The party was underground for most of its existence and took power in the country in April 1975 and established the state known as Democratic Kampuchea. The party lost power in 1979 with the establishment of the People's Republic of Kampuchea by leftists who were dissatisfied by the Pol Pot regime and by the intervention of Vietnamese military forces after the Cambodian genocide. The party was officially dissolved in 1981, with the Party of Democratic Kampuchea claiming its legacy.