Son Ngoc Thanh

Son Ngoc Thanh (December 7, 1908–1977) was a Cambodian nationalist with a longtime history as a rebel and (for brief periods) a government minister.

Thanh was born in Vietnam, to an ethnic Khmer Krom father and a Sino-Vietnamese mother. [cite book|title=The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans: Nationalism and Communism in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam|author=Arthur J. Dommen|pages=55|url=http://www.amazon.com/Indochinese-Experience-French-Americans-Nationalism/dp/0253338549/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product/002-4601878-9323256|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0253338549] [cite book|title=The Language and National Identity in Asia|author=Andrew Simpson|origyear=2007|pages=295|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0199267480] As a young man he joined the cause of Cambodian independence from France. After demonstrations against the French in July 1942, Thanh fled to Japan (Corfield and Summers, 2003), returning when King Norodom 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 supporters joined the Khmer Issarak resistance to fight the French. In 1951, Sihanouk brought Thanh back, but shortly afterwards fired him, and he made his way to the Khmer Issarak rebels.

After the First Indochina War, he organized the Khmer Serei rebels to fight Sihanouk, but made little headway. After the Lon Nol coup overthrew Sihanouk in 1970, he became a minister in the new government. and put his Khmer Serei troops at its service. In 1972, he again became prime minister, but after being dismissed by Lon Nol, he exiled himself to South Vietnam. Thanh was arrested after the Communist victory, and died in their custody in 1977.

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