Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk was king, prime minister, head of state and king again, and allied with the people who murdered five of his children. Born in Phnom Penh in 1922, he was chosen for the throne in 1941 at eighteen by the French, who expected him to be pliable. He was not. He conducted what he called a royal crusade for independence from 1952, touring foreign capitals and briefly going into self-imposed exile, and France conceded in 1953. He abdicated in 1955 so that he could enter politics directly, and governed for fifteen years as prince and head of state, pursuing neutrality in the Cold War, attending Bandung, and accepting aid from both blocs while making films in which he starred. As the Vietnam War spread he permitted North Vietnamese supply routes through eastern Cambodia and American bombing of them, and broke relations with Washington and then restored them. He was deposed in March 1970 by his prime minister Lon Nol while abroad. In exile in Beijing he allied with the Khmer Rouge — the movement he had named and had previously suppressed — and lent them his enormous prestige among the peasantry, which is generally reckoned to have been decisive in their recruitment. They took Phnom Penh in 1975 and made him head of state, then placed him under house arrest for three years. Between one and a half and two million Cambodians died, including five of his children and fourteen grandchildren. He returned as king in 1993 under a UN-brokered settlement, abdicated again in 2004, and died in 2012.
- Lived: 1922 CE – 2012 CE
- Nationality: Cambodian
- Roles: head_of_state, king, statesman
