 The power vacuum the Vietnamese communists left in its wake in Cambodia was soon filled by the return of a young group of Cambodian communist revolutionaries, many of whom received their communist education in France. In 1960, the KPRP changed its name to the Kampuchean Communist Party (KCP), and the name was later adopted by the majority coalition that formed around Saloth Sar (Pol Pot), Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan as the ‘ true ’ political institution memorialising the KCP. This clique became the genesis of the Khmer Rouge, and its doctrine was heavily influenced by the Maoist ideology.
