Posted on 05/18/2005 1:42:24 PM PDT by quidnunc
The current credibility scandal over a small Newsweek item about a Muslim holy book allegedly flushed down a toilet by a U.S. serviceman to cower a prisoner was a faint echo from a single sentence in Newsweek 42 years ago about a string of bordellos allegedly managed by the queen mother of Cambodia — and that changed the course of history.
In early fall 1963, when I was Newsweek's managing editor for International Editions and foreign editor of Newsweek's U.S. edition, the magazine ran a long piece from a staff correspondent about Cambodia. Referring to Prince Sihanouk's powerful family, the article said, "The Queen mother runs a string of bordellos on the edge of the capital," Phnom Penh.
Based on my own experiences in Indo-China in the early 1950s, it didn't strike me as unusual. Because almost everything about Cambodia and Sihanouk was unusual by American standards. Massage parlors, houses of ill-repute and opium dens were the equivalent of stopping for one on the road before going home.
Had I double-checked it with our correspondent in Phnom Penh, who spoke impeccable French, we might have discovered in time that the bordellos were on land the queen mother owned, but she had nothing to do with leases, let alone being the madam.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Oops. I guess he thought "to cow a prisoner" looked dumb, even though it's correct.
Like it really mattered.
Interesting.
It's actually an interesting article, once I got past the poor editing. A fascinating string of cause and effect from the one reporting error (even if you allow for some exaggeration).
A good basic outline of the Cambodia tragedy. Keep in mind Sihanouk was looking for an excuse to toss us out and would just as soon have made one up if necessary. I'm not so sure of de Borchgrave's reasoning that the much-lamented "secret bombings" and "incursions" necessarily were responsible for the NVA simply taking over more of Cambodia however. I always wondered if the much sought-after secret underground NVA "Pentagon" really existed, per se. The Port of Sihanoukville was one hell of a thorn in our side. It was an incredibly long and dangerous odyssy to travel the Ho Chi Minh trail/road network and this amounted to a huge bypass, but of course Johnson wouldn't have dared dream of blockading it.
How interesting! I've read quite a lot about the Vietnam War, since I grew up surrounded by vets, but nothing particularly about Cambodia. Can you recommend a book?
I was reading about 'Nam when I was a teenager in the late seventies (just before the Great Explosion of Vietnam books) I never did read anything specific to Cambodia's history. My advice would be checking through the Southeast Asia section at your public library and seeing what they have.
I was a teenager in the early 80's. Thanks, I'll hit the library catalog ... maybe there will be something informative. The People's Republic of Mecklenburg County has a surprisingly diverse library collection :-).
Neither gave a damn about peace or freedom, then or now. The old man wanted to be loved and praised in Manhattan parlors and cocktail parties. The young wealthy abused-spoiled girl wanted to rebel against her background by championing everything her SOB father wasn't. And millions of innocents died to satiate their egos. Why? Because the people at Newsweek and the rest of the media wanted to kiss their asses.
Five years later, Congress yanked the rug from under Lon Nol's forces, cutting off all aid to the pro-U.S. government -- and the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh. In less than a week, they had emptied the capital of all its inhabitants and marched them off to the jungle where they were slaughtered. Almost 2 million lost their lives. The Newsweek story about Sihanouk's mother was simply the first tug on a ball of wool the mercurial prince wished to unravel anyway.
Nothing should stand in the way of media celebrities' unrelenting and insatiable aspirations for the spotlight and the Pulitzer prize -- no matter how many lives have to be sacrificed!
Their 15 hours of fame is their entitlement. They are more equal than everybody else.
Try renting movie The Killing Fields.
Based on the book of the same name, but I don't remember who wrote it. The casual brutality for an "ideal" is something else. Char-Meck would definitely have it in their system.
Thanks!
The Killing Fields we are referring to was written by Christopher Hudson about the experiences in Cambodia in the 1970's of American journalist Sydney Schanberg and his Cambodian assistant Dith Pran, played by Sam Waterston and Haing N'gor (?sp) in the movie of the same name.
I know about the movie, although I didn't see it. Having the author's name will make it easier to locate the book!
I strongly recommend renting the movie. It is on my top ten list of the greatest movies ever made because of the many truths it reveals.
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