Since new material was hard to come by, Hanoi first undertook to better what it already had. By mid-1960, some 800 Cambodians were training at a site near North Vietnam's Son Tay Military Academy. According to a Vietnamese defector once connected with the school, most Khmer students were expected to become officers. Some of the abler Cambodians were sent on to the Lao Dong Party's most prestigious training establishment, the Nguyen Ai Quoc School for senior Party cadres. Other Khmers went to specialized schools run by the Ministries of Public Security, Education, and Health