1979 in Cambodia

← 1978 1977 1976 1979 in Cambodia → 1980 1981 1982
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
See also:	Other events of 1979 List of years in Cambodia

The following lists events that happened during 1979 in Cambodia.

Incumbents

• Chairman of the State Presidium: Khieu Samphan (until 7 January), Heng Samrin (starting 7 January)
• General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea: Pol Pot (until 7 January), vacant (starting 7 January)

Events

January

• January 7 - The People's Army of Vietnam led by Lê Duẩn advanced and captured the city of Phnom Penh which fell to the Vietnamese hands and renamed the country from Democratic Kampuchea to the People's Republic of Kampuchea as a puppet state until 1989, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge are forced to abandon the capital along with Angkar to retreat back into the jungle near the border with Thailand and continued a guerilla warfare until 1997, after rebuilding a former jungle base of Anlong Veng at the Dângrêk Range on 18 February 1994, when Ta Mok orders Pol Pot to end the slaughter after executing Son Sen and his family, Pol Pot was finally surrounded by his own cadres and was sentenced to life in prison by July 1997, before he took his own life by using pills to evade American apprehension on 15 April 1998, Khieu Samphan became the last member of the Khmer Rouge to be convicted and is sentence to life in prison under the CPP.