however, students from the northeast may have been Hanoi-bound by 1961. Cambodians from the southeast started up the trail in early 1962. Still other recruits came from Paris, where the French Communist Party was a predominant influence among Cambodian students. A high level defector reported that some 4000 ethnic Khmers were training in North Vietnam — apparently in 1967 — even after fairly large numbers had already gone South.