Becker found Pol Pot “elegant, with a pleasing face, not handsome but attractive.... Physically, he had a strong, comfortable appearance.... His gestures and manner were polished, not crude.” Dudman thought that Pol Pot was “rather slight physically, not stocky like most Cambodians.” Dudman also found the situation overly controlled and was “not especially impressed” by Pol Pot, although, like Becker, he noticed his elegant, manicured, “almost spidery” hands. Both reporters were exasperated when Pol Pot said nothing about human rights abuses, Sihanouk, or the identities of his colleagues—the questions begging for answers in the United States. Instead, after an exchange of pleasantries and some juice served in hollowed-out oranges (“There were flies everywhere,” Dudman recalled), Pol Pot embarked on an hour-long monologue that traced the history of Vietnamese aggression and Cambodian righteousness. He said nothing of his domestic programs, the purges, or Vietnamese military successes. He failed to mention the party. He insisted that Vietnam was without international support and that its government was near collapse. He never raised his voice: “At the most,” wrote Becker, “he nodded his head slightly or flicked his dainty wrist for emphasis.” He spoke of the “Warsaw Pact” as threatening Cambodia and mused that this might provoke a counterattack from the anti-Soviet North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Perhaps he was spinning fantasies until the interview was over. Perhaps he hoped the journalists were in a position to obtain American military support for Cambodia. In view of the warm treatment the United States gave Romania’s pro-Chinese, anti-Soviet dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu (who had recently visited Phnom Penh), Pol Pot’s reading of possibilities was less farfetched than it appeared.

At the end of the monologue, Becker and Dudman were able to ask a few questions. Most of these were brushed aside. In response to one about his colleagues in the government, Pol Pot said that it would not be a good idea to name them, as they might soon be fighting a guerrilla war. Years later, Becker wrote that she was “grateful when the interview ended.” At least for her, the sense of unreality that Pol Pot’s talk exuded was overwhelming.37

After Becker and Dudman were driven back to their guest house, Caldwell returned to the Residence Supérieure. There he and Pol Pot, roughly the same age, talked about agricultural policies and socialist economics. Caldwell returned to Becker and Dudman overjoyed with the revolutionary’s frankness and friendly manner. Chatting with Becker, Caldwell compared Cambodia to his beloved Scotland. The three separated around 11:00 P.M. to write up their notes and prepare for their departure from Cambodia the next day.