The Americans, Elizabeth Becker and Richard Dudman, were the first nonsocialist journalists to visit Democratic Kampuchea. They arrived in Phnom Penh in mid-December accompanied by a radical academic, Malcolm Caldwell, from the University of London. Dudman and Becker had lived in Cambodia and reported on the war in the early 1970s. Caldwell had been an active supporter of Democratic Kampuchea since its foundation and had spoken and written widely in its defense. Dudman and Becker were selected because Khmer officials saw the value of being covered by nonsocialist media and hoped for evenhanded treatment (which they received). The officials also took it for granted that the journalists were employed by the omnipotent CIA and prepared surveillance reports on them during their visits. Caldwell, on the other hand, was a “friend.” The main effect of this was that he was granted an individual audience with Pol Pot, while Becker and Dudman were granted one together.35

The two reporters had submitted questions to Pol Pot in advance, and the prime minister’s consolidated reply (which struck Dudman as a “filibuster ... so that he would not have to answer our questions ... which were rather pointed”) answered some of the issues they had raised. The audience took place in the government guest house, formerly the Residence Supérieure, in the northern part of the city. Dudman and Becker were driven there in a large Mercedes. Both of them recalled that Pol Pot, wearing a silvery Chinese-style suit, sat in an armchair on a slightly raised platform. Thiounn Prasith, who had been their guide on tours of the countryside, was also on the dais, with Ieng Sary and another translator; these three men remained standing.36