95. Research Study Prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, December 1976.1 2
PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
Since the fall of Phnom Penh in April 1975, the Khmer Communists have shown themselves to be the most extreme of the world’s totalitarian regimes. The regime’s politico-economic policies have been characterized by the total mobilization of the Cambodian people. The forced resettlement of the entire urban population in the rural areas has been justified as a means to create a huge permanent labor force in the countryside. The unprecedented cruelty with which the experiment was carried out resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of people including almost the entire educated stratum.
Unorthodox economic practices, such as the complete abolition of private ownership and the departure from a money economy, reflect the Khmer Communists’ determination to implement a social system that is alien to other Communist countries. The regime has departed from Marxist-Leninist practice by refusing to identify “Democratic Cambodia” as a member of the Communist camp, The Khmer Communists’ vagueness about the country’s political system and their avoidance until recently of standard Communist terminology are actions amounting to a unique “Cambodian model.”
The most striking departure has been the regime’s decision to keep the Khmer Communist Party (KCP) underground. The denial of the Communist Party’s leading role in the post-revolutionary period, and the use of the vague term “revolutionary organization” in lieu of the Party are innovations without precedent in Communist practice.
Indications are that the continued underground status of the KCP did not diminish its decision-making role in the political life of the regime. Recent evidence that Prime Minister Pol Pot and KCP General Secretary Saloth Sar are the same person tends to strengthen that conclusion.
In the area of foreign policies, the Khmer Communist regime is concerned above all with maintaining Cambodia’s independence. Especially fearful of Vietnamese ambitions, the regime pursues a policy of neutrality, nonalignment and nonparticipation in any military bloc or regional alliance.
[Page 2]Having no overt Communist Party of its own, Cambodia restricts its relations with other Communist countries to state-level contacts. Despite its overwhelming reliance on China for economic and military assistance, the regime has avoided forming an ideological alliance with Peking. Cambodia does not even have diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, but by refraining from public polemics with Moscow, the Khmer Communists are keeping the door open to future ties with the Kremlin.
Recent efforts to ease Cambodia’s initial diplomatic isolation are expected to continue. For the time being, however, the regime is not likely to change its hostile attitude toward the US or to make any overtures to the US.
The Khmer Communists have lately been showing an increasing interest in forming economic and trade contacts with the rest of the world. However, the continued scarcity of export commodities and the virtual lack of hard currency earnings is likely to prevent the regime from substantially reducing its reliance on Chinese economic and military aid for some years to come.
[Omitted here is the Study, “Democratic Cambodia: An Experiment in Radicalism”]