The Patriotic and Democratic Front of the Great National Union of Kampuchea ( km, រណសិរ្សប្រជាធិបតេយ្យស្នេហាជាតិនៃមហាសាមគ្គីជាតិកម្ពុជា) (PDFGNUK) was a Kampuchean mass organization set up by the

Communist Party of Kampuchea The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK),, UNGEGN: , ALA-LC: ; french: Parti communiste du Kampuchea also known as the Khmer Communist Party,

(popularly known as the Khmer Rouge) on August 21, 1979 after the

fall Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...

Democratic Kampuchea Kampuchea ( km, កម្ពុជា ), officially known as Democratic Kampuchea (DK; km, កម្ពុជាប្រជាធិបតេយ្យ ) from 5 January 1976, was a one-party totalitarian state which encompassed modern-day Camb ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

ese troops and the subsequent proclamation of the

People's Republic of Kampuchea The People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK), UNGEGN: , ALA-LC: ; vi, Cộng hòa Nhân dân Campuchia was a partially recognised state in Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as So ...

. It was set up as a counterpart to the

Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation The Kampuchea Khmer United Front for National Salvation (KUFNS; km, រណសិរ្សសាមគ្គីសង្គ្រោះជាតិកម្ពុជា), often simply referred to as Salvation Front or by its French acronym FUN ...

that had been nurtured by the Vietnamese. Its purpose was to rally anti-Vietnamese nationalists to support the Khmer Rouge, as part of an effort to legitimize the discredited Democratic Kampuchea regime. It was announced by

Khieu Samphan Khieu Samphan ( km, ខៀវ សំផន; born 28 July 1931) is a Cambodian former communist politician and economist who was the chairman of the state presidium of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) from 1976 until 1979. As such, he served as ...

, who was elected its provisional chairman. The PDFGNUK can be seen as an attempt to revive the goals of the similar

GRUNK The Royal Government of the National Union of Kampuchea (french: Gouvernement royal d'union nationale du Kampuchéa, GRUNK; km, រាជរដ្ឋាភិបាលរួបរួមជាតិកម្ពុជា) was a government-in-exile ...

coalition of the early 1970s, an organization that united the Khmer Rouge and pro-Sihanouk forces opposing the Khmer Republic.

Activities

In theory, the Union served as an interim organization fulfilling the conditions of a

government in exile A government in exile (abbreviated as GiE) is a political group that claims to be a country or semi-sovereign state's legitimate government, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile ...

at the Kampuchean-Thai border until the formation of the

Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea The Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK; km, រដ្ឋាភិបាលចំរុះកម្ពុជាប្រជាធិបតេយ្យ, ''Roathaphibal Chamroh Kampuchea Pracheathipatai''), renamed in 1990 to the N ...

in 1982. Within a year the Front had published a draft of its political program. With Chinese backing it disowned some of the "errors" of the 1975-1979 period and announced that the ability to freely marry and to practice religion was to be respected, while also calling for a "liberal democratic system" replacing the 1976 constitution as it "renounced the building of socialism and communism for tens or hundreds of years in order to mobilize a broad national front to crush the Vietnamese enemy, the

Lê Duẩn Lê Duẩn (; 7 April 1907 – 10 July 1986) was a Vietnamese communist politician. He rose in the party hierarchy in the late 1950s and became General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (VCP) at the 3rd Nati ...

clique." The Front promoted calls for free, contested elections with UN oversight after the expulsion of Vietnamese troops and encouraged the development of private property along with the participation of hitherto persecuted Buddhist monks in the governing affairs of the country. These activities however were widely seen as having ulterior and dishonest motives, with Prince

Sihanouk Norodom Sihanouk (; km, នរោត្តម សីហនុ, ; 31 October 192215 October 2012) was a Cambodian statesman, Sangkum and FUNCINPEC politician, film director, and composer who led Cambodia in various capacities throughout his ...

denouncing the Front and its program as a "ploy," and "only a few responded to the Khmer Rouge's appeal for unity under the PDFGNUK," though despite this the Front formally continued to exist as of 1987 under the

Party of Democratic Kampuchea The Party of Democratic Kampuchea was a political party in Cambodia, formed as a continuation of the Communist Party of Kampuchea in December 1981. In the mid-1980s, it publicly claimed that its ideology was "a new form of democratic socialism",Al ...

.Russell R. Ross. ''Cambodia: A Country Study''. Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division of the United States Library of Congress. 1987. p. 195, 204.

References

{{Authority control Democratic Kampuchea Khmer Rouge Organizations of the Third Indochina War Political parties established in 1979 Popular fronts Popular fronts of communist states