A Cambodian Odyssey: and The Deaths of 25 Journalists (Paperback)

~ T Williams (Author)
Key Phrases: missing newsmen, Phnom Penh, Lon Nol, Cambodian Odyssey (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This is a question that still bluntly assaults every reporter and cameraman covering war anywhere in the world. When to stop? Where to stop? Ever to stop? We lived with that challenge all during the war, yet so many of us felt invulnerable; was it innocence, arrogance, the intoxication of war? We were objective reporters, weren't we, not combat soldiers. We gave ourselves exemptions from death. We armored ourselves with naivet¨¦.

In all, this book is a tribute to all slain journalists who brought the war to your living room; some caught in a firefight, some shot out of the sky, some who vanished, some executed. Yet even while the shooting was going on, there was a war about the war, about whether the United States had misread history and the dying and killing was all a waste. Those post-mortems would come later, too late to end the killing.

About the Author

T. Jeff Williams was a journalist in Asia for 10 years, from 1962 to 1972, covering news that ranged from the overthrow of Indonesias President Sukarno to the Vietnam War. He was first an Associated Press correspondent and then became a CBS News correspondent. In 1970, he was the only American journalist in Cambodia when a right-wing coup detat toppled chief of state Prince Norodom Sihanouk. Williams covered the expanding war there in which 25 foreign newsmen were killed in less than six months. In 1972 Williams was reassigned to the CBS News bureau in Chicago. From there he covered the Mid-West, including the American Indian Movement takeover of Wounded Knee. He is the author of two novels, a history of the Portuguese colony of Macao, and co-author of the recently published history of Cambodia in 1970, entitled A Cambodian Odyssey and the deaths of 25 journalists. He lives with his wife and children in the San Francisco Bay Area.Kurt Volkert spent nearly 30 years as a CBS News cameraman, covering events through Asia, Africa and Europe. In 1970, then based in Tokyo, he accompanied CBS correspondent George Syvertsen to cover the conflict in Cambodia. Less than two weeks after their arrival, Syvertsen and seven other CBS and NBC crewmen were killed. Kurt, who was not with them that fateful day, spent weeks seeking to determine the fate of those captured. By interviewing villagers, he learned that the five had been executed. Twenty-two years later when a U.S. Army team went to Cambodia to search for the remains of those missing, Volkert accompanied them. The carefully drawn maps he had prepared from his interviews were instrumental in finding the remains. Volkert is co-author of the recently published history of Cambodia in 1970, entitled A Cambodian Odyssey and the deaths of 25 journalists. Living in Germany with his wife, Volkert has launched a successful new career as an oil painter.

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: IUniverse; illustrated edition edition (March 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595166067
• ISBN-13: 978-0595166060
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,668,585 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Book!, May 14, 2001

By	"davecanfield" (Bowie, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This book was recommended to me by a friend and I found it fascinating. The first part, written by AP/CBS News correspondent Jeff Williams details the intricate history of Cambodia as it struggles against forces from within and without during the turbulant 60's and 70's. Part of the book is a fascinating portrait of what it's like to cover a war in Asia, specifically Cambodia. At times the country was terrifying, at other times comedic and at others beautiful, graceful and exotic. Under the pressure of competition, journalists jump in cars and race off down dangerous roads looking for action so they can scoop the other networks. During a 2 month span in 1970, 25 of those journalists who drove down those lonely roads didn't come back.

The second part of the book is a description by Kurt Volkert of his feelings loss and deep sadness for his murdered comrads and his persistant and amazing detective work in locating their bodies in the countryside TWENTY YEARS LATER. How he did it, what he thought of the system that forced journalists to risk their lives for a story is gripping stuff.

This is a great read!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Happened Out There?, May 10, 2001

By	Helen J. (Redwood City, CA) - See all my reviews

During the Vietnam war, Cambodia seemed to be a forgotten country. But this book shows what it was like to be a journalist on the front lines in what must have been terrifying times. The book recounts how the war in Vietnam spread to Cambodia in 1970 and how 25 foreign journalists reporting the war there were killed by the Khmer Rouge and North Vietnamese.

The book is in two sections. In the first one, T. Jeff Williams describes the historical events that led Cambodia into a bloody conflict with Vietnam, its ancient enemy, and describes the 1970 coup that overthrew Prince Sihanouk, the country's leader. He then describes how it was to cover the war, and how so many journalists were captured and killed in just a few months.

In the second section, Kurt Volkert describes how a CBS and a NBC television team were captured and killed. And then how in 1992, 22 years later, a U.S. Army special team arrived to look for the missing newsmen. Mr. Volkert raises the question of why the TV journalists were in danger so often, and whether executives in New York were pushing them too much.

I highly recommend this book for the inside story it provides on how newsmen cover war and how dangerous it can be.

4.0 out of 5 stars Shines the light on a forgotten corner of history, August 15, 2001

By	m_s_ - See all my reviews

Everyone knows about the war Vietnam, but few remember that the United States battled the Viet Cong and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia as well. And even fewer remember that in just six short months in 1970, over two dozen journalists were killed while reporting on this forgotten corner of the Vietnam War, many of whom were captured and tortured to death by enemy forces.

T. Jeff Williams provides an illuminating, ground-level view of Cambodia during the war and what it was like to be a correspondent when so many of your colleagues would go out to report the story and just simply never come back. But it is Kurt Volkert's section of the book that really shines.

Volkert gives a factual and detailed, yet intensely personal look at efforts by him and others to investigate and locate the graves of five newsmen who were killed chasing the scoop south of Phnom Penh. He chronicles the ups and downs, the sadness, the frustrations, the detective work, and the ultimate sense of closure that comes from helping scour the Cambodian countryside for five journalists and friends buried in shallow graves twenty years earlier.

All in all, this is an excellent book on a topic that has received almost no attention over the years. Well recommended for anyone interested in journalism, Cambodia, or the Vietnam War.