Historical figure
Lon Nol
Lon Nol (លន់ នល់) was a Cambodian general who led his country's government from 1970 to 1975.[1][2][3] He was prime minister and, from 1972, president of the Khmer Republic (សាធារណរដ្ឋខ្មែរ).[2][3] He held power after the National Assembly removed Prince Norodom Sihanouk as head of state in March 1970,[3] and he left Cambodia shortly before the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh in April 1975.[4][1]
Early life and career
Lon Nol was born in November 1913, of Khmer and Chinese descent.[4][2] His father held a junior government post in a province on Cambodia's border with Vietnam. He went to an elite secondary school in Saigon, where Sihanouk was one of his schoolmates. After he finished school in 1934, he joined the civil service. He rose through judicial, administrative and military posts.[4] Under French rule he served as a provincial governor.[1]
From 1955 to 1966 he was both defense minister and head of the general staff.[2] In 1960 he became the top commander of the Khmer Royal Armed Forces, and in 1963 he was also made deputy prime minister. He was prime minister from 1966 to 1967. He then became first vice president, responsible for defense.[1] In August 1969 Sihanouk put him and Sirik Matak, the deputy prime minister, in charge of the country's economic problems.[5]
Change of government in 1970
In early 1970 Sihanouk was abroad. On March 18, 1970, the Council of the Kingdom and the National Assembly voted unanimously to remove him from power. Days of anti-Sihanouk demonstrations in Phnom Penh and provincial towns came before the vote. The new leaders included Lon Nol as prime minister and defense minister, Sirik Matak as first deputy prime minister, Cheng Heng as provisional head of state and In Tam as president of the National Assembly.[3]
Whether the vote was a coup or a lawful removal is debated in Cambodia. The new government held that the Assembly had acted within the constitution, since it had named Sihanouk head of state in 1960.[3] A memorandum from Henry Kissinger to President Richard Nixon, dated the next day, called the Assembly's declaration of doubtful constitutionality. It named Lon Nol, backed by the army, as one of the main holders of power in Cambodia.[5] The researcher Stéphanie Benzaquen-Gautier wrote that "if 18 March was not a coup, it looked very much like one" to most observers.[3]
Who stood behind the change is also disputed. Sihanouk later called it a long-planned putsch carried out with the help of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Other observers saw a struggle between rival factions. The US government denied any part in the events.[3] On the Kissinger memorandum of March 19, 1970, Nixon wrote that he wanted Richard Helms to develop and carry out a plan for the greatest possible assistance to pro-US elements in Cambodia.[5]
In 1970 Vietnamese residents of Cambodia were attacked. Benzaquen-Gautier wrote that "pogroms and killings made hundreds, possibly thousands, of victims", and that international outrage and the reaction of South Vietnam, Cambodia's new ally, forced the leaders in Phnom Penh to end the violence.[3]
Khmer Republic (សាធារណរដ្ឋខ្មែរ)
In the spring of 1970, US and South Vietnamese troops entered Cambodia to destroy communist supply bases. They withdrew in June, and the fighting with communist forces grew.[4][1] The Khmer Republic was proclaimed on October 9, 1970, ending the monarchy.[3][4]
Lon Nol enlarged an army of about 35,000 men with some 150,000 young recruits. He urged them to defend Buddhism against the Vietnamese communists. Despite United States military aid, his forces lost ground. By mid-1973 the insurgents held more than three quarters of the country.[4] US military and economic aid to his government came to more than $1 billion.[1]
He had a stroke in February 1971, which left him partly paralyzed. US officials followed his health closely.[3][4] He was named president in 1972 and kept the post until 1975. From 1972 to 1974 he was also supreme commander of the armed forces.[2] He won the presidential election of June 1972. Benzaquen-Gautier wrote that the US government knew of the irregularities behind his win but praised the result.[3]
Critics on the Western left saw the Republic as Sihanouk's authoritarian rule in a new form. They pointed to power held by one man and his circle, rule by decree, the suspension of the National Assembly and limits on the press. Benzaquen-Gautier wrote that corruption spread through the government and the army during the war.[3] The Los Angeles Times wrote that he was unable to cure inflation and corruption.[4]
Lon Nol seldom left his official palace and relied on his inner circle for information. He consulted astrologers when he faced decisions.[1] He set out theories of a Mon-Khmer civilization and hoped for a pure Khmer race. His book of thoughts, The New Khmer Way, was mocked in Phnom Penh circles in 1973. The journalist Elizabeth Becker noted that such views had long run through Cambodian thinking about national identity and could appeal to ordinary people.[3] Opinion on him in Washington was divided. The White House saw him as the predominant political figure in Cambodia, while the Pentagon and the CIA warned about his fitness to lead.[3]
Fall and exile
The Khmer Rouge began a final offensive on January 1, 1975. Cambodian politicians and younger generals pressed Lon Nol to resign, a move the United States supported. He left Phnom Penh on April 1, 1975, a few weeks before the Khmer Rouge entered the city.[1] The Los Angeles Times wrote at his death that between 1 million and 3 million Cambodians were believed to have died under Khmer Rouge rule.[4]
He first lived in Hawaii. In 1979 he moved to Fullerton, California, with Sovanna, his wife, and several of his nine children.[4] In a 1979 interview he said he considered himself the president of the Khmer Republic. Because of his health he could not take an active part in the Cambodian community of Southern California, though its members often asked his advice. Sophon Chhoeng, president of the Cambodian Buddhists Association of Orange County, said Lon Nol told him he missed Cambodia very much.[4]
Lon Nol died at the age of 72 in a Fullerton hospital on November 17, 1985. UPI reported the cause as an apparent heart attack.[2][1][4]
References 5
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 UPI Archives, Former Cambodian leader, Lon Nol, dead at 72 (November 18, 1985)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 UPI Archives, Lon Nol, who led the coup against Cambodian Prince... (November 17, 1985)
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 South East Asia Research, Stéphanie Benzaquen-Gautier, The relational archive of the Khmer Republic (1970 to 1975): re-visiting the "coup" and the "civil war" in Cambodia through written sources (November 5, 2021)
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 Los Angeles Times, Penelope McMillan, Ex-Cambodian President Lon Nol Dies in Fullerton (November 18, 1985)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Office of the Historian, US Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969 to 1976, volume VI, document 205: Memorandum from Henry Kissinger to President Nixon, "The Coup in Cambodia" (March 19, 1970)
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