In April 1970 Sar left Hanoi for Cambodia, traveling on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The journey took a month and a half. As he came south, through North Vietnam, Laos, and northeastern Cambodia, Sar must have been impressed by what he saw. Thousands of trucks lumbered down the trail with weapons, ammunition, and supplies for Vietnamese Communist forces; resting places were set up at regular intervals. Now and then, Sar and his colleagues were able to hitch rides on trucks. At other times, they walked briskly, under forest cover, braving attacks from malaria and U.S. bombers. Chhim Samauk later spoke of camping in “more than twenty places” and of occasionally commandeering elephants from local people for rides. For Saloth Sar, it must have been a thrilling trek. He arrived at the Lao-Cambodian border toward the end of May. According to Chhim Samauk, Sar became ill twice during the trip—first with malaria and then from accidentally eating poisonous “peacock mushrooms” (psut kngaouk) in a soup. At the Lao-Cambodian border Sar formally welcomed Cambodian volunteers who had come down the trail with him from Hanoi before proceeding with them to the party’s headquarters in the northeast.5

The Livre noir contends that he spent his first days in Cambodia fending off Vietnamese demands for cooperation. Vietnamese assertions that Ieng Sary had agreed to their requests (confirmed in Kheang Sim Hon’s confession) are dismissed by the Livre noir as “lies.” The weight of the evidence suggests that Sar accepted promises of aid from the Vietnamese officials who welcomed him, agreed to their proposals of mixed commands, and approved Ieng Sary’s earlier decision to accept Vietnamese assistance. At this stage of the Cambodian revolution, Sar had no choice. Soon after his arrival at Office 102, Sar sent Ieng Sary back up the trail to become the party’s liaison officer in Hanoi, where he joined Keo Meas, sent on a similar mission in 1969. This event, corroborated by many sources, confirms that the Red Khmer were still cooperating fully—tactically and secretly—with North Vietnam.6

Immediately after Sihanouk had been deposed, while Saloth Sar was in Beijing, pro-Sihanouk riots—organized and fanned by Cambodian Communists and Vietnamese cadre—broke out in several provincial cities. The demonstrations reflected the genuine shock that many Khmer felt when bereft of the only political leader they had ever known. They were brutally repressed by Lon Nol’s army and police. No more demonstrations in support of the prince occurred for the remainder of the war. In the aftermath of the riots, however, hundreds of young Khmer took to the maquis “to fight for Sihanouk.” Most of them soon came under mixed Vietnamese-Khmer Communist command.7