Jacqueline Kennedy's visit in the Cambodian press, Nov. 1967

To complete our extensive documentation on the 2 – 8 November 1967 visit to Cambodia by late US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (28 July 28 1929 – 19 May 1994), Angkor Database published the photographs selected in the only extensive coverage of the visit in the Cambodian press at the time. This overlooked angle is important 1) to assess how the Cambodian photographers - always uncredited until 1972 — operated in their coverage of a major event, 2) to illustrate how the Cambodian official program was drafted around Jackie Kennedy’s wish to learn more about Cambodia’s culture and history in situ. 

The photo-report published in the Khmer-language newspaper The Nationalist was laid out as a continuously chronological account, from the landing on Thursday 2 to Wednesday 8 November, when Jackie flew back to Rome via Bangkok with her two faithtful (and at times cumbersome) chevaliers-servants, Lord Harlech and Michael Forrestal — whom the Cambodian photographers stoically shot in the group photos apparently without knowing (or not wanting to know) why they were there in the first place. 

Some observations we can draw from these pictures — the technical quality of which couldn’t obviously rival with the international press corps coming with state-of-the-art color cameras:

• Cambodian photographers followed their own codes, do-and-don’ts. For them, it wasn’t a big deal to get a good angle on a subject — for instance Prince Sihanouk’s gentlemanly baise-main on Day I — even if that entailed showing colleagues shooting away with bulky flashes in the background, or to capture wrinkles on Jackie’s dress (during her speech in Sihanoukville). On the other hand, their framing would never cut off the tip of a mokot (tiara), the top tier of a royal chatt (parasol) or the top of a pagoda spire.
• They might have been tipped-off by the protocol but they knew where to be positioned when they could get a relevant shot. The moment when Jackie K. posed with the peacock dancers in Siem Reap was never captured by international photographers [unless it lies somewhere in photographic archives, and with the recent monopoly of mammoth distribution agencies on the access to such unpublished material, chance to check that is close to none.]
• These photographs express respect, even gratitude — after all, Cambodia was getting a lot of negativity from the American administration for its non-alignment stance — towards the illustrious guest, and also a large dose of heartiness. Three decades earlier, British researcher H. G. Quaritch-Wales had marveled at how Cambodian royal protocol avoided the pomposity displayed at the Siamese court, and that was even more the case with Prince Sihanouk as a leader of the ​“Buddhist socialist” movement. Goofy smiles weren’t suppressed, and we have to watch at the facial expressions reflected in the photographs reporting the plaque dedication speech in Sihanoukville on the late morning of Monday 6 November. That speech had been a contentious point since the very start of the visit, charged as it was with implications on the US policy in Vietnam since JFK had been in power, and the minute it had been delivered the delight of both Jackie K. and Prince Sihanouk is palpable on these shots, in particular for Jackie. We can see on her face that an enormous weigh of anger and guilt has been lifed off her shoulders.

In addition to the captions associated with each photo, here are some historical insights and clues for further research.

Main photo: Jackie Kennedy and Conservator Bernard-Philippe Groslier in a rare moment of quietness in front of a gopura at Prasat Banteay Srei. The party had flown by helicopter from Siem Reap to Banteay Srei, 9 kms north of Angkor, on 4 Nov. at 9 AM, either because of the poor state of the road or because the area was still the theater of skirmishes between governemental and Issarak forces.

Day 1: Diplomacy in spite of Cold War

Photo PP4: Official reception, Chamcar Mon, 2 Nov. 1967. Jackie Kennedy greets USSR ambassador Anatoly P. Ratanov under the amused and slightly defiant gaze of Michael Forrestal, one of her two travel companions with Lord Harlech. Anatoly Ratanov Анатолий Петрович Ратанов (8 March 1921, Buguruslan, Samara Province, Russia — 26 Sept. 1985, Moscow, Russia), who had served as ambassador in Phnom Penh since 26 April 1965, was to leave a few days after, on 14 Nov. 1967 before pursuing his diplomatic career in Guinea and Ethiopia. He was substituted by Sergei Kudryavtsev from 14 Nov. 1967 until 15 July 1971, when the diplomatic relations were severed (from 1971 to 1979). Ratanov had been a veteran in USSR-Cambodia relations as he had served as First Secretary of the Embassy since 1960. 

This photo is particularly interesting as…there was no US counterpart to Ratanov in Phnom Penh at the time of Jackie’s visit. Philip D. Sprouse, appointed by Pdt Lyndon Johnson from 28 June 1962 to 3 March 1964, had been replaced with Randolph A. Kidder on 9 July 1964 but, due to the severing of the diplomatic relations between USA and Cambodia he never had a chance to present his credentials and left Phnom on 18 Sept. 1964, leaving the office vacant until 3 Sept. 1970, when Emory C. Swank represented USA to the friendly Khmer Republic until 5 Sept. 1973. After a hiatus, Pdt Gerald Ford appointed John Gunther Dean (14 March 1974), who had to evacuate in a hurry on 12 April 1975, two days before the Khmer Rouge seized Phnom Penh. The office was again left vacant until 13 May 1994, when Pdt Bill Clinton appointed Charles H. Twining, who was to stay in post until 20 Nov. 1995.

Day 4: Rest 

Day 4, Sunday 5 Nov., was left free of engagements in the protocol schedule: ​“Day of Rest at Siem Reap. Programme to be arranged in conformity with any wishes Ms. Kennedy may express.”

Day 5: Sihanoukville and JFK’s shadow

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