The year our family traveled the world: Phnom Pehn and some history of French Indochina

After the killing fields, we got our tuk tuk driver to take us into Phnom Pehn for some shopping at the local market to keep the girls happy... only it turned out I was the only one who scored any great deals - and I wasn't even looking. I got my Omega Speedmaster watch for about the cost of a magazine subscription, a new pair of brand name leather flip flops as my $5 Costa Rican ones were getting a little bare and a book on Quantum Physics which will keep my brain working in quiet moments.

After that and a quick bite, we headed to the Royal Palace to see where the King lives and his ancestors are buried. It's quite the grounds. No wonder the former King Sihanhouk (whom they named Sihanhoukville after) fought so hard to become King. The history around Sihanhouk is fascinating as he was in the thick of most of the recent history around the wars in Southeast Asia and caused or was directly related to much of Cambodia's issues today. Amazingly enough, he is still seen by Cambodian's as a father figure - he's still alive and abdicated in 2004 after being diagnosed with Prostrate Cancer to his 7th Son.

WARNING.... THIS ISN'T FOR THE EASILY BORED OR DISTRACTED. YOU MAY WANT TO JUMP TO THE PICTURES. :-)

Sihanhouk was FIRST crowned King in 1941 after the death of his father by the French who were running Cambodia as a colony (part of French Indochina). You need to understand that French Indochina (Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) was colonized by France, amazingly enough, in the late 1800's when France invaded what is now Vietnam. The various nation states that they took over within Indochina each had their rulers which the French allowed to continue as long as they supported France. None of these states were especially keen to be a colony of France and as early as WW1 were making noises about Independence. There was a lot of strife about it and Sihanhouk was right in the thick of it agitating for his kingdom.

During WW2, Japan didn't really have to invade French Indochina like they did with Malaysia and Singapore. They simply made a deal with the French Administration much like the Germans did with the Vichy French in France and things continued much as they were. The local Indochinese were already quite enamoured with Japan as they saw it as the only state to escape colonization and a model to emulate. The Japanese, not wanting to fight too many battles at once, left the existing kings in place much like the French had done although they did install an Emperor (Boa Dia) in Vietnam. Under "pressure" from the Japanese occupiers in the last days of WW2, Sihanhouk unilaterally declared Independence for Cambodia which of course is what he wanted all along. After WW2, the French gradually retook control of French Indochina (which caused no end of issues with the locals resenting this in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam all to very tragic results). The French did allow him to retain his throne in order to help keep the calm but it didn't stop Sihanhouk from continuing to agitate for complete independence for French Indochina all through the end of the 40's and early 50's.

History buffs among you (or old folks that actually remember "current events") may know of the Indochina Wars which raged in most of South East Asia between the French and their colonistic supporters and the locals which were using the Chinese and Russians for their proxies. As WW2 was wrapping up, the Japanese in Vietnam surrendered and gave all their weapons (and some 60,000 troops and advisors) to the Viet Minh led by old Uncle Ho Chi Min himself. The US had asked Chang Kai Shek (the leader of the non-communist forces in China to accept the surrender but he was up to his ears in a civil war with Mao Tse Tung and the communists so half heartedly sent 20K troops south to take over and made it clear he had no intention of staying. US President Roosevelt, prior to the war ending, was categorically against the French regaining control of their former colonies but as he'd died prior to the end of WW2, the French were able to eventually have the Americans turn over French Indochina back to them with implicit support from Ho Chi Min who wanted the French to slowly turn things back to him.

Ho Chi Min and company weren't pleased by the French response however and still had all the weapons the Japanese gave them and both sides started fighting. This was known as the First Indochina War which was waged mostly in present day Vietnam from September 1945 (immediately after the end of WW2) until 1954 when the Geneva Conference split North and South Vietnam along the 17th Parallel giving the Northern Half to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam under Ho Chi Min and the southern half to The State of Vietnam under Emperor Boa Dai (the puppet set up by Japan). A little matter of a palace coup in the south a year later by Prime Minister Diem (with implicit support from the US) resulted in the south becoming the Republic of Vietnam. The US and the UK recognized them immediately. Ironically the French who had gone through 17 different governments during the war started recognizing Ho Chi Min and slagging the US - this despite the fact that the US had given them ships and planes and even flew covert missions and lost men helping them. A lot of the ill will between the US and French today results from this. (To be fair to the French, their system of government setup in the days after WW2 pretty much ensured that the French communists had a strong voice and the leftist and right wing parties were having a free for all about whether or not the French should stay in Indochina... does this remind anyone of any current events?)

About this time in Cambodia, the French also started making death threats to King Sihanhouk to keep him in line as he'd been making a nuisance of himself trying to restablish indepenaceas well so he abdicated and fled to Thailand. With everything going on in Vietnam (and the leftists in France advocating to get the heck out), the French allowed Cambodia her Independence in December 1953 and Sihanhouk came back in as King.

Back over in Vietnam, PM Diem (with the support of the US) refused to comply with one of the terms of the Geneva Agreement which said that "Nationwide" democratic elections would be held in both parts of Vietnam as it was pretty clear he'd lose and the Second Indochina War broke out again in 1959... this became known as the Vietnam War and the Americans whilst starting out as advisors and sending ammunition to the French found the French backing out of it at full speed and themselves up to their ears in it. Both the Soviets and the Chinese who hated each other almost as much as they did the west were tripping over themselves to support friendly "communist" sides in the fight for Independence in Vietnam but also in Laos and Cambodia. It was to last until 1975 when they finally had enough and backed out letting the south fall (and then Cambodia and Laos soon afterwards).

Sihanhouk was again trying to straddle the fence - although he had strong communist tendencies himself and signed secret deals with North Vietnam to setup bases and safe havens and use Cambodian ports in the fight against the US. The American's weren't dumb to this and implicitly supported the PM to overthrow yhe King and setup a government resulting in a civil war between the Khmer Rouge (supported by the North Vietnamese, the Soviets and most importantly the Chinese) and the new government. Sihanhouk was agitating from North Korea now (where he'd setup a 59 room palace) for his return. Cambodia of course fell to the Khmer Rouge (which King Sihanhouk was supporting). Sihanhouk however was soon put under house arrest and only allowed out to speak at UN and diplomatic events as a puppet as the real leader Pol Pot was reclusive and stayed behind the scenes. The genocide, in my mind, is partially his fault as the Khmer Rouge would never have won without his implicit support - many Khmer Rouge peasant soldiers actually thought they were fighting for the King and not communism.

Ironically, the Vietnamese which initially supported the Khmer Rouge and had made deals with Sihanhouk to have secret bases and safe havens in Cambodia against the US were also double crossed by the Khmer Rouge who attacked across the border to reclaim areas of Vietnam that were originally part of the Angkor empire way back when! (See... it's all coming full circle). Obviously the Khmer Rouge were nuts and the Vietnamese came charging back across the border in force and threw out the Khmer Rouge and installed a puppet communist government in Cambodia. As a result of the Nixon/China detente, the US ended up supporting the Khmer Rouge during all this while the Soviets were supporting the Vietnamese.

The Vietnamese continued to occupy Cambodia until the THIRD Indochina War when China invaded northern Vietnam and basically opened up the "gateway" to Hanoi. Vietnam had 300,000 troops locked up in Cambodia and essentially had to rely upon the local milita to fight the Chinese. The Chinese weren't that effective and both sides fought to a bit of a draw although it was really quite tense as the Soviets were obliged under treaty to help the Vietnamese and it could have gotten really messy. They quickly realized that they couldn't fight a war with a supply chain that went around China so never did get involved. The Vietnamese though had to figure out a way to back out of Cambodia and melted away allowing the Cambodian civil war to end in 1993, when the Khmer Rouge finally surrendered and Sihanhouk (who China and their surrogate North Korea was sheltering) was sworn in as King once again (although with much reduced powers... he was essentially a figurehead).

I can not help but wonder if the outside parties way back in 1945 had just kept the French from regaining control and granted these countries self government how different things would have become. Much of the fighting was not about communism versus capitalism but about independence from colonial control. If you talk to the locals, they all think that is what the wars were really about. None of them are enamored with communism and they all want into the west. The Chinese and Russians took advantage of the situation and fed the communist side with almost unlimited arms to fight against the west to keep us tied up and unable to do anything with them. The US initially had the right idea in my mind to not give Indochina back to France but unfortunately Roosevelt did not live long enough to save the day and Truman and later his democratic successors JFK and then then Lyndon Johnson went in as the French were pulling out (to stop the communists from taking over).

You can look at each step and see why each side made the decisions they made and the horrific consequences that came as a result. The politicians on all sides and the selfish Kings and Emperors have really made a hash of it. A pox on all their houses!

Anyway, back to Sihanhouk... as I mentioned, he was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer back in 2003 and abdicated once again. The government setup a panel and picked his son (a ballet instructor who loves women like his sisters) to be King. He lives in the palace now and performs the cerimonial duties that his father had while Sihanhouk still retains much of the power behind the scenes.

Here is where they live.

The main hall is in the front with the throne (only used once for Coronation and then never again). The residence is in the rear.

A dance floor for the royal dancers to perform for the King and Queen

And there is Buddha on the stage

A better shot of the palace from the side

Every day the King and Queen have to wear a different colour. One for each day of the week (starting from Sunday on the left)

The Opera House

One of the Kingès loyal guards.

Laying down on the job...

The Silver Temple - so named because the floor is done in Silver tiles (melted down from the coins that they do not use anymore because their currency is worthless and they have shifted to essentially US dollars. We only got Kip as change for $1 bills.

Murals in the style of Angkor Wat but in paint versus carvings. Not in the best shape. Old King Sihanhouk could never afford to keep it up with all the scheming to regain his power I guess.