Lon Nol
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Premier Lon Nol (November 13, 1913 - November 17, 1985) was a Cambodian politician who served two times as Prime Minister of Cambodia in addition to serving other times as Defence Minister.
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[edit] Biography
Born in Prey Veng Province on November 13, 1913, Lon Nol was educated by the French for the civil service. He became a provincial governor in 1946, and he rose to become the first leader of the Cambodian police and then held a series of important military posts. He became chief of staff, in 1955, and, by 1960, he held the dual position of supreme commander of the military and minister of defense. In 1966 and 1967, he served as prime minister. In 1969, after the Cambodian left went underground, he became prime minister a second time. He is the only head of state whose name is a palindrome.
[edit] The removal of Sihanouk as Head of State
While Prince Norodom Sihanouk was away on a trip to Moscow and Beijing being treated for cancer, Premier Lon Nol assumed the position of head of state under the new Khmer Republic/République khmère government.
On March 18, 1970, the National Assembly was convened, and voted unanimously to depose Sihanouk as head of state. Lon Nol, who had been serving as prime minister, was granted emergency powers. Prince Sirik Matak, a royal prince who, in 1941, had been passed over by the French government in favor of his cousin Norodom Sihanouk's leadership role, retained his post as Deputy Prime Minister.
Although no hard evidence exists as proof many historians believe that the 1970 removal of Sihanouk was in part CIA backed. Lon Nol's ousting of Sihanouk was beneficial to the United States in that the United States wanted an end to Cambodian policies which allowed the Vietnamese to base troops in the east of the country and allowed North Vietnam to move military supplies into the country through Cambodian ports. The United States to this day deny the allegations of involvement in the 1970 removal of Sihanouk.
[edit] Vietnam War involvement
Following Sihanouk's exit, Lon Nol demanded that the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong leave Cambodia. He also closed the ports of Cambodia to military supplies for the Vietnamese forces. Sihanouk had, in 1965, made a secret deal with North Vietnam and China which allowed those countries to use Cambodia as a base area for the war on South Vietnam. In 1968, he struck another secret deal with the Americans allowing them to Bomb eastern Cambodia. Lon Nol allowed American and ARVN forces to cross occasionally into Cambodia. The government also assumed a pro-Western, anti-Communist stance. The goal of American bombings in Cambodia was to destroy North Vietnamese and National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) bases in the area.
Soon after, the North Vietnamese and Chinese increased military aid to the Khmer Rouge who had been fighting against the government since 1968. Sihanouk, in China, allied himself to the communists and allowed himself to be used as a figurehead for the anti-government forces. The townspeople refused the government of Lon Nol's orders to remove the Prince's portrait, and they burned down the house of the new governor whom Lon Nol had appointed. Demonstrators gathered in buses and trucks to march on Phnom Penh. They were halted by an army roadblock, and about ninety people were killed or wounded.
The most vivid display of anger against Lon Nol occurred, again in Kompong Cham, when peasants seized his brother Lon Nil, killed him and tore his liver from his stomach. The trophy was taken into a Chinese restaurant, where the owner was ordered to cook and slice it. Morsels were handed to everyone in the streets around[1].
[edit] Civil War
The Cambodian Civil War then began between the Khmer National Armed Forces (FANK) loyal to Nol and the Cambodian People's National Liberation Armed Forces (which was under the total control by the Khmer Rouge). Though the civil war is dated from this time, the insurgency against the government by the Khmer Rouge started in 1968. The escalation in the civil war was due to North Vietnam greatly increasing its military and material aid to the Khmer Rouge after Lon Nol came to power. Because he had abolished the monarchy and established the Khmer Republic, Nol was widely unpopular in the countryside, where support for Sihanouk was strong. Sihanouk formed a government-in-exile in Beijing known as the Royal Government of the National Union of Kampuchea (GRUNK), and a political coalition known as the National United Front of Kampuchea (FUNK), urging resistance to Nol. Sihanouk served as a useful symbol of resistance for the Khmer Rouge, who consolidated control in GRUNK and FUNK and rallied peasants to join the insurgency.
With his country descending into civil war, Nol turned to the Americans for assistance. On November 18, 1970, U.S. President Richard Nixon responded by requesting Congress to approve $155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government ($85 million was allocated for military assistance.) The Nixon administration and the CIA maintained friendly relations with Nol's government, having been frustrated with Prince Sihanouk's semi-neutral policies. The United States was angered that, although officially neutral, Sihanouk allowed the NVA, PAVN and Viet Cong free-rein within Cambodia to wage war against South Vietnam. However, despite U.S. aid, Nol was unable to defeat either the North Vietnamese forces or the Khmer Rouge. In the name of "neutralism" and out of fear of a coup, Sihanouk had kept the Cambodian army small. Despite large numbers of volunteers, the Cambodian Army was simply outmatched by a Vietnamese opponent with heavy weapons and years of war experience. Given that the entire country quickly turned into a war zone, economic destablization and refugees meant that no amount of money could make the situation better. With the unlimited material backing of China and Vietnam, the direct assistance of the North Vietnamese Army and with Sihanouk as a figurehead, the Khmer Rouge advanced their control of the countryside
[edit] Exile
By 1975, the government was eventually reduced to holding little more than Phnom Penh. At one point during a Khmer Rouge assault on Phnom Penh, Nol resorted to tradition and sprinkled a circular line of magic sand in order to defend the city. Finally, on April 1, 1975, Nol resigned and fled the country into exile in Hawaii. He had reason to flee in that the Khmer Rouge, with the implicit approval of Sihanouk, had published a death list with his name at the top. His brother Lon Non, Long Boret and Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak and other Khmer Republic officials whose names were not published on the death list chose to stay behind. Additionally, they made the assumption that either the Khmer Rouge would be moderate in victory or that Sihanouk could restrain them. They were summarily executed by the Khmer Rouge after Phnom Penh was captured on April 17, 1975.
Lon Nol fled Cambodia to Indonesia and first settling in Hawaii and then moved in 1979 to Fullerton, California. He died on November 17, 1985.
[edit] See also
| Preceded by Prince Norodom Kantol |
Prime Minister of Cambodia 1966–1967 |
Succeeded by Son Sann |
| Preceded by Penn Nouth |
Prime Minister of Cambodia 1969–1972 |
Succeeded by Sisowath Sirik Matak |
| Preceded by Cheng Heng (Head of State) |
President of Cambodia 1972–1975 |
Succeeded by Prince Norodom Sihanouk (Head of State) |
