Editing Khmer Rouge (section)

==== Place in the United Nations ====
{{Further|Allegations of United States support for the Khmer Rouge}}
Despite its deposal, the Khmer Rouge retained its United Nations seat, which was occupied by [[Thiounn Prasith]], an old companion of Pol Pot and [[Ieng Sary]] from their student days in Paris and one of the 21 attendees at the 1960 KPRP Second Congress. The seat was retained under the name Democratic Kampuchea until 1982 and then it was retained under the name Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea. Western governments voted in favor of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea retaining Cambodia's seat in the organization over the newly installed Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea, even though it included the Khmer Rouge. In 1988, [[Margaret Thatcher]] stated: "So, you'll find that the more reasonable ones of the Khmer Rouge will have to play some part in the future government, but only a minority part. I share your utter horror that these terrible things went on in Kampuchea".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page12166|title=Margaret Thatcher – Transcript for the interview with Blue Peter in 1988|date=28 June 2007|access-date=25 January 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100121094456/http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page12166|archive-date=21 January 2010}}</ref> On the contrary, [[Sweden]] changed its vote in the [[United Nations]] and it withdrew its support for the Khmer Rouge after many Swedish citizens wrote letters to their elected representatives in which they demanded a policy change towards Pol Pot's regime.<ref name="Pilger 2004">Pilger, John (2004). In ''Tell Me No Lies''. Jonathan Cape Ltd.</ref>

The origin of the international [[proxy war]] between the US and the [[Soviet Union]] dates back to the origin of the Cambodian Civil War. The [[Kingdom of Cambodia]] was supported by the United States, the Khmer Republic (that eventually took over after the removal of [[Prince Sihanouk]]) and South Vietnam. The other side, the National United Front of Kampuchea, was supported by the Khmer Rouge, North-Vietnam, China and the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kiernan|first=B|date=2002|title=Introduction: conflict in Cambodia|url=|journal=Critical Asian Studies|volume=34|issue=4|pages=483–495|doi=10.1080/1467271022000035893|s2cid=144934704}}</ref> Cambodia became an instrument for the superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. The measures that the US employed in Cambodia were seen as preventative acts which were supposed to stop the communists. These preventative acts included the deployment of military troops and the establishment of other institutions like the [[United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia|UNTAC]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Doyle|first=M. W.|date=1995|title=UN peacekeeping in Cambodia: UNTAC's civil mandate|url=|journal=Boulder|volume=|pages=|via=}}</ref>