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When The War Was Over: Cambodia And The Khmer Rouge Revolution, Revised Edition | 
 enlarge | Author: Elizabeth Becker
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
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Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 376566
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised edition
Pages: 624
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.3
ISBN: 1891620002
Dewey Decimal Number: 959.604
EAN: 9781891620003
ASIN: 1891620002
Publication Date: November 9, 1998
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Amazon.com Review
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
Product Description
Award-winning journalist Elizabeth Becker started covering Cambodia in 1973 for The Washington Post, when the country was perceived as little more than a footnote to the Vietnam War. Then, with the rise of the Khmer Rouge in 1975 came the closing of the border and a systematic reorganization of Cambodian society. Everyone was sent from the towns and cities to the countryside, where they were forced to labor endlessly in the fields. The intelligentsia were brutally exterminated, and torture, terror, and death became routine. Ultimately, almost two million people—nearly a quarter of the population—were killed in what was one of this century's worst crimes against humanity.When the War Was Over is Elizabeth Becker's masterful account of the Cambodian nightmare. Encompassing the era of French colonialism and the revival of Cambodian nationalism; 1950s Paris, where Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot received his political education; the killing fields of Cambodia; government chambers in Washington, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, Hanoi, and Phnom Penh; and the death of Pol Pot in 1998; this is a book of epic vision and staggering power. Merging original historical research with the many voices of those who lived through the times and exclusive interviews with every Cambodian leader of the past quarter century, When the War Was Over illuminates the darkness of Cambodia with the intensity of a bolt of lightning.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Elizabeth Becker Vacillates Blame September 23, 2000
Joseph Pacelli (USA)
69 out of 88 found this review helpful
Elizabeth Becker vociferously condemns American policy towards China, as one major reason the world ignored Pol Pot's massive deportations and slaughter, after the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. Yet, it was Elizabeth Becker (along with many others in the antiwar U.S. media) in her Washington Post articles who mocked those who were trying to tell the world about the communist genocide. When Lon Nol came to Washington, D.C. in October 1978, asking for American aid in hopes of stopping the Khmer Rouge genocide against their own people, it was Elizabeth Becker who called his visit "an embarrassment." And two months later, Becker was invited to visit Pol Pot's Cambodia (one of very few journalists) where she eluded her eyes to Cambodia's destruction, and even wrote that Pol Pot's "system was working." Western academics and the liberal media denied the brutality of the Khmer Rouge before and after 1975. If Elizabeth Becker and others within the media did their job, instead of denouncing those who tried to tell us the truth before, during and after Pol Pot's communist struggle, history may have been very different.
 Correction to Joseph Pacelli's Review March 7, 2003
Thy Yem (Madison, AL United States)
14 out of 19 found this review helpful
1) The Khmer Rouge didn't win the war after the Vietnamese's invasion. The Khmer Rough won the war in 1975, against the Lonol's regime. The Vietnamese's invasion is in 1979; this invasion pushed the Khmer Rough into the jungle bordered with Thailand.
2) As far as I know, the Khmer Rough didn't commit the atrocities until the it won the war (1975). These atrocities lasted until the Vietnamese invasion in 1979.
3) I read the first edition of this book years ago. I remembered that it was a decent book.
 I loved this book! January 25, 2000
Andy Hughes (Ventura, California, USA)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
A wonderful anecdotal account of the Khmer Rouge Kampuchea. Elizabeth Becker did a great job of researching the materials and wrote this book in an easy to read style. Don't get a wrong impression, because it is truly a gift to be able to write in an easy to read style and at the same time be very informative. Becker has this gift. I did a thesis paper on a topic inspired by this book. Becker wonderfully wove accounts of all aspects of lifestyles from various Cambodians prior to the takeover by Pol Pot and his Marxist thoeries, and then what happened to each and every one of them during the Khmer Rouge. I really got wrapped up in all of the peoples' accounts. Take the time to read this book, because it presents a shocking portrail of what happened in Cambodia
When the Book Was Over... June 11, 2002
8 out of 15 found this review helpful
My book club chose this book, in part because of the great reviews it has received. But we were all very disappointed, because we (unanimously) found it to be terrible! I made it through about 150 pages before I had to stop reading. I just could not force myself to continue. Many of fellow book-clubbers could not make it past the first chapter. Becker is an absolutely awful writer. The story of the Khmer Revolution could have been really interesting if done right. But Becker gets bogged down, detailing every single meeting, every single move of the key players. She also jumps around chronologically, discussing the events of 1973, then jumping to the events of 1969, then coming back to 1972. It's very hard for the reader to keep track of what's going on. One of the things that seemed most interesting to me was that readers noted the use of anecdotes to explain the events from the perspective of those who lived through it. But I found her use of anecdotes to be completely undeveloped. Rather than focus on the human interest aspect of her story, Becker's book reads like a (bad) poli-sci textbook. Yawn.
***Note: the book is over 500 pages long, so maybe it gets much better after the first 150. I'll never know.
A classic history of modern Cambodia, updated and revised. January 5, 2000
R. ARANT (Lanesville, Indiana USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Worth the price just for the detailed account of the conduct and aftermath of the less than totally successful $2 billion United Nations effort to bring peace and democracy to Cambodia. Becker's account of the December 1978 killing of Malcolm Caldwell is riveting. Her incorporation of the personal stories of victims of the Pol Pot regime's Tuol Sleng extermination center helps readers better understand the atmosphere of those terrible days. Readers wanting further detail on Tuol Sleng should read David Chandler's "Voices from S-21" and Vann Nath's "Cambodian Prison Portrait".
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