He was certainly a colourful character, but I have never really been able to make up my mind about him. In the late 1980s I did a unit on the history of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. My main research paper was on Norodom Sihanouk, and I set out to present him in a favourable light. But about half way through writing I found myself having grave doubts about the role this man played in the history of Cambodia. I concluded that he had used and manipulated the monarchy for his own political purposes. He abdicated in 1960 in favour of his father, King Norodom Suramarit, so he could become Prime Minister and rule the country unencumbered by the trappings and restrictions of kingship. Yet he would continue to use his royal prestige to pursue his own agenda for the rest of his life. When his father died in 1960, Norodom Sihanouk made his mother, Queen Kossamak, the ceremonial representative of the monarchy. But the throne itself was left empty; Norodom Sihanouk did not want to share the lime light with a new king.
After his overthrow and the declaration of the Khmer Republic he looked to the Khmer Rouge for support. Not to restore the monarchy, but to restore himself to power, even if that meant embracing communism. This happened in 1975 with the founding of Democratic Kampuchea. It is, I think, the most unsavoury part of his political career. He may not have been involved with the genocide that swept Cambodia, and ultimately he became a virtual hostage of the Khmer Rouge. But he was officially Head of State for the first year of the reign of terror, and who knows to what extent his prestige enabled Pol Pot to come to power. It seems that his earlier visits to the Khmer Rouge in the field caused a huge increase in their numbers: Cambodians thought they were supporting their former king, not a communist revolution.
I visited Cambodia a couple of years ago, and spent a day at the Killing Fields at
Choeung Ek, and then a very disturbing morning at the
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. It is unbelievable what the people of Cambodia suffered. Norodom Sihanouk may not have been personally responsible for the Killing Fields, and he was unlucky enough to find himself walking the tightrope of Cold War politics beyond his control. But in his pursuit of personal power he made choices that played a role in bringing immense suffering to Cambodia. It will be interesting to see how Cambodian's react to his death.
