For the students in Kompong Cham, the rest of the year was marked by a relaxation of discipline, for their French teachers were interned and lessexperienced Khmer teachers like Kvan Siphan took their places. The boys were excited by news from Phnom Penh that Son Ngoc Thanh had returned from Japan in May and that the third anniversary of the monks’ demonstration had been celebrated by a parade of more than ten thousand people marching past the Royal Palace. By then, Thanh was acting as Cambodia’s foreign minister.

The closing months of 1945 were filled with possibilities for sweeping political change. Among the Vietnamese workforce on the rubber plantations of Kompong Cham and across the border in Vietnam, the Viet Minh recruited followers, distributed arms, and conducted propaganda sessions. There is no evidence that Saloth Sar paid much attention to these developments, but like other students at the college he would certainly have been aware of them.

In August, just before Japan’s surrender, Son Ngoc Thanh became Cambodia’s prime minister. For two months he struggled to keep the kingdom independent. In September French military units filtered back into Cambodia, liberated the officials interned in March, and gradually reasserted their control. In October they arrested Thanh, whom they accused of being a traitor. He was tried in Saigon in 1946 and then exiled to France. Faced with widespread violence in Cochinchina and fearful of similar trouble in Cambodia, the French expressed a willingness to deal with the Cambodians face-to-face rather than merely reestablishing the protectorate. After negotiating with Prince Monireth, who had replaced Son Ngoc Thanh, they proposed in early 1946 to grant Cambodia a constitution and to allow political parties to be formed. King Sihanouk, who had enjoyed independence while it lasted, went along with their suggestions.

Back in Phnom Penh

We know nothing of Saloth Sar’s activities in 1946. He seems to have left the College Sihanouk in 1947, because the following year he was enrolled as a carpentry student at the Ecole Technique at Russey Keo, a northern suburb of Phnom Penh. Several of his fellow students from Kompong Cham, including Hou Youn, Hu Nim, and Khieu Samphan, had gone to the more prestigious Lycée Sisowath. It is unclear whether Saloth Sar genuinely wanted to have a technical education or if, as he admitted in 1978, he had failed to pass the examinations that would have allowed him to pursue a baccalaureate. We know that he took the examinations in August 1948, so the latter explanation seems more likely.21