Cambodia: This Day in History

7th January, 1979

Meeting little real resistance the Vietnamese scythed quickly through Cambodia and captured the capital just two weeks after launching their offensive.

Historically, Cambodians have had a long and deep-seated hatred of the Vietnamese. This time however they were welcomed with open-arms as their whipping of the Khmer Rouge offered Cambodians hope for the future.

"...the Vietnamese were our friends. Villagers lined the streets to applaud them, and provided them with sugar cane and water. We did not see them as invaders," said Chea Vannath.*

The Vietnamese changed the name of Cambodia to the People's Republic of Kampuchea.

*Getting Away With Genocide: Elusive Justice and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, Tom Fawthrop and Helen Jarvis, 2005.

This news report of the time is well worth watching. (Unfortunately I can't embed it.)
http://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/jan-1979-fall-phnom-penh-12508505

Cambodia: This Day in History

December 31st, 1977

The Lao-Khmer-Vietnamese friendship was
officially broken on Dec 31 1977

After months of verbal stoushes and military skirmishes, Cambodia finally broke off diplomatic relations with its former ally, Vietnam.

This was the first ever such break between two communist countries.

Cambodia: This Day in History

25th December, 1978

On this day in 1978 the Vietnamese began their invasion of Cambodia.

Earlier the Vietnamese had brought together Cambodian escapees from the Khmer Rouge, deserters from the Khmer Rouge army, and captured Khmer soldiers. This rag-bag of an army along with Vietnamese soldiers marched upon Phnom Penh under the guise of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation.

Cambodia: This Day in History

Admiral Pierre de La Grandiere later appeared on an Indochine stamp

On this day in 1863, soon to be King, Norodom (his coronation was not until 1864) signed a 'treaty of friendship, commerce and French protection,' with Admiral Pierre de La Grandiere.




The presence of a nearby French gunboat went along way to ensuring signatures were exchanged without fuss.

Seemingly innocuous- at least a first- Norodom agreed with the French that:

• The Catholic church would be given a number of special privileges.
•  Buddhism would stay as the state religion of Cambodia.
• The French could house an army and warships within Cambodia.
• The French and the Cambodians had the right to freely-trade with each other.

After a number of centuries of being push, bullied, attacked and massacred by both the Siamese and the Vietnamese it's likely that Norodom thought this deal could have been a whole lot worse.

Cambodia: This Day in History

19th May, 1925

Saloth Sar, alias Pol Pot, alias Brother Number One, was born on this day in Prek Sbauv, a small village on the East bank of the River Sen.

There is some debate as to his true birthday; most sources give the above date but  biographer Philip Short puts it sometime in March, 1925, and his birth was officially, but falsely, registered by his family as May 19th, 1928.*

*There was nothing unusual about the false registration of the birth as Cambodians often changed (and still do) the date of birth of a child so that they can comply with school entrance requirements.

Cambodia: This Day in History

28th March, 1970

Pro-Sihanouk riots broke out in Kompong Cham


Ten days after the coup and just a week after Sihanouk announced his unholy alliance with the Khmer Rouge to fight the new government, Lon Nol found out just how much support the prince still had in the Cambodian countryside.



Reacting to unrest in Kompong Cham, Lon Nol's brother Lon Nil went to the scene. Here he and another government official were met by an irate crowd.

After butchering the two men, rioters tore the liver from Lon Nil and demanded that the owner of a local restaurant cook it and serve it to those assembled.

Government troops later arrived at the scene and killed several hundred locals while restoring order.

Cambodia: This Day in History

23rd March, 1970

Sihanouk announced in Peking that he had formed a coalition- The National United Front of Kampuchea (FUNK)- with former enemies the Khmer Rouge, to fight against the Lon Nol government.

Sihanouk and Chinese Premier, Zhou Enlai

Back in China after Lon Nol and Sirik Matak's coup, Sihanouk came under pressure from both People's Republic of China's  Premier, Zhou En-lai and North Vietnam's Premier, Pham Van Ong to fight back against his ousters.

Sihanouk quickly agreed, no doubt spurred by rage, vanity and a thirst for revenge, and he joined with the Khmer Rogue and a rag-bag collection of Lon Nol's enemies to oppose the new Cambodian government.

Sihanouk of course was of great value-at least in the short term- to the communists, such was his standing, most notably in the countryside, with many Cambodians.

Cambodia: This Day in History

March 18th, 1970

Prime Minister Lon Nol and his deputy, Sisowath Sirik Matak carried out a coup against head of state Prince Sihanouk.

Movies and music interested Sihanouk
more than matters of the state in the late 1960s

In the late 1960s, Sihanouk was beginning to lose control of his country. His cousin, and deputy Prime Minister, Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak was especially disgusted by what he saw as the gross incompetence and laziness of Sihanouk.

That Sihanouk no longer cared about running the country and would rather make movies and run after woman, was exemplified by an incident where he had some of the country's gold stock made into a statuette. The statuette was given to him as first prize for a film he presented at a Cambodia festival where only he was ever going to be the winner.

And Sihanouk was certainly not helped his wife, Monique Izzi who was most unpopular and seen as grasping and corrupt.

Finally aware that his power was beginning to wane Sihanouk sloped of to the French Riviera in January 1970, for rest and political plotting.

With the Prince out of the way, yet threatening to return and take action against both the deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister, Lon Nol, for their culpability of the anti-Vietnamese riots on March 11th  the two government leaders carried out their coup.

Prime Minister Lon Nol was a very reluctant player in the drama:

'During the night of 17 March, Sirik Matak and several supporters burst into Lon Nol's house, pulled him from bed and demanded his support for a parliamentary coup against Sihanouk- at gunpoint according to some reports. Reluctantly, Lon Nol agreed, signing a paper that called upon the National Assembly to depose of Sihanouk as head of state. He is said to have wept when he signed the document, and later, when the country descended into chaos, to have expressed remorse at turning against his master.'

~A Short History of Cambodia: From Empire to Survival. John Tully

With the writing on the wall, National Assembly representatives did what politicians always do- back the winner- and they set about vilifying the once all-powerful, Sihanouk.

They would have served their country better had they thought about what the coup really meant for their country- for Cambodia was heading for disaster.

Cambodia: This Day In History

17th March, 1969

General Creighton Abrams,the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, received approval from Washington for his February 9 request  to bomb communists forces within Cambodia's border. Cambodia was a neutral force at this time in the Vietnam-U.S. conflict.

The next day 'Operation Breakfast'- the first wave of air strikes within Cambodia and part of 'Operation Menu'- commenced.



Operation breakfast and subsequent bombing missions- 'Operation Lunch,' 'Snack,' 'Dinner,' 'Supper' and 'Dessert'- were carried out in utmost secrecy; bomber pilots and navigators were only told shortly before a mission that they would likely be attacking forces within Cambodia and target coordinates were given in-flight.

General Earle G. Wheeler; Chairman of the
Joint Chief's of Staff, 1964-1970

 Chairman of the Joint Chief's of Staff, General Earle G. Wheeler sent a cable to explain how press inquiries should be handled:

"...U.S. spokesman will confirm that B-52s did strike on routine missions adjacent to the Cambodian border but state that he has no details and will look into it. Should the press continue its inquiries or in the event of a Cambodian protest* concerning U.S. strikes in Cambodia, U.S. spokesman will neither confirm or deny...After delivering a reply to any Cambodian protest, Washington will inform the press that we have apologized and offered compensation."

The U.S. Foreign Affairs committee was kept in the dark over the bombings.

The success, or otherwise, o,f the bomb-drops from a U.S. military prospective is still hotly debated; many felt that the shelling simply drove the Viet Cong further into Cambodian territory.

*Sihanouk did not protest this initial bombing.

Cambodia: This Day in History

March 11th, 1970

Lon Nol

Prince Sirak Matak

Partially encouraged by Sihanouk's government agents and by real anger against the Vietnamese, tens-of-thousands of Cambodians including hundreds of soldiers wearing civilian clothing moved on the embassy of the South Vietnamese Provisional Revolutionary Government and then the embassy of North Vietnam.





 Both were wrecked by the mob as police and soldiers looked on. Over the next few days Vietnamese shops and Catholic churches in Phnom Phen were also attacked.

Sihanouk, despite his hand in the violent outbreaks, raged from afar (he was in Paris at the time) against the violence. Both Prime Minister Lon Nol and his deputy, Prince Siri Matak, had some cause to believe they would be made scapegoats by Sihanouk for the anti-Vietnamese incidents and thus the idea of conducting a coup became even more attractive.

Cambodia: This Day in History

9th February, 1969

The commander of U.S. armed forces in Vietnam, General Creighton Abrams, made the first request to the White House for permission to bomb Vietcong base camps within neutral Cambodia's border.

"Usually reliable sources report that COSVN* and COSVN-associated elements consistently remain in the general area along the border. All our information, generally confirmed by imagery interpretation, provides us with a firm basis for targeting COSVN HQs."

* Central Office for South Vietnam. The name given by the Americans to the command structure of communist forces within South Vietnam.

Cambodia: This Day in History

29th January, 2003

The rumour that popular Thai Actress 'Kob' (real name Suvanant Kongying, seen above) had claimed Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand and that the Khmer people were 'like worms' quickly spread across Phnom Penh.

Enraged residents of the city set alight seventeen Thai-owned businesses and then set their sights on the Thai embassy.

Thai diplomatic officials fled out the back way and were spirited away by local slum-dwellers while Cambodian police stood, watched, and did nothing.

More than 700 Thais hot-footed it out of the capital and the land borders between the two countries were closed to Thai and Cambodian nationals.

Total damages came to a total of more than US$50 million. International condemnation of the Cambodian government- the US said that they were 'irresponsible," "incompetent" and guilty of "nationalistic rhetoric"- forced Cambodian Prime Minister to agree to pay the Thai government compensation for the damage to the embassy and to negotiate damages payments with the business owners.


Not a credible shred of evidence was ever offered that showed that Kob had insulted the Khmer people in any way.