1979–1998
Retreating to the jungles along the Thai border, the Khmer Rouge survive for two decades as a guerrilla force with Chinese weapons and tacit American support — Washington supported the Khmer Rouge's UN seat because Vietnam was Soviet-aligned, a Cold War calculation that prolonged the agony of Cambodia's recovery. The movement fragments through the 1990s. Pol Pot's last years are spent in a jungle compound; he orders the execution of his longtime defense minister Son Sen and family in 1997. In April 1998, facing trial by his own comrades, Pol Pot dies in his sleep. He is cremated before any autopsy can be performed.
Commanders