The Khmer Republic was a short-lived Southeast Asian republic which existed in Cambodia from 18 March 1970 to 17 April 1975, with Phnom Penh serving as its capital. It was established following a 1970 military coup led by generals Lon Nol and Sisowath Sirik Matak, who overthrew the pro-communist monarch Norodom Sihanouk and installed a US-backed, nationalist, and republican government. The Khmer Republic was opposed by the royalist FUNK rebels and the communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas, who united behind Sihanouk to form the GRUNK government-in-exile. Despite military and financial assistance from the United States, the Republic's FANK military were poorly trained and ineffective against the FUNK, Khmer Rouge, North Vietnamese PAVN, and Viet Cong forces during the Cambodian Civil War, and the capital of Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge on 17 April 1975, ending the Khmer Republic and leading to the rise of Democratic Kampuchea.
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