Today marks 40 years since the Vietnamese communists rolled into Saigon, forcing the US to beat a hasy retreat from their embattled South Vietnamese client state. The occasion threw up its fair share of iconic images (see right), including the extraordinary sight of a North Vietnamese T-54 tank smashing open the gates of the city’s Presidential Palace, its tracks chewing up the ornamental lawn. Two weeks earlier, on the 17th, Phnom Penh also fell to a communist army, the Khmer Rouge, who unexpectedly beat their former Vietnamese comrades to the prize by an entire fortnight — evidence, they believed, 0f the inherent purity of the Cambodian revolution.
To coincide with the fateful anniversary of Phnom Penh’s fall, a group of reporters and photographers gathered in Cambodia this month for a long-awaited reunion organised by Chhang Song, the last Information Minister of the Lon Nol regime. (I spoke with him in February for my recent piece about the ill-fated Khmer Republic). My colleagues at the Phnom Penh Post have posted a series of video interviews with veteran correspondents Elizabeth Becker, Tim Page and Kurt Volkert, which are well worth checking out. The three speak about their experiences in Indochina in the early 1970s, Becker recalling her meeting with Pol Pot in 1978.
Click here to view the videos.
