In 1953, Cambodia declared itself independent of France, and two years later the country's monarch, King Sihanouk abdicated in favour of his father. The Vietnam War saw the overthrow of the King at the hands of the US who wanted to use Cambodia as a passage into Vietnam. The military regime created via the coup was short lived however and gave way to the arrival of the Khmer Rouge; a communist guerrilla regime presided over by the now infamous tyrant known as Pol Pot. Millions died or simply 'disappeared' under this new regime which attempted to install a Maoist peasant controlled society.