Lon Nol was a Cambodian politician who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice and was the self-proclaimed President of the Khmer Republic. A politician as well as a soldier, he overthrew Prince Norodom Sihanouk and ruled for a few years until his reign ended when the Khmer Rouge communists overpowered his army. Born and raised in Cambodia, he joined the French colonial service as a magistrate after completing his secondary school education. He later served as a provincial governor and head of the national police. In 1952, he joined the army and carried out military operations against the Viet Minh. Subsequently, he became the Cambodian army chief of staff and served as commander-in-chief under Prince Norodom Sihanouk. He held various ministerial offices under Sihanouk’s regime, including Minister of Defense, and also served as Prime Minister of Cambodia, a post he held twice during his career. In 1970, he was one of the chief architects of the coup that ousted Sihanouk from power and became the most prominent leader in the new government. Gradually, he assumed total authority over Cambodia and declared himself President of the Khmer Republic. Meanwhile, the communist Khmer Rouge movement gained momentum in the countryside, and with their insurgents on the verge of taking over Cambodia, he fled the country and settled in the United States, where he remained until his death.