Searching for the truth Issues 21 - Documentation Center of Cambodia

Searching for the truth ⎯ Documentation
aim of the visit was to strengthen the militant solidarity and
relations between the two countries.
1970
March 11: In the absence of Sihanouk from
Cambodia, the Embassies of the DRV and the South Vietnam
PRG in Phnom Penh were sacked at the instigation of the
CIA and of the Lon Nol-Sirik Matak clique.
March 14: In Phnom Penh, Queen Kossamak, the
Queen Mother, demanded the cessation of all hostile acts
against Vietnamese residents in Cambodia, and invited
Cheng Heng, acting Head of State, and Lon Nol, Prime
Minister of the Kingdom, to assume their responsibilities.
March 16: From Peking, Head of State Norodom
Sihanouk sent a telegram to Queen Kossamak requesting
her to take measures in the name of the crown to overcome
the emerging difficulties in relations between Cambodia
and Vietnam.
March 18: In a coup d’etat by General Lon Nol,
Sihanouk was relieved of his post as Head of State. The US
and world press denounced the role played by the CIA in
the coup.
March 23: In a message and official declaration,
Norodom Sihanouk condemned the coup d’etat and
proclaimed the dissolution of the Lon Nol government and
of the two chambers of the National Assembly. He also
announced the forthcoming formation of the Royal
Government of the National Union of Cambodia (RGNUC)
and of the National United Front of Kampuchea (NUFK).
The armed struggle was rapidly taken up nationwide.
March 25: The DRV Government declared its
condemnation of the March 18, 1970 coup d’etat and
stressed that “Proceeding from the principle that the
liberation of Cambodia is the work of the Khmer people,
the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
declares its full support to the five-point proclamation of
March 23, 1970 of Samdech Norodom Sihanouk...In the
spirit of mutual respect, solidarity and mutual assistance,
the Vietnamese people will wholeheartedly support the
legitimate effort of the Khmer people.”
March 26: Three deputies, Khieu Samphan, Hou
Youn and Hu Nim, declared their support for Norodom
Sihanouk’s appeal.
Mid-April: The Americans gave orders to Nguyen
Van Thieu to invade the Cambodian region of Svay Rieng.
April 23: The Procheachon organization (People’s
Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam)
Number 21, September 2001
Group, a legal cover for the Communist Party of
Kampuchea) published a statement affirming its resolve to
forge national unity and its support for Norodom
Sihanouk’s March 23, 1970 declaration.
April 24 and 25: Summit Conference of Indochinese
People. The Joint Declaration of the Conference stressed
that “the parties...recognize and pledge to respect the
territorial integrity of Cambodia within its present frontiers...”
Pham Van Dong, the DRV Prime Minister, declared in his
speech: “The Vietnamese people and the Democratic Republic
of Vietnam are firmly resolved to fulfill their obligations to
strengthen the great militant solidarity between our three
countries and we shall try to be always worthy of your
feelings towards us. For generations to come, the relations
between our three peoples will be relations of mutual
affection and esteem, of militant solidarity in the struggle
against a common enemy, of lasting cooperation and mutual
assistance with a view to building each country in accordance
with its own people’s path and talents.”
April 30: On the orders of US President Richard
Nixon, many US and Saigon army units crossed the border
between South Vietnam and Cambodia.
May 3: At the NUFK congress, Norodom Sihanouk
was elected President of the NUFK. The Royal
Government of the National Union of Cambodia was
constituted with Penn Nouth as Prime Minister. It had two
parts: one part set up abroad, in charge of external
relations, and one part set up inside the country and headed
by Khieu Samphan, Vice Premier, Minister for National
Defense and Commander-in-Chief of the Khmer National
Liberation People’s Armed Forces.
May 25: Norodom Sihanouk, Head of State of
Cambodia, President of the NUFK, and Penn Nouth, Prime
Minister of RGNUC, arrived in Vietnam on an official
visit. A Vietnam-Cambodia joint statement was made
public in Hanoi. “The Khmer people,” the statement said,
“is deeply grateful to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
for the total support its has extended to the policy of
independence, peace and neutrality of Cambodia, for its
recognition and respect for Cambodia’s territorial integrity
within its present frontiers, and for its devoted support
right from the start for the just and necessarily victorious
struggle of the Khmer people against the US imperialists
and their Lon Nol-Sirik Matak lackeys.”
October: Lon Nol and his clique founded the so-
11
100 100 100 100 100 100 50 50 50 50
Black
Yellow
Magenta
Cyan