Cambodia: Balance of Menaces

A chubby little man in a dark blue suit strode into the sports stadium of the steamy Cambodian capital of Pnompenh (pronounced Nom-pen) last week, mounted the platform, and began haranguing the assembled crowd in a whiny, high-pitched voice. The speaker was Prince Norodom Sihanouk, neutralist, mercurial ruler of Cambodia, and he had called the rally to announce in effect that the U.S. was working to undermine his regime. Turning theatrically to the throng, Sihanouk asked whether the national honor did not demand that Cambodia reject any future help from the Americans. When his subjects roared obedient approval, the Prince ordered "So be it."

Sihanouk might change his mind again, as he has before. In a formal note to Washington, he called for a halt to all American economic and military aid, which in the past eight years has amounted to $366 million. And so the J.S.—already striving to save war-torn South Viet Nam and "neutral" but tottering Laos from the Reds—faced another mess in Southeast Asia.

Shaken Neighbor. What was ailing the Prince? A suspicious, emotional, French-educated descendant of Cambodia's medieval Khmer kings, he once performed slapstick parts in movies (which he produced himself) and has often played slapstick politics. Friends seriously reported last week that two contributing reasons for Sihanouk's bad mood might be that 1) he had been crash-dieting to lose 15 Ibs. in ten days, and 2) the U.S. transferred a former military advisory chief with whom the Prince enjoyed playing volleyball. The Prince himself accused the U.S. of supporting a clandestine radio, on South Viet Nam soil, run by the Prince's political opposition (the U.S. denied the charge).

But, above all, the Prince talks of the "inevitability" of Communist China's takeover of Southeast Asia, hence may be trying to save himself by cozying up to the Red dragon. What precipitated his latest performance could well have been the overthrow and assassination of his late neighbor, South Viet Nam's Ngo Dinh Diem. Although Sihanouk and Diem were bitter enemies, the Prince was shaken by Diem's death and attributed it to the cutoff of Diem's American aid. Possibly determined never to get himself on the same vulnerable spot, Sihanouk moved quickly to lessen his dependence on the U.S.

Opening to the Seine. For all his eccentric behavior, Sihanouk has also sometimes proved himself a shrewd politician. Since independence from France ten years ago, he has jailed home-grown Communists and wooed his red-hot young leftist critics into the government —while at the same time maintaining warm relations with Russia and Red China. Sihanouk last week performed another typically slippery gyration. Instead of rushing right into Peking's arms, he turned to his old colonial tutor, France, and asked her to help replace U.S. aid. Said the Prince: "For our country, liberated from the U.S. and which the Communist powers do not wish to take in charge, it could be the hour of France."