S2 Ep16: Interview: "Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot" with Elizabeth Becker

In the Shadows of Utopia: The Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian Nightmare

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.
Please Note
At the beginning of the interview, Elizabeth references a review by David Chandler from 1987 and what it meant to hear this critique in the Khmer Rouge Tribunals. She also gives her reasoning behind why she thinks that criticism was given. I feel it is necessary to mention that Chandler later recommended the book in 2009 amongst other praise, and perhaps the reasons why he had been initially critical:
"She manages to tell the dramatic sides, the painful aspects, she builds up a very clear and moving picture. She worked in Cambodia in the early 1970s so she got a feel for the country, she understood what had been damaged and how people were affected. It is a very effective book and I believe that it will stand up to the test of time. I had reservations initially because she wasn’t an insider, and like so many writers she goes into the story through the dark side of the Khmers, the spooky nature of the land and people- in this way foreshadowing Philip Short. I don’t buy into that at all. It’s a small reservation I have, but otherwise this is a wonderful book."
That recommendation can be found at https://fivebooks.com/best-books/best-books-cambodia/
Please visit https://www.patreon.com/shadowsofutopia to watch the video of the interview.