Branches
The FANK’s predecessor was first established on November 9, 1953 under the terms of a French-Khmer convention and received the designation of Royal Khmer Armed Forces (French: Forces Armées Royales Khmères – FARK). In the mid-1950s, the FARK consisted of ground, air and naval branches of service, respectively the Royal Khmer Army, the Royal Khmer Air Force, and the Royal Khmer Navy. Their roles were defined as follows: to guarantee the sovereignty of the nation and that of the King; to ensure internal security by maintaining the social order and the rule of law; and to defend the newly-independent Kingdom of Cambodia from external threats. Upon Lon Nol’s coup in March 1970, the Cambodian military establishment was renamed FANK, thus becoming the official armed forces of the new regime, the Khmer Republic. The roles defined for the reorganized FANK were essentially the same as before, except that now they had to defend the sovereignty of the Republican Government and not of the deposed Prince, and drive out all the NVA/VC forces from eastern Cambodia. The FANK comprised the following branches:
- Khmer National Army (French: Armée Nationale Khmère – ANK)
- Khmer National Air Force (French: Armée de l’Air Khmère – AAK)
- Khmer National Navy (French: Marine Nationale Khmère – MNK)
Read more about this topic: Khmer National Armed Forces
Famous quotes containing the word branches:
“The duty of government is to leave commerce to its own capital and credit as well as all other branches of business, protecting all in their legal pursuits, granting exclusive privileges to none.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Think how stood the white pine tree on the shore of the Chesuncook, its branches soughing with the four winds, and every individual needle trembling in the sunlight,—think how it stands with it now,—sold, perchance, to the New England Friction-Match Company!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A woman is a branchy tree
And man a singing wind;
And from her branches carelessly
He takes what he can find.”
—James Kenneth Stephens (1882–1950)