Cambodia.
To many Westerners, it seemed a paradise.
Another world, a secret world.
But the war in neighboring Vietnam burst its borders...
...and the fighting soon spread to neutral Cambodia.
In 1973, I went to cover this sideshow struggle...
...as foreign correspondent of The New York Times.
It was there, amidst the fighting...
...between government troops and the Khmer Rouge guerrillas...
...that I met my guide and interpreter, Dith Pran...
...a man who was to change my life...
...in a country that I grew to love and pity.
So here we go with Voice of America...
...news for Southeast Asia.
It's 6:45 and a partly cloudy morning here.
Clouds too in Washington.
President Nixon announced he'll address the nation on Watergate...
...within the next few days.
The speech will be Nixon's first since May.
The scandal has caused resignations and paralyzed the White House staff.
It has also led to intense confrontation and perhaps...
...a constitutional crisis with Senate investigators...
...and a special Watergate prosecutor.
The speech was announced after the Gallup Poll disclosed...
...that Mr. Nixon's popularity had fallen to the lowest point...
...for an American President in 20 years.
A Supreme Court judge, William O. Douglas...
...has ruled against an appeal by the Administration...
...for a stay of the injunction...
...on further U.S. Bombing missions in Cambodia.
Congress has already ruled these bombings illegal...
...and they should cease in one week's time on August the 15th.
Let's go, Sarun! To the hospital!
Information. Information.
Air Cambodia regret delays of arrival of flight number 125...
...from Bangkok because of bad weather.
Mister, you want taxi?
Good taxi.
Shut the fucking blinds, will you?
What's all this shit?
I'm sorry.
I thought you were the houseboy. I was developing some film.
If you're gonna yell, I'll come back. I'm not feeling good.
Don't want to yell. I want to be in a good mood.
The plane was late, no car. I had to take a taxi here.
All I want to do is work. I got you.
What the fuck is that on your head?
It's a sanitary napkin. I had it soaked in ice.
Syd Schanberg. Is Pran there?
No, I just came from the airport.
Well, if he comes in, would you tell him I'm here?
I'll be at the Café Central, tell him.
Thanks a lot.
What do you want to eat?
Want some eggs?
I can't. Somebody told me they faint with fright when you cook them.
- What do you want to eat? - What are you having?
I'm having a café complet.
I'll have that. And some aspirin.
Anything I eat has got to be absolutely dead.
That's why I can never eat an oyster.
I read somewhere that they put...
...that lemon juice on them just to stun them. You know?
What's the difference?
An unconscious oyster's just as horrible as the fucker wide awake...
- My God! Look at this. - Did you see that?
What was it? A rocket?
I don't know. I saw a guy on a motorbike.
I've been looking for you.
I left a message for you.
I didn't get it. I took a cab.
- There is a big accident right now. - What?
I think U.S. Drop many big bombs on little city.
- U.S. Bombs? You're sure? - I think many dead.
- Does anybody else know about it? - Nothing at all.
We're going.
Not possible right now, Sydney. Too dangerous.
Where you going, Schanberg?
Neak Luong.
Neak Luong's closed.
Don't give me that, Reeves. You got nothing to say about this.
I got a right to go wherever I like in this sad little country.
That's the law. You impede me, you're breaking the Cooper/Church Amendment!
Well, up the Cooper/Church Amendment's ass!
Let's go!
So how can I help you, Mr. Schanberg?
I'm looking for information on why my airplane was delayed this morning.
- Your plane was delayed? - That's right.
I don't know. Maybe it's bad weather. Your flight's...
You don't know anything about it?
No, I don't.
All right.
Then I'd like you to listen to something...
...and then I'd like a comment.
This morning, for reasons beyond anybody's control...
...I spend two hours in Bangkok staring at a seat belt sign.
Meanwhile, my sources tell me...
...two Army helicopters are landing here, just across the airfield.
Half the ambulances in Phnom Penh are waiting there to meet them.
And now there's a rumor that the U.S. Air Force dropped a bomb...
...or several bombs, on Neak Luong.
That's a rumor, and I'm not gonna comment on a rumor.
I just want to know if that's the reason why my airplane was delayed!
No comment.
How many killed?
How many wounded?
Thank you for your cooperation, Major Reeves.
When I scrape this story out, I will no doubt be quoting you in full!
I'm sorry.
This is just not good enough.
This is a big story...
...a major story, you understand that? We've got to get down there!
- I know, but... - I don't want to hear "no"!
I want to get down that river!
We should be down there now!
I'll be here.
Good night, Sydney.
- Messages? - No, sir.
No, sir.
I'd talk, but it's been a heavy day and I've got to go.
Let's get together again soon, okay?
- Bob? - See you.
Bob?
Hello, Sydney. Good night, Sydney.
- Listen, I can't talk with you. - You can talk to me.
The embassy is jittery. Get information from a press officer.
Let's not start insulting each other.
Good night, Sydney.
All right, good night.
You've heard of pilot error?
Computer malfunction?
They screwed up on the coordinates.
A single B-52 dropped its entire load on Neak Luong.
There's a homing beacon in the middle of the town.
- Casualties? - You'll be briefed tomorrow.
We estimate 55 military, something like 35 civilians.
How many?
I hear it's in the hundreds. Don't quote me on that.
Will there be a dreadful bloodbath
When the Khmer Rouge hit the town?
Will there be a dreadful bloodbath...?
Beer! We haven't had this for four weeks.
New York Times probably had it flown in.
- They keep it in their suite. - We got a cellar. Don't you know?
Americans take themselves so seriously.
Don't be hard on the man. He's just trying to get to the top of the heap.
We'll just have to pay more to get our telexes to the top of the heap.
The man has just bought you a beer. Now drink up.
- Cheers. - Cheers, Syd.
- Enjoy it. - Off to see the telex operator?
- New York Times goes to bed early. - Sure!
Khmer Rouge in the sunset
The Yanks all at sea...
- All right? - Very possible.
Let's go then!
This is good work.
- How much? - Hundred fifty.
One hundred!
- All right? - All right.
Nice going, Pran.
- What is he saying? - He wants you to look at his family.
To take a photograph and help him because his child was wounded.
Tell me what she's saying.
She needs help.
Her shop was destroyed last night.
Her husband killed.
How many bombs?
She doesn't know.
Does she know where the hospital is?
"Just over there."
She wants to know, "Did someone arrest the pilot?"
Mister, you wanna buy? Mister, you wanna buy?
- One dollar? You wanna buy? - I'm out of film. I'm sorry.
Ask her how many kids she's got in her family.
"Five."
Her husband was killed already.
What's this?
What are these guys over here?
In the jeep, prisoners. Khmer Rouge prisoners.
They kill a lot of villagers.
She says Khmer Rouge soak rags in gasoline...
...and push them down villagers' throat...
...then set the rags alight.
Film! No film!
I know there's no film.
No camera!
It's all right.
Just take it easy.
Tell them we're jour...
Come on! Get in!
I'm worried.
I'm the guy who bring you over here.
They accuse me and they arrest me.
How can they arrest you? You're already arrested.
They phone Phnom Penh about me.
I want some cigarettes.
And I need to take a leak.
Would you tell them I need to piss?
He said, "No piss."
What does that mean?
That's no piss.
I've had enough of this bullshit.
I got a story to get to New York!
Don't leave me!
I won't leave you.
They brought in the whole press corps!
They want to sanitize the story! Bastards!
I am going to tell you something.
I'm walking out of here.
What are you gonna do? Blow my head off?
You got a general out there, this is an American passport...
...and I am walking out of here!
- He wants to get higher officer. - Then get him! Get him!
I'm sorry we couldn't show you the minor bomb damage in the city itself.
It's still a restricted area.
Now, if you look across the river...
...you'll see positions held by Khmer Rouge...
...who moved in over the past few days.
But the Cambodian Republican Army is moving in on them.
They'll have the K.R. Out before you can say "Jack Robinson."
Get in the chopper now!
No, Schanberg! You came on a boat, you go back on a boat!
That won't stop my story!
What is this?
If you weren't down here, I wouldn't be down here.
And I don't want to be down here! What good is it doing?
If anybody ever reads about this...
...you won't be able to look them in the face!
Good morning.
What time is it?
Six o'clock.
Shit.
Telex for you.
You been to the telex?
We made the front page.
Sure.
We must be doing something right.
My wife is very worried.
She thinks all foreign journalists are going to leave Cambodia.
Well, Pran...
...l'd feel kind of stupid trying to cover this war from a desk in Bangkok.
And she said if the war keeps going like this...
...the future could be very bad.
What do you think?
I don't know.
I don't know either.
- Is Sarun downstairs? - Sure.
Let's get going.
All right.
Don't go back to sleep.
I won't.
K.R.'s making a push for the airport road.
If they cut it, the city could be lost.
We hype these people up. "You'll be all right with us," we say.
Now look at all this fucking mess!
In America, everybody got a good car.
He ask you what car you drive in United States.
I don't have a car in America, only the Mercedes here.
Mercedes, number one!
Ask him where he learned to speak his English.
American advisor with his unit teach him.
Mercedes, number one, okay?
What did he say?
He said he thought all American people left already.
Made in the USA.
Are we winning?
No, you're not winning.
What should we do?
Well, you make sure they don't cut off the airport road.
The first section came by Route number 36.
And the second one came down by Route number 26.
Khmer Rouge will come down Route 3.
He doesn't know how many.
They expect an attack today.
- Where's your commander? - Phnom Penh.
- Why there? - Don't know.
How many mortar rounds you have...?
Rockoff, get your ass out here! Get out here!
Come on, let's get him out of here!
- Fuck this! - They pulling out?
I'm not happy here, Syd.
Jon, I'm leaving.
Syd, come on!
Come on!
Sydney, this way!
Sydney, look! Khmer Rouge!
In Washington, the Cambodian ambassador...
...in a speech to the Washington Press Club said:
"Let's face it, you took advantage of us."
I can't eat.
"You are cleverer than we are, and you induced us into this fighting."
Indeed, the Khmer Rouge insurgents in Cambodia...
...have tightened their ring around the capital, Phnom Penh...
...now swollen with some two million refugees from the fighting.
Reports from government troops talk of the field situation being so bad...
...that soldiers are having to siphon gas from jeep to jeep...
...in order to be able to get the wounded back to the capital.
No more electricity.
And now I get a message to try for negotiations.
Well, it's just too goddamn late!
Alan, this country's split apart.
We put this ship to sea, and it breaks my heart not to help it back to port.
Any port.
What pisses me off is, this country has faults and strengths...
...and we have done nothing but play to the faults.
I tell you, I will be damn glad to get out of here.
This thing has dragged on too long for it to end in all sweetness and light.
After what the Khmer Rouge have been through...
...they won't be exactly affectionate toward Westerners.
- Where do you want this? - On the floor. Anywhere.
- Mr. Schanberg... - Oh, Christ, my dependents! Six.
Dith Pran and family.
Right.
"Dear sir, my family and I are planning a touring vacation of Southeast Asia...
...and anticipate two weeks in Cambodia touring the country.
Would you please send tour information and brochures?
Thanking you in advance, Wendell Payne."
Wendell lives in Wisacky, South Carolina.
What about the airlift?
We're taking it with us.
- People will starve to death. - I know, but what can we do?
Look, there could be a bloodbath here.
Excuse the pun, but we're either staying or we're living.
Hello, leaving a sinking ship then, are we, Carver?
President Ford, in his foreign policy speech, hardly referred to Cambodia...
...except to say that, as of now, it may be too late.
I'm sorry. I'm late.
Where you been?
- They stop me because of the curfew. - The curfew, huh?
Yes. I'm sorry.
Get started on this. Tell them to start sending this out...
...but hold the last two paragraphs. I'll have corrections in an hour.
They don't transmit today. The transmitter at Kambol got hit.
They say 6 p.m. We can file.
6 p.m.
What do you think this is? A monthly magazine?
This is a newspaper.
How about update tomorrow?
Yeah, sure. We can file an update tomorrow.
I was over at the American Embassy yesterday.
Good news?
No, not good news.
They say that when this place goes up...
...they think a lot of people will be killed. A lot of people.
I've arranged for the evacuation of you and your family.
So now it's up to you. What do you want to do?
Do you want to stay or leave?
And how about you?
That's none of your business.
Do you want to stay, or do you want to leave?
I know.
You love my family.
But me, I'm reporter too.
You know what I mean?
All right, we don't have to decide this right now.
Take it easy.
But we'll have to make up our minds pretty soon, right?
All right, this is it! Is the floor clear?
This is the last check.
Last check. This is the last check!
Mr. Kincaid is not here.
Mr. Kincaid is gone. You keep Mr. Kincaid's money.
Now, I want you to go right now!
I want you to leave now!
You won't see Mr. Kincaid again!
Okay, sergeant, let him in!
Have you got Pran here? Have you got Pran on there?
- And his wife? - Yes, sir, they are.
- Did they come in yet? - No, sir, they haven't arrived yet.
Have you seen Pran?
No, I haven't.
Where is he?
Well, it's been real.
They're gonna miss it.
Why don't you check around the other side?
If he comes here, I'm looking for him in the back.
Beth! Have you seen Pran?
No, have you looked at the hotel?
He's at the post office!
The post office!
Get the fuck out! Get out of here now!
Move your asses out of here!
Hold those doors!
- Where do you think you're going? - To embassy.
Yes, sir, what's your name?
Dith Pran family, sir.
Dith Pran family?
- Sydney Schanberg. - They've been through.
- Check one more time, please.
- You made a mistake, sir. - No mistake.
Rockoff, help me!
Run!
There's no time!
Wait a minute.
Smile.
Jon.
Hello, Sydney.
If the going gets rough, I heard our best bet's the French Embassy.
Who told you that?
The British Embassy.
Khmer Rouge coming.
Look like government soldiers give them big welcome.
No more fighting!
I be right back!
No more fighting! No more war!
What do you think?
I don't like the look of this.
I was in Keng Kang this morning. Practically got my ass shot off.
I just don't think these guys are for real.
I'm going to the hospital. You want to come with me?
Tetracaine, 50 milligrams, please.
Jesus, what am I supposed to do? Sing her a lullaby?
Pentothal, 150 milligrams, quick.
Jesus, another shrapnel in the spine here.
Okay, let's have her over.
This is blood group A. We've had one unit of blood in the last two days.
Plasma substitute, please, quick.
We've plenty of blood, gentlemen. Plenty of blood.
The problem is, it's all in the wrong fucking place.
Why do corpses have to pile up before people decide it's time to go home?
For God's sake, back up the car! Sarun, back it up!
For God's sake, back it up now!
- Why doesn't he get his ass in here? - He's trying to get in!
They won't let him in.
All right?
Okay?
Looks all right.
I'm coming!
Just a minute! He's with me!
He's with The New York Times!
Wait just a minute! He's a journalist and he's with me!
Where is the consul? I want to talk to the consul. Let me see him!
You tell me where he is. I want to speak to him!
The picture in Cambodia is increasingly unclear.
Journalists who have flown from Thailand over Phnom Penh...
...report that the Khmer Rouge have attempted...
...a mass evacuation of the entire population.
Radio contact with the French Embassy reveals that some 200 Europeans...
...and an undisclosed number of Cambodians have taken refuge.
As yet, no statement has been made by the new rulers of Cambodia.
The whereabouts of Prince Sihanouk and the Khmer Rouge leadership...
...are not clear.
- Okay? - Yes. He's sleeping.
That's the consul.
- Did you see that, Dennis? - The Russians are coming.
Look, piss off! Please!
Get out! You won't get anything here! Out!
First, the main points of the news.
BBC, Dougal.
- Daily reports of fighting around the airport...
...14 kilometers outside Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.
And now, an on-the-spot report from our correspondent in Thailand...
...Hugh Elder.
Where do they get this crap?
Do you see that guy across the gate? The little guy?
Could we not all look at once, please?
I have it on reliable sources that that's Hugh Elder.
You're kidding.
He's disguised, but I got suspicious about him. You know what I mean?
- How does he get copy out? - How does he get his copy out?
With specially trained hens.
The BBC has, like, commissioned them to walk past the Khmer Rouge...
...like their regular fowl.
They've been crossing the border into Thailand every day and every night.
I told you.
Unconfirmed reports say the Khmer Rouge are demanding...
...that any officials of the defeated Lon Nol government...
...especially the so-called Six Traitors of the Cabinet...
...be handed over to them.
It is not known whether any of the ex-ministers...
...may have taken refuge in the embassy...
...where, in the words of a UNICEF representative in Bangkok...
...the situation is said to be "increasingly precarious."
And when I tried to go just a kilometer further, no.
The only sense I can make of it is that there's...
...some sort of internal power struggle going on.
Different groups seem to be holding different parts of the city...
...and they all appear to be equally nervous over losing power and control.
Half of them are under 15.
Some Red Cross instruction sheets want translating.
Can you help?
Use Pran. He speaks French better than I do.
I'd prefer it if it was you.
What did you do that for?
The guy's insecure enough already.
The Cambodians have to leave the embassy.
They want all our passports and everybody downstairs...
...and the Cambodians out.
If you have papers, you have a name.
If we have a name, we can find the mother.
Look, I fight for five years.
Useless war.
Fuck!
Pran is not gonna last five minutes out there.
The Khmer Rouge have killed every journalist they've ever caught.
Does Syd know how serious this is?
- Of course he bloody knows! - We can't let him walk out of here.
Look, two passports. This one's out-of-date, but the visa's valid.
Jon Ankertill Brewer Swain.
Knock out the Jon, knock out the Swain, and you're left with Ankertill Brewer.
Change my photograph for one of Pran, and he's a British subject.
It's worth a try.
I hope he's got a photo because I don't have any fucking film.
I try to escape to Thailand right now.
Give me two or three weeks.
If you get there first, let me know.
And leave message for me at Reuters. Okay?
Just give me an hour. I need some time to think.
I got no time to give you.
Swain's got an idea.
Ankertill Brewer. That's the new name.
- Ankertill Brewer. - Right. Now, my photograph.
- Change my photograph for yours. - Do you have an old photo?
I don't think so.
Give him your passport.
Your old passport, a family snapshot, anything.
Khmer Rouge took everything.
- What about your press card? - Everything!
Fuck!
- Didn't give it back. - We'll go and find some film.
There's film here. We'll get it. Polaroid, any kind, any speed.
We're gonna get it, and I'll shoot it, okay?
We'll find the film.
Do you have a Polaroid camera? Do you have film?
No, I haven't got any film!
I've also got no metronidazole, and this child has got amebic dysentery!
We've gotta get sulfide and a developer.
If we can get that, I can make the photo.
Shit!
Listen, I know where we can get some water. We can drain...
...the air conditioning vent. I've seen it done. Come on.
Excuse me, you're Mr. Schanberg?
I've been told that you're in charge of bed covers.
What?
Blankets. We've just arrived. We want some blankets.
Come on down here.
Go to the end of the hall there.
Turn to the right, go up the stairs.
If there are any, they'll be at the top of the stairs.
Syd, I have got the camera...
...I have got the film...
...and I have got the fucking darkroom!
All right. Don't smile.
- You're smiling. - Very serious. You are smiling.
Stop, please.
- Very serious. - Very serious, very American.
Okay, cover it.
This fucking paper, I don't know.
That was the stuff you found in the coatroom.
Ankertill Brewer.
Getting an image. Look at it.
Look, the bugger's face.
It sure is. Come on.
Come on.
Now fix it.
That's good.
Oh, no. Fuck, it's fogging.
Goddamn it.
Goddamn this paper!
Goddamn it! We're gonna have to start again.
Okay, now we gotta fix it.
I did it.
Let me have that.
It's fading.
Take it out.
No, it's already gone. The solution's too strong. It's fading.
Take it out now. I mean, if it's...
Fuck!
Goddamn it!
Man, this fucking room is killing me.
Could I just...?
I'll just do it myself, okay?
Let me just have a few feet in here by myself.
Fuck.
Sorry.
That's it.
It's perfect.
Perfect.
Welcome to New York. We got it.
Perfect. Rockoff, perfect!
Ankertill Brewer. Ankertill Brewer.
All right, you jokers, would you like to bring your passports over to me?
This is the last call for passports.
Can I have your passports, please?
Thank you.
Passports, ladies and gents.
All right, you jokers, this is your last chance to get your passports in.
Your passports, please.
On this passport depend my life.
Thank you.
Passports, ladies. This is for the big tour, the big package.
From Thursday Island right down to Mount Macedon...
...to see the famous Hanging Rock.
Come on, passports, please.
Ladies and gentlemen, last call.
Going...
...going...
...gone.
Is this lunch?
What?
It seems certain that the majority...
...of Phnom Penh's population has been evacuated to the countryside.
The population is swollen with thousands of refugees.
Hello again.
It'll be argued by some that this is a way of coping with postwar chaos.
Dennis, can you turn that down, please?
Now, listen, everybody.
The trucks which we've seen arriving are for our evacuation.
Probably in the next 24 hours.
Now, listen. That's to be confirmed.
It's almost certainly for Thailand.
These so-called journalists have no right...
You're not biased? You haven't seen any atrocities in Cambodia?
- It's just an emotional spasm! - Yes, it is, yes. So just shut up!
You have to break eggs to make an omelet!
Sydney, Ankertill Brewer.
- Thank you. Goodbye. - Good luck.
- Give me these back in Paris. - Goodbye.
Don't forget. All right?
Why didn't you get him out when you had the chance?
You had no right to keep him here!
You've got a funny sense of priorities.
I'm a reporter too, Morgan. I know his heart.
- I love him like my brother. - Sure.
And I do anything for him. Anything.
Goodbye, Rockoff.
Tell my wife I love her...
...and look after all my children.
She doesn't speak any English.
Please...
...I don't want anyone to be bad to my wife.
Dith Pran.
P-R-A-N. He disappeared in Phnom Penh in 1975.
Pran is his first name. Any information you can give.
Well, we're hoping for any information at all.
He was last seen in '75. Can you get me that number again?
In April 1975.
4144-5364...
Pran is a resourceful man.
He will wait until he knows that it's safe...
...and then he'll make his move.
Thank you for coming...
...and taking care of her and her family.
But she knows that her husband is dead.
That's not true.
That's absolutely not true.
It's not true. It's not.
She doesn't believe you...
...because she knows her husband is dead.
You're a good man.
If your mother needs anything, make sure she gets in touch with me.
You better go.
For the past 5 years...
...as indicated on this map that you see here...
...North Vietnam has occupied military sanctuaries...
...all along the Cambodian frontier with South Vietnam.
As the President spoke...
...American troops were preparing to move into Cambodia.
The decision to invade, like the earlier secret decision to bomb...
...was withheld from the Cambodian people.
We will yell at the top of our lungs. We will move.
It's the fear that makes a man so scared, you know?
There are no American combat advisors in Cambodia.
There will be no American combat troops or advisors in Cambodia.
We will aid Cambodia.
Cambodia is the Nixon doctrine in its purest form.
Sydney...
...I think of you often and often my family.
They tell us that God is dead.
And now the party they call the Angka...
...will provide everything for us.
He says Angka has identified...
...and proclaims the existence...
...of a bad new disease...
...a memory sickness diagnosed as thinking too much about life...
...in prerevolutionary Cambodia.
He says we are surrounded by enemies.
The enemy is inside us.
No one can be trusted.
We must be like the ox...
...and have no thought except for the Party.
No love but for the Angka.
People starve...
...but we must not grow food.
We must honor the comrade children...
...whose minds are not corrupted by the past.
Is anybody of us...
...a doctor...
...professor...
...and student?
Angka needs you.
Angka has forgiven all the past.
Sydney...
...Angka says that those who were guilty of soft living...
...in the years of the great struggle...
...and did not care for the sufferings of the peasant must confess...
...because now is the year zero...
...and everything is to start anew.
I'm full of fear, Sydney.
I must show no understanding.
Not of French or English.
I must have no past, Sydney.
This is the year zero...
...and nothing has gone before.
The wind whispers of fear and hate.
The war has killed love, Sydney.
And those who confess to the Angka vanish.
And no one dare ask where they go.
Here, only the silent survive.
Mercedes, number one!
Anyone who knows my work will know that half of this belongs to Dith Pran.
Without Pran, I wouldn't have been able to file half the stories I did.
It's nice to congratulate ourselves on occasions like this.
But I can't stand here tonight...
...without thinking of those innocent people...
...Pran dedicated himself to helping me bring to the notice of the public.
As they pondered their options in the White House...
...the men who decided to bomb and then to invade Cambodia...
...concerned themselves with many things:
Great power conflicts and collapsing dominoes...
...looking tough and dangerous to the North Vietnamese...
...relieving pressure on the American troop withdrawal from the South.
They had domestic concerns as well...
...which helps explain why they kept the bombing of Cambodia a secret.
And they may be assumed not to have ignored self-interest...
...in their own careers.
What they specifically were not concerned with...
...were the Cambodians themselves.
Not the people...
...not the society...
...not the country.
Except in the abstract as instruments of policy.
Dith Pran and I...
...tried to record and bring home...
...the concrete consequences of these decisions to real people.
To human beings...
...the people left out of the Administration's plans...
...but who paid the price...
...and took the beating for them.
I'm very pleased to accept this on behalf of Dith Pran and myself.
I'm very honored...
...and I know that Pran would be very proud.
Do you plan to continue with that theme in the future?
Congratulations, Ernie. Do it again next year!
I'm sorry.
- That was great, really good. - Better than last year.
Abe, meet my sister.
I'm very happy to meet you.
That's my dad. Would you hold this for me?
One second.
I hoped you could recommend a good school for journalism.
I told my daughter I'd be seeing you today.
Just one minute, okay? I'll be right back.
Could I have your autograph? I'm a great admirer of yours.
Congratulations on your award, it was well-deserved.
Very impressive. I was hoping you'd burst into song.
- What are you doing here? - You know what bothers me?
What?
It bothers me that you let Pran stay in Cambodia...
...because you wanted to win, and you knew you needed him...
- I didn't have any idea what... - The fuck you didn't!
The fuck you didn't.
I did everything I could, and I'm doing everything I can.
Nice to see you. I'm on my way to Florida.
I'm doing everything I can.
I'm sure. I didn't realize you'd been out there to see him.
Don't play games with me, Al. Don't play stupid games.
Nobody gets to go in there. If I thought I could, I would.
I've sent out hundreds of photographs.
Every relief organization on the Thai-Kampuchean border...
...has got his picture. If I saw one glimmer of hope, I'd go today.
Life isn't a '40s movie.
You can't just get on a plane and make the whole world come out right!
And I can't believe I'm hearing this from you!
Congrats.
Do you keep in touch with Dith Pran's family?
Yes. They're living in San Francisco.
How do you respond to accusations that journalists...
...underestimated the brutality of the Khmer Rouge...
...and so share responsibility for what happened in Cambodia afterwards?
We made a mistake.
Maybe we underestimated the kind of insanity...
...that $ 7 billion worth of bombing could produce.
That is provocative...
There have been a lot of refugee stories in Reader's Digest...
...about Cambodia. Do you believe them?
Don't you believe them?
Maybe in this instance the Reader's Digest happens to be correct.
Do you apply the same disbelief to stories...
...that come out of Iran or Palestine or Chile?
Are refugees your next area of interest?
Will you be covering the boat people?
No, I will not.
Do you want a cup of tea?
Are you looking around for some kind of more salable suffering?
I must have sent 500 letters.
I wrote the International Red Cross, the World Health Organization.
I know you did, Syd. You told me.
I don't know who I didn't write to.
I never really gave him any choice.
One time we tried to discuss leaving.
I talked to him about it, but we never really discussed it.
I discussed it with Swain and Rockoff.
But I never discussed it with him.
He stayed because I wanted him to stay.
And I stayed because...
I'm trapped, Sydney.
I know he suspects me, and yet he treats me well.
There are many different groups over here, Sydney.
I must take much care.
Now Angka says we have new enemies.
They say we must regain our old lands from the Vietnamese.
And now they say we must fight them.
I miss you, my wife, my children.
And my heart hungers for news of you.
New China Radio reports...
...that fighting between Vietnam and Democratic Kampuchea...
...has broken out on a number of fronts.
This is in retaliation, according to the Vietnamese...
...for a number of attacks on border villages...
Taxi driver, huh?
I think you speak English.
Sit down.
You know, I love this country.
I sacrificed everything for it.
My wife died for the revolution.
But the leaders of Angka no longer trust the people.
Therefore, I can no longer trust them.
And they don't trust me.
I fear...
...really fear for the future.
I think you love my son.
For his sake...
...look after him.
The fighting is close by, Sydney.
If the Vietnamese get here...
...Angka will destroy everything...
...and the Vietnamese, they will find only ashes.
I must try to stop the killing. Good luck.
Yeah, I'll be right there, Brian.
Ann, get me 415-555-6421.
Abe, I've got some great news!
Twenty minutes ago, I get a phone call from Paris.
I get Andreas Freund. He talked to Henry.
He told him how to get in touch with me.
Freund says, "I have got some great news for you."
- San Francisco's on the line. - "It's about Pran!"
Is your mother there?
When?
All right, I want you to get this down.
No, write it down. Write it down.
I've got a message from your dad!
How you been?
Do you forgive me?
Nothing to forgive, Sydney. Nothing.