Cambodia's ex-King Norodom Sihanouk has long been the most unpredictable political tumbler in Southeast Asia. At the Geneva Conference on Indo-China four years ago, Sihanouk's delegation won Western cheers with its courageous stand against Communist attempts to take Cambodia by negotiation. Later Sihanouk switched to "neutrality," made triumphant tours of Red China and the Soviet Union, at home coupled on-again-off-again praise for the Communists with equally erratic pats and cuffs for the West.
Last week Sihanouk (who has served five times as Premier, rules the country whether in office or out) was back from a long vacation in France, 20 pounds lighter and with some brisk new ideas. Calling his Sangkum Party to a convention in Pnompenh, he listened patiently while Sangkum Party Secretary Ek Yi Oun accused the Secretary of Agriculture of having organized a bacchanal, complete with prostitutes, for the National Assembly (retorted the Agriculture Secretary: "I organized the party, all right, but you brought the girls"). Then Sihanouk got to what was on his mind.
The Communists he had permitted to flourish so freely, Sihanouk told the convention, "are going to cut my throat." With a nod in the direction of both Red China and Communist North Viet Nam, he declared: "If the moment comes when we must die or be taken over by the Communists, we will accept inevitable death with the conviction that we have not betrayed our country." It was his most forthright anti-Communist speech to date. Sihanouk added: "Many countries have not believed in the mortal danger of Communism, and then, when the evidence became clear to them, it was too late and impossible for them to come to their senses. Look at Hungary!"
Last week some 5,000 demonstrators marched on the royal palace to cheer Sihanouk's stand. Sihanouk himself followed up his words with actions: first he summoned his ambassador home from Moscow, then warned Pnompenh's Soviet embassy and Chinese Communist trade mission to stop their propaganda activities forthwith. Apparently intending to get a brand new start all along the line, he had his father, King Norodom Sura-marit, dissolve the squabbling Assembly, and ordered new elections.