Khmer stand up! A History of the Cambodian Government 1970 - 1975

After twenty-nine years of ruling Cambodia, directly and indirectly, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, while he was abroad, was dismissed by his National Assembly and High Council of the Kingdom, meeting in joint session on 18 March 1970. These moves to overthrow him were instigated, in large part, by Sihanouk's second cousin, Prince Sirikmatak, who had managed to persuade the Prime Minister, General Lon Nol, to support the move. However although there was much support for the deposing of Sihanouk amongst the urban middle-class especially in Phnom Penh, there was nobody who could adequately lead the country as is slipped into a civil war between the new Government and the Sihanoukists with their new communist allies, the Khmer Rouge. [...]