History of Cambodia
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Charktomok Era
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The Cambodian coup of 1970 refers to the removal of the Cambodian Head of State, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, after a vote in the National Assembly on 18 March 1970. Emergency powers were subsequently invoked by the Prime Minister Lon Nol, who became effective head of state. The coup led ultimately to the proclamation of the Khmer Republic (République khmère) later that year, and was a turning point in the Cambodian Civil War. Not a monarchy any longer, Cambodia received the semi-official appellation "État du Cambodge" (State of Cambodia) in the intervening six months after the coup, until the republic was proclaimed.^[1]

It also marked the point at which Cambodia became substantially involved in the Second Indochina War, as Lon Nol issued an ultimatum to Vietnamese forces to leave Cambodia.

Background[link]

Since independence from France in 1954, Cambodia had been led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk, whose Sangkum political movement had retained power after winning the 1955 parliamentary election. In 1963, Sihanouk had forced the National Assembly to approve a constitutional amendment that made him head of state with no fixed term of office. He had retained domestic power through a combination of political manipulation, intimidation, patronage, and careful balancing of left- and right-wing elements within his government; whilst placating the right with nationalist rhetoric, he appropriated much of the language of socialism to marginalize the Cambodian communist movement, who he proprietorially referred to as the Khmers Rouges ("Red Khmers").

With the Second Indochina War escalating, Sihanouk's balancing act between left and right became harder to maintain. Cross-border smuggling of rice also began to have a serious effect on the Cambodian economy.^[2] In the Cambodian elections of 1966, the usual Sangkum policy of having one candidate in each electoral district was abandoned; there was a huge swing to the right, especially as left-wing deputies had to compete directly with members of the traditional elite, who were able to use their local influence.^[3] Although a few communists within the Sangkum - such as Hou Yuon and Khieu Samphan - chose to stand, most leftists were decisively defeated. Lon Nol, a rightist who had been a longstanding associate of Sihanouk, became Prime Minister.

By 1969, Lon Nol and the rightists were growing increasingly frustrated with Sihanouk. Although the basis for this was partly economic, political considerations were also involved. In particular, the nationalist and anti-communist sensibilities of Lon Nol and his associates meant that Sihanouk's policy of semi-toleration of Viet Cong and Vietnam People's Army activity within Cambodian borders was unacceptable; Sihanouk, during his swing to the left in 1963-66, had negotiated a secret arrangement with Hanoi whereby in return for the guaranteed purchase of rice at inflated prices, the port of Sihanoukville was opened for weapons shipments to the Viet Cong. As well as the rightist nationalists, the liberal modernising elements within the Sangkum, headed by In Tam, had also become increasingly alienated by Sihanouk's autocratic style.

There is evidence that during 1969 Lon Nol approached the US military establishment to gauge military support for any action against Sihanouk.^[4] Lon Nol's appointee as deputy Prime Minister, Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak - a US-friendly nationalist and leader of the Cambodian business community - is thought to have suggested that Sihanouk should be assassinated, though Lon Nol rejected this plan as "criminal insanity".^[5] Sihanouk himself thought that Sirik Matak (who he characterised as a jealous rival claimant to the Cambodian throne) backed by the CIA, and in contact with exiled Sihanouk opponent Son Ngoc Thanh, had suggested the coup plan to Lon Nol in 1969.^[6] CIA involvement in the coup plot remains unproven, and Henry Kissinger later claimed that events would take the US government by surprise, but it seems likely that at least some military intelligence agents were partly culpable.^[7] It is also known that the US military had drawn up plans for an invasion of Cambodia in 1966-7, and were upset that Lyndon B. Johnson would not approve them.^[8]

Declassified documents indicate that, as late as March 1970, the Nixon administration was hoping to garner "friendly relations" with Sihanouk.

Sihanouk Deposed as Head of State[link]

In March 1970, while Sihanouk was touring Europe, the Soviet Union and China, large-scale anti-Vietnamese demonstrations erupted in Phnom Penh. Crowds attacked the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong (Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam) embassies. Sihanouk initially gave a certain degree of support to the demonstrators; he hoped Moscow and Beijing would pressure North Vietnam to reduce its presence in Cambodia. Indeed, it has even been suggested (by William Shawcross and others) that Sihanouk and Lon Nol may have planned the first demonstrations to gain political leverage against Hanoi.

The riots, however, escalated beyond the government's control - although this was likely done with a degree of encouragement from Lon Nol and Sirik Matak - and the embassy was sacked. Inside, a "contingency plan" was allegedly found for the communists to occupy Cambodia. On 12 March, Sirik Matak cancelled Sihanouk's trade agreement with North Vietnam; Lon Nol closed the port of Sihanoukville to the North Vietnamese and issued an impossible ultimatum to them: all PAVN (People's Army of Vietnam aka. North Vietnamese Army) and NLF (National Liberation Front aka. Viet Cong) forces were to withdraw from Cambodian soil within 72 hours (on 15 March) or face military action.^[9] When, by the morning of March 16, it was clear that this demand had not been met, some 30,000 youths gathered outside the National Assembly in Phnom Penh to protest against the Vietnamese presence.

From this point, events were to move with increasing rapidity. On the same day, the Cambodian Secretary of State for Defence, Colonel Oum Mannorine (Sihanouk's brother-in-law), was scheduled to be questioned by the national legislature on allegations of corruption; the proceedings were adjourned to hear the demonstrators' resolutions. According to Sihanouk, Mannorine had received information that Lon Nol and Sirik Matak were about to precipitate a coup; a group of Mannorine's men, under the command of Phnom Penh's Chief of Police Major Buor Horl, attempted to arrest the plotters, but it was by then too late.^[10] Mannorine, and other key security personnel loyal to Sihanouk, were placed under arrest. After the Assembly adjourned for the day, Sihanouk's mother Queen Kossamak, at Sihanouk's request, summoned Lon Nol and Sirik Matak to the Royal Palace and asked them to end the demonstrations.^[11]

It appears to have been sometime during 16 or 17 March that Sirik Matak finally swayed Lon Nol to remove Sihanouk from the government. Lon Nol, who until that point may have been merely hoping that Sihanouk would end his relations with North Vietnam, showed some reluctance to take action against the Head of State: to convince him, Sirik Matak allegedly played him a tape-recorded press conference from Paris, in which Sihanouk threatened to execute them both on his return to Phnom Penh.^[12] However, the Prime Minister remained uncertain, with the result that Sirik Matak, accompanied by three army officers, finally compelled a weeping Lon Nol to sign the necessary documents at gunpoint.

The next day - 18 March - the army took up positions around the capital, and a debate was held within the National Assembly under In Tam's direction. One member of the Assembly (Kim Phon, later to be killed by pro-Sihanouk demonstrators in Kompong Cham) walked out of the proceedings in protest, though was not harmed at the time. The rest of the assembly voted unanimously to invoke Article 122 of the Cambodian constitution, which withdrew confidence in Sihanouk. Lon Nol took over the powers of the Head of State on an emergency basis, while the position itself was taken by the President of the General Assembly, Cheng Heng. In Tam was confirmed as President of the Sangkum. The coup had, therefore, followed essentially constitutional forms rather than being a blatant military takeover.^[13] These events marked the foundation of the Khmer Republic.

Demonstrations against the coup[link]

On March 23, Sihanouk (via Beijing Radio) called for a general uprising against Lon Nol. Large-scale popular demonstrations calling for Sihanouk's return began in Kompong Cham, Takéo Province, and Kampot Province.^[14] The demonstrations in Kompong Cham became particularly violent, with two National Assembly deputies, Sos Saoun and Kim Phon, being killed by demonstrators on 26 March after driving to the town to negotiate. Lon Nol's brother, police official Lon Nil, was set upon in the nearby town of Tonle Bet by plantation workers and was also killed.

The demonstrations were suppressed with extreme brutality by the Cambodian army; there were several hundred deaths and thousands of arrests. Some witnesses spoke of tanks being used against crowds of unarmed civilians.^[14]

Aftermath[link]

While Lon Nol initially continued dialogue with the North Vietnamese, who hoped to renegotiate their agreements, the American and South Vietnamese invasion of south-eastern Cambodia in the Cambodian Campaign of the following month was to radically and irrevocably alter Cambodia's involvement in the Second Indochina War. The brutality of the Lon Nol regime is often cited as a factor in the rise of the Khmer Rouge due to increased anti-rightist and anti-American sentiment among the Cambodian people.

Numerous nations cut off ties with Cambodia because they only recognised the ousted Royal Government.

See also[link]

• Khmer Republic
• First Indochina War
• Cambodian Civil War
• Laotian Civil War (also referred to as the Laotian Secret War)
• Vietnam War (also referred to as the Second Indochina War)
• 1997 Cambodian Coup

References[link]

• U.S. Department of State; Foreign Relations, 1969-1976, Vietnam, January 1969-July 1970

This article contains Khmer text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Khmer script.

Lon Nol (Khmer: លន់ នល់; November 13, 1913 – November 17, 1985) was a Cambodian politician and general who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice, as well as serving repeatedly as Defense Minister. He led a military coup against Prince Norodom Sihanouk and became self-proclaimed President of the newly created Khmer Republic.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Nol was born in Prey Veng Province on November 13, 1913, to a family of mixed Chinese–Khmer descent.^[1][2] 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.^[3] Nol was educated in the relatively privileged surroundings of the Lycée Chasseloup-Laubat in Saigon, followed by the Cambodian Royal Military Academy.

Employment in the colonial government[link]

Nol found employment with the French colonial civil service in 1937. He became a magistrate, and soon proved himself as an efficient enforcer of French rule against a series of anti-colonial disturbances in 1939.^[3] 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.^[4]

In the administration of Sihanouk, 1955–70[link]

Nol was appointed the Army Chief of Staff in 1955, 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. He was appointed deputy Premier in 1963. 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 US aid after 1963.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.

The 1970 Coup[link]

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.^[7] Irrespective of any claims to the contrary, there is no concrete evidence of CIA involvement in the 1970 coup. [References for this are as follows: Wilfred P. Deac, "Road to the Killing Fields: The Cambodian War of 1970-1975" (Texas A&M University Press, 1997) pp.61-2; Robert Dallek, "Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power," (Harper Collins, 2007), p.191; Steve Heder "Cambodian Communism and the Vietnamse Model, Volume I: Imitation and Independence, 1930-1975," (White Lotus Press, 2004), p.156.]  : 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.^[8] 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.^[9]

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.^[10] 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.^[11]

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.^[12] 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.

Lon Nol became the first and only President of Cambodia in 1970. Lok Sena Bra Mok Lon Nol (President Lon Nol)

The Khmer Republic and the Civil War[link]

Flag of the Khmer Republic.

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 (French: Forces Armées Nationales Khmères – FANK) 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.^[13] 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.

Exile[link]

The first priority of the Khmer Rouge after conquering Cambodia and overthrowing the Khmer Republic was to execute all its leaders and high officials without delay,^[13] a fate that Lon Nol escaped.

Lon Nol fled from Cambodia to Indonesia and then to the United States; first settling in Hawaii and in 1979 in Fullerton, California. He died on November 17, 1985.

Political views[link]

Despite his actions in deposing Sihanouk, Nol was a firm believer in traditional Cambodian hierarchy: after Sihanouk had been removed he prostrated himself at the Queen Mother's feet in order to ask forgiveness.^[14] He termed his ideology, a blend of chauvinist nationalism and mysticsm, as 'Neo-Khmerism': he expressed an ambition of reuniting the ethnic Khmers of Cambodia with the Khmer Krom of the Mekong Delta and the Khmer Surin of Thailand, projecting a state of "thirty million" Khmers by the year 2020.^[15] Asking his followers to embrace the traditions of what he referred to as Mon-Khmer 'holy warriors' (yuthesel), he also encouraged them to refer to him as their "Black Papa", a name referring to the dark skin considered to be the sign of an 'authentic' Khmer.^[16]

See also[link]

• Lon Nil
• Lon Non

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Kiernan, B. (2004). How Pol Pot came to Power. Yale University Press. 
• Shawcross, W. (1979). Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia. Simon & Schuster. 

External links[link]

• General Lon Nol
• The removal of Sihanouk
• Pol Pot
• Sebastian Strangio, "Revisiting Lon Nol’s Cambodia: A look back at Lon Nol’s ill-fated gamble on democracy in Cambodia," The Phnom Penh Post, March 18 2010.