State-socialist regimes in Southeast Asia have shown surprisingly strong elite unity. While in other parts of the world many collapsed with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, few changes occurred in Southeast Asia. Communist parties continued to maintain political control in Vietnam and Laos even after both regimes diluted their ideological commitments. They benefited from tightly knit relations between the party and the armed forces, thereby strongly reducing the potential for splits in the ruling elite. Burma showed similar unity mainly because its armed forces were the primary rule in its early stages but the regime migrated to a more straightforward military regime after the establishment of the SLORC/SPDC regime in 1988. This base provided strong unity within the armed forces, which was maintained through a steady provision of large benefits, patronage and other material benefits for members if the armed forces. Only Cambodia’s path produced