After publishing his essay, however, Sar spent five months in France before returning home. When Vannsak left Paris, the Marxist study group shifted from his apartment to Sary’s hotel room on the rue St. André des Arts. It seems likely that Sar joined the French Communist party at this time, perhaps as a candidate member, in preparation for working with the resistance in Cambodia. He may have been sponsored by Thiounn Mumm, the most prominent of the Khmer Communists, but this cannot be corroborated.27

Once again, as so often in Saloth Sar’s life, mystery shrouds a crucial moment and conceals an important decision—with hindsight, the most important of his life. Several interesting questions remain unanswered: Exactly when did he become a Communist? Before or after the festival in East Berlin? Before or after Sihanouk’s coup d‘état? And who was his patron inside the party? Who were his immediate superiors? Could they be called role models? Where did he attend cell meetings? What party duties was he asked to perform?28

Another question has to do with Saloth Sar’s motives for joining the Communist party. His earlier life, as we have seen, revealed few hints of sustained political commitment. His essay in Khmer Nisut shows little evidence of systematic reading in Marxism-Leninism, and unlike many of his colleagues he seems to have had no impact on student circles. There is no way of telling if his decision to become a Communist was sudden or came after much reflection. It is impossible to sort out the relative importance of ambition, ideals, group pressure, or inspiring people. What seems to have attracted Sar to the party was its organizational structure and the opportunities for a dedicated person like himself to rise inside it. For the remainder of his life, although the parties he belonged to changed their names or “disappeared,” Saloth Sar remained a dedicated Communist and an organization man.29

People who knew Sar as a fellow Communist, and who were interviewed in the 1980s after his demonization, have been reluctant to provide biographical details about this period in his life. The only clues we have come from Debré’s book about Cambodian communism, published in November 1976, which contains the quotations already cited about Sar’s persuasive manner and his ambitions. Aside from the outburst quoted by Debré, Saloth Sar kept his aspirations to himself, as he admitted to Nate Thayer: “I never talked about myself,” he recalled. “I was taciturn.”30

His seeming lack of personal ambition—like Stalin and Ho Chi Minh, unlike Lenin and Mao—served his purposes and was consistent with the unruffled persona he always displayed. He wanted his rise inside the movement to be seen as a response to historical imperatives, patriotism, and the wishes of others rather than to a strategic plan or calculated moves on his part.