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Product Description
Award-winning journalist Elizabeth Becker started covering Cambodia in 1973 for The Washington Post, when the country was perceived as little more than a footnote to the Vietnam War. Then, with the rise of the Khmer Rouge in 1975 came the closing of the border and a systematic reorganization of Cambodian society. Everyone was sent from the towns and cities to the countryside, where they were forced to labor endlessly in the fields. The intelligentsia were brutally exterminated, and torture, terror, and death became routine. Ultimately, almost two million peoplenearly a quarter of the populationwere killed in what was one of this centurys worst crimes against humanity. When the War Was Over is Elizabeth Beckers masterful account of the Cambodian nightmare. Encompassing the era of French colonialism and the revival of Cambodian nationalism; 1950s Paris, where Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot received his political education; the killing fields of Cambodia; government chambers in Washington, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, Hanoi, and Phnom Penh; and the death of Pol Pot in 1998; this is a book of epic vision and staggering power. Merging original historical research with the many voices of those who lived through the times and exclusive interviews with every Cambodian leader of the past quarter century, When the War Was Over illuminates the darkness of Cambodia with the intensity of a bolt of lightning.
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First Sentence
The Second Indochina War (1960-1975) was the Vietnam War. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The Second Indochina War (1960-1975) was the Vietnam War. Read the first page
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Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Becker's book is based on her account of her three-week return to Cambodia in 1978 in the company of Malcolm Caldwell, the British economist, and Richard Dudman, another US journalist. The actual account of the trip is really the only part of the book worth reading. Becker's understanding of the revolution is slight and of the ideology of the Democratic Kampuchea state, almost non-existent. Worth getting hold of for the photographs of life in DK, of which there are very few available; but if you are after a history of the revolution and the state of DK then there are several other much, much better works - Vickery, Kiernan, Chandler, Boua have all written or edited much more comprehensive, detailed and fair-minded judgements than Becker's limited piece of journalistic impressionism.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
...albeit the fact that the book is a little confusing and/or repetitive at times. Unfortunately, the book also terribly lacks detailed maps of Cambodia and the surrounding countries, especially as there are numerous references to precise places throughout the text.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
After my travels to Cambodia, visiting the Killing fields and what not, and speaking to the Khmers about the Khmer Rouge, I had this horrible vision of what the KR may have been like. After reading this brilliantly penned book, and given the chance to make a judgement from a text written from neither side, I have found the KR to have a spirit the Khmers in Phnom Phen would never speak of. It's just unfortunate that they were led by a man such as Pol Pot. A great read, with the perfect mix of personal experiences from the author, individual's stories, and political happenings, right until the last chapter, when things drag out and get a little too detailed. This IS the book to read on the Cambodian Revolution, not just because it seems to be the only one out there, but because it is a damn good book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Cambodia
One of the few books around that balance a countries political past and the effects it had on the people who were cuaght up in the atrocities. Read more
Published on 23 April 2000 by johnny.jo@virgin.net
The definitive history of the Khmer Rouge's genocidal rule
After seeing the killing fields of Cheoung Ek and the torture centre of Tuol Sleng, I needed to know what caused this madness. Now I understand.
Published on 23 April 1999
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