Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Pierre de Langlade, the French military commander in Cambodia, he was “a madman, but
a madman of genius.”
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As independence dawned, Cambodia's prospects seemed bright. Unlike Vietnam, the
1954 Geneva Conference that ended French rule over Indochina had left Cambodia
united, and, for the time being, at peace. King Sihanouk took charge of his country. Strait-
jacketed by the duties of kingship, he abdicated the throne in 1955 to take a more active
role in politics. Over the next 15 years Sihanouk built a powerful political movement, the
Sangkum Reastr Niyum (People's Socialist Community), which monopolized Cambodi-
an political life and provided an organizational vehicle for his enormous popularity. He
also built up the education system, sculpted Phnom Penh into a modern capital, and ex-
panded the country's small agrarian economy.
The country's “Golden Age,” as many Cambodians would later remember it, was dom-
inated by Sihanouk's personality—his foibles, obsessions, and eccentricities. Until 1970,
when he was deposed in a coup, the prince (as he now was) cultivated a reputation as a
great Renaissance man, combining bravura statesmanship with side roles as his country's
most prominent filmmaker, journalist, musician, and football coach. Like many of his
royal forebears, Sihanouk had numerous concubines and fathered a total of 14 children by
five women. “Such was his kingdom,” wrote the Australian journalist John Pilger, “feud-
al, unpredictable, preposterous and, in relation to events in the region, at peace.”
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As Vietnam edged toward civil war, Sihanouk struggled to keep Cambodia neutral,
dancing delicately between East and West. Initially, he accepted US aid and maintained
good relations with the communist bloc, forging close friendships with Chinese Premier
Zhou Enlai and North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Il-sung. Sihanouk's constant political
U-turns bewildered many outside observers, but the prince contended that he was motiv-
ated throughout by a consistent aim: the defense of his country's neutrality, independence,
and territorial integrity. In truth, Sihanouk saw little distinction between his own interests
and those of his country. The support and love of the “little people,” as he referred to or-
dinary Cambodians, fostered a lifelong conviction that he alone could keep his country
united and at peace.
Sihanouk's Cambodia was often depicted as a fairy-tale princedom—a peaceful island
of golden-spired pagodas—but the country was riven with major inequalities of power
and wealth. Cambodia had no tradition of power-sharing or democratic elections, and
Sihanouk's modernized absolutism left little room for dissent. Throughout his time in
power, he tightened the screws on his parliamentary opponents, convincing or forcing
most to abandon their parties and join the Sangkum, which furnished nearly all the can-
didates for elections held in 1958 and 1962. Opposition newspapers were shut down and
Sihanouk's security apparatus ruthlessly harassed opponents who held out. Chief among
