Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #592822 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-09
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 624 pages

Amazon.com
Elizabeth Becker's When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution is a heart-rending history of modern Cambodia--a state whose people have, in the last 30 years, endured war, political upheaval, international betrayal, and genocide. Beginning with the Khmer Rouge overthrow of the U.S.-backed Lon Nol regime in 1975, Becker examines the historical patterns of violence and authority within Cambodian culture that made the Khmer Rouge's slaughter of close to 2 million people possible.

Becker integrates interviews with Cambodian leaders and ordinary citizens with a penetrating analysis of the politics of the cold war and humanitarianism. For example, she follows the story of Mey Komphot, a banker, who, like millions of others, was displaced from his life in Phnom Penh and marched to a labor camp. She also explores how the United States, as well as many states within the United Nations, refused to acknowledge the forced departures and the killing in order to appease China's hunger for punishing Vietnam's 1978 invasion of Cambodia. By contrasting the concerns of states with those of people, Becker shows how the international order has repeatedly betrayed the people of Cambodia. When the War Was Over is more than just an authoritative account of the Cambodian Revolution; Becker's trenchant portrait of the dynamics of power and human suffering serves as a warning about how diplomatic imperatives can blunt the United Nations' ability to preserve human rights and life. --James Highfill

From the Publisher
"Burns with its own fire, the fire of a dedicated writer who witnessed the incomprehensible and worked long and hard to comprehend it. It is indispensible for understanding our times and the noble and terrible sides of modern man. It is a powerful and important book." (William Broyles, Jr., The Washington Post Book World) "When the War Was Over is an extraordinary synthesis of journalism and scholarship. There's a reportial immediacy to much of the book while at the same time it has the virtue of historical perspective. . . . This is an important, compelling, often touching book." (Strobe Talbott, author of Deadly Gambits) "Becker writes history as history should be written." (Financial Times)

From the Author
"The current crisis in Cambodia cannot be understood without a thorough understanding of the Khmer Rouge revolution, which is why I am updating and revising When the War Was Over. By bringing the history up to date through the Hun Sen regime, I revisit the many questions still plaguing development and justice in Asia."

Customer Reviews

Very interesting about Cambodia, partisan about USA
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.

Vast and Valuable
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

Phenomenal account of the Cambodia situation!!
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!!