The Student Prince

One way or another, genial Prince Norodom Sihanouk has been boss of the green rice fields, blue lakes, brown, winding rivers of his native land ever since Cambodia got its independence from France in 1953. After 16 months as King of independent Cambodia, Sihanouk abdicated because "the true face of the people was hidden from me." He has been six times Premier and has six times resigned. Now, Prince Sihanouk is known as the Head of State, as a result of last year's national referendum in which he captured 99.97% of the votes.

All along he has consistently outmaneuvered the local Communist Party, and in 1959 he neatly snuffed out an attempted military coup for which he still blames CIA agents (he is certain that the U.S. disapproved of his studied neutralism, wanted a more firmly anti-Communist government). Says Sihanouk: "It is difficult to be a prince nowadays. The people believe that princes only build palaces and make gold and silver. But nowadays we have to work."

Cambodians have good reason to believe in Sihanouk's ability to make gold. U.S. economic aid to neutralist Cambodia totals nearly $230 million and keeps the national economy on an even keel. Another $87 million in U.S. military assistance has gone into equipping Cambodia's 28,000-man army. From Red China, Sihanouk has gotten three factories (textile, plywood, paper) and the promise of three more. The Soviet Union weighed in last year with a 500-bed hospital. Both the U.S. and Russia are building and staffing new technological institutes.

When not opening new dams, primary schools and public works, Sihanouk lives comfortably in a suburban villa near his capital city of Pnompenh, where he composes music and relaxes with such 19th century French authors as Alfred de Musset. TIME Correspondent Jerry Schecter last week interviewed Cambodia's versatile Head of State. Schecter found him looking younger than his 38 years, a man who, when aroused in conversation, waves his hands, pounds his fists, wags his fingers. In high-pitched English, Sihanouk, a sensitive man working hard to live down an earlier reputation as a playboy, made plain that he now views the world as paying the price for ignoring his advice.

The Ungrateful Role. A year ago, he urged that Cambodia and Laos be recognized by both East and West as "neutral buffer states." Sihanouk blames the failure of this plan on the U.S. which, he says, at that time wished "to have Laos aligned as a 'pro-Western' neutrality," forced the issue, and got beaten. In Laos, sighs Sihanouk, "true neutrality is no longer possible. The victors and their allies now dictate their will."

Sihanouk views the great powers with deep cynicism. "They would think themselves humiliated if they followed the path shown by the leader of a non-aligned country of 5,000,000 people," says he. "When, by chance, a great power admits that I am right, it is only because they have just had a serious failure."

If Laos should now go Communist, Sihanouk is sadly certain that Cambodia must eventually follow suit: "That is precisely why I struggled, unfortunately in vain, for a truly neutral Laos. Common frontiers are almost invariably sources of incidents and ouarrels. I am aware that a Communist Laos will give us, through force of circumstance, much worry."

Sihanouk is eager to see an end to the tension between the U.S. and Red China, but his suggested solution is not one likely to appeal to Washington: "I think it necessary and even urgent that Washington and Peking should reconcile--the price is Formosa. Red China will never accept a compromise over Formosa, and I wouldn't be stupid enough to propose one. Besides, the Laotian affair has taught me that the role of mediator is most ungrateful: one receives blows from all sides and is suspected by everyone."

Modest Hope. Though cordial, out of necessity, to Red China ("I have eaten rice with Chou En-lai and Mao Tse-tung"), Prince Sihanouk deals roughly with Cambodia's native Communists, who, he says bluntly, wish "to destroy" him because he will not practice "onesided neutrality" in the manner of Laos' Red Prince Souphanouvong. His desire to preserve Cambodian neutrality now takes the form of wanting the West to be stronger, for he believes that Communism is on the rise in Southeast Asia, and he is eager to find a counterbalance.

"We wish only to have the respect of both sides," Sihanouk says bleakly. "There is always danger that the one who tries to separate two fighting buffaloes will have his belly ripped open. That's the basic attitude of Cambodia in the struggle of the great powers--we want to remain indifferent to their quarrels."

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