NOL (nohl)
Lon
Nol: Former Prime Minister of Cambodia
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Lon ___; Lon ___ of Cambodia; Former Cambodian leader Lon; Khmer
Rouge foe Lon
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Lon
Nol (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.
Nol
was born in Prey Veng Province on November 13, 1913, to a family
of mixed Chinese–Khmer descent. 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. Nol was
educated in the relatively privileged surroundings of the Lycée
Chasseloup-Laubat in Saigon, followed by the Cambodian Royal
Military Academy.
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.
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. 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.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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.
Akkek Sena Tekka Kong Tok Lon Nol or Lok Sena Bra Mok Lon Nol
(President Lon Nol)
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: Force Armée Nationale Khmère,
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. 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.
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, 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.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Lon_Nol".
NOL
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