Marshal Lon Nol was a Cambodian politician and general who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice, as well as serving repeatedly as defence minister and provincial governor. As a nationalist and conservative, he led the military coup of 1970 against Prince Norodom Sihanouk, abolished the monarchy, and established the short-lived Khmer Republic. Constitutionally a semi-presidential republic, Cambodia was de facto governed under a military dictatorship. He was the commander-in-chief of the Khmer National Armed Forces during the Cambodian Civil War. On April 1, 1975, 16 days before the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, Lon Nol fled to the United States, first to Hawaii and then to California, where he remained until his death in 1985.
Norodom Sihanouk was a Cambodian statesman, Sangkum and FUNCINPEC politician, film director, and composer who led Cambodia in various capacities throughout his long career, most often as both King and Prime Minister of Cambodia. In Cambodia, he is known as Samdech Euv. During his lifetime, Cambodia was under various regimes, from French colonial rule, an independent kingdom (1953–1970), a republic (1970–1975), the Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979), another communist regime (1979–1989), yet another different communist state (1989–1993) to finally another kingdom.
The Kingdom of Cambodia, also known as the First Kingdom of Cambodia, and commonly referred to as the Sangkum period, refers to Norodom Sihanouk's first administration of Cambodia from 1953 to 1970, an especially significant time in the country's history. Sihanouk continues to be one of the most controversial figures in Southeast Asia's turbulent and often tragic postwar history. From 1955 until 1970, Sihanouk's Sangkum was the sole legal party in Cambodia.
Hou Yuon was a veteran of the communist movement in Cambodia. A member of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as the Khmer Rouge, he served in several ministerial posts during the 1960s and 1970s.
Son Sen, alias Comrade Khieu (សមមិត្តខៀវ) or "Brother Number 89", was a Cambodian Communist politician and soldier. A member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea/Party of Democratic Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge, from 1974 to 1992, Sen oversaw the Party's security apparatus, including the Santebal secret police and the notorious security prison S-21 at Tuol Sleng.
The 1970 Cambodian coup d'état was the removal of the Cambodian Chief of State, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, after a vote in the National Assembly on 18 March 1970. Emergency powers were subsequently invoked by the Prime Minister Lon Nol, who became effective head of state, and led ultimately to the removal of Queen Sisowath Kossamak and the proclamation of the Khmer Republic later that year. It is generally seen as a turning point in the Cambodian Civil War. No longer a monarchy, Cambodia was semi-officially called "État du Cambodge" in the intervening six months after the coup, until the republic was proclaimed.
Sơn Ngọc Thành was a Cambodian nationalist and republican politician, with a long history as a rebel and a government minister.
Lon Non was a Cambodian politician and soldier who rose to his greatest prominence during the Khmer Republic (1970–1975).
Hu Nim, alias "Phoas" (ភាស់), was a Cambodian Communist intellectual and politician who held a number of ministerial posts. His long political career included spells with the Sangkum regime of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the Communist guerrilla resistance, the GRUNK coalition government-in-exile, and the administration of Democratic Kampuchea, when the country was controlled by the Communist Party of Kampuchea.
The Social Republican Party was a right-wing political party in Cambodia, founded by the then-Head of State Lon Nol in 10 June 1972 to contest the National Assembly elections of the Khmer Republic held on September 3, 1972.
Keo Meas was a Cambodian communist politician. Keo Meas, then a fourth-year student at the Phnom Penh Teachers Training College, was recruited to the Indochinese Communist Party by Son Sichan in 1946. In 1950, he became a leading figure within the United Issarak Front. At the same time he was a leading figure in the Phnom Penh city unit of the ICP.
Dap Chhuon, also known as Chuan Khemphet, Khem Phet, Chhuon Mochulpech or Chhuon Mchoul Pich (1912–1959) was a right-wing Cambodian nationalist, guerrilla leader, regional warlord, and general.
The Sangkum Reastr Niyum, usually translated as Popular (or People's) Socialist Community and commonly known simply as the Sangkum, was a political organisation set up on 22 March 1955 by Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia. Though it described itself as a 'movement' rather than a political party, the Sangkum retained control of the government of Cambodia throughout the first administration of Sihanouk, from 1955 to 1970. Central to the Sangkum ideology were nationalism, conservatism, preserving the monarchy, and a conservative interpretation of Buddhism.
The Royal Government of the National Union of Kampuchea was a government-in-exile of Cambodia, based in Beijing and Hong Kong, that was in existence between 1970 and 1976, and was briefly in control of the country starting from 1975.
The Krom Pracheachon, often referred to simply as Pracheachon, was a Cambodian political party that contested in parliamentary elections in 1955, 1958 and 1972.
The Democratic Party, commonly referred to as The Democrats, was a left-wing pro-independence political party formed in 1946 by Prince Sisowath Youtevong, who had previously been a member of the French Section of the Workers' International. It was the sole dominant party in Cambodia from 1946 until the creation of Sangkum in 1955.
Prince Norodom Phurissara was a prominent leftist Cambodian politician of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, who held a number of ministerial posts. A member of the Cambodian royal family, he disappeared during the political purges carried out by the Communist Party of Cambodia after it came to power.
Saloth Chhay was a Cambodian left-wing journalist and political activist, who was prominent in the country's politics during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He is best known for being the older brother of Pol Pot, future leader of the Khmer Rouge communists, and for influencing his early political development.
Khmer Renovation Party, also translated as Khmer Renewal Party, was an anti-communist, nationalist and royalist political party founded in Cambodia in September 1947. In 1955, it became one of the core elements of the Sangkum political movement of then Prince Norodom Sihanouk.
The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), also known as the Khmer Communist Party, was a communist party in Cambodia. Its leader was Pol Pot and its members were generally known as the Khmer Rouge. Originally founded in 1951, the party was split into pro-Chinese and pro-Soviet factions as a result of the Sino–Soviet split with the former being the Pol Pot faction, and the latter adopting a more revisionist approach to Marxism. As such, it claimed that 30 September 1960 was its founding date, then it was named the Workers' Party of Kampuchea before it was renamed the Communist Party in 1966.
