Rise of Cambodia, The unlikely story

In our timeline, the kingdom of Cambodia is in a sad state as it's one of the poorest countries in the would this is mostly due to the Khmer Rouge. About 1.7 to 3 million people were killed during the genocide including minority(Vietnamese, Chinese etc.) and Cambodia most educated. The effect was devastating for Cambodia, this deeply destabilizes to the country. Due to the stability of the country the first application to join the association of Southeast Asian countries was ultimately rejected, it was only till 1999 did ASEAN accept Cambodia into the organization. Today despite the strong economic growth of Cambodia in recent year it still remains one the poorest countries with corruption being a major problem.

This is a timeline where the republic of Cambodia was able to prevent the Khmer Rouge from taking over and the country eventually evolve into a develop country.

After the coup of 1970 against prime sisowath sirik matak the future of the Khmer people looks bleak as the country is poor surrounded by countries that are at war in the east and north(Laos, Vietnam) that threaten to spill into Cambodia and its arch nemesis Thailand. Cheng Heng the first president of the republic and Lon Nol the prime minister was determined to bring the prosperity of the great Khmer empire back to Cambodia. His first order of business of is to rid the republic of communist and communist sympathizer as well as win over the people. This lead to what historian today label the event of as the Cambodian period of reform which last 3 years between 1970 to 1973. During this time Cheng Heng and his regime waged war against communist rebel and their supporter. He also implements several propaganda plans to strengthen his grip over the country. These propagandas include glorifying the republic and its western allies especially the U.S. The plan also instill deep fear and hatred of communism into the mind of the people. However, the most controversial part of this period were the brutality of the regime against monarchist loyalist and communist fighting force. Many was killed during the battle with the regime with the remaining killed immediately in harsh ways instead of going to prison with some being lucky enough to be killed immediately. A leftist leader pol pot was brutally torture and killed by a group of soldier seizing the last communist base, the government however, denied any involvement with the group saying it was a unit gone rogue. During this time, the republic request aid from its allies in order to develop the countries economically and militarily, with most of the aid coming from the U.S and France. The regime during this time also used much of the aid to fund the military so to keep communist regime from other countries such as Vietnam and Laos from coming into the territory because of fear of the country stability as well as request from the U.S in exchange for aid and no western force into the country unless it is absolutely necessary.
 

CaliGuy

Banned
Interesting TL! :)

However, wouldn't the Cambodian peasants have still opposed Lon Nol's regime due to its association with the U.S. (a country which was extremely heavily bombing Cambodia during this time)?
 
Act of stability
As Cheng Heng and the government start implementing various reform in order to get the country on the right track. There was major unrest mostly in the capital of Phnom Penh, many starts to question the regime pro-western attitude due to extensive U.S bombing. It got to the point where some even join the communist force. In order to solve this problem, the government ban bombing campaign stage by the U.S only allowing troops to be stations in the country. The regime also took advantage of the republic less educate citizen(pretty much all) and manipulate many of them into taking a much different view of the situation using the government pro-western and anti-communist propagandas. As of the more educate and urban citizen, most were closely watch by the government with any deem untrustworthy thrown into prison without a trail until the end of the war. During this time Cheng Heng also implemented several reforms in order to stamp out any corruption. Drawing inspiration from china although some question this tactic, many did not dare voice there opinions.

The Cambodian Civil War
After the coup that threw out the monarchy, the weight of the war was now the responsibility of the republican. On one side was the republic support by the south Vietnamese and the U.S and the other the communist Khmer Rouge support by the north Vietnamese and Communist China. Due to the recent ban operation Freedom Deal was ultimately cancel. The operation would have allowed the U.S to extended their bombing campaign over the entire eastern half of the country especially heavily populated countries. The government during this time voted against giving emergency power to Lon Nol as his suggestion of using Vietnamese as hostage is too drastic. They argue it could potentially lead to the south withdrawing support. Instead during this time Cheng Heng tried played favor with the U.S and plead for foreign troop as well as aid. This largely paid off as it draws the U.S attention to the Cambodian front of the second Indochina war. More troops were sent to assist the fight the war. Many weapons were also given to the republic, some were even more advance than the Chinese supplied Khmer Rouge but on par with soviet weapon. However, the agreement also states that Cambodia must expel any North Vietnamese troops crossing the Cambodian border. Advance weapon couple with more manpower ultimately led to multiple victories the communist force. Seeing the success of the republic ability to combat opposing force, the communist decide on a secret attack on the capital Phnom Penh. This was ultimately unsuccessful with the republican repelling the attacking force with help from foreign troops and destroying the last of communist force. Documents discover after the war reveal the reason for the unsuccessful attack was because of a spy send by the government. As the curtain closed on the war in April 10, 1973 peace descend on the Khmer people.
 
Last edited:
Top