The Sister States

Out of the smashup of French Indo-China in 1954 emerged four states: 1) Communist North Viet Nam, dark as night; 2) South Viet Nam, run by a strongly anti-Communist friend of the West; 3) the unpredictable Kingdom of Cambodia, which chose "active" neutrality; 4) a Red-riddled Kingdom of Laos, which felt it could afford nothing more dynamic than "plain" neutrality.

Throughout this area last week there was a rapid reshuffling of positions. The reason: Cambodia's Premier, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, suddenly abandoned his "active" (i.e., pro-Western) neutrality and recognized Red China. Sihanouk visited Red China two years ago and appeared impressed with China's totalitarian "vigor." But he was not stampeded into recognition then. Last month, Sihanouk wrote cogently in the American quarterly Foreign Affairs that "a prince and a former king must be well aware that the first concern of the Communists is to get rid of the king and the natural elite of any country they lay their hands on." Only last year Cambodia contributed 3,000,000 French francs for Hungarian relief.

Soothing Words. What had changed the prince's mind? For centuries Cambodia, heir of the lost civilization of Khmer, has had to fight off incursions from its close neighbors--Viet Nam, Thailand, Burma. Two months ago a Viet Nam battalion occupied three Cambodian border villages, after having previously imprisoned a number of Cambodian peasants. Sihanouk appeared to think invasion was imminent.

He appealed to the U.S. for aid, threatening that if it was not forthcoming, Cambodia would use "all means at its disposal, political or otherwise, to achieve respect for its national integrity." When the U.S. supplied him only with soothing words, Sihanouk rushed to embrace Red China, announcing the news as he and his Cabinet, in a typical Mao stunt, posed working in the fields to show the common touch.

The news was ominous enough to wrench State Department eyes momentarily away from the Mideast crisis. Carl W. Strom, U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia, flew home to Washington for consultations. Neighboring Thailand abruptly declared a "state of emergency" on its border with Cambodia. Voices were raised in the Philippines for a meeting of the SEATO powers to deal with Cambodia's action.

In Saigon, Viet Nam's President Ngo Dinh Diem was the most seriously disturbed, for Red penetration of Cambodia would outflank his nation and give the Communist Chinese access to the Gulf of Siam. Diem rushed his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu to the Cambodian capital of Pnompenh to negotiate a settlement of the border question, and the Cambodian radio announced that terms had been discussed in a "relaxed atmosphere." Sihanouk promised, as soon as he returns from his current junket to Peking, to pay a visit to President Diem in Saigon.

Vacuum-Sealed World. Prince Sihanouk could congratulate himself on having brought off a political victory--but it was a coup that made sense only if the small states of Southeast Asia lived in a vacuum-sealed world of their own. By using the leverage of recognition of Red China, Sihanouk may have unalterably weakened Cambodia and its sister states. Laos to the north is already partially surrounded by Communist powers, has nine elected Communist deputies in its 59-man Assembly and a government that struggles (sometimes not hard enough) against corruption and mismanagement. In Cambodia itself the Chinese, who make up 6% of the population and most of the merchant class, will now fall under Peking's direct influence, espionage and subversion. All this was quite a price for young Prince Sihanouk to pay to win a minor concession on a trifling border dispute.

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