Sak Sutsakhan
General Sak Sutsakhan | |
---|---|
សក់ ស៊ុតសាខន | |
Saukham Khoy (acting) as President of the Khmer Republic | |
Succeeded by | Norodom Sihanouk as President of the State Presidium |
Personal details | |
Born | Cambodia, French Indochina | 8 February 1928
Died | 29 April 1994 Detroit, Michigan, United States | (aged 66)
Political party | Liberal Democratic Party |
Military service | |
Allegiance | First Kingdom of Cambodia Khmer Republic Khmer People's National Liberation Front |
Branch/service | Royal Cambodian Army Khmer National Army Khmer People's National Liberation Armed Forces |
Years of service | 1957–1994 |
Rank | Major general |
General Sak Sutsakhan (Khmer: សក់ ស៊ុតសាខន; 8 February 1928[1] – 29 April 1994) was a Cambodian politician and soldier who had a long career in the country's politics. He was the last Head of State of the Khmer Republic, the regime overthrown by the Khmer Rouge in 1975. Sak Sutsakhan formed a pro-US force known as the Khmer Sâ (White Khmer).[2] As a businessman, Sak Sutsakhan notably owned a Dairy Queen franchise in Anaheim, California.[3]
Early life
Sutsakhan was born in Battambang. He was the cousin of Nuon Chea, who would later go on to be a prominent member of the Khmer Rouge. He studied at the Royal Military Academy and the French General Staff School in Paris; his subsequent career with the small Cambodian army, the Forces Armées Royales Khmeres (FARK) resulted in his rapid promotion, and under the Sangkum regime of Prince Norodom Sihanouk he became the world's youngest Minister of Defence in 1957 at the age of 29.
The Khmer Republic
Following the
After the U.S. embassy staff and acting President
Exile and the KPNLF
Sutsakhan settled in the United States, and became an American citizen. After the Khmer Rouge had been expelled by Vietnamese forces in 1979, politician Son Sann and former FANK General Dien Del set up the Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF), a non-communist and largely republican movement dedicated to expelling the regime installed by the Vietnamese (the People's Republic of Kampuchea). The KPNLF was initially a coalition of various disparate 'resistance' and even semi-bandit groups based in the refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border; however the recruitment of Sutsakhan, who arrived from the US in 1981, helped to lend considerable legitimacy to the cause.[6] Sutsakhan became commander of the KPNLF's armed wing, the Khmer People's National Liberation Armed Forces (KPNLAF), and attempted to impose a centralized structure on its armed factions.
In 1982 a formal political alliance, the
By 1985, Sutsakhan and Sann began to disagree on the conduct of the war, especially on the issue of cooperation with the royalist (ANS), which Sutsakhan favoured. The resulting split in the KPNLF hampered the operations of its armed forces: despite some initial successes in the northwest of Cambodia, the KPNLAF was shattered by a Vietnamese offensive in 1984–1985 and was largely restricted to guerrilla warfare after this point.
After the Paris Peace Accords of 1991, Sutsakhan was to split from Son Sann and the KPNLF, and formed the Liberal Democratic Party.
He died in Detroit on April 29, 1994. His corpse was cremated and his ashes were scattered in Lake Michigan.[citation needed]
Publications
In 1980, Sutsakhan published The Khmer Republic at War and the Final Collapse, which remains a major source of information on the Cambodian Civil War. Available online at [1].
See also
- Cambodian Civil War
- Khmer Republic
- Khmer Rouge
- Royal Cambodian Armed Forces
- Khmer National Armed Forces
- Operation Eagle Pull
References
- ^ Some sources give 2 August.
- ^ Haas, Cambodia, Pol Pot, and the United States: the Faustian pact (1991), page unknown.
- ^ "Cambodians From S. California Go Home To Seek Political Office | The Seattle Times". archive.seattletimes.com. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ^ Shawcross, Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia (1979), p. 232.
- ^ Sutsakhan, Lt. Gen. S. The Khmer Republic at War and the Final Collapse Washington DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1987, p. 168. See also Part 1 Archived 2019-04-12 at the Wayback MachinePart 2 Archived 2007-02-21 at the Wayback MachinePart 3 Archived 2007-02-21 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Corfield, J. A History of the Cambodian Non-Communist Resistance 1975-1983, Monash University, 1991
Sources
- Justin J. Corfield, A History of the Cambodian Non-Communist Resistance 1975-1983, Clayton, 1991. ASIN B00KMX8C2S
- Justin J. Corfield, Khmers Stand Up! a history of the Cambodian government 1970-1975, Monash Asia Institute, 1994. ISBN 978-0732605650, 0732605652
- Michael Haas, Cambodia, Pol Pot, and the United States: the Faustian pact, Praeger Publishers Inc, New York 1991. ISBN 978-0275940058, 0275940055
- William Shawcross, Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia, André Deutsch Limited, 1979. ISBN 0233970770