Please Read this instruction! Hi everyone, sorry but if your podcast provider downloaded this episode when it first released on the 19th July, but you haven't listened yet, please remove the download and then re-download it. I have updated the introduction to the show. Thank you!
Ok, and here is the regular stuff:
How many journalists were able to set foot in Cambodia before the revolution, during the revolution and after the revolution?
Not many.
Elizabeth Becker is one of those people. In 1973 she began covering the war in Cambodia, in 1978 she was part of a three person delegation which saw the first western journalists to enter into Democratic Kampuchea. There she was witness to, as she describes it a "Twilight Zone" version of Cambodia.
She also met Pol Pot.
The end of her trip ended in tragedy as one member of the delegation was murdered the same night.
A fictionalised version of that story is the subject of Rithy Panh's new film Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot, and I got to speak to Elizabeth about her newest book "You Don't Belong Here", as well as her story and work in Cambodia, witnessing the effects of the 1973 US bombing campaign, her tour of Democratic Kampuchea and much more.
The Chandler review of When the War Was Over can be accessed here:
https://www.shadowsofutopia.com/episodes/meeting-pol-pot-an-interview-with-elizabeth-beckerPlease visit
https://www.patreon.com/shadowsofutopia to watch the video of the interview.