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King Sihanouk proved to be one of the country's
great patriots, whose insistence on strict neutrality kept Cambodia out of
the maelstrom of war and out of the revolution in neighbouring Vietnam for
more than fifteen years before he was betrayed by his close associate, Lon Nol.
In March 1955, Sihanouk abdicated in favour of his father King
Suramarit in order to play a more active role in national politics and formed his own party, the
Sangkum Reastr Niyum (Popular
Socialist Community) that won all seats in the national election of 1955. After king Suramarit's death,
the Crown's Council became deadlocked about the selection of a prince to
be the next king. Prince Sihanouk, who had sworn at his abdication never
to become king again, became after an amendment of the Constitution Head of
State and Cambodia had no king until 1992.
For the rural Cambodians, he was still the god-king and the
royalists received 90% of the votes in subsequent elections. His
government was a mixture of democracy and feudalism with a Cambodian
flavour. Prince Sihanouk travelled to the small villages in his kingdom
and listened to the complaints of the local people, scolding officials for
corruption or mismanagement.
Although the Sangkum was backed by conservative interests, Sihanouk
included leftists in his government, three of whom: Khieu Samphan,
Hou
Yuon, and Hu Nim later became leaders of the Khmer Rouge. In 1963 he
announced the nationalization of banking, foreign trade, and insurance in
a socialist experiment that dried up foreign investment and alienated the
right wing.
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In foreign relations, Sihanouk pursued a policy of neutrality
and nonalignment. He accepted United States economic and military aid, but
he also promoted close relations with China and attempted to keep on good
terms with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam).
A patron - client system, inheritance of the feudal past, was inductive
to corruption and graft, vices that created discontent, especially in
Phnom Penh circles. Sihanouk's style of governing, giving preference to
the "small citizens" and the "small functionaries"
over the archi-corrupted rightwing was not forgiven by the right.
When the Vietnam war began, Sihanouk choose a policy of neutrality,
partly because he foresaw that the US could by no means win that war,
which aimed to continue colonialism under another shape. United States
officials both in Washington and in Phnom Penh frequently underestimated
the prince and considered him to be an erratic figure with minimal
understanding of the threat posed by Asian communism.
In 1963 the prince rejected further United States aid and two years
later he severed diplomatic relations. He realised that American support
came at a price and would require Cambodians to become cheap cannon meat
in order to spare the lives of the "American Boys".
The spill-over of the Vietnam War
into the Cambodian border areas was becoming more and more a serious
problem in the sixties.
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