Norodom Sihanouk

Norodom Sihanouk (born October 31, 1922, Phnom Penh, Cambodia—died October 15, 2012, Beijing, China) was twice king of Cambodia (1941–55 and 1993–2004), who also served as prime minister, head of state, and president. He attempted to steer a neutral course for Cambodia in its civil and foreign wars of the late 20th century.

Sihanouk was, on his mother’s side, the grandson of King Monivong (reigned 1927–41), whom he succeeded to the throne at age 18. At the time Cambodia was a French protectorate, and Sihanouk wielded little power. However, near the end of World War II, the occupying Japanese encouraged the young king to declare Cambodia’s independence from France. When French military forces moved back into the region, Sihanouk decided to wait until France’s retreat from Indochina, which occurred in 1954. He founded the Sangkum Reastr Niyum (“People’s Socialist Community”) in January 1955, won a referendum in February approving its program, and on March 2 abdicated in favour of his father, Norodom Suramarit, becoming the new monarch’s prime minister, foreign minister, and subsequently permanent representative to the United Nations. Five years later, after the death of his father (April 3, 1960), he accepted the role of head of state (June 13).

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Sihanouk steered a neutralist course in his foreign policy. In return for a North Vietnamese pledge to respect Cambodia’s frontiers, he allowed Vietnamese communists to operate covertly from bases inside eastern Cambodia. He subsequently rejected U.S. aid and assistance, relying on his immense popularity with the Cambodian people to keep radicals of both the right and the left under control. Under Sihanouk’s benign rule, Cambodia experienced 15 years of fragile peace and mild prosperity while much of Southeast Asia was in a state of upheaval.

Sihanouk’s maintenance of Cambodian neutrality in the Vietnam War ended in 1970 when he was ousted in a U.S.-supported coup led by General Lon Nol. He then lived in Beijing as the titular head of a government-in-exile.

Following the Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia in 1975, Sihanouk returned home only to be put under house arrest. Under dictator Pol Pot, a four-year reign of terror ensued during which more than one million Cambodians were killed. Sihanouk was released in January 1979 because the Khmer Rouge regime was falling to Vietnamese military forces and needed an advocate in the United Nations. After denouncing the Vietnamese invasion, he dissociated himself from the Khmer Rouge. From residences in China and North Korea, Sihanouk became president of an uneasy coalition government-in-exile made up of the three principal anti-Vietnamese Khmer forces—the Khmer Rouge, the anticommunist Khmer People’s National Liberation Front, and Sihanouk’s neutralist party. He retained his role as resistance leader until 1991, when he was elected president of Cambodia’s Supreme National Council, an interim administrative body.

In September 1993, following UN-sponsored elections the previous May, Cambodia’s National Assembly voted to restore the monarchy, and Sihanouk once again became king. His son, Norodom Ranariddh, served as first prime minister until 1997, when he was overthrown in a coup by Hun Sen, who nevertheless left Sihanouk on the throne.

In later years Sihanouk retreated from politics to work as a filmmaker and composer. He abdicated on October 7, 2004, and his son Norodom Sihamoni, chosen to succeed him, was crowned king on October 29.