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Khmer Republic’s Minister Chhang Song Passes Away at 82
Sao Phal Niseiy 19/05/2021 6:33 PM
He had served as military spokesperson and minister of information during the Lon Nol regime in the early 1970s
PHNOM PENH--Chhang Song who, during the civil war of the 1970s, served as the military spokesperson for the national and international media, passed away at the age of 83 years old in Long Beach, California, in United States.

His passing was confirmed by his relatives on May 19.

Born in 1939 in Takeo Province, Song had obtained a scholarship to study in the United States in the early 1960s and had graduated from the Louisiana State University in 1967.

During the civil war of the early 1970s, he served as deputy to military press spokesman Am Rong and, in 1974, as minister of information. He was one of the Cambodian government’s major sources of information on the conflict for the national and international press.

As Song had explained in an interview in Phnom Penh in 2010, his role consisted of keeping the media informed, saying enough to satisfy the media but without revealing military secrets.

“He was a good friend of journalists and tried very hard to be open and honest with us in the most difficult and frightening years,” said Elizabeth Becker, a journalist who was covering the war for The Washington Post and who would later write the book “When the War is Over, Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution.”

“Journalists relied on him during the war and remained friends with him over the years,” she said in an email interview. “He loved his country.”

At the time, the Khmer Rouge forces supported by then-Prince Norodom Sihanouk who had been ousted as head of state in 1970 and now was backed by China were battling the armed forces of what had become the Republic of Cambodia headed by Lon Nol and backed by the United States.

Shortly before the victory of the Khmer Rouge on April 17, 1975, Song flew in exile with Marshal Lon Nol to Hawaii—he actually was the only Cambodian official to accompany him.
https://cambodianess.com/article/khmer- ... away-at-82

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Sat May 22, 2021 11:39 pm During the civil war of the early 1970s, he served as deputy to military press spokesman Am Rong and, in 1974, as minister of information.

Am Rong has to be the best name for a spokesman ever.