Word: sihanouk
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...another, genial Prince Norodom Sihanouk has been boss of the green rice fields, blue lakes, brown, winding rivers of his native land ever since Cambodia got its independence from France in 1953. After 16 months as King of independent Cambodia, Sihanouk abdicated because "the true face of the people was hidden from me." He has been six times Premier and has six times resigned. Now, Prince Sihanouk is known as the Head of State, as a result of last year's national referendum in which he captured 99.97% of the votes...
...along he has consistently outmaneuvered the local Communist Party, and in 1959 he neatly snuffed out an attempted military coup for which he still blames CIA agents (he is certain that the U.S. disapproved of his studied neutralism, wanted a more firmly anti-Communist government). Says Sihanouk: "It is difficult to be a prince nowadays. The people believe that princes only build palaces and make gold and silver. But nowadays we have to work...
Cambodians have good reason to believe in Sihanouk's ability to make gold. U.S. economic aid to neutralist Cambodia totals nearly $230 million and keeps the national economy on an even keel. Another $87 million in U.S. military assistance has gone into equipping Cambodia's 28,000-man army. From Red China, Sihanouk has gotten three factories (textile, plywood, paper) and the promise of three more. The Soviet Union weighed in last year with a 500-bed hospital. Both the U.S. and Russia are building and staffing new technological institutes...
When not opening new dams, primary schools and public works, Sihanouk lives comfortably in a suburban villa near his capital city of Pnompenh, where he composes music and relaxes with such 19th century French authors as Alfred de Musset. TIME Correspondent Jerry Schecter last week interviewed Cambodia's versatile Head of State. Schecter found him looking younger than his 38 years, a man who, when aroused in conversation, waves his hands, pounds his fists, wags his fingers. In high-pitched English, Sihanouk, a sensitive man working hard to live down an earlier reputation as a playboy, made plain that...
...Ungrateful Role. A year ago, he urged that Cambodia and Laos be recognized by both East and West as "neutral buffer states." Sihanouk blames the failure of this plan on the U.S. which, he says, at that time wished "to have Laos aligned as a 'pro-Western' neutrality," forced the issue, and got beaten. In Laos, sighs Sihanouk, "true neutrality is no longer possible. The victors and their allies now dictate their will...