biography
| name: |
Sihanouk, Prince Norodom
|
pronunciation:
[seeanook]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1922– )
|
| biography:
| Cambodian leader, born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He was King of Cambodia (1941–55), chief of state (1960–70, and of the Khmer Republic 1975–6), prime minister on several occasions between 1952 and 1968, president of the government in exile (1970–5, 1982–91), president (1991–3), and once again king (1993– ). He studied in Vietnam and Paris, was elected king in 1941, and negotiated the country's independence from France (1949–53). He abdicated in 1955 in favour of his father, in order to become an elected leader under the new constitution. As prime minister, and from 1960 head of state, he steered a neutralist course during the Vietnam War. In 1970 he was deposed in a right-wing military coup led by Lon Nol, fled to Beijing, and formed a joint resistance front with Pol Pot which successfully overthrew Lon Nol in 1975. Re-appointed head of state, he was ousted a year later by the Communist Khmer Rouge leadership. In 1982 he was elected president of the new government-in-exile. He returned to Cambodia in November 1991 as president of the Supreme National Council, after the signing of a peace treaty ended 13 years of civil war, and was crowned king under the new constitution in 1993. |
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