A Short Chronology

 1864 France imposes a protectorate over the kingdom of Cambodia.

1941 Prince Norodom Sihanouk is crowned King of Cambodia.

1953 Sihanouk gains Cambodia's independence from France.

1954 The Geneva Conference on Indochina recognizes Cambodia's neutrality and orders the withdrawal of the Communist Viet Minh and Khmer Rouge to Hanoi.

1955 Sihanouk abdicates the throne in favor of his father. As Prince he becomes the country's principal political leader.

1963 Leaders of the left-wing opposition to Sihanouk leave Phnom Penh for the jungle and mountains.

Sihanouk renounces American aid.

1965

February 28. The United States announces "continuous limited airstrikes" against North Vietnam.

March 8. The first U.S. Marine Infantry (3rd Battalion, 9th Marines) lands in South Vietnam.

May 3. Cambodia breaks relations with the United States.

1966-67 Sihanouk allows the Vietnamese Communists to use the border areas of his country adjoining South Vietnam and to land supplies at the port of Sihanoukville. The United States protests. South Vietnamese and American forces mount frequent small raids across the border. The Cambodian government protests many of these raids.

1967

Sihanouk’s armed forces crush a left-wing peasant revolt in Battambang province. More left-wingers flee from Phnom Penh to the maquis, which Sihanouk calls “les Khmers Rouges.”

1968

January 8-12. U.S. Ambassador to New Delhi Chester Bowles visits Cambodia to explore restoration of relations between Cambodia and the United States and ways to limit Communist use of the border areas.

January 30. The Vietnamese Communists launch their Tet offensive in South Vietnam.

November 5. Richard Nixon is elected President of the United States.

1969

February 9. General Creighton Abrams, Commander of U.S. forces, Vietnam, requests B-52 bombing attack on a Communist base camp inside Cambodia.

March 17. Abrams’ request is approved by President Nixon.

March 18. Operation Breakfast, a B-52 strike against Base Area 353, takes place.

May 9. The New York Times reports that base camps inside Cambodia are being bombed for the first time.

May 10. The White House demands the first of seventeen wiretaps on government officials and journalists.

June 11. Prince Sihanouk announces that Cambodian-U.S. relations will be restored.

July 25. President Nixon announces the “Guam” or “Nixon” Doctrine on future American commitments in Asia.

1970

March 11. An estimated 20,000 Cambodians demonstrate against Vietnamese Communist presence in the country and sack the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong embassies in Phnom Penh.

March 18. Prince Sihanouk is deposed as Cambodia’s head of state while on a trip to Moscow and Peking. Power is seized by the Prime Minister, General Lon Nol, with Prince Sirik Matak and Cheng Heng.

March 19. The U.S. government states that Sihanouk has been legally deposed; the question of recognition of the new government “does not arise.”

March 23. In Peking, Prince Sihanouk announces that he has formed a National United Front of Kampuchea with his former enemies, the Khmer Rouge, to struggle against the Lon Nol government.

April 14. Prime Minister Lon Nol makes an international appeal for aid.

April 20. President Nixon announces the withdrawal of 150,000 troops from Vietnam.

April 30. President Nixon announces that American and South Vietnamese troops have crossed into Cambodia to attack Communist bases.

May 1. Prime Minister Lon Nol states that the U.S.-South Vietnamese assault has been mounted without his knowledge or approval.

May 4. Four students are fatally shot by the National Guard at Kent State University.

May 5. In Peking, Prince Sihanouk announces the formation of a government in exile, the Royal National Union Government of Kampuchea. His government is immediately recognized by China and North Vietnam.

May 6. China, North Vietnam, and North Korea break diplomatic relations with Cambodia.

May 11. The Senate takes the first step to approve an amendment introduced by Senator Sherman Cooper and Senator Frank Church to prevent any future U.S. military operations in Cambodia.

June 29. U.S. ground troops withdraw from Cambodia.

June 30. In a report to the nation, President Nixon praises the “successful” completion of the Cambodian “incursion,” citing the amount of enemy supplies captured.

July 5. A Cambodian court condemns Prince Sihanouk to death on grounds of treason and corruption.

July 14. President Nixon approves the “Huston plan” for illegal intelligence gathering in the United States.

September 12. Emory Swank, the first U.S. ambassador since 1965, arrives in Phnom Penh.

October 26. National Security Decision Memorandum 89 defines the administration’s “Cambodia Strategy” as to “capitalize on Cambodian nationalism.”

December 22. The Cooper-Church amendment becomes law and prohibits the use of authorized funds for sending American troops into Cambodia or for attaching American advisers to Cambodian forces. It proclaims that any assistance given by the United States does not constitute a commitment by the United States to the defense of Cambodia.

1971

January 10. The American Military Equipment Delivery Team Cambodia is formed.

February 13. Lon Nol leaves for Hawaii for treatment of a stroke.

April 12. Lon Nol returns.

April 21. Lon Nol is proclaimed Marshal.

October 20. Lon Nol declares a state of emergency, saying he will no longer "play the game of democracy and freedom," because it stands in the way of victory.

October 27. Lon Nol's Chenla II expeditionary force is attacked by the North Vietnamese.

December 1. The Chenla II forces abandon all their major positions and fall back in disorder with heavy losses.

1972

February 5. The U.S. Senate Refugee Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee reports that two million Cambodians have been made homeless by   March 10. Chief of State Cheng Heng resigns, transferring his powers to Prime Minister Lon Nol. Lon Nol accepts, dissolves the National Assembly, and declares himself President of Cambodia, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and President of the Council of Ministers.

June 4. Lon Nol wins the Khmer Republic's first presidential election.

June 17. Watergate break-in.

September 7-9. Rice shortages and rising prices lead to food riots in Phnom Penh.

October 22. Henry Kissinger makes his only visit to Cambodia, remains four hours and tells Marshal Lon Nol of the progress made in his talks with the North Vietnamese.

November 7. Richard Nixon is elected President for a second term.

December 18. President Nixon orders bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.

1973

January 27. The Paris Agreement on ending the war in Vietnam is signed. Article 20 deals with the withdrawal of foreign troops from Cambodia.

February 8. Massive B-52 and F-111 bombing of Cambodia resumes after a halt since the January 27 cease-fire.

April 11. Prince Sihanouk returns to Peking after a six-week tour of the Communist-controlled areas of Cambodia.

May 10. The U.S. House of Representatives blocks the use of funds for the continued bombing of Cambodia. This is the first time in the war that the House has voted to undercut a military action on which the President insists.

June 3-4. European news agencies report that Sihanouk has attempted to make contact with President Nixon through third countries, but that his overtures have been rejected. The State Department confirms these accounts.

June 14. Le Duc Tho, Hanoi’s negotiator, tells the press that “no tacit agreement” exists between him and Henry Kissinger on Cambodia.

June 30. The Congress and the administration reach agreement on a compromise over the Cambodia bombing; it will continue till August 15.

July 19-21. A “National Congress” of the Cambodian resistance movement, held in the “liberated zone,” decides that there will be no peace until all U.S. military activities in Cambodia are ended and Lon Nol is replaced by leaders from Sihanouk’s government.

August 7. An off-target B-52 plane bombs the government-held town of Neak Luong, killing over 125 people and injuring more than 250.

August 15. The American bombing of Cambodia, and thus all direct American military intervention in Indochina, ends.

September 4. In a farewell press conference, Ambassador Swank calls Cambodia Indochina’s most useless war. No new ambassador is appointed.

September 21. Henry Kissinger is confirmed as Secretary of State.

1974

January 6. Khmer Rouge open 1974 dry-season offensive with attack on the northwest perimeter of Phnom Penh. A bombardment of the city by 105-mmartillery culminates in a sheelling on February 11, killing  139 people and leave-ing 10,000 homeless.

March 28. Khieu Samphan, the Deputy Prime Minister in the insurgent government, and commander in chief of its army, leads a delegation from the interior of Cambodia to Hanoi, Peking, and nonaligned countries.

April 3. John Gunther Dean presents his letters of credence as American ambassador to Cambodia.

July 27. The House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee approves Article I—on the Watergate cover-up—in the impeachment of Richard Nixon.

July 29. The Judiciary Committee approves Article II—on abuses of power, including the wiretaps.

July 30. The Judiciary Committee approves Article III, which charges the President with contempt of Congress; it votes down Article IV, which accuses the President of waging secret illegal war in Cambodia.

August 9. Richard Nixon resigns the Presidency and is succeeded by Gerald Ford. Ford announces that Henry Kissinger will remain his Secretary of State.

December 16. President Ford meets with French President Giscard d’Estaing in Martinique; the final communiqué states that “regarding Cambodia, they expressed the hope that the contending parties would enter into negotiations in the near future rather than continuing the military struggle.”

1975

January 1. The Khmer Rouge launch annual dry-season offensive against Lon Nol forces.

February 5. The Communists close the Mekong River, preventing any convoys of food, fuel, or ammunition reaching besieged Phnom Penh.

April 1. President Lon Nol and his entourage leave Cambodia for Hawaii, via Indonesia. The ferry town of Neak Luong falls to the Communists.

April 12. The U.S. embassy is evacuated from Cambodia by Marine Corps helicopter. Acting President Saukham Khoy leaves with the Americans; most other Cambodian Cabinet officers remain. The army continues to fight.

April 17. The Khmer Rouge enter Phnom Penh and begin to empty the city. All other towns held by the government are also emptied.

April 30. Saigon falls to North Vietnamese assault.

May 3. Fighting begins between the new governments of Cambodia and South Vietnam, in the border area and among the offshore islands.

May 12-15. Cambodian naval forces capture the U.S. container ship Mayaguez. President Ford and Secretary Kissinger order the Cambodian mainland bombed in retaliation.

September 9. Prince Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after a five-year absence.

1976

April 4. Sihanouk resigns his position as head of state.

1977

December 31. Radio Phnom Penh suspends diplomatic relations with Hano

1978 Throughout 1978 the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Republic of Democratic Kampuchea confront each other in increasingly fierce polemics and in bloody fighting. Relations between Vietnam and China deteriorate. The Cambodian government accuses Vietnam of wishing to "swallow up" Cambodia and impose an Indochina Federation, dominated by Hanoi. The Vietnamese call upon the Cambodian people to overthrow their regime. Vietnam describes Cambodia as "a land of blood and tears, hell on earth." Hanoi announces the formation of a new "Front" to "liberate" Cambodia. In December the Vietnamese launch a large scale invasion of Democratic Kampuchea.