Lon Nol

He died from a heart problem on November 17, 1985, in Fullerton, California, United States. He was buried at the Loma Vista Memorial Park.

Lon Nol was born on November 13, 1913, in Prey Veng Province, to Lon Hin, who served as a district chief in Siem Reap and Kampong Thom. His family belonged to mixed Chinese-Khmer ancestry.

He received his early education from the Lycée Chasseloup-Laubat in Saigon, followed by the Cambodian Royal Military Academy.

In 1937, he was employed with the French colonial civil service and was appointed a magistrate. In 1939, he proved himself to be an efficient enforcer of French rule against a series of anti-colonial disturbances.

By 1946, he rose to the post of Governor of Kratie Province and became an associate of Prince Norodom Sihanouk. In the late 1940s, he set up a pro-independence political group and became increasingly involved in the Cambodian politics.

In 1952, he joined the army and carried out military operations against the Viet Minh. Three years later, he became the army chief of staff and in 1960, he was appointed the commander-in-chief. He became a trusted supporter of Sihanouk and was appointed as the deputy premier in 1963.

In the 1966 parliamentary elections, there occurred a major shift in the balance of power towards Lon Nol and he became the Prime Minister of Cambodia. The following year, his troops were used by Sihanouk to carry out a savage repression of a leftist-inspired revolt in Battambang Province.

In 1967, Lon Nol was injured in a car crash and took temporary retirement. The following year, he returned to the political scene as the Minister of Defense in Sihanouk’s cabinet, a post which he served in for a year.