WHO SECRETLY TOLD LON NOL TO STAGE A COUP?
BEFORE the coup 17th March 1970, Sihanouk traveled to France for one of his periodic rest cures in early January 1970, planning to return via Moscow and Beijing. (By Martin Wright, 1989 Cambodia Matter of survival). But instead of traveling to France for his periodic rest cures, he secretly went to Rome to meet General Lon Nol by doing secret talk according to François Ponchau’s Cambodia Year Zero. When General Lon Nol returned from his overseas trip to Cambodia. He sacrificed his live to fulfill Sihanouk’s wish to topple him. Lon Nol then became a republic president from 1970-75. The immediate effect of the 1970 coup in the countryside, Sihanouk’s traditional stronghold, was bloody. Violent rioting and unrest ensued, and peasants murdered Lon Nol’s brother. Most important, thousands joined the Khmer Rouge’s insurgency. The Khmer Rouge went from having just a few thousand armed troops in early 1970, to having 12,000 by the year’s end. And in 1971, the DIA. reported that “Vietnamese com
