18 Years in the Typhoon of the Great Kampuchean Revolutionary Movement – The Khmer Rouge, 1978

For 18 years, in the typhoon storm of the great Kampuchean revolutionary movement under the bright red
and always victorious flag of the correct and clear-sighted Communist Party of Kampuchea, eight million
Kampuchean people tightly grasped their weapons. They advanced from the stage of national democratic
revolution into the stage of socialist revolution and the building of socialism. Even though it has been 18
years, it still feels recent. Everything remains vividly remembered because this has been a historic journey
into a new era for the Kampuchean nation, the Kampuchean people, and the Kampuchean worker-peasant
classes, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Kampuchea. On the night of 28 September 1960,
18 years ago, all the comrade representatives of the Party from the countryside and the cities gathered
quietly but vigilantly in a room for the Party Congress. The atmosphere was filled with happiness and firm
confidence in the victory of the Congress. At that time, Phnom Penh, the capital city of Kampuchea, was
still semi-feudal. Who could have imagined that in only 15 years, Phnom Penh would become the capital
of Democratic Kampuchea? It was in Phnom Penh, particularly at the base of the comrade railway workers,
that the honor fell to convene the First Congress of the Communist Party of Kampuchea. Outside the compound,
government intelligence agents, police, and soldiers—both overt and covert—walked back and forth, searching
for and trying to smash the Khmer Rouge movement. The enemy did its work. The revolution made its
revolution. The Congress proceeded solemnly for three days in an atmosphere of solidarity and unity.
Near daybreak on 30 September, the Congress concluded successfully in monolithic unity on the strategic
and tactical lines, the Party Statutes, and the organization of the Central Committee leadership. The
closing ceremony saluted the Party Flag as the words rang out: “Rise up, all ye slaves. Rise up, all ye
who suffer hardship.” These words rose in the heart of each one of us.

The light beginning to appear in the east helped raise the spirits of all us slaves to rise up bravely. This light
was an omen of the glorious aura of the First Party Congress that was beginning to shine into the far-away
countryside, forests, and mountains, and into the cities, awakening all eight million Kampuchean people to
rise up and struggle to liberate the nation and liberate the people. The Kampuchean people now had their
own revolutionary party in the lead: the Communist Party of Kampuchea. The White House of the American
imperialists began to shake and tremble! The feudalist-landowner-capitalist regime in Kampuchea began to
shake and tremble! The plans for the “Indochina Federation” of the Yuon enemy began to dissolve! All the
comrade representatives returned to their respective battlefields like commandos swooping down from their
positions, vigorously waving red flags and carrying thousands of tons of ammunition to smash enemy posts.
No force whatsoever could resist the great force of internal solidarity and unity of the Communist Party of
Kampuchea. No force whatsoever could resist the force of the great solidarity of the entire Kampuchean
people, based on the foundation of the worker-peasant alliance under the leadership of the Communist Party
of Kampuchea. During 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, and 1967, the Kampuchean revolutionary
movement developed and improved both in quantity and quality. In both the countryside and the cities, the
people’s movement to struggle and fight remained constantly on the offensive against the enemy under the
slogan of nation, democracy, and livelihood. The contradictions between the American imperialists and their
servants on one side, and the nation and people on the other, kept increasing. The contradictions between
the feudalist landowners and the people kept increasing. The contradictions between the workers and laborers
and the capitalists kept increasing. The flames of revolution were lit by the people themselves.

The people understood the revolution. The people believed in the revolution. The people made the revolution
by themselves. In 1967, the contradictions between the American imperialists and the nation rose even higher.
The people, indoctrinated in the stance of revolutionary violence, armed themselves with knives, hatchets,
machetes, clubs, and other weapons. The covert guards of the Party, organized and held in reserve since
1960, began to carry out activities to guard, patrol, protect cadres, and smash government intelligence agents
and spies who came to destroy revolutionary bases, the people, and the Party. In 1967, the political situation
of the revolutionary struggle became even mightier. In the countryside, the people immediately rose up in
armed violence. Armed struggle broke out against both the American imperialists and their servants, and
against the cruel feudalists and landowners. The situation in 1967 was ripe—politically, in mass movements,
in indoctrination in revolutionary violence, and in weapons. The movement was mighty. Ideology advanced
rapidly and progressively. Class ideology and class struggle strengthened and expanded both inside the ranks
of the Party and among the people. This seething revolutionary ideology pushed the revolutionary combat
movement even further. Constantly tempered in the fire of repeated revolutionary struggle, the cadres and
Party members absorbed more and more of the Party line, implemented it well, and gained ever greater exp
-erience in making revolution. Cadres and Party members, both new and old, who had been tested and had
grown within the combat movement, became extremely valuable assets for the Party. The more the ranks of
the Party fought, the cleaner and stronger they became. Another new victory in the revolutionary movement
during 1960–1967 was the strengthening and expansion of the stance of independence, mastery, self
-reliance, and controlling one’s own destiny.

The revolutionary movement clearly demonstrated that the people were immensely strong and that the Party
had the capacity to lead the people and the mass movements to wage revolution and win victories both in the
countryside and the cities. The people could struggle through political violence or armed violence, repeatedly
launch offensives against the enemy (both overt and covert), and win. The revolutionary mass movements
were able to launch victorious offensives against the enemy, protect the forces of the Party and the revolution,
strengthen and expand those forces, and push the movement even further. The Party and the people stood
in monolithic unity in a life-and-death combat movement, gaining ever greater confidence in one another.
They clearly saw that the movement of armed struggle could truly be carried out. 1968! The combat movement
of the masses was like water flowing through broken dams in the far-away countryside, converging at the
Chatomukh River intersection. The Communist Party of Kampuchea decided it was imperative to wage a
combined political and armed struggle. The decision of the Party resounded in every direction: “No armed
struggle means death.” “No armed struggle means death.” This was the opinion of the cadres, Party members,
and the masses. This single voice welcomed the correct, clear-sighted, and timely decision of the Party.
Another voice was the screams and threats of the Yuon party that opposed the armed struggle of our Party.
Responding mightily to the decision of the Party, gunfire exploded in the Northwest Zone in January 1968.
In March, the East Zone exploded. In late March, it was the Northeast. In April, the North exploded. The
sound of the revolution’s guns echoed back and forth constantly from zone to zone. In just four months, our
Party had opened fire in 17 of the 19 provinces throughout the country. Our revolutionary movement was
truly as mighty as a typhoon storm. The White House shook even more, but busily prepared a coup to
attack and overthrow Kampuchea. The power-holding classes declared that they would strike the Khmer
Rouge until their tongues hung out, but a black moon was seen rising right over the castle’s summit.

The Yuon stupidly slept, ate, and judged that the Khmer Rouge movement would be completely smashed to
bits, thinking, “That’s all for independence and mastery—serves them right!” The Yuon had miscalculated. It
was the “Indochina Federation” instead that was being smashed to bits. The Communist Party of Kampuchea
and the Kampuchean revolution stood tall and strode forward in victory through the combined political-armed
struggle. During the two years of combined armed-political struggle, the Party led the people and the move
-ment even more closely. The Party line was tested and clearly confirmed in its correctness. The ideology of
the cadres, Party members, troops, and people became even stronger in the flames of combat. Every sector
of the revolutionary forces strengthened and expanded greatly. The political bases among the people and in
the countryside grew. The support bases throughout the country strengthened and expanded. The army also
expanded and grew. When the situation of the Kampuchean revolution was prospering excellently like this,
suddenly the coup exploded. On 18 March 1970, the American imperialists and the Lon Nol traitors carried out
a coup. Immediately afterward, the political situation changed both inside and outside the country, further
favoring the Kampuchean revolution. In this situation, the Communist Party of Kampuchea immediately went
on the offensive. The forces of the people and the army, trained in the armed-political revolutionary movement,
conducted demonstrations in villages and subdistricts throughout the country. Even though enemy platoons
and companies were stationed at posts and forts, they were immediately broken and scattered. The people
rose up to hold great demonstrations and strikes throughout the country. Thus, the revolution was on the
offensive both politically and militarily, and put the American imperialists and Lon Nol in a deadlock. Millions
of people entered Phnom Penh, some in vehicles and some on foot, intending to capture and smash the
contemptible Lon Nol. In just one month, our Party liberated 70–75 percent of the villages and subdistricts
throughout the country. With a little more time, the revolutionary movement would certainly have completely
swept away the contemptible Lon Nol traitors, and none would have remained.

The American imperialists saw this and came to directly attack the Kampuchean revolution. Almost 100,000
of them came, including their army and air force. Hundreds of thousands of the contemptible Thieu-Ky Yuon
forces also came to attack the Kampuchean revolution, both to rescue the contemptible Lon Nol and to seize
Kampuchean territory. Facing this situation, our Party whipped up a high level of patriotic spirit to attack the
American imperialists, the contemptible Thieu-Ky Yuon enemy, and the contemptible Lon Nol traitors. The
revolutionary movement throughout the country came to a mighty boil. The international community actively
supported the Kampuchean revolution; there was even support from the American people. In 1973, the Paris
Agreements and the Vientiane Agreements ended the war in Vietnam and Laos. Kampuchea continued the
war on its own. The American imperialists then gathered their forces to attack our Kampuchean revolution
very strongly, but they were defeated. The 200-day and 200-night air war of the American imperialists was
shamefully defeated. Also in 1973, our Party raised the principle of launching a strategic offensive of constant
day-and-night fighting, both in the rainy season and the dry season. The contemptible Lon Nol traitor’s army
was smashed to bits. The American imperialists had no more fundamental forces left to help the contemptible
traitor Lon Nol: no manpower, no economy, no politics—everything was gone. Also in 1973, the Party decided
to organize cooperatives throughout the country. The cooperative movement was at a mighty boil in class
struggle and in launching offensives against the enemy on the forward battlefields while increasing production
to support long-term revolutionary war. The forward battlefields were on the offensive; the rear battlefields
were on the offensive. The cooperative movement made an extremely active contribution to the liberation of
the nation and the people in accordance with the stance of independence, mastery, self-reliance, and control
-ling the destiny of one’s own nation. In June 1974, our Party determined to open the decisive strategic attack
to liberate Phnom Penh and liberate the entire country.

The Party made the following determinations: To attack the lower Mekong River as the key to cut off enemy
food supplies and routes of communication To attack and surround Phnom Penh in order to make the deci
-sive attack against Phnom Penh To open attacks against some provincial towns that the enemy temporarily
controlled At 1 a.m. on 1 January 1975, every military unit—including militias and district, sector, zone, and
center military forces—at every spearhead had to attack, pound, and penetrate following the plans set by the
Party. At the set time, every spearhead launched the attack and struck. The contemptible Lon Nol’s troops
broke and ran. After attacking for only three months, the Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea took Neak Loeung.
The tongues of the contemptible Lon Nol traitor commanders hung out. The faces of the American imperialists
turned purple. On 1 April, the contemptible Lon Nol traitor commanders fled the country for America. On 12
April, the American imperialists ran to their helicopters and fled back to America. On 17 April 1975 at 9:30
a.m., the ringing of the bells of great victory was heard throughout the country and the world. Phnom Penh
was liberated. All of Kampuchea was liberated. The bright red flag of the Communist Party of Kampuchea
waved high in the sky, confirming that the Communist Party of Kampuchea had won! The Kampuchean people
had won! The Kampuchean worker-peasant classes had won! The Kampuchean revolution had won! “A
small spark the size of a wild chicken’s eye had been turned into a flame as bright as day due to the move
-ment.” Always loyal to the First Party Congress, the cadres, Party members, troops, and people did not
rest for one minute. Everyone, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, continued
to wave the flag of combat, following the line of the great socialist revolution and the building of socialism,
advancing toward communism with independence, mastery, self-reliance, and controlling the destiny of
one’s nation by oneself. During 1975 through 1978, the great movements of defending the country and
waging socialist revolution and building socialism strongly raised the living standards of the people.

The territory-swallowing, expansionist, genocidal Yuon aggressor enemy raised 14 divisions in an attempt to
attack Kampuchea in one stroke, but they were smashed and defeated by the people and the Revolutionary
Army of Kampuchea. They were shamed both in Kampuchea and on the international stage on 6 January
Embedded enemies boring from within—C.I.A. agents, running-dog agents of the Yuon, and K.G.B.
agents—struggled to catch their breath and rise up again to seize power from the Communist Party of Kam
-puchea and the Kampuchean people, but they were attacked and smashed in droves by the Kampuchean
people. This defeated the American imperialists, defeated the “Indochina Federation” plans of the Yuon, and
defeated the expansionist plans for Southeast Asia of the revisionist cliques. Private regimes and private
ownership continued to dissolve and disappear from Kampuchean society. The collective regime and collective
ownership of the proletarian class of the Party continued to strengthen and expand in the great movement
of combat to defend the country and build socialism. The great movement to build the country and raise the
livelihood of the people in accordance with the Party’s line to build socialism met with repeated successes
and fundamentally resolved the livelihood of the people who had just emerged from the American imperialists’
war of destruction. It set up the fundamental preconditions for even mightier offensives in agriculture and
industry. The movement to support the revolution and socialism in Kampuchea by increasing numbers of
friends throughout the world is strong and strenuous and has confidence in the bright future of socialist
revolution in Kampuchea under the sole leadership of the Communist Party of Kampuchea. After 18 years
under the combat flag of the mighty offensives of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, under the leader
-ship of the Party Center with Comrade Pol Pot as Secretary, during the stage of national democratic
revolution and the stage of socialist revolution and building socialism, the Party concludes that: “The
Party must have correct strategic and tactical political lines, strong ideology, and solid organization.

There must be core cadres with a high stance of sacrifice and a high spirit of respect for organizational
discipline, with a strong offensive fighting spirit, not fearing hardships, not fearing life or death, and with
the correct mass viewpoint to take the political, ideological, and organizational lines of the Party to make
propaganda, educate, and organize the people, and to whip up the people and the masses to wage rev
-olutionary struggle—attacking the enemy, engaging in class struggle, and fighting to resolve the livelihood
of the people. The revolutionary struggle of the people must be repeatedly whipped up. When a mass
movement is at a boil in accordance with the political line of the Party, the movement further strengthens
and expands the political, ideological, and organizational lines of the Party, and builds, strengthens, and
expands the cadres and Party members too. The movement then builds, strengthens, and expands the
forces of the masses and gathers the masses in drives to join in making an even stronger revolution.
Completing this cycle many times over many years, the revolutionary movement makes stronger and
stronger progress—progress in politics, ideology, and organization, strong progress in the forces of the
people and the masses, and progress in the numbers and quality of the cadres at every echelon. When
a Party has a unified and correct political, ideological, and organizational line, has core cadres, has the
people and the broad masses with the worker-peasant alliance as a foundation, and has successive hot
combat movements, this Party will have a mighty army in terms of politics, ideology, and organization,
will have much revolutionary experience, will have an economy, and will have everything. Therefore,
this Party and this people will truly and absolutely wage revolution and achieve victories—victories that
come from independence, mastery, self-reliance, and controlling one’s destiny by oneself.”

Beloved Comrades! In the communique of Comrade Pol Pot, the Secretary of the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of Kampuchea, on the occasion of the great victory celebrating the 17th anniversary
of the founding of the Communist Party of Kampuchea and on the occasion of the Party’s official public
declaration both domestically and internationally, he said in closing: “Our journey has been a long one…
but at the same time, we must be revolutionarily modest; we must see our great victory and see that we
still have many serious missions in defending the country, defending Democratic Kampuchea, defending
the Kampuchean revolution, defending the state power of the worker-peasant people, and we have
another serious mission—that is, building the country toward rapid progress and prosperity in order to
rapidly raise the livelihood of our people to dignity and prosperity and also make a contribution to the
rapid progress of the peoples of the world.” Therefore, our cadres, our Party members, and our Revol
-utionary Army, in order to fulfill the mission of fighting and defeating the territory-swallowing expansionist
Yuon aggressor enemy that is trying to eliminate the Kampuchean race, must continue carrying out profound
socialist revolution and building socialism to raise the livelihood of the people. We must necessarily continue
to build strong political, ideological, and organizational stances in every field by: Tempering ourselves
inside the combat movement Being revolutionarily modest before the masses and allowing the collective
to constructively criticize Building stances of clean living in the revolutionary style Striving constantly to
study and learn politics, ideology, organization, and science and technology appropriate to the revolution
We build solid political, ideological, and organizational stances following the principle of the proletarian
class of our Communist Party of Kampuchea so that the Party will be strong, so that we can gather the
forces of our eight million people to make revolution, and to whip up the movement to attack and smash
the territory-swallowing expansionist genocidal Yuon aggressor and achieve victory. In this way we will
wage socialist revolution even more profoundly, build socialism, and rapidly raise the livelihood of our people.
Cheers! Cheers! Cheers! Cheers! The 18th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Kam
-puchea! The correct, clear-sighted and marvelous Communist Party of Kampuchea! The mighty and
marvelous Kampuchean revolution! The huge and marvelous Kampuchean people! Cheers! Cheers!
Cheers! The Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea—mighty, skilled, brave, and marvelous! The glorious
Democratic Kampuchea! Clear-sighted and marvelous Marxism-Leninism!