his movement came from Vietnam. Accordingly, Saloth remained verbally loyal to the Vietnamese brand of Communism while secretly establishing himself as Cambodia’s leader.

The first Communist-led attack took place in Cambodia in January of 1968. This attack used armament provided by the Vietnamese in addition to the psychological tactic of landmine fields. It is likely that the use of landmines continued in tandem with small-scale invasions of villages. Savaun Thong, a former Khmer Rouge soldier, remembers following orders to place landmines to the west of his Battambang work camp to dissuade workers from fleeing toward the Thailand border. Those most likely to have encountered a landmine between 1975 and 1979 were those traveling to new locations and those fleeing their work groups. Small-scale attacks against military posts increased in frequency as the strength of the party grew. When an American-backed coup replaced Sihanouk with Lon Nol, the Khmer Rouge changed its strategy to include Sihanouk supporters. The North Vietnamese helped in efforts to recruit Sihanouk and promised an unending supply of armament to combat the