Nationalism first in cambodia
The KPNLF started in 1979, recruiting some of the hundreds of thousands of Cambodian refugees seeking sanctuary along the border with Thailand.
Its key figures had held prominent positions in the administrations of Sihanouk and right-wing general Lon Nol, and were unified in their opposition to communism and to the presence of Vietnamese forces in the country.
The Front was seen by the US and other Western allies as the most reliably anti-communist and pro-Western group in Cambodia.
In its effort to drive out the Vietnamese, the Front struck an awkward alliance with remnants of the Khmer Rouge. In 1982 the KPNLF entered the tripartite Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea.
The new coalition included the Party of Democratic Kampuchea, a splinter group of the defeated Khmer Rouge led by Khieu Samphan, and the royalist resistance movement known as Funcinpec, and represented Cambodia at the United Nations.
For the former leaders of the Front, the alliance with their ideological counterparts was a necessary evil.
"Son Sann always said the country is more important than the party or faction," said Pol Ham, who had been the Front's Information Minister.
"We hated the Khmer Rouge, but at that time we had to prioritise - and the foreign occupiers were the first enemy. We formed a coalition but kept our own identity."
Son Soubert was adamant the Front had never "joined" the Khmer Rouge.
"We were forced to enter a temporary coalition to achieve our goals," he said.
Funcinpec Senator Sabu Bacha, a former general of the Front's army, said the dire circumstances required divisions among Cambodians be put aside "so first we could expel foreign troops from our soil".
Its key figures had held prominent positions in the administrations of Sihanouk and right-wing general Lon Nol, and were unified in their opposition to communism and to the presence of Vietnamese forces in the country.
The Front was seen by the US and other Western allies as the most reliably anti-communist and pro-Western group in Cambodia.
In its effort to drive out the Vietnamese, the Front struck an awkward alliance with remnants of the Khmer Rouge. In 1982 the KPNLF entered the tripartite Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea.
The new coalition included the Party of Democratic Kampuchea, a splinter group of the defeated Khmer Rouge led by Khieu Samphan, and the royalist resistance movement known as Funcinpec, and represented Cambodia at the United Nations.
For the former leaders of the Front, the alliance with their ideological counterparts was a necessary evil.
"Son Sann always said the country is more important than the party or faction," said Pol Ham, who had been the Front's Information Minister.
"We hated the Khmer Rouge, but at that time we had to prioritise - and the foreign occupiers were the first enemy. We formed a coalition but kept our own identity."
Son Soubert was adamant the Front had never "joined" the Khmer Rouge.
"We were forced to enter a temporary coalition to achieve our goals," he said.
Funcinpec Senator Sabu Bacha, a former general of the Front's army, said the dire circumstances required divisions among Cambodians be put aside "so first we could expel foreign troops from our soil".
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