ABSTRACT
With the outbreak of civil war and the spillover of the war in Vietnam, the Cambodian economy plunged from stagnation in the 1960s to full-scale crisis and collapse between 1970 and 1975. The economic stagnation and decline of the late Sihanouk years and the financial and economic chaos wrought by the civil war undoubtedly constituted major crises for most Cambodians. As was typical of developing economies emerging from colonial rule, Cambodia in the 1960s had a relatively weak, primarily agricultural economy. Despite the overall weakness of Cambodia's post-colonial economy, there was real economic growth in the commercial and light industrial sectors in the 1950s and into the early 1960s. The Samlaut rebellion of March to June 1967 in the northwestern province of Battambang was prompted by, and reinforced, Cambodia's increasing political polarization. The economic crises of the 1960s and early 1970s were mirrored and deepened by the political authoritarianism, instability, and corruption of the Sihanouk and Lon Nol regimes.
