Translated from French by Tola EkHistorical words
(“Le Monde” [French newspaper] Editorial, 10 September 1975. Excerpts:)
(“Le Monde” [French newspaper] Editorial, 10 September 1975. Excerpts:)
* Norodom Sihanouk’s victory is first of all, a victory (won) over himself. (…) His patriotism without fail, his willpower to incarnate the nation of the builders of Angkor, led him to take the lead in a fight, in which, he knew and he often said so, he would lose his former power. The prince came out taller from the ordeal. He did not abdicate under the battering of a foreign aggression. (…) He frequently asked his compatriots “not to change their skin”, to “remain Khmers.” Khmer, his country remained, at the price of enormous sacrifices. (…) … the US intervention contributed, unintentionally, to bringing to power (the Khmer Rouge). (…) Are they not Sihanoukist, in a way, when they (Khmer Rouge) defend with obstinacy the national independence, when, in spite of friendship proclamations, they took care not to let themselves be pulled into the orbit of the large neighboring Vietnam?
