Why Did Sihanouk Side With The Communists? - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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'Cold war' communist versus capitalist ideological struggle (1946 - 1990) and everything else in the post World War II era (1946 onwards).
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#14113245
I have been wondering why King Sihanouk of Cambodia decided to side with Vietnam and China. It is known that Vietnam gave support to the Khmer Rouge in the 1960s. In this case why did he seek to court Vietnam and China? In doing so he alienated the right wing elements controlling his military which led to a coup against him. Why would Sihanouk support North Vietnam when that state was acting against his regime and when it alienated his military? Could he not have instead had a good relationship with the South Vietnamese?
#14113370
It might have been genuine ideological sympathy? I don't really know much about his early years or education.

Another possibility is it was a (rather foolish) series of political moves intended to boost his own power and prestige and/or to give Thailand a bigger role in the region (so kind of charting a course where he can lean towards one side to get consessions from the other).
#14113405
It might have been genuine ideological sympathy? I don't really know much about his early years or education.

Sihanouk didn't really have any genuine ideological beliefs of his own (aside from his belief in his own divine right to rule Cambodia, of course, but that hardly counts).

Another possibility is it was a (rather foolish) series of political moves intended to boost his own power and prestige and/or to give Thailand [sic] a bigger role in the region (so kind of charting a course where he can lean towards one side to get consessions from the other).

This. He was a political opportunist; but not, unfortunately, a particularly skilful one. :hmm:
#14177409
Simple:

-> He was locked in a bitter power struggle with the right wing of his own regime. This quite likely led him to pursue an alliance with the Left. During the Vietnam war, he very much wanted Lon Nol overthrown.
-> It's likely that he was genuinely resentful against Western imperialists, especially considering how frequently they installed right-wing puppet regimes in Third World countries, overtly colonial or neocolonial.
-> Cambodia is deeply Buddhist: The Diem governments in Western puppet South Vietnam openly suppressed Buddhists and tried to install a militant Catholic regime. Backing them would have been immensely unpopular in Cambodia.
-> Sihanouk's own popularity with the masses depended on being seen as a bulwark of Cambodian independence. Backing the imperialists would have negated this political goodwill.
-> He might have believed that aligning with the socialist bloc might grant him a reprieve from communist agitation, or cut some sort of deal in which he could remain a constitutional monarch.


This wasn't entirely far-fetched: The Soviet Union and to a lesser extent Beijing had sometimes persuaded local communist parties to cut deals with local government in pursuit of some sort of anti-fascist or anti-imperialist strategy. Sihanouk however failed to consider the particular nature of his own country's communist party, which was batshit insane and also not at all in the sphere of influence of the socialist powers he was courting.

Both Sihanouk and the Khmer Rouge thought they were playing each other: Sihanouk probably planned to launch some sort of unity government with an assumed opportunist wing of the Cambodian commies, the Vietnamese-backed Cambodian People's Party and his own populist loyalists organized in the Khmer Rumdo. On the other hand, the Khmer Rouge wanted to use Sihanouk to delegitimize Lon Nol's fascists.

Some people (the usual anticommunists) will be all too eager to pin the blame for the Khmer Rouge coming to power on the Vietnamese (who merely backed an united front of leftist forces during the cambodian civil war), but before they do we must remember it was the Vietnamese who put an end to Pol Pot's macabre theatre of blood, restoring sensible commies to power... And were it not for the Americans and Sihanouk himself, Cambodia would still be socialist today and the Khmer Rouge would never have caused any trouble ever again.

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