10 Facts About Lon Non

Lon Non was a Cambodian military officer and politician who rose to prominence during the Cambodian Civil War and the Khmer Republic.

Lon Non attended College Norodom Sihanouk in Kampong Cham; his best friend there was a youth called Saloth Sar, who would later become better known as Pol Pot.

Lon Non was first trained as an officer in the Royal Gendarmerie of Cambodia.

Under the administration of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Lon Non served as an officer of the military police, reaching the rank of Major.

In 1971 Lon Non raised his political profile by directing a moderately successful military operation, Akineth Moha Padevuth, driving Communist guerrillas from villages around National Route 3.

When, later in 1972, presidential elections were held, Lon Non boasted that the monolithic vote of the Khmer National Armed Forces had secured his brother's inevitable victory.

Lon Non exploited his control of the army to accrue a large personal fortune by selling its weapons.

Australian intelligence confirmed that Lon Non had formed an assassination unit, called the "Republican Security Battalion", which used a fleet of yellow Hondas.

Lon Non appears to have been responsible for a bizarre last-ditch plot in which a group of students, led by a man named Hem Keth Dara and posing as a faction of the Khmer Rouge attempted to seize key parts of the city ahead of the actual Communist forces.

Lon Non was seen along with a group of officials under guard, looking apparently composed, "impeccably dressed" with a freshly starched uniform and trimmed moustache, and smoking a pipe.