Lon Rith, the flamboyant son of Marshall Lon Nol who returned to run in a Cambodian parliamentary election on a republican platform founded by his father, but failed to win a single seat.Written by John Connor
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Phnom Penh Post
Dear Editor,
With regard to the article "The ambiguous legacy of March 18", [The Phnom Penh Post, March 19, 2009], the events of March 18, 1970, actually began in 1959 with an attempted coup by General Dap Chhuon Mchulpich, military commander of the Siem Reap area.
Supported by the US military and its puppets in South Vietnam and Thailand, this plot could have resulted in Cambodia ceasing to exist.
The plan was to divide the nation between its neighbours, with the total area under de facto US control.
King Norodom Sihanouk's movie Shadow Over Angkor dramatises these events that are further detailed in his book My War with the CIA.
Plots to remove King Sihanouk, due to his neutrality, began in the '50s. Neutrality was "unacceptable" to Cold War warriors like Allen and John Dulles who constantly pressured Sihanouk to accept American aid - and thus, domination.
The 1959 coup was thwarted and General Dap Chhoun arrested. King Sihanouk instructed Lon Nol to bring the general to Phnom Penh for questioning.
Lon Nol's reaction was to have Dap Chhuon Mchulpich shot so as not to reveal Lon Nol's involvement with the plot.
It took another 11 years before another coup was successful and Sihanouk was removed.
So any suggestion by Lon Rith that the "Khmer Republic ... was motivated by noble ideals" is just a blatant lie and an attempt to whitewash the ruthlessness and ambition of his father that he had held for over 10 years.
Perhaps if Lon Nol had been shot with Dap Chhuon Mchulpich, Cambodia may never have endured the horror inflicted on it by US aggression.
In 1959, the Khmer Rouge was nothing, Cambodia was at peace and its people lived in harmony.
In the 1971 Paris Peace Accords, Nixon agreed to pay Vietnam reparations of US$3.25 billion.
Of course, the US government never paid this money that would be worth nearly $20 billion if paid today.
If Cambodia was to take action for damages, it could consider a figure of $10 billion to $15 billion as fair compensation for the illegal US activities from the 1950s onwards.
The US has the nerve to claim the Lon Nol era debt must be repaid.
Perhaps Cambodia can deduct this amount from its damages claim, which should be made soon while the US remains an existing nation.
John Connor
Phnom Penh
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Phnom Penh Post
Dear Editor,
With regard to the article "The ambiguous legacy of March 18", [The Phnom Penh Post, March 19, 2009], the events of March 18, 1970, actually began in 1959 with an attempted coup by General Dap Chhuon Mchulpich, military commander of the Siem Reap area.
Supported by the US military and its puppets in South Vietnam and Thailand, this plot could have resulted in Cambodia ceasing to exist.
The plan was to divide the nation between its neighbours, with the total area under de facto US control.
King Norodom Sihanouk's movie Shadow Over Angkor dramatises these events that are further detailed in his book My War with the CIA.
Plots to remove King Sihanouk, due to his neutrality, began in the '50s. Neutrality was "unacceptable" to Cold War warriors like Allen and John Dulles who constantly pressured Sihanouk to accept American aid - and thus, domination.
The 1959 coup was thwarted and General Dap Chhoun arrested. King Sihanouk instructed Lon Nol to bring the general to Phnom Penh for questioning.
Lon Nol's reaction was to have Dap Chhuon Mchulpich shot so as not to reveal Lon Nol's involvement with the plot.
It took another 11 years before another coup was successful and Sihanouk was removed.
So any suggestion by Lon Rith that the "Khmer Republic ... was motivated by noble ideals" is just a blatant lie and an attempt to whitewash the ruthlessness and ambition of his father that he had held for over 10 years.
Perhaps if Lon Nol had been shot with Dap Chhuon Mchulpich, Cambodia may never have endured the horror inflicted on it by US aggression.
In 1959, the Khmer Rouge was nothing, Cambodia was at peace and its people lived in harmony.
In the 1971 Paris Peace Accords, Nixon agreed to pay Vietnam reparations of US$3.25 billion.
Of course, the US government never paid this money that would be worth nearly $20 billion if paid today.
If Cambodia was to take action for damages, it could consider a figure of $10 billion to $15 billion as fair compensation for the illegal US activities from the 1950s onwards.
The US has the nerve to claim the Lon Nol era debt must be repaid.
Perhaps Cambodia can deduct this amount from its damages claim, which should be made soon while the US remains an existing nation.
John Connor
Phnom Penh
5 comments:
love your article.
anyway, we should get rid of
the monarchy a long time ago.
hamona hamoot
I don't worry much whether Cambodia is a monarchy or a republic. What matters is that Cambodia and her people can live in prosperity and peace. It has been proven that the pre-1970 regime was the best among all the subsequent regimes. It's also been proven that all the republican regimes after the Sihanouk regime, the Khmer Republic, Khmer Rouge and the State of Cambodia (Heng Samrin) regimes were failed regimes that brought about wars and misery to the Cambodia people because the Cambodian politicians have no Establishment like the monarchy/king to look up to for stability and unity.
But if any future republican regimes can prove that they can led Cambodia to prosperity I will support it.
Further to my letter I can now detail CIA involvement in the 1959 plot.
This from William Colby, ex-head of CIA, in his book "Honorable Men" 1978, pp 149 - 150
"The first problem I had to deal with hit me on my first day in Saigon (1959), in fact on the drive into town from the airport. The wife of the officer who met us flagged us down on the street to tell him that a message had just come in that he handle immediately. A “flap” – the CIA word for crisis – was ahead in Cambodia.
Neutralist Prince Sihanouk, who had recognized China only a few months before, was thought by the Thai and South Vietnamese to be an advance agent, or at least a supply channel, for the spread of Communism to their borders.
And they found a sympathetic Cambodian General who thought the same way and whom they were assisting in his preparations for a coup against the Prince. (General Lon Nol?)
CIA was well aware of these machinations through its “unilateral” sources in both those countries and, in response to the White House and State’s policy, was doing its best to dissuade the Thai and Vietnamese from this venture, which we felt was unlikely to succeed and would only exacerbate the problems of dealing with Sihanouk.
But to be certain that we would know what was happening among the coup-makers, CIA had recruited an agent on the Cambodian General’s staff, and had given him a radio with which to keep us informed. And we were indeed informed.
But our efforts to dissuade our allies did not work, and they went ahead with the coup. And it came out as we expected, a failure.
Unfortunately, in putting down the coup, Sihanouk had captured our agent and his radio. And, not un-naturally, he drew the conclusion that CIA was one of the participants, and that the gold and arms furnished from Bangkok and Saigon to be used against him were only part of the over-all plot of which the radio was a key element.
In his mind, his “War with the CIA,” as he titled his book, had begun, and the Agency (CIA) was taught a vital lesson – that our operations would be judged as much for what they seemed to be as for what they really were. It was a lesson many of us had trouble learning, and it would plague us in later years as well.”
It seems the US did learn some lessons to be used in 1970
http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/Commentary/Power_Elite_6.htm
“Nixon and Kissinger, along with John Negroponte ** (Kissinger aide, officer in charge of Vietnam at the National Security Council) arranged a chaos-creating government coup in Cambodia in March 1970. Generating further resentment, the U.S. installed Lon Nol who collected millions in U.S. economic aid. He declared himself Chief of State, Prime Minister and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces after he disbanded the Assembly in October 1971 in order to declare emergency rule. He then permitted the U.S. to carpet bomb Cambodia.32
Lon Nol retired to Hawaii on April 1, 1975 with a half million dollars, compliments of the American taxpayers.33 What followed? - Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, the killing fields, the liquidation of the middle class, famine, the destruction of the economy and concentration camps.”
So much for American “Democracy and Liberty”
How about $60 billion for war crimes in Indochina - $20 bn for each nations.
John Connor
June 29, 2010
Henry Kissinger wants to "work" with the Khmer Rouge
"You should also tell the Cambodians that we will be friends with them. They are murderous thugs, but we won't let that stand in our way. We are prepared to improve relations with them. Tell them the latter part, but don't tell them what I said before."
Henry Kissinger talks about working with Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge
"You should also tell the Cambodians that we will be friends with them. They are murderous thugs, but we won't let that stand in our way. We are prepared to improve relations with them. Tell them the latter part, but don't tell them what I said before."
Post a Comment