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ROYAL KHMER ROUGE - Communist movement in Cambodia that formed the largest opposition group to the U.S-backed regime led by Lon Nol. By 1974 the Khmer Rouge controlled the countryside and in 1975 the capital, Phnom Penh, was captured.
In 1976 Pol Pot came to power and started mass deportations and executions.
From 1978, when Vietnam invaded the country, the Khmer Rouge conducted a guerrilla campaign against the Vietnamese forces. Pol Pot retired as military leader in 1985 and was succeded by the more moderate Khieu Samphan.
In 1991 a U.N brokered peace treaty between Cambodia's four warring factions gave the Khmer Rouge its share of representations in the ruling Supreme National Council. The treaty failed to completely disarm the movements guerrilla army or to win a renunciation of the guerrilla's goak of gaining domination of Cambodia.