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Born October 31, 1922
Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Cambodian monarch and political leader

Norodom Sihanouk has been an important figure in Cambodia through six decades of war and political instability. He first became the king of Cambodia in 1941, when his country was a colony of France. After participating in the movement to gain Cambodia's independence from French rule, he stepped down from the throne to become president in 1955. Over the next fifteen years, Sihanouk struggled to maintain his country's neutrality as war raged in neighboring Vietnam. During this time, a group of Communist revolutionaries known as the Khmer Rouge emerged to oppose his rule.

In 1970 Sihanouk was removed from power by his prime minister, Lon Nol (see entry). He then went into exile in China and joined forces with his former enemies, the Khmer Rouge. He became the symbolic head of state when the brutal Khmer...