Everyone knows about the war Vietnam, but few remember that the United States battled the Viet Cong and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia as well. And even fewer remember that in just six short months in 1970, over two dozen journalists were killed while reporting on this forgotten corner of the Vietnam War, many of whom were captured and tortured to death by enemy forces.

T. Jeff Williams provides an illuminating, ground-level view of Cambodia during the war and what it was like to be a correspondent when so many of your colleagues would go out to report the story and just simply never come back. But it is Kurt Volkert's section of the book that really shines.

Volkert gives a factual and detailed, yet intensely personal look at efforts by him and others to investigate and locate the graves of five newsmen who were killed chasing the scoop south of Phnom Penh. He chronicles the ups and downs, the sadness, the frustrations, the detective work, and the ultimate sense of closure that comes from helping scour the Cambodian countryside for five journalists and friends buried in shallow graves twenty years earlier.

All in all, this is an excellent book on a topic that has received almost no attention over the years. Well recommended for anyone interested in journalism, Cambodia, or the Vietnam War.

This book was recommended to me by a friend and I found it fascinating. The first part, written by AP/CBS News correspondent Jeff Williams details the intricate history of Cambodia as it struggles against forces from within and without during the turbulant 60's and 70's. Part of the book is a fascinating portrait of what it's like to cover a war in Asia, specifically Cambodia. At times the country was terrifying, at other times comedic and at others beautiful, graceful and exotic. Under the pressure of competition, journalists jump in cars and race off down dangerous roads looking for action so they can scoop the other networks. During a 2 month span in 1970, 25 of those journalists who drove down those lonely roads didn't come back.

The second part of the book is a description by Kurt Volkert of his feelings loss and deep sadness for his murdered comrads and his persistant and amazing detective work in locating their bodies in the countryside TWENTY YEARS LATER. How he did it, what he thought of the system that forced journalists to risk their lives for a story is gripping stuff.

This is a great read!

During the Vietnam war, Cambodia seemed to be a forgotten country. But this book shows what it was like to be a journalist on the front lines in what must have been terrifying times. The book recounts how the war in Vietnam spread to Cambodia in 1970 and how 25 foreign journalists reporting the war there were killed by the Khmer Rouge and North Vietnamese.

The book is in two sections. In the first one, T. Jeff Williams describes the historical events that led Cambodia into a bloody conflict with Vietnam, its ancient enemy, and describes the 1970 coup that overthrew Prince Sihanouk, the country's leader. He then describes how it was to cover the war, and how so many journalists were captured and killed in just a few months.

In the second section, Kurt Volkert describes how a CBS and a NBC television team were captured and killed. And then how in 1992, 22 years later, a U.S. Army special team arrived to look for the missing newsmen. Mr. Volkert raises the question of why the TV journalists were in danger so often, and whether executives in New York were pushing them too much.

I highly recommend this book for the inside story it provides on how newsmen cover war and how dangerous it can be.

I bought this book in 1982($13.95 hardcover in those days) but did not get around to reading it until last month ! It started off slow...I almost put it aside. But boy does the story begin to build. As I read it, I started to actually feel the sense of panic that was overtaking everyone in Saigon and South Vietnam as the collapse of the government appeared suddenly to be around the corner. The love interests of the the 3 main characters seemed almost prescripted...somehwat unecessary...but otherwise, I couldn't help but be fascinated by the character of the Ambassador. It is the manner in which the Kalb brothers described those last days before the fall of Saigon...the intenseness and panic....it is a feeling that will always be with me and I think I will experience everytime Vietnam is mentioned. I highly recommend the book.