On December 15, 1952, Saloth Sar returned to Marseilles and once again boarded the Jamaique, this time for the journey home. As he crossed the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean, how did he perceive his forty months in France? Academically he had earned no qualifications. This did not upset him. Judging from his conduct when he reached Cambodia, he had decided that instead of pursuing a career or raising a family, he would allow politics to take command of his life. As a Communist, this meant accepting party discipline and preparing himself and his colleagues for an eventual seizure of power. More specifically, it meant taking part in armed struggle against the French. These activities would occur in secret. The odds against success were high; so were the risks he seemed prepared to take. The rewards, if they came, would be enormous, both for him and for his country. After almost twenty years of lackluster studies, Saloth Sar must have been pleased to change direction.

CHAPTER FOUR

Multiple Identities, 1953—1963

Joining the Viet Minh

When Saloth Sar returned to Cambodia in January 1953, he stayed for a time with his brother Loth Suong in Phnom Penh. Suong noticed that Sar had become interested in politics. “I think about the people,” Sar told him. He also “praised Russia, he bragged about Russia, and talked about working in Yugoslavia.” He told Suong how much he had learned from his “teacher” in Paris, Thiounn Mumm.1 Less than a month later, he left Suong’s house to join the resistance. He returned to Phnom Penh from time to time, informing his brother that he had been trying to contact anti-French, noncommunist guerrilla forces commanded by Prince Norodom Chantaraingsey in the nearby province of Kompong Speu or those commanded by Son Ngoc Thanh in the northwest. Sar’s brother Saloth Chhay was in touch with both groups. Indeed, Saloth Chhay, when he was interviewed by Steve Heder in 1975, recalled encouraging his brother to work with Chantaraingsey. Saloth Sar told him that he thought Chantaraingsey was “feudal” and spoke vaguely of joining “those engaged in armed struggle”—that is, the Vietnamese-dominated Khmer Issarak. Concealing his intentions from both brothers, Saloth Sar left them with the impression that he was interested in siding with those “most truly interested in democracy.”2