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Until the coup, Lon Nol had been Sihanouk's commander-in-chief. Sam Kwil, the newspaper reporter, told me, "The only reason Lon Nol was promoted was that Sihanouk knew he was stupid. Sihanouk didn't see him as a rival. And it really is true that Lon Nol is incompetent. He takes civilians off the streets, gives them twenty-four hours of training, personally sees to it that they're given Buddha amulets to wear and sends them off to fight the North Vietnamese."
"What's wrong with Buddah amulets?" I said. "You're Buddhist. I'm Buddhist."
"Your work in the hospitals," he said sarcastically. "Do you see any proof that Buddha amulets can stop bullets from an AK-47?"
Under his fierce glare I dropped my eyes and admitted that badly wounded soldiers with religious tattoos and charms came into the hospital all the time. "Lon Nol's crazy," Kwil said earnestly. "I know, I've followed him around. He's going to get a lot of innocent people killed, and then he's going to rely on the Americans for weapons and air strikes to keep the regime from falling. Take my word for it, my friend - he's stupid. Stupid, I tell you! Stupid! Stupid! He started a war but he will not be able to defend the country!" (p. 48) (it) |
