Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
was surrounded by lawyers, teachers, engineers, and diplomats—the best and brightest a
depleted Cambodia had to offer.
Hun Sen's Foreign Ministry, housed in a decaying building on the shady Tonlé Sap
promenade, recreated the comradeship of barracks life; it was reportedly a relaxed place,
came up in Hun Sen's ministry would go on to be appointed to high-ranking positions
throughout the government. Sok An, the ambassador to India in the late 1980s, was later
installed in the Office of the Council of Ministers, where he became Hun Sen's grand
vizier and
consigliere
; Cham Prasidh entered the Foreign Ministry as an interpreter in
the early 1980s and was appointed Commerce Minister in 1994; Dith Munty became the
president of the Cambodian Supreme Court. Another key figure was Hor Namhong, an
experienced diplomat from the Sihanouk years, who succeeded Hun Sen as foreign min-
ister in 1989.
In the more immediate term, these figures formed a crucial support network for Hun
Sen as he found his feet in the international arena. On the road in the early 1980s—in
Vietnam, Laos, Africa, the Soviet bloc—Hun Sen was accompanied everywhere by trus-
ted senior diplomats and advisors. With the help of his young aides, Hun Sen's political
education continued. They taught him basic French and English and produced summaries
1980s, the same small group was always at his side—interpreting, taking notes, offering
quiet counsel.
Hun Sen also showed a talent for oratory. In an attempt to tweak his public speaking, he
recorded himself speaking and then reviewed the tapes, making adjustments to his rhythm
Hun Sen was able to soak up large amounts of information and then repeat it in fluent
lectures later on. “He had no diploma, Hun Sen, but he had brains,” Pheng said. “All the
ministers respected him.” Outsiders were equally impressed. In interviews with Western
visitors, Hun Sen would typically speak for an hour and a half without notes, his aides
scribbling away on either side. Then he would stop, light up a “555”-brand cigarette, his
favored variety, and field questions. Hun Sen “would lean back and chain-smoke and
stare out the window or up at the ceiling,” said Herod of CWS, who accompanied visitors
to meetings with Hun Sen throughout the 1980s. “He would just blow smoke and give his
answers. Nothing ever tripped him up.”
Hun Sen's quick rise brought him into inevitable conflict with his older party col-
leagues—particularly Chea Sim, who had also established a large personal power base
after 1979. The incipient rivalry between the two men could be traced along geographic
lines. In his home province of Kampong Cham, Hun Sen built a family empire, appoint-
ing his brother Hun Neng as provincial party secretary in 1985 and filling the adminis-
