Lon Nol was seriously concerned about the sale of large proportions of the rice crop to the National Liberation Front ( N.L.F ) for Southern Vietnam or on the Saigon black market where clandestine sales were apparently handled Hold by local Chinese middlemen who had found friends and worked in conjunction with cells of former Viet Minh sympathizers acting on behalf of the N.L.F .

Very large proportions of these civilians died Death of hunger and disease , especially the children .

The uprising soon reached Arriving mass proportions .