Word: lon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...almost 30 years, flamboyant Prince Norodom Sihanouk was revered as a "god-king" by what he called his "7,000,000 little Buddhas." Now it seems as if the same role has fallen, unbidden, upon ascetic Premier Lon Nol. Soon after he resigned last month, still semi-paralyzed in the wake of a near-fatal stroke, it became obvious that no one could even come close to forming an acceptable government without his mystically legitimizing presence. So last week, Cambodia resolved its 18-day government crisis by keeping Lon Nol on as a purely symbolic premier...
...real rule of the country falls to a "Premier-Delegate." He is Sisowath Sirik Matak, 57, the shrewd and ambitious administrator who had been virtually running Cambodia anyway as Vice Premier and Lon Nol's closest confidant. Sirik Matak is not only a cousin, but also an old foe of Sihanouk, and he is widely assumed to have been the chief architect of the plot that ousted the prince 15 months...
...crisis began on his seventh day back in the capital, when Lon Nol abruptly resigned. In bewilderingly rapid order he was 1) acclaimed an official "national hero" by the legislature, 2) made Cambodia's first marshal of the army, and 3) entreated by Chief of State Cheng Heng to reconsider his resignation in view of the country's "grave circumstances" and form a new government. At week's end, Lon Nol was reported ready to accept the invitation...
Like a Copilot. But what did it all mean? Lon Nol had reason enough to claim "ill health"; in addition to the lingering effects of his stroke, he suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure. But his short-lived resignation was also designed to deal with a governmental malaise. While the Premier was away, a bitter struggle flared between his two closest advisers: his brother Lieut. Colonel Lon Non, who commands a Cambodian army brigade, and Vice Premier Sisowath Sirik Matak, a shrewd administrator who is said to be "like a copilot" to Lon...
Evidently, the only solution was a complete shake-up of the government. When it is all over, Lon Nol is expected to resume his premiership and redistribute the machinery of power among three Vice Premiers (two of them newly created) and a thoroughly overhauled Cabinet...