War & Hope: The Case For Cambodia

by Norodom Sihanouk

Prince Sihanouk makes an eloquent plea for the only hope that remains for his war-ravaged country--the convening of a multination conference on Cambodia that will restore its neutrality

166 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1980

About the author

Norodom Sihanouk was a member of the House of Norodom who led Cambodia as King (1941–1955; 1993–2004), Chief of State (1960–1970; 1993), and Prime Minister (1955–1960).

Reviews

[Liam · Rating 1 out of 5]

The main thing that must be understood about the late Norodom Sihanouk is that while he was quite brilliant, extremely witty, fairly erudite and certainly loved his country, he was also absolutely certifiable. His unpredictable, paranoid, and occasionally senseless behavior created even more difficulties for both himself and his country at a time when that was not only redundant, but frankly perverse. I'll be damned if I know what he thought he would accomplish by writing this; aside from everything else it is one of the most excruciatingly boring things I've ever read. This book, with its rambling, disjointed, pseudo-marxist raving must have been received with some bemusement by a world still reeling in 1980 from the revelation of the horrifying excesses of torture and murder which had been carried out by the grotesque and twisted Khmer Rouge regime. Unfortunately, things aren't looking all that great for Cambodia even now.

As I type this, some thirty-seven years after the book was published, the heir to the puppet government installed by the Vietnamese after their "blitzkrieg" across Cambodia in 1978-79, Hun Sen, has just had the only opposition party dissolved, restoring the single-party dictatorship he headed between 1985 & 1993. At this point, sadly, I wouldn't lay odds on a full recovery from the disasters of the late 20th century any time soon...