02/10/2022
On this day in 1970, the Khmer Republic was proclaimed in Cambodia. A coup led by Cambodian General Lon Nol had overthrown the government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk in Phnom Penh in March. Between 1970 and 1975, Lon Nol and his army, the Forces Armees Nationale Khmer (FANK), with U.S. support and military aid, fought the Communist Khmer Rouge for control of Cambodia. During those years, approximately 10 percent of Cambodia’s 7 million people died.
In April 1975, Khmer Rouge forces mounted a victorious attack on the capital city of Phnom Penh and established a national government to rule Cambodia. The military leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, became the new Prime Minister. The Khmer Rouge’s rule over the next four years resulted in a killing spree and the notorious “killing fields.” Under the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians were murdered or died from exhaustion, hunger, and disease.
Today, Cambodia is under a constitutional monarchy, wherein Prime Minister Hun Sen is a former Khmer Rouge member
