The political leadership of the Cambodia of 1970 clearly had one foot firmly planted in the Communist camp. The policy of "double dealing" practices by Prince Sihanouk favored the Vietnamese and Khmer Communists with disastrous results for Cambodia, a fact not lost on Sihanouk who did not fail to vehemently denounce before the entire world and on many occasions the continuous infiltrations and subversion of the Communists and the peril for Cambodia which they posed.
The divorce of Cambodia from the United States of America (USA) and its subsequent marriage with the People's Republic of China (PRC) constituted before the world and within Southeast Asia a new level of Communist penetration into the Indochinese peninsula. It changed significantly the face of the war in South Viet and provoked in Cambodia's neighbors a sense of the danger of Communist expansion. Within Cambodia this marriage signified the victory of Communist factions, who began to appear little by little from their hiding, and the defeat of the pro-imperialist factions.
The trickery of the political games played by Sihanouk from 1954 to 1970 earned for him a certain standing on the international scene as "leader of his country"; but in his own country these tactics met with total defeat. What was unpardonable in Khmer religious and intellectual circles was Sihanouk's practice of abruptly changing loyalties or a policy of "consistent inconsistency" (politique de constance dans l'inconstance) an expression used by Lt. General Sisowath Sirik Matak in an open letter to his cousin, Prince Sihanouk, dated August 27, 1973.
This gap between reputations at home and abroad widened with time for the situation within Cambodia gave scarcely any reason for satisfaction. Actually, Viet Communist forces had already occupied large portions of Khmer territory in the east, southeast, and south. The Cambodian population of these regions, weary of bearing the violent persecutions and exactions of the invading forces, were forced to abandon everything and seek refuge farther in the interior, away from the Viet Communists.
A silent rage began to spread through the population as the people came to realize the political trickery of Prince Sihanouk, a trickery which led to an aggravation of the situation. That peace of which Cambodia had prided itself on being the sole beneficiary in Southeast Asia was rapidly fading. In vain, Sihanouk publicly and repeatedly denounced the exactions of the Viet Communists. Finally he announced to the nation that he would depart on January 6, 1970 for France to take the cures dictated by his physical condition, following which he would travel to the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China to discuss economic and military aid.
In intellectual circles in Cambodia there was general agreement that the two latter visits had no other real purpose than to find some way to resolve the political difficulties caused on the one hand by the Viet Communists and by the activities of the Khmer Communists on the other, activities which were becoming more widespread all the time.Sihanouk's absence from Cambodia provided the pretext for several demonstrations. On the 8th and 9th of March 1970 there were demonstrations in the capitals of the provinces of Svay Rieng and Prey Veng.
Even in Phnom Penh there were frankly violent demonstrations organized by university students against the Embassies of North Vietnam and the PRG and supported among intellectual circles.
Mr. Cheng Heng, acting Chief of State, and General Lon Nol, Chief of Government (Prime Minister), tried in vain to make Prince Sihanouk aware of a situation which was worsening day by day in Cambodia. When the Prince refused to receive the delegation sent to brief him, Lon Nol and Cheng Heng turned to the National Assembly and the Council of the Kingdom.
The two legislative bodies assembled to consider the problem of Sihanouk's conduct and absence. They were the same two bodies which had ten years earlier, in 1960, designated the Prince as Chief of State.
On March 18, 1970, after a long and historic debate, the two bodies by unanimous vote withdrew their confidence in Prince Sihanouk and removed him from office.
The members accused him, among other things, of having authorized North Viet and South Viet Cong troops to illegally occupy Khmer territory and establish bases (sanctuaries) during the latter half of the 1960's, an occupation in flagrant violation of Khmer neutrality as provided by the Geneva Accords of 1954.
The occupation was characterized as well, as an attack on the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the country.
Following action by the legislative bodies, the Prince Chief of State was tried by the High Court of Justice and condemned to death in absentia for high treason.
Two important events which followed the removal of Sihanouk deserve noting at this point. The first was the meeting on March 16, 1970 between representatives of the Cambodian Government ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General Staff of the Armed Forces) and representatives of the Embassies of North Viet and the Provisional Representative Government (of Viet Cong), a meeting which had as its purpose the securing of Communist agreement to evacuate their forces from Cambodia in accordance with the demand contained in the Cambodian government's official note of March 12, 1970.
Unfortunately, the two hour meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs produced no results.
The second event was the initiative of the PRC after having broken diplomatic relations with Cambodia on May 5, 1970. Chinese Communist emissaries sent from Peking for the express purpose declared to General Lon Nol, by then head of the government, that the "matter between Sihanouk and the Khmer government was nothing more than an internal problem" and that Peking could overlook personalities' involved so long as the Cambodian side accepted the following three conditions:
- Permit China to continue to use Khmer territory to resupply the NVA/VC with weapons, munitions, and material so as to continue the war against South Vietnam.
- Authorize the NVA/VC to establish their bases in Cambodia as before.
- Continue to support North Viet and the Viet Cong with propaganda. This demarche by China met with total rejection on the part of the Cambodian government.
In a note dated March 25, 1970 the Khmer invited the North Viet to discuss for a second time the problem of the evacuation their forces. The meeting was set for the 27th of March. But on the 25th of March the Republic of Poland advised the Khmer officially of the departure from Phnom Penh of the Embassies of North Viet and the Viet Cong PRG, to take place on 27 March when the two groups would travel by International Control Commission aircraft to Hanoi.
Immediately after the armed aggression by North Viet Armies/Viet Cong forces, which was launched against Cambodia from their sanctuaries along the South Viet border, the Khmer Republic government made countless appeals to the United Nations (UN) Security Council for an end to that aggression.
Instead of taking action on the Cambodian request, this international organ (the UN Security Council) merely replied that in view of Cambodia's being governed by the 1954 Geneva Accords, the Khmer Republic had better apply to the co-chairmen of the 1954 Geneva Conference (Soviet Union and Great Britain).
On 31 March 1970, therefore, in a memorandum addressed to the ambassadors of the Soviet Union and Great Britain, the Cambodian government expressed its deep concern about increasingly flagrant and repeated violations of the 1954 Geneva Accords by the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Viet (DRV) and those of the PRG of South Viet. These forces, the memorandum said, not only refused to withdraw from the Cambodian territory, they were now launching overt attacks against Khmer outposts and defense forces within the Khmer national boundaries. The Cambodian government' then demanded the re-installment of the International Control Commission on an urgent basis.
On 6 April 1970, the United Nations Secretariat announced that Secretary General U Thant had decided "to deal with the authorities who effectively controlled the situation in Cambodia"; in other words, with the Phnom Penh government and not with the former Chief of State. This first and only positive response by the UN constituted, in effect, an answer to the claims made by Prince Sihanouk who, in a message addressed to His Excellency U Thant, represented himself as the only legal holder of Cambodian authority.
In addition to the events described above, the chronology of political activities in Cambodia after March 18 can be established as "follows:
- March 26 and 27. Trouble provoked by the Viet Communists in Kompong Cham Province, and particularly in the provincial capital, where two deputies who tried to calm the demonstrators were knifed to death in broad daylight and in the midst of the crowd. The office of, the governor was partially burned.
- March 29. The North Viet and Viet Cong Embassies announced the unilateral rupture of diplomatic relations with Cambodia and their refusal to resume' discussions concerning the withdrawal of their forces.
- March 29 Launching of North Viet and Viet Cong aggression in several Cambodian provinces.
- April 11 Popular manifestation called "The March of National Concord" at the National Sports Complex in Phnom Penh as a sign of support for the government of Lon Nol; the manifestation also demanded the establishment of a Republican regime for the country.
- April 14. Lon Nol appealed to the countries of all world blocs to aid him in the fight against Viet Communism.
- April 30. American and South Viet troops launched their attacks against NVN and VC sanctuaries located along the frontier in the eastern provinces of Cambodia.
- May 5. The PRC broke diplomatic relations with Cambodia.
- May 13. Reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Siam, which had been broken in 1961.
- May 16 and 17. Indonesia brought ten nations together at a conference in Djakarta aimed at finding a way of restoring peace in Cambodia.
- May 19. Restoration of diplomatic relations with South Korea, broken since 1966.
- May 27. Restoration of diplomatic relations with the Republic of South Viet, broken since 1963.
- June 25. "General Mobilization" of Cambodia in order to deal with the invasion.
- June 30. Final date set for ending the cross-border operations of U.S. forces against NVA/VC sanctuaries in Cambodia.
- August 28. Mr. Spiro Agnew, Vice President of the U.S., made an official visit to Cambodia.
- September 15. Mr. Emory C. Swank, the first U.S. envoy of ambassadorial rank since resumption of diplomatic, relations in 1969, presented his credentials to Mr. Chang Heng, Chief of State. Before that date, the U.S. Mission was presided over by Charge d' Affairs Lloyd M. Rives.
- October 9 Proclamation of the Khmer Republic. The above chronology explains in itself the initial reaction of certain nations to the entry of Cambodia into war.
