Son Ngoc Thanh Son Ngoc Thanh ( , ) ( December 7 , 1908 – August 8 , 1977 ) was a Cambodia n nationalist and republican politician , with a long history as a rebel and ( for brief periods ) a government minister . Early life . Thanh was born in Travinh , Vietnam , to a Khmer Krom father and a Chinese - Vietnamese mother . He was educated in Saigon , Montpellier and Paris , studying law for a year before returning to Indo - China . He found work as a magistrate in Pursat and as a public prosecutor in Phnom Penh before becoming Deputy Director of the Buddhist Institute . Along with another prominent early Khmer nationalist , Pach Chhoeun , he established the first Khmer language newspaper , " Nagaravatta " , in 1936 . The political outlook of " Nagaravatta " , which urged Khmers to break the commercial monopoly of foreign traders by starting their own businesses , was to make Thanh and his colleagues receptive to Japanese fascism , or as he termed it " National Socialism " . Thanh ' s ideology was essentially republican , right - wing , and modernising in outlook , which was to make him a longstanding opponent of the King Norodom Sihanouk . Despite his nationalism , he was also a strong advocate of pan - Asian cooperation , and advocated the teaching of the Vietnamese language in Cambodian schools , as it was a potential conduit for modernising ideas . Involvement in government . After demonstrations against the French in July 1942 , Thanh fled to Japan , returning when Sihanouk declared Cambodia ' s independence on March 12 , 1945 , during the Japanese occupation . In August , Thanh became Prime Minister . With the restoration of French control in October , he was arrested , and sent into exile first in Saigon and then in France . Many of his supporters joined the Khmer Issarak resistance to fight the colonial power . In 1951 , the authorities brought Thanh back , to considerable popular acclaim ; refusing a Cabinet position , he made alliances with various leaders of the Khmer Issarak rebels , and established another newspaper ( " Khmer Kraok " ) which advocated revolt against the French administration and was quickly banned . In 1952 , accompanied by his lieutenant Ea Sichau ( a French - educated customs official and leftist intellectual ) and a number of supporters , Thanh disappeared into the forests in the area of Siem Reap , and began to organise resistance . The Issarak movement was split between the Khmer National Liberation Committee , the more overtly leftist United Issarak Front , and a variety of regional warlords and guerrilla leaders . Thanh attempted to gain overall control of the movement throughout the early 1950s ; a few of the movement ' s leaders , such as Prince Norodom Chantaraingsey and Puth Chhay , temporarily supported his overall leadership . By 1954 , however , he had been increasingly sidelined by the leftists , and received overtures from the U . S . Central Intelligence Agency , who would fund many of his activities in future . Though Thanh retained a high degree of support amongst the Khmer Krom , in subsequent years he would have relatively little influence or popular support within Cambodian domestic politics , especially as Sihanouk ' s Sangkum movement absorbed most centrist and rightist elements . The Khmer Serei . The First Indochina War ended in 1954 . From his base near Siem Reap , Thanh organized the Khmer Serei militia , mainly recruited from amongst the Khmer Krom , to fight Sihanouk , who had come to regard Thanh as one of his greatest enemies . In his 1959 " Manifesto " of the Khmer Serei , Thanh charged Sihanouk with allowing the " Communization " of Cambodia at the hands of North Vietnam . The Khmer Serei operated in the border areas of Thailand and South Vietnam , making clandestine anti - Sihanouk radio broadcasts , but made little headway , although they were suggested as a source of military power in a number of coup plots ( such as the Bangkok Plot ) . After the Cambodian military and Lon Nol overthrew Sihanouk in 1970 , Thanh was invited to participate in the new Khmer Republic government - initially as an adviser to the Acting Head of State , Cheng Heng - and put his Khmer Serei troops at its service . In 1972 , Thanh again became Prime Minister , but after being the target of a bomb attack ( possibly organised by Lon Nol ' s brother , Lon Non ) he was soon dismissed by Lon Nol and exiled himself to South Vietnam . Thanh was arrested after the Communist victory in Vietnam , and died in their custody in 1977 .