Subject of 'Killing Fields' dies of cancer

CNN ^ | March 30, 2008 | AP via CNN

[Islander7]

NEW YORK (AP) -- Dith Pran, the Cambodian-born journalist whose harrowing tale of enslavement and eventual escape from that country's murderous Khmer Rouge revolutionaries in 1979 became the subject of the award-winning film "The Killing Fields," died Sunday, his former colleague said.

Dith Pran founded an awareness project dedicated to educating people about the Khmer Rouge regime.

Dith, 65, died at a New Jersey hospital Sunday morning of pancreatic cancer, according to Sydney Schanberg, his former colleague at The New York Times. Dith had been diagnosed almost three months ago.

Dith was working as an interpreter and assistant for Schanberg in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, when the Vietnam War reached its chaotic end in April 1975 and both countries were taken over by Communist forces.

Schanberg helped Dith's family get out but was forced to leave his friend behind after the capital fell; they were not reunited until Dith escaped four and a half years later. Eventually, Dith resettled in the United States and went to work as a photographer for the Times.

[Islander7]

With thousands being executed simply for manifesting signs of intellect or Western influence -- even wearing glasses or wristwatches -- Dith survived by masquerading as an uneducated peasant, toiling in the fields and subsisting on as little as a mouthful of rice a day, and whatever small animals he could catch.

--SNIP--

Let's all pray history does not repeat itself.

[mimaw]

I will never forget that film. I was angry for a long time at the worlds inability to stop the slaughter. History is continuing to repeat its self and we stand by and watch.

[mtbopfuyn]

Oh, how terribly sad. Prayers for him and his.

[antiRepublicrat]

I can’t think of any other ideology that, when it comes to power, immediately results in mass summary executions.

[girlangler]

Everyone should see this movie. I saw it years ago, and still consider it the best movie I’ve ever seen.

It was heartbreaking, what this man, and all the Cambodians, went through. May he rest in peace.

[SuziQ]

He was "the most patriotic American photographer I've ever met, always talking about how he loves America," said AP photographer Paul Sakuma, who knew Dith through their work with the Asian American Journalists Association.

I daresay, then, that he was much more patriotic than many of his American born colleagues at the Old Grey Lady.

[facedown]

[infantrywhooah]

That was a very chilling movie. Sam Waterston was already at the top of his game when he made that one.

[SuziQ]

The Killing Fields was one of the most affecting movies I've ever seen. To me, the saddest part was when Pran was escaping through the jungle with some folks from the camp, and the young son of the camp commander, who had given Pran the boy to take, and protect. Another person was carrying the boy, and stepped on a mine. Pran took the boy, just before the mine exploded, but the child must have been hit by shrapnel, because after running for a while with him, Pran realized he was dead. The look of utter dejection on his face was so profound.

[Islander7]

"...He was "the most patriotic American photographer I've ever met, always talking about how he loves America," said AP photographer Paul Sakuma, who knew Dith through their work with the Asian American Journalists Association.

I daresay, then, that he was much more patriotic than many of his American born colleagues at the Old Grey Lady..."

My nephew married a beautiful lady who escaped the leftist death squads in El Salvador as a teen. In fact, her mother, who was a lawyer there, escaped with her three daughters. They are all US citizens now. They hold jobs, pay taxes and vote; conservatively! Their love for this country and what they have achieved here is a wonder and a blessing.

My grand niece and her beautiful mom.

[SuziQ]

Cute gals!!

[mylife]

I have friends who where very well to do and gave up everything, left with the shirts on their backs to escape the Khymer rouge,

They came for the educated and wealthy first.

[Cicero]

Yes, it was a powerful movie, although I remember having mixed feelings about it at the time. Not about the basic story, but about who the movie implied was to blame.

The catastrophe in Cambodia was not Nixon’s fault. It was the press’s fault, for siding with the peaceniks and the Democrats who were so eager to pull out and leave our friends and allies to their fate.

Now CNN mourns the tragedy suffered by Dith Pran, but CNN typifies those who were responsible for it.

[chopperman]

Who blames it on Nixon? I really want to know. What happened in Cambodia and Vietnam is what’s going to happen in Iraq if Hillary or especially Obama gets elected. Every single college student or potential voter should be required to see that movie.

[seoul62]

The Left is always in a submerged silence when atrocities are created by their comrades. Where were the usual cast of characters, going on about the Contras, Contras - the evil CIA, Salvador Allende, the list goes on and on. Why were their voices so silent? Eternal shame on them - typical limousine liberal hypocrites!!!!!!!/Just Asking - seoul62........

[freema]

[Irish Eyes]

Damn, that is (and was ) a very powerful scene.

[freema]

Thinking of John Lennon’s song Imagine while looking at that scene makes me want to dig him up and slap the crap out of him.

[USMCPOP]

I didn’t see the movie. However, I did work with the refugees in Thailand in 1979 and 1980. That was right about the time that many managed to finally pour out into refugee camps in Thailand. We were interviewing them for resettlement, helping the INS. I know about three words of Cambodian: bro, saray, salap. Male, female, dead. Some of my co-workers went to camps where they spoon-fed people who were starving to death, rather than interviewing people.

I have a good buddy here in town who is from Cambodia. He lost a lot of family over there. When my son joined the Marines, he was here to celebrate his 18th birthday and welcome him to the fraternity of those who serve. Now we share other memories...

[freema]

Wow.