Like his brother Lon Nol, he was educated at the Lycée Chasseloup-Laubat in Saigon, and like the rest of his family became employed in the state security apparatus.
There was rioting in Kampong Cham on March 26 in which the governor's palace was stormed and several officials killed by the crowd, notably two National Assembly deputies, Kim Phon and Sos Saoun.
Lon Nol had sent his brother to Kampong Cham in order to monitor the situation there; Nil was chosen partly as he owned rubber plantations in the area and was therefore familiar with it.
[2] There were persistent rumours that members of the crowd cut the liver from Lon Nil's body; it was then taken into a Chinese restaurant, where the owner was ordered to cook and slice it.
[3] (Although the eating of an enemy's liver was considered a traditional act of revenge in Khmer culture, it was not commonplace, though it became a common propaganda device, as both sides in the subsequent Cambodian Civil War regularly accused each other's troops of committing it).