Cambodia, France and China. However, in 1972 the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai denounced the initiative and Lon Nol responded by naming himself President of the Khmer Republic. Return to Cambodia In 1978, he formed the Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF) to unite anti-communist refugees on the Thai-Cambodia border following the 1978 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. The KPNLF later joined with the Armeè Nationale Sihanouk to form the non-communist resistance and in 1982, the KPNLF joined with Sihanouk and the Party of Democratic Kampuchea to form the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea. Son Sann was named Prime Minister in the new coalition government. United States support In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Son Sann drew some limited military and financial support from the United States, which sought to assist his movement as part of the Reagan Doctrine effort to counter Soviet and Vietnamese involvement in Cambodia. One of the Reagan Doctrine's principal architects, The Heritage Foundation's Michael Johns, visited with Sonn Sann and KPNLF forces in Cambodia in 1987, and returned to Washington urging expanded U.S. support for the KPNLF and the resistance forces of Norodom Sihanouk as a third alternative to both the Vietnamese-installed and supported Cambodian government and the Khmer Rouge, which also was resisting the government. The U.S. responded by providing limited military and humanitarian aid to the Sonn Sann and Sihanouk resistance forces in Cambodia in an effort to pressure the Vietnamese to leave Cambodia and also to build a non-communist opposition alternative to the Khmer Rouge. Following Cambodia's Paris Peace Agreement, Son Sann formed a new political party, the Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party in 1992 and participated in the 1993 elections. Son Sann was elected along with nine other members of the party and served as a minority member in the coalition government. He was President of the National Assembly from June to October 1993. In 1997, Son Sann left Cambodia again for Paris, where he remained with his family until his death from heart failure, on 19 December 2000, at 89 years of age. Honour Foreign honour : Honorary Commander of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (1963) References Bibliography |- |- |- |- |- 1911 births 2000 deaths 20th century in Cambodia 20th-century Cambodian politicians Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party politicians Sangkum politicians Cambodian emigrants to France Cambodian expatriates in France Cambodian anti-communists Cambodian nationalists Finance ministers of Cambodia Foreign ministers