Status quo ante bellum Thailand CGDK[1] Second Third After the 1978 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and subsequent collapse of Democratic Kampuchea in 1979, the Khmer Rouge fled to the border regions of Thailand, and, with assistance from China, Pol Pot's troops managed to regroup and reorganize in forested and mountainous zones on the Thai-Cambodian border.

[2] In 1973 a new civilian government in Thailand created a chance for some degree of reconciliation with North Vietnam, when it proposed to remove United States military forces from Thai soil and adopt a more neutralist stance.

[2] They resulted in a call for an exchange of ambassadors and for an opening of negotiations on trade and economic co-operation, but a military coup in October 1976 ushered in a new Thai government less sympathetic to the Vietnamese communists.

[2] Refugee camps on the Cambodia-Thailand border allowed the growth of several anti-Vietnamese guerrilla organizations dedicated to regaining power in Cambodia.

[4] Between 1986 and 1989, the Vietnamese enacted the K5 Plan, a massive network of trenches, wire fences, and minefields along the length of the Cambodia-Thailand border.