48. March 18 Day

Today, in history, 41 years ago, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Chief of State of Cambodia was dismissed of his function. A resolution voted by ninety two to zero, stated that “the National Assembly and the Council of the Kingdom, meeting in joint session, have withdrawn on the 18^th of March, 1970, at 1:00PM their confidence in Prince Norodom Sihanouk in the functions of Chief of State.”

    This unexpected vote had its roots back to January 6, 1970 when he left Cambodia for a cure in France. Speculations spread that the coup was fomented with the American behind. And the Americans denied it. In fact exactly one year before on March 18, 1969, the US started the secret bombing of Cambodia with its Breakfast run part of the Operation Menu. This is what it said in the book “Pawns of War”: On March 18, 1969, sixty B-52 bombers, on loan from the Strategic Air Command, lifted into the skies over Guam. After they passed into South Vietnamese air space, forty eight of the huge planes peeled off from the rest of the rest of the mission and veered across the Cambodian border. Over the area suspected of containing COSVN they each dropped twenty-four tons of bombs. Then they skirted back over the border and returned to their island base.”…”The number of raids grew as other areas along the border inside Cambodia was targeted. Each was designated by a similar name: Breakfast was folloed by Lunch, Snack, Dinner, Dessert, and Super. Taken together the bombing raids were known as Operation Menu.”… “Operation Menu continued for fourteen months in absolute secrecy from the American public. In that time the B-52s flew 3,630 sorties against targets in Cambodia, dropping over 100,000 tons of bombs.”

    It is hard to believe that the US was supporting any action against the Prince since he announces on June 11, 1969 that the Cambodian-US relations will be restored. In that context, later American assistance to General Lon Nol was probably dictated by forces of circumstances.

    So, before he left to France, Prince Sihanouk left the government to General Lon Nol assisted by Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak who is in some sort, a rival to Prince Sihanouk. During this Prince Sihanouk absence, Prince Sirik Matak took measures that went against the socialist model. On his side General Lon Nol was worried about the Vietnamese Communist Forces encroachment on Cambodia borders. Probably on outsider instigation, on March 9, 1970 there were mass peaceful demonstrations asking for the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from the borders.

     They were followed by demonstrations in Phnom Penh targeting and sacking the Embassy of the Republic of North Vietnam, and the Mission of the South Vietnamese National Liberation Front. Prince Sihanouk in France was informed, he was furious that the action was in dire violation of his policy and refused to received Lon Nol delegation to explain the situation. This miscommunication leads to the March 18 resolution. After that it is history.

    It took 6 months and 27 days later that the Kingdom of Cambodia was replaced by the Khmer Republic that was proclaimed on October 9, 1970. On June 4, 1972, Marshal Lon Nol wins the first Presidential elections. The Khmer Republic survived for only 2 years 6 months and 5 days before falling to the Khmer Rouge on April 14, 1975.

     All in all the March 18 event was ill prepared – if there was preparation at all – and in the book “Pawns of War” it was said:”After the fall of Prince Sihanouk, Cambodia tumbled swiftly into the abyss of violence that the Prince has skirted for so long.

    All the parties involved bored a share of the blame for the catastrophe that followed: the new Cambodian leadership, which marched naively into a war it did not have the means to win; Sihanouk himself, whose injured pride and thirst for revenge led him into a hasty alliance with Vietnamese and Khmer Communists forces he could not control; the Hanoi and Saigon governments, which both stepped up military operations on Cambodian territory; and the United States, which grasped for short-run tactical advantages in Cambodia while disregarding the grave long-range risks of a widened war.

    Neither the country’s new leaders nor the outsted Sihanouk tried to preserve Cambodia’s vulnerable neutrality. Instead both quickly line up with the opposing forces in the regional war.”

    Good Lessons to be learned!!

PS: Going back in the history, this day could not happen if Cambodia were not disregarding the Geneva Accords issued from the Geneva Conference (April 26 - July 21, 1954) that confirmed Cambodian Independence (November 9, 1953), ordered all foreign troops to leave the Country and Cambodia followed the path of Neutrality. So there should not have the "Sihanouk Trail" through Cambodia in the first place.

Book to read on the Khmer Republic: “KHMERS STAND UP!” by Justin Corfield, published by Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, Australia (1994).