Word: sihanouk
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Sihanouk views the great powers with deep cynicism. "They would think themselves humiliated if they followed the path shown by the leader of a non-aligned country of 5,000,000 people," says he. "When, by chance, a great power admits that I am right, it is only because they have just had a serious failure...
...Laos should now go Communist, Sihanouk is sadly certain that Cambodia must eventually follow suit: "That is precisely why I struggled, unfortunately in vain, for a truly neutral Laos. Common frontiers are almost invariably sources of incidents and ouarrels. I am aware that a Communist Laos will give us, through force of circumstance, much worry...
...Sihanouk is eager to see an end to the tension between the U.S. and Red China, but his suggested solution is not one likely to appeal to Washington: "I think it necessary and even urgent that Washington and Peking should reconcile-the price is Formosa. Red China will never accept a compromise over Formosa, and I wouldn't be stupid enough to propose one. Besides, the Laotian affair has taught me that the role of mediator is most ungrateful: one receives blows from all sides and is suspected by everyone...
Modest Hope. Though cordial, out of necessity, to Red China ("I have eaten rice with Chou En-lai and Mao Tse-tung"), Prince Sihanouk deals roughly with Cambodia's native Communists, who, he says bluntly, wish "to destroy" him because he will not practice "onesided neutrality" in the manner of Laos' Red Prince Souphanouvong. His desire to preserve Cambodian neutrality now takes the form of wanting the West to be stronger, for he believes that Communism is on the rise in Southeast Asia, and he is eager to find a counterbalance...
...wish only to have the respect of both sides," Sihanouk says bleakly. "There is always danger that the one who tries to separate two fighting buffaloes will have his belly ripped open. That's the basic attitude of Cambodia in the struggle of the great powers-we want to remain indifferent to their quarrels...