Cambodia

Abstract

For history to 1969 see The Statesman’s Year-Book, 1992–93, p. 263. Prince Sihanouk was deposed in March 1970 and on 9 Oct. 1970 the Kingdom of Cambodia became the Khmer Republic. From 1970 hostilities extended throughout most of the country involving North and South Vietnamese and US forces as well as Republican and anti-Republican Khmer troops. During 1973 direct American and North Vietnamese participation in the fighting came to an end, leaving a civil war situation between the forces of the Khmer Republic supported by American arms and economic aid and the forces of the United National Cambodian Front including ‘Khmer Rouge’ communists supported by North Vietnam and China. The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh in April 1975, and instituted a harsh and highly regimented régime, cutting the country off from normal contact with the world and expelling all foreigners. All towns were forcibly evacuated and the population set to work in the fields.