Pol Pot (Prime Minister of Cambodia, between 1975-1979)

Pol Pot, who become responsible for the deaths of over two million of his own people, was born Saloth Sar on May 19, 1928, near Anlong Veng, in a small Cambodian village about 140 kilometers north of Phnom Penh, the second son of a successful landowner. Pot's father had political connections at the royal court at the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. At age six he went to live with his brother at the Royal household in Phnom Penh. Here he learned Buddhist precepts and discipline. At age eight he went to a Catholic primary school, where he remained for six years. It was here that he picked up the basics of Western culture, as well as the French language. Pol Pot was a poor student.

In 1949, Pol Pot went to study in Paris on a government scholarship. It was here that he got his introduction to Communism, joining the French Communist Party. After four years of exposure to Stalinist Communism he returned to Cambodia in 1953. Within a month he had joined the Communist resistance, becoming a member of the Indochina Communist Party (IHC) which was dominated by the Viet Minh. After returning to Cambodia in 1953, Pol Pot drifted into the Vietnamese-influenced "United Khmer Issarak (Freedom) Front" of Cambodian Communists.

The 1954 Cambodian elections saw the Communists throw in support with the Democrats. The Democrats were soundly defeated, however, by the incumbent Government of Prince Sihanouk who now held absolute power. Pol Pot now took up a post as a teacher in a private college. He also spent his time recruiting the educated classes to the Communist cause. The Government, however, began a Communist crackdown and Pol Pot was forced to flee to the Jungles near the Vietnam border to avoid arrest. For the next seven years he would spend his time in the Cambodian jungle hiding from the police.

In September 1960 Pol Pot and a handful of followers met secretly at the Phnom Penh railroad station to found the "Workers Party of Kampuchéa" (WPK). Samouth was named secretary general. By 1963 Pol Pot had replaced Samouth as party secretary, and Samouth later disappeared under mysterious circumstances. For the next thirteen years Pol Pot and other WPK members disappeared from public view and set up their party organization in a remote forest area.
In September 1960 Pol Pot and a handful of followers met secretly at the Phnom Penh railroad station to found the "Workers Party of Kampuchéa" (WPK). Samouth was named secretary general. In January 1962, the government of Cambodia rounded up most of the leadership of the far-left Pracheachon party ahead of parliamentary elections due in June. The newspapers and other publications of the party were also closed. This event effectively ended any above-ground political role for the communist movement in Cambodia.

In July 1962, the underground communist party secretary Tou Samouth was arrested and later killed while in custody. The arrests created a situation where Saloth could become the de facto deputy leader of the party. When Tou Samouth was murdered, Saloth became the acting leader of the communist party. By 1963 Pol Pot had replaced Samouth as party secretary, and Samouth later disappeared under mysterious circumstances. For the next thirteen years Pol Pot and other WPK members disappeared from public view and set up their party organization in a remote forest area.

In early 1964, Saloth convinced the Vietnamese to help the Cambodian Communists set up their own base camp. The central committee of the party met later that year and issued a declaration calling for armed struggle. The declaration also emphasized the idea of "self-reliance" in the sense of extreme Cambodian nationalism. In the border camps, the ideology of the Khmer Rouge was gradually developed. The party, breaking with Marxism, declared rural peasant farmers to be the true working class proletarian and the lifeblood of the revolution.

In April 1965, Saloth went to North Vietnam to gain approval for an uprising in Cambodia against the government. North Vietnam refused to support any uprising because of agreements being negotiated with the Cambodian government. Sihanouk promised to allow the Vietnamese to use Cambodian territory and Cambodian ports in their war against South Vietnam.

In early 1966 fighting broke out in the countryside between peasants and the government over the price paid for rice. Saloth's Khmer Rouge was caught by surprise by the uprisings and was unable to take any real advantage of them. But the government's refusal to find a peaceful solution to the problem created rural unrest that played into the hands of the Communist movement.

It was not until early 1967 that Saloth decided to launch a national uprising, even after North Vietnam refused to assist it in any real way. The uprising was launched on January 18, 1968 with a raid on an army base south of Battambang. The Battambang area had already seen two years of great peasant unrest. The attack was driven off by the army, but the Khmer Rouge had captured a number of weapons, which were then used to drive police forces out of Cambodian villages.

By the summer of 1968, Saloth began the transition from a party leader working with a collective leadership into the absolutist leader of the Khmer Rouge movement. Where before he had shared communal quarters with other leaders, he now had his own compound with a personal staff and a troop of guards. Outsiders were no longer allowed to approach him. Rather, people were summoned into his presence by his staff.

In December 1969 and January 1970 Pol Pot and other CPK leaders prepared to take down Sihanouk. But the military in Phnom Penh beat them to it, overthrowing Sihanouk in March 1970 and bringing Lon Nol to the Cambodian presidency. In October 1970, Saloth issued a resolution in the name of the Central Committee. The resolution stated the principle of independence mastery which was a call for Cambodia to decide its own future independent of the influence of any other country. The resolution also included statements describing the betrayal of the Cambodian Communist movement in the 1950s by the Viet Minh. This was the first statement of the anti-Vietnamese/self sufficiency at all costs ideology that would be a part of the Pol Pot regime when it took power years later.

Over the ensuing years the communists bided their time as they built up their strength for a take-over attempt. They were bolstered by the North Vietnamese who were waging warfare against the Cambodian Government. A major Vietnamese victory in 1971 allowed the Communists to take control of certain areas of the country. In early 1972, Saloth toured the insurgent/Vietnamese controlled areas and Cambodia. He saw a regular Khmer Rouge army of 35,000 men taking shape supported by around 100,000 irregulars. China was supplying five million dollars a year in weapons and Saloth had organised an independent revenue source for the party in the form of rubber plantations in eastern Cambodia using forced labour.

In 1973 the communists launched a major attack on the Government but this was halted by American bombing. In September 1974, Saloth gathered the central committee of the party together. As the military campaign was moving toward a conclusion, Saloth decided to move the party toward implementing a socialist transformation of the country in the form of a series of decisions. The first one was that after their victory, the main cities of the country would be evacuated with the population moved to the countryside. The second was that money would cease to be put into circulation and quickly be phased out. The final decision was the party's acceptance of Saloth's first major purge. In 1974, Saloth had purged a top party official named Prasith. Prasith was taken out into a forest and shot without any chance to defend himself. His death was followed by a purge of cadres who, like Prasith, were ethnically Thai. Saloth offered as explanation that the class struggle had become acute and that a strong stand had to be made against the enemies of the party.

A final Communist assault began on January 1, 1975. This time they were victorious. On April 17, Communist forces entered Phnom Penh. Within 24 hours they had ordered the entire city evacuated. This process was repeated in other cities resulting in more than 2 million Cambodians being forced out of their homes. Many of them starved to death.

Pol Pot was now Prime Minister of Cambodia, which he promptly renamed Kampuchea. In August, 1976 he unveiled his Four Year Plan, which detailed the collectivisation of agriculture, the nationalization of industry and the financing of the economy through increased agricultural exports. This plan caused untold misery to the nation with many thousands dying in the paddy fields. Crops needed to feed the population were marked for export. Malnutrition was rampant, made worse by the Communist insistence on traditional Cambodian medicine. Pol Pot also started the infamous S-21 interrogation center where more than 20,000 men, women and children were tortured to death.

Throughout 1976 and ’77 skirmishes with Vietnam continued. In December 1977 The Vietnamese made real inroads in Kampuchea. Pol Pot, however, held on for another year. Although opposition to Pol Pot was growing among party members, his visits to China and North Korea in September and October 1977 increased his standing among other Asian Communist leaders, even as fighting with Vietnamese border forces grew worse.
In late 1978, in response to threats to its borders and the Vietnamese people, Vietnam attacked Cambodia to overthrow the Khmer Rouge, which Vietnam could justify on the basis of self-defense.

By January, 1979 the Vietnamese forces had actually reached Phnom Penh. They regrouped and established an underground government in western Cambodia and in the Cardamom mountain range. In July 1979 Pol Pot was sentenced to death in absentia (without him being present) for the murder of his own people. The sentence was issued by the new government of the "People's Republic of Kampuchéa," installed with the help of Vietnamese forces. With world attention focused on Cambodia, Pol Pot stepped down as DK prime minister in December 1979. However, he remained as party secretary general and as head of the CPK's military commission, making him the overall commander of the DK's thirty-thousand-man force battling the Vietnamese in Cambodia.
The Kampuchean Government fled by train while Pol Pot was taken by helicopter to Thailand. His last public appearance was an interview in December 1979.

By mid-1980s, with the cooperation of the West and China, the Khmer Rouge had grown to about 35 to 50 thousand troops and committed cadres.
Phnom Malai was the location where in 1981 Pol Pot made his famous declarations denying guilt for the brutalities of the organisation he led:

       "Pol Pot] said that he knows that many people in the country hate him and think he’s responsible for the killings. He said that he knows many people died. When he said this he nearly broke down and cried. He said he must accept responsibility because the line was too far to the left, and because he didn’t keep proper track of what was going on. He said he was like the master in a house he didn’t know what the kids were up to, and that he trusted people too much. For example, he allowed [one person] to take care of central committee business for him, [another person] to take care of intellectuals, and [a third person] to take care of political education.... These were the people to whom he felt very close, and he trusted them completely. Then in the end ... they made a mess of everything.... They would tell him things that were not true, that everything was fine, that this person or that was a traitor. In the end they were the real traitors. The major problem had been cadres formed by the Vietnamese."

Little was known of Pol Pot's activities after that. In September 1985 the DK announced that Pol Pot had retired as commander of the DK's "National Army" and had been appointed to be "Director of the Higher Institute for National Defense."

In 1986, his new wife Mea Son gave birth to a daughter, Sitha, named after an experimental form of North Vietnamese cookery. Shortly after, Pol Pot moved to China for medical treatment for cancer of the face. He remained there until 1988.

In 1989, Vietnam withdrew from Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge established a new stronghold area in the west near the Thai border and Pol Pot relocated back into Cambodia from Thailand. Pol Pot refused to cooperate with the peace process, and kept fighting the new coalition government. The Khmer Rouge kept the government forces at bay until 1996, when troops started deserting. Several important Khmer Rouge leaders also defected. The government had a policy of making peace with Khmer Rouge individuals and groups after negotiations with the organization as a whole failed. In 1995 Pol Pot experienced a stroke that paralyzed the left side of his body.

Pol Pot ordered the execution of his life-long right-hand man Son Sen on June 10, 1997 for attempting to make a settlement with the government. Eleven members of his family were killed also, although Pol Pot later denied that he had ordered this. He then fled his northern stronghold, but was later arrested by Khmer Rouge military Chief Ta Mok. In July he was subjected to a show trial for the death of Son Sen and sentenced to lifelong house arrest

After several years of living underground, Pol Pot was finally captured in June 1997. The Khmer Rouge had suffered from internal conflicts in recent years and finally split into opposing forces, the largest of which joined with the government of Cambodia under Sihanouk and hunted down their former leader. Pol Pot was sentenced to life in prison. For the next 19 years he remained in exile in the Thai jungle. While under house arrest, he died of heart failure on April 15, 1998. According to his wife, he died in his bed later in the night while waiting to be moved to another location.

Sin Sisamouth

    Sin Sisamouth was the top singer-songwriter of the infamous Khmer Rock era of the 1960s and 1970s. He is considered the "King of Khmer Music" for his large contribution in revolutionizing Khmer music as a whole. Much of his work is still used as the standard of quality music when compared with the lackluster talents of many contemporary artists of today. Like many other well-known entertainers of the period, he is presumed to have been executed during the Khmer Rouge era in 1975.

    Sin Sisamuth was born about 1935 in Stung Treng Province, the son of a Chinese-Cambodian (Sino-Khmer) father Sin Leang and he died about May 18, 1975 at Koh Thom district, Kandal province.
    He was the youngest of four siblings, with one brother and two sisters. His father was a prison warden in Battambang Province and was then a soldier during the Colonial Cambodia period. His father died of disease and his mother remarried, and the union resulted in two more children.

    Samouth attended Central Province of Stung Treng Elementary School when he was five. At the age of six or seven, he started to show interest in the guitar, and he would be asked to perform at school functions. He was interested in Buddhist scripture, and he learned Pali from the Buddhist monks. He enjoyed reading books, playing soccer and flying kites.

    In about 1949 he finished elementary school, and went to study about medicine in Phnom Penh, where he lived with an uncle. Despite the rigorous demands of medical school, Sisamouth still managed to find time to learn how to sing and compose songs. Just as he had in elementary school, he became well known in his school for his musical skills and lyrical talent, and was asked to sing at school ceremonies. One prominent elder Khmer statesman from the Sangkum and Lon Nol years, now living in Paris, has made the claim that he hired Sin Sisamouth and his band at his wedding in that year. If the claim is corroborated, this could probably be the first indication of Samouth's earliest public performance at the age of 18.

    In the 1950s he became a protege of Queen Kossomak Nearyrath. He was selected to join the Vong Phleng Preah Reach Troap (classical ensemble of the Royal Treasury) where together with Sos Matt, he performed at royal receptions and state functions. A number of songs he wrote subsequently bore the unmistakable melancholic melodies of traditional Khmer music he performed in those formative years.

    Sometime in the early-1960s a romantic ballad "Violon Sneha", composed by violinist Hass Salan (or Hass Salorn), catapulted Samouth into stardom. Samouth's other hits of the same period include "Srey Sros Khmeng","Anussavry Phnom Kravanh" (Meul phnom thom theng ream reng viyauk..), "(Chett Srey doch) Chong Srol", "Thngay Dob Pee Thnou" (thngay dob pee thnou chhea thngay kann touk sneha..), "Kakey (chheat chhea eung euy sattrey dauch neang Kakey kom k'chey yok khluon biet..)", "KangRey (kuor nass assor dal roub neang Kang Rey..)", "Thngay Muoy Kakkda", "Somros Chhne Keb", "Stung Pursat" (Toeuk ho roheng, ho m'neak eng katt wat song sar..), and "Prek Eng Oss Sangkhim". Three songs from this period were to be re-released much later in the early 1970s. These are "Oudom Duong Chett" available from a popular video site, "Prek Eng Oss Sangkhim" and "Chau Dork" (a clever musical duet with Ros Serey Sothea, showcasing Salan on violin and Samouth on mandolin). Interested readers should look for "Chong Srol" and "Somros Chhne Keb" on the internet. "Chong Srol" is currently freely available from one Khmer internet radio website, as is "Akhara bong sorseh teuv". This latter work, underpinned by a superb piano accompaniement, is a perennial Ramvong favourite at Khmer weddings. Dedicated fans should consider making more of these songs available on the web to future generations of Khmer listeners. They are priceless examples of Samouth's earliest vocal style and the poetry that pervades his art.

Sisamuth and Serysothea

    Beginning in around 1961, Samuth started singing to the radio. His "Champa Batdambang" won immediate acclaim across the country. In a rare 1971 appearance on Khmer Republic radio, Samouth's interviewer recalled that "Champa Batdambang" was the first opening song at the inauguration of the station in 1965.
    He also experimented with Latin music - an infatuation that may have been started by Prince Norodom Sihanouk in compositions such as "Reatry Del Ban Chuop Pheak" and "Phnom Penh". Beginning in 1965 "Khnang phnom anussavry" seemed to mark a change away from the "Champa Batdambang" sound, with the use of the acoustic guitar. Throughout the years, Samouth's ability to re-invent himself musically may well be his greatest attribute and could explain his appeal through different generations of Khmer listeners.

    By the mid-sixties, Samouth's fame had reached its zenith and had him in great demand. One measure of his appeal is examplified in "Prey Prasith", Prince Norodom Sihanouk's second full length feature film. Playing the piano and apparently shown singing the title song he composed, Prince Sihanouk was actually dubbed over by none other than Samouth

Samouth in the 1970s

    As his popularity increased, Samouth could no longer keep up the pace of writing his own material, so he started performing works by other songwriters. He initially picked songs written by Pov Sipho, Svay Som Eur, and Ma Laopi, but he would also occasionally sing songs composed by Mae Bunn, a close friend of his, and Has Salorn. Between 1970 and 1975, he almost exclusively sang songs written by Voy Ho, a long standing colleague. Regardless of who had written the songs, Samouth always managed to make them popular. Samouth also adapted a number of Thai songs into his repertoire, including "Chnam Mun" and "Thnom Snaeh".

    From 1972 to 1973 music publisher Kruoch Polin issued A Collection of Sentimental Songs, which contained 500 of Sinn Sisamouth's songs. It is estimated that he wrote thousands of songs, possibly at least one for each day he was famous, his son Sinn Chaya has said.

    Along with his original works, Samouth also introduced many Western pop tunes to Cambodia, simply writing new verses in Khmer language. Examples include "The House of the Rising Sun" as "I'm Still Waiting for You" (a particularly good showcase of his sustained phrasing and baritone voice), "Black Magic Woman" (influenced by the Santana version) under the title "I Love Petite Women", and "Quando My Love".

Marriage and family

    After finishing medical school, he wedded his girlfriend, Caeo Torng Nyut, in an arranged marriage. They had four children. After the Khmer Rouge, only one daughter and one son survived. His family life deteriorated as a consequence of the pressures of his career and the temptations that his voice attracted. With regard to his relationship with his wife, one of his sons, Sinn Chaya, commented that no woman could pay that price. At the age of thirty, his wife left him to become a Buddhist nun. Interested Khmer readers can view a recent interview she gave, posted on a popular video site. Now in her seventies, with most of her family devastated by the wars, the video also contains her appeal for financial support from Khmer fans of the late singer living overseas.

Friends and interests

    Sinn Sisamouth had a reputation for being very serious about his work. In business affairs, according to publisher Kruoch Polin, he would always deliver what he promised. At home, he was a quiet man, and would sometimes not speak more than ten words in an entire day. When he was not performing, in the daytime, Samouth would go and sit in the backyard and dedicate his time to writing more songs until 5pm and after 5pm, he start listening to the radio. His failure to socialize contributed to a reputation for being elitist.

    His friends at the beginning of his career were songwriters such as Mao Saret, Seang Dee, and Sous Mat. His very close friends were Mae Bunn and Siv Sunn, who was more or less Samouth's personal secretary.
    Samouth was an avid fan of cock-fighting, and he raised fighting birds. In his spare time, he would bet with friends. He exercised regularly by lifting weights every morning. His other interests included reading books at the library and watching French films at the Luch or Prom Bayon cinemas. At night, after he finished performing, Samouth would meet with friends to eat rice porridge.

    Everytime he travel to countries with lots of Cambodians (such as Thailand and France), he would have a concert there.
    He was not a picky eater. He generally preferred to eat Lao food. When he ate Khmer food, he liked to eat pror-huk and phork tpul trey. He never drank wine or soft drinks, ate chili peppers, or smoked cigarettes, all of which would harm his voice.
    He always freely gave up-and-coming singers advice and reminded them to take care of their voices. His affable, caring attitude thus won him favor among his contemporaries.

The Killing Fields

    In the aftermath of the coup d'état by the Lon Nol government on March 18, 1970, which saw the overthrow of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Samouth started to sing propaganda songs in support of the fledgling Khmer Republic. In that rare live 1971 television show mentioned earlier, Samouth appeared in military fatigues, wearing an officer's cap to hide his slightly balding forehead, and performed a number of pro-republican songs. One such songs that became an enduring classic was "Mae Owy Ao Yoann", telling the story of a mother giving a mantra-covered magic vest to her soldier son on his way to battle. Referring to Viet Cong troop movements inside Cambodian territory during the Vietnam War, a verse in the same song claimed that the deposed monarch had sold out Cambodia to the Vietnamese communists. This criticism of the royal family, while understandable at a time of huge political and social changes, was nevertheless unprecedented in Samouth's career, especially as he had been a protege of Queen Kossomak Nearyrath, mother of Prince Sihanouk. By this time however, and save a few memorable works ("changkieng keo teuk","Chey luok nom banchok","Krahob te klenn", "Chau Dork") many have questioned the quality of Samouth's final years' output. It was claimed that his art was becoming formulaic and repetitive, if not trite. One could sense a yearning for normal times by the artist, when he started to re-issue old hits that were long forgotten ("Oudom duong chet", "Prek Eng"). How he could reconcile the hellish tragedy that was consuming Khmer society at the time with the fun-filled, almost surreal detachment of his seventies songs may never be known. It was clear however that by then he had distanced himself entirely from politics and from anything that could be construed as taking side. The Khmer Rouge takeover of Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975 saw Samouth forced to leave the city, along with millions of other residents.

    By this time he had remarried, to a dancer in the royal ballet, who was pregnant with the couple's second child.
    The circumstances of his death in the Killing Fields are unknown, but he had connections with the old government, was highly educated, and was an artist — all trappings of a society that Pol Pot sought to eradicate. One apocryphal story is that before he was to be executed, Samouth asked he be allowed to sing a song for the cadre, but the cold-hearted communist soldiers were unmoved and after he finished singing, killed him anyway. One recent interview of Samouth's former wife is available on a popular internet video site. Besides an appeal for financial support for the humble remnants of Samouth's impoverished family, Samouth's widow relates memories of her famed husband.

Lon Nol

Lon nol with second family

    Nol was born in Prey Veng Province on November 13, 1913, to a family of mixed Chinese–Khmer descent. His father, Lon Hin, served as a district chief in Siem Reap and Kampong Thom, after making a name for himself 'pacifying' bandit groups in Prey Veng. Nol was educated in the relatively privileged surroundings of the Lycée Chasseloup-Laubat in Saigon, followed by the Cambodian Royal Military Academy.

1937-1955
    In 1937, Nol found employment with the French colonial civil service. He became a magistrate, and soon proved himself as an efficient enforcer of French rule against a series of anti-colonial disturbances in 1939. By 1946, he had risen to the post of Governor of Kratie Province. He became an associate of King Norodom Sihanouk, and by the late 1940s, when he set up a right-wing, monarchist, pro-independence political group, was becoming increasingly involved in the developing Cambodian political scene. Joining the army in 1952, he carried out military operations against the Viet Minh.

    After independence, Nol's nationalist Khmer Renovation party (along with small right-wing parties headed by Sam Sary and Dap Chhuon) became the core of the Sangkum, the organisation set up by Sihanouk to fight the 1955 elections.

1955-1970
    In 1955, Nol was appointed the Army Chief of Staff, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces in 1960, as well as serving as Defence Minister. At the time, he was a trusted supporter of Sihanouk, his police being instrumental in the suppression of the small, clandestine communist movement in Cambodia. In 1963, He was appointed deputy Premier. While Sihanouk-in an attempt to distance his country from the effects of the Second Indochina War - was pursuing a foreign policy of "extreme neutrality", which involved association with China and toleration of North Vietnamese activity on the eastern borders, Nol remained friendly towards the United States, and indicated that he regretted the ending of American aid after 1963.

    The 1966 parliamentary elections represented a major shift in the balance of power towards Lon Nol and the rightist elements of the Sangkum, as conservative and right-wing candidates were overwhelmingly elected. Lon Nol became Prime Minister, and the following year his troops were used by Sihanouk to carry out a savage repression of a leftist-inspired revolt, the Samlaut Uprising, in Battambang Province.

    Nol was injured in a car crash later in 1967, and temporarily retired from politics. In 1968, however, he returned as Minister of Defence and in 1969 became Prime Minister a second time, appointing the vocally anti-Sihanouk, and pro-US politician Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak as his deputy.

    Sihanouk later claimed that the 1970 coup against him was the result of an alliance between his longstanding enemy, exiled politician Son Ngoc Thanh and Sirik Matak, with CIA support and planning. It seems likely that Lon Nol initially intended to strengthen his position against the North Vietnamese with the ultimate aim of preventing their troops (and those of the Viet Cong) from operating within Cambodian borders, and wished to apply pressure on Sihanouk to achieve this. However, events rapidly developed far beyond the original plan, and with the encouragement of Sirik Matak - who wished to see Sihanouk deposed as Head of State - Lon Nol was ultimately to engineer Sihanouk's removal.

    While Sihanouk was abroad during March 1970, there were anti-Vietnamese riots in Phnom Penh. On 12 March, Lon Nol and Sirik Matak closed the port of Sihanoukville, through which weapons were being smuggled to the Viet Cong, to the North Vietnamese and issued an ultimatum: all PAVN (North Vietnamese) and NLF (Viet Cong) forces were to withdraw from Cambodian soil within 72 hours or face military action.

    Lon Nol initially refused to countenance Sihanouk being deposed as Head of State; to force his hand, Sirik Matak played him a tape-recorded press conference from Paris, in which Sihanouk blamed them for the unrest and threatened to execute them both on his return to Phnom Penh. However, the Prime Minister remained uncertain as to whether to instigate a vote in the National Assembly. On the night of 17 March, Sirik Matak, accompanied by three army officers, went to the Prime Ministers's residence and compelled a weeping Lon Nol to sign the necessary documents at gunpoint.

    A vote was taken in the National Assembly on 18 March in which Sihanouk was stripped of his power. Lon Nol assumed the powers of the Head of State on an emergency basis. On 28 and 29 March there were large-scale popular demonstrations in favour of Sihanouk in several provincial cities, but Lon Nol's forces suppressed them, causing several hundred deaths. The Khmer Republic was formally declared that October, and Sihanouk - who had formed a government-in-exile, the GRUNK, incorporating the Khmer Rouge communists - was condemned to death in absentia. In the meantime, the Cambodian Campaign of April 1970, in which US and South Vietnamese forces entered Cambodian territory in pursuit of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, had irrevocably involved Lon Nol's regime in the Second Indochina War.

President of Cambodia, 1970-1975

    The Khmer Republic (1970-1975) was founded in order to do away with Cambodia's widespread corruption and to restore Cambodia's sovereignty in its eastern regions, occupied by Vietnamese communist insurgents as a result of Sihanouk's "neutrality" policies. Despite its high aims, the republic proved disastrous both militarily and politically. Lon Nol's health started to decline after he suffered a stroke in February 1971. His rule became increasingly erratic and authoritarian: he appointed himself Marshal (a title previously unknown in Cambodia) in April 1971, and in October suspended the National Assembly, stating he would "no longer play the game of democracy". Backed by his forceful, ambitious younger brother Lon Non, Nol succeeded in reducing the influence of Sirik Matak, In Tam and the other coup leaders. He also insisted on directing many of the Khmer National Armed Forces operations personally.

    In time Lon Nol's regime became completely dependent upon large quantities of American aid that towards the end were not backed by the political and military resolve needed to effectively help the beleaguered republic. By 1975, the government was eventually reduced to holding little more than Phnom Penh. The FANK had run out of ammunition. Lon Nol was increasingly dependent on the advice of soothsayers and Buddhist mystics: at one point during a Khmer Rouge assault on Phnom Penh, he sprinkled a circular line of consecrated sand in order to defend the city. Finally, on April 1, 1975, he resigned and fled the country into exile, as the Khmer Rouge had vowed to execute him.