Asian Trips - When The War Was Over: Cambodia And The Khmer Rouge Revolution, Revised Edition
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List Price: $25.00
www.asiantrips.info Price: $23.75
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Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 959.604
EAN: 9781891620003
ISBN: 1891620002
Label: PublicAffairs
Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 624
Publication Date: 1998-11-09
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Studio: PublicAffairs
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Editorial Reviews:
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Now back in print with a fascinating new chapter, this journalistic history of modern Cambodia is "indispensable for understanding our times and the noble and terrible sides of modern man. It is a powerful and important book" (The Washington Post Book World).
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Very interesting about Cambodia, partisan about USA
Comment: I should start by saying I do not know nearly enough about Cambodian history to judge the accuracy of this account. That said, it appears entirely plausible and illuminating.
Elizabeth Becker has done an excellent job of steering between the Scylla of explaining away Pol Pot's atrocities to the point of making him sound benign, and the Charibdis of demonizing him to the point of making him incomprehensible. What emerges is a compelling account of how rigid adherence to flawed dogma can transform ideals into horror.
In these days of Stupid White Men ...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation! it is refreshing to see a book that helps, rather then hinders, understanding.
The reason I do not give five stars to this book is that the author seems to go out of her way to blame US policy for the Cambodian genocide. Other reviewers claim this is to cover up her own history of denying the genocide was taking place, which sounds plausible, but which I cannot verify.
Since she was writing for a western audience, there is merit in drawing attention to those western actions that seem, in hindsight, to have been mistakes, so that her readers can avoid supporting similar mistakes in the future. Particularly given the author's alleged history, it would have been more honest to have pointed out this motive for what seems a deliberate distortion of history.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Vast and Valuable
Comment: Elizabeth Becker's WHEN THE WAR WAS OVER stands out from the many fine books written about Cambodia during the 1970s for one major reason: she was one of the only Westerners invited into the country, and conducted one of the very few interviews with Pol Pot. As it turns out, the visit did not go smoothly, and she ended up having to be evacuated out as the Vietnamese army swept towards Phnom Penh.
Becker's writing is more scholarly than accessible, so - unless you already have an interest in the subject - you may find this to be rough going. Nonetheless, her research is airtight, and her recountings of developments in Cambodia between April 1975 and her late 1978 visit are methodical.
Becker did become known as - initially - a skeptic of the first wave of horror stories emerging from the country, and she doesn't address this directly here, but she does posit (on page 153) a fundamental quality of the Cambodian revolution that would indicate why so many outsiders (and many Cambodians as well, pre-revolution) were so severely caught off-guard by the speed and extremity of the insanity that descended upon the country: the 'front' government-in-exile (from which the Khmer Rouge emerged) was constructed as "a hall of mirrors," with the apparent leaders actually figureheads, stationed in faraway neutral spots and delivering speeches, while the real leaders - unknown and pseudonymous, contrived - with machiavellian precision - to usurp a messy and extremely violent civil war and turn it into an ill-considered, theory-drenched utopian revolution. This facade did not completely disintegrate until nearly 2 years into the existance of a genocidal regime whose leaders were essentially unknown.
Becker makes this compelling, and digs into the humanistic and psychological extremism of the story. Afforded the opportunity to travel to Cambodia, she and two journalist companions were shown a number of factories and potempkin villages, spotting bits of evidence (in spite of the manicured presentation given them by their KR minders) that would essentially confirm the horror stories they had been hearing. Becker was allowed to interview Pol Pot, who discoursed in a fashion so paranoid and disassociative as to call his psychological stability into question; Becker's recollection of the event is notable for it's ornate grimness. And then Becker and her travelling companions were ambushed, on the eve of the invasion that ejected the KR from power.
A vast, comprehensive, difficult and disturbing history of Cambodia from 1975 to the end of 1978; of specialized interest perhaps, but also a valuable history of one of humanity's worst atrocities.
-David Alston
Customer Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal account of the Cambodia situation!!
Comment: I bought this book because i was going to visit Cambodia and like many people, i wanted to understand the whole political situation of that country.I only knew some information about the suffering of refugees and about Pol Pot.From the moment i started this book, i just couldnt put it down.Ms Becker gives youthe whole nine yards with this book in a very simple and interesting manner.With her crystal clear explanations, you can understand every political,geographical and socially term and situation.Her style of writing has you on the edge of your seat and you right in the middle of things.The chapters of the book that deal with all the major powers and their diplomatic "dances" toward Cambodia are very well presented and ,again, in terms that we all can understand.She also presents the Vietnam side of the story without dwelling too much on details but , at the same time, giving you all the necessary information needed to understand the vietnamese intervention in Cambodia....Excellent work!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent. A must read on Cambodian History
Comment: I really liked this book. The book covers a lot of ground. Apart from covering at Cambodian history, the book tells the tales of individual Cambodians who have lived or died through the Khmer Regime. The book also covers the world political influence as the tragedy unfolds in Cambodia and how each of these players plays an active or passive role in the tragedy. The reporting on the resolution of the conflict is also very interesting. It shows how geopolitics and individual personalities are so critical in resolution of these types of conflicts.
The book also covers US attitudes towards the IndoChina region in the aftermath of the Vietnam war and what the implications of the attitude were to the region.
The only drawback of the book I found is that sometimes the narrative gets a little tedious and repetitive.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Tedious and poorly written
Comment: I came here looking for a book that might explain the background to what happened in Cambodia. But i can only conclude Becker covered this turmoil from the her apartment's balcony. This has to be one of the most lifeless products of a typewriter keyboard that I have ever read. Maybe that's too harsh, but I know I didn't find the answer to anything I was looking for. Who did she write this for, herself?
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