Background

The first of the four children of Prince Norodom Suramarit and Princess Monivong Kossamak, Prince Norodom Sihanouk was born in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh on October 31, 1922. He was a direct descendant of the great 19th-century King Norodom, who was succeeded upon his death in 1904 by a half brother rather than a son.

Education

Sihanouk was raised in a quite modest environment by his musically talented parents, in whose footsteps he partly followed as an accomplished saxophonist. He received a first-rate French education, initially at a primary school in Phnom Penh and then at the Lycee Chasseloup-Laubat in Saigon, the best in colonial Indochina.

Sihanouk did not complete his secondary schooling, however - let alone continue on to a university - because of his recall to Phnom Penh in 1941, at the age of 18, to be enthroned as king.

Career

Sihanouk's coronation took place 10 months after the fall of France, whose Indochinese empire fell under the practical direction of the expanding Japanese - who controlled neighboring Vietnam and Laos. During the first years of his reign as king, Sihanouk was a prisoner in his own palace. Although he subsequently proclaimed Cambodian independence from France in March 1945, encouraged by the retreating Japanese, he came fairly quickly to terms with the returning French after the war. He also opposed demands by the national legislatures elected in 1947 and 1951 for a redeclaration of independence from France.

Somewhat surprisingly, in light of his dissolution of a legislature that demanded immediate independence, Sihanouk proceeded to France to advance this very demand. Rebuffed by the French, he went into exile in Thailand in 1953, successfully embarrassing France into acquiescence to his country's independence. This independence was in effect completed in 1954 with the Geneva Agreements, which terminated the 8-year Franco-Indochinese War. This war was fought largely in adjacent Vietnam, but there were a few Vietnamese Communist partisans in Cambodia and a handful of Cambodian sympathizers. Sihanouk held up final approval of the Geneva Agreements until his demand for the complete withdrawal of the Vietnamese Communists from his country was met.

Sihanouk accepted American military and economic assistance after the end of the First Vietnamese War (1945-1954) and even initially sought to join the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO). He terminated United States aid in 1963, however - and broke off diplomatic relations in 1965 (resumed in 1969) - because of the spillover into Cambodia of American war activity in adjacent South Vietnam and American diplomatic support of (and military aid to) another neighbor and historical foe, Thailand.

Although he was still king when independence came, Sihanouk stepped down as a monarch in 1955 in order to play a more active day-to-day role in Cambodian politics. He was succeeded on the throne by his father. The mercurial Sihanouk served a half dozen times as premier in the years 1955-1960, frequently resigning from the post for one reason or another, and became "chief of state" in 1960 - shortly after the death of his father, the king. Although Cambodia continued to call itself a monarchy and was led by a former king - Sihanouk - it was the only monarchy in the world without a ruling sovereign.

Sihanouk formed the Popular Socialist Community party after his abdication as a means of preserving his political preeminence. This party won all the seats in the National Assembly vote of 1955 and subsequent elections throughout the 1960s, making Cambodia a one-party state in terms of representation in its government, and Sihanouk the political, if not reigning, king. The outbreak of the North Vietnamese-encouraged Communist rebellion on Cambodian soil in 1967, however, indicated that there was at least this kind of opposition to Sihanouk's continued control of Cambodian political life.

For the first decade and a half of Cambodia's resumed independence, Sihanouk symbolized his nation to both his countrymen and the world beyond Cambodia. A devout Buddhist, he also sought to modernize his country's traditional agricultural economy, accepting aid from all quarters (until his termination of United States assistance in 1963). Assuming the posture of an outspoken neutralist in the second half of the 1950s, he tried both to restrict the role of the Great Powers in his country and to block the extension of the Vietnam War to Cambodia - with a surprising degree of success. He visited Peking, and he even recognized the Communist "Provisional Revolutionary Government" (Vietcong) in South Vietnam in 1969.

On March 18, 1970, while Sihanouk was returning from a health cure in France via Moscow, he and his government were overthrown by Lieutenant-general Lon Nol and Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak. This pro-Western coup resulted in Sihanouk's forming a government-in-exile in Peking and in the declaration of Cambodia as a republic. At that time he also announced his support of the Cambodian Communist Khmer Rouge under General Pol Pot in their efforts to overthrow Lon Nol.

In 1975 Lon Nol's government was overthrown by the Khmer Rouge and Sihanouk was returned to his position as head of state. In 1976, however, he was placed under house arrest by Pol Pot who assumed control of the government as the country's prime minister. In 1979, the Khmer Rouge government fell when the North Vietnamese invaded and occupied the country. Pol Pot and his allies fled to southwestern Cambodia and engaged in guerilla warfare against the new Vietnamese-backed government, while Sihanouk fled once again into exile in China, where he remained for 12 years. There he formed a coalition government-in-exile composed of royalists, rightists, and the Khmer Rouge. His government-in-exile in China succeeded in gaining a seat at the United Nations as the legitimate government of Cambodia.

In 1989, the Vietnamese withdrew and left behind a pro-Vietnamese government under Prime Minister Hun Sen. Sihanouk and Hun Sen began negotiations for his return. In 1991, Sihanouk returned to Cambodia and became president. He repudiated the Khmer Rouge at that point, denounced them as criminals, and called for the arrest and trial of their leaders. The Khmer Rouge returned to its position of the armed opposition. In a United Nations-sponsored election in 1993, Sihanouk's royalist party was elected to power and approved a new constitution that reestablished the monarchy. In September 1993 Sihanouk was again crowned king of Cambodia. He governed with two co-prime ministers, his son Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen.

In 1996 the Khmer Rouge splintered apart. The moderate faction defected to Sihanouk and hard-liners under Pol Pot continued guerilla warfare from the mountain jungles. In June 1997, following the disintegration of leadership in the Khmer Rouge, fighting broke out between forces loyal to the two co-prime ministers. In early July, Norodom Ranariddh was deposed by Hun Sen.

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.

Achievements

• Norodom Sihanouk was appointed the King of Cambodia when he was merely nineteen years old. He remained the ruler of the nation for fourteen years, interspersed with brief but frequent spells as Prime Minister. According to the 'Guinness Book of World Records,' this former ruler is the only politician to have been appointed in the most number of political offices. After fourteen years of reign, he abdicated the throne, and his father, Suramarit took over as the king. After his father's death, Norodom once again became the Prime Minister. For five years in between, military general Lon Nol ruled after having deposed the existing rule. Helped by the political party Khmer Rouge, Sihanouk won back his kingdom and became the head-of-state. However, he was only a puppet in the hands of the communist leader Pol Pot. After Pol Pot was deposed by the Vietnamese army, the Cambodian King had to face another round of political struggle. His reign was marked by political turmoil, with different countries and organizations taking over Cambodia. However, with the goal of achieving independence for his nation, and the ambition of remaining the king, this ruler did everything possible to establish his reign. Till his death, this king was popular amongst Cambodian citizens, for his nationalist cause, and is revered even now.
  
  The famous ruler was a passionate filmmaker, having made movies like See Angkor and Die, The Last Days of Colonel Savath, and famous documentaries like Cortège Royal.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • My War with the CIA: The Memoirs of Prince Norodom Sihanouk 1973

Religion

Norodom Sihanouk was a Buddhist.

Politics

In 1981 Norodom Sihanouk founded FUNCINPEC (The National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia), a royalist political party in Cambodia.

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 United States 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.

Views

Sihanouk truly loved the arts and Cambodian culture, and through his support of the arts, he promoted Cambodian culture both within and outside the country. He gave his patronage to modern arts whether in films, architecture, or music as part of his plan of the overall modernization of the country.

Quotations: "Unfortunately, I am not a god."

Personality

Sihanouk was a charismatic figure able to inspire and excite his people. He was adept at arousing an emotional response to motivate his followers with his passionate and persuasive speeches. Music was ever-present as he toured the provinces. To bolster his image as a modern and popular leader, he traveled with a band of the most popular singers of the time, who entertained the crowd after the prince’s long speeches.

Physical Characteristics: Norodom Sihanouk had suffered prostate cancer. Since 2005, he had been sick with B-Cell Lymphoma in his stomach, and also suffered from hypertension as well as diabetes.

Quotes from others about the person

• Norodom Sirivudh: "Sihanouk was a powerful leader, but you can tell that he was also an artist. Those are the two sides of my brother. My brother had a vision, especially when it came to art and music in particular. The royal military orchestra accompanied him in all his travels."
  
  Sisowath Thomico: "[Sihanouk] is an artist lost in politics. He didn't intend to become king of Cambodia. You use the word romantic, yeah, he's a romantic, his approach to women, to wives and to life. He's really a romantic."

Interests

• Filmmaking, magazine editing

• Music & Bands

  Charles Trenet, Edith Piaf

Connections

In April 1952 Sihanouk married Paule Monique Izzi, who became Sihanouk's lifelong partner; in the 1990s she changed her name to Monineath.

Before the marriage to Monique, Sihanouk married five other women: Phat Kanhol, Sisowath Pongsanmoni, Sisowath Monikessan, Mam Manivan Phanivong, and Thavet Norleak.

Father:

Prince Norodom Suramarit

Mother:

Princess Monivong Kossamak

Spouse:

Paule Monique Izzi

(married 1952)

ex-spouse:

Phat Kanhol

ex-spouse:

Sisowath Pongsanmoni

late spouse:

Sisowath Monikessan

(died 1946)

ex-spouse:

Mam Manivan Phanivong

ex-spouse:

Thavet Norleak

Daughter:

Norodom Buppha Devi

(by Phat Kanhol; born 1943 - died 2019)

Son:

Norodom Yuvaneath

(by Sisowath Pongsanmoni; born 1943)

Son:

Norodom Ranariddh

(by Phat Kanhol; born 1944)

Son:

Norodom Ravivong

(by Sisowath Pongsanmoni; born 1944 - died 1973)

Son:

Norodom Chakrapong

(by Sisowath Pongsanmoni; born 1945)

Son:

Norodom Naradipo

(by Sisowath Monikessan; born 1946 - died 1976)

Daughter:

Norodom Sorya Roeungsi

(by Sisowath Pongsanmoni; born 1947 - died 1976)

Daughter:

Norodom Kantha Bopha

(by Sisowath Pongsanmoni; born 1948 - died 1952)

Son:

Norodom Khemanourak

(by Sisowath Pongsanmoni; born 1949 - died 1975)

Daughter:

Norodom Botum Bopha

(by Sisowath Pongsanmoni; born 1951 - died 1975)

Daughter:

Norodom Sujata

(by Mam Manivan; born 1953 - died 1975)

Son:

Norodom Sihamoni

(by Monique Izzi; born 1953)

Son:

Norodom Narindrapong

(by Monique Izzi; born 1954 - died 2003)

Daughter:

Norodom Arunrasmy

(by Mam Manivan; born 1955)

opponent:

Pol Pot

Acquaintance:

Ronald Reagan

References

• Norodom Sihanouk: La Tragédie du Peuple Khmer by Toan Thach
  2016