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...