MISSING IN CAMBODIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000100010070-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 22, 2004
• Sequence Number: 70
• Publication Date: April 20, 1970
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

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Approved For ReJ BesppV1 60/28: CIA-RDP88-01314 000100010070-7
TH E
-really low-profile-we could get o)
this main road and sort of glide into
the villages. We might be able to rap
with some of the Cambodians, and then
have theist take its to where we can get
pictures of the action.
-TIME Photographer Scan Flynn
Flynn did go hack, and he found the
Missing in Cambodia
That was one of the scariest mo-
ments of my life. Rift you know, titan,
we've i of to cnrne hack here. I bet that
if we mused Motorcycles, dressed casually
PRESS
cially, fascinated them. Six feet tall,
strikingly handsome, with long blond
hair almost to his shoulders, he wore
only sandals, khaki shorts, a white pull-
over and love beads. While he was pho-
tographing the house, we saw South
Vietnamese air force planes bombing
just across the border. We had learned
earlier in the day that both Vietnamese
and American artillery and airplanes
had begun regular missions on Cam-
bodian soil. Scan wanted to come back
to photograph those missions that Wash-
ington and Saigon so vehemently deny."
Moments later, Flynn and Pines also
saw-and narrowly escaped-two 15-
J hint. Along with his friend, CBs
V Cameraman Dana Stone, the 28-
ycar-old son of Errol Flynn was
captured in the Cambodia-
South Vietnam border area.
Last week, in addition to the
two Americans. at least six oth-
er journalists' were presumed
to have fallen victim to the Viet
Cong in the same vicinity. The
captures dramatized how greatly
Cambodia has changed since the
ouster of Prince Norodom Si-
hanouk four weeks ago.
For three years, Cambodia's
chimerical Prince veiled his re-
lations with the Viet Cong by
keeping foreign journalists out
of his "neutralist" country. Many
sneaked in, mainly for respite
from the Viet Nam War. Un-
able to carry out any real re-
porting in Cambodia, they dined
on frogs' legs, eggs en cocotte
and cheese souffles beside a bi-
kini-lined pool in Phnom-Penh,
the capital city.
Beads and Bombs. When the
Prince was ousted, the new gov-
ernment welcomed reporters
-but covering Cambodia sud-
0
d TERRY KNOO PIK
71
ty rxd pI.+lt i ar
denly became a highly dangerous
venture. As scores of U.S., British, Aus-
tralian, French, German and Japanese
correspondents poured in, they found a
countryside torn by civil strife and in-
fested with Viet Cong patrols. The gov-
ernment could not provide escorts; local
drivers refused to leave the capital.
Sean Flynn arrived in Cambodia on
April 2, on assignment for TIME. The
next day he joined TIME Correspondent
Burton Pines in a rented car headed
for Parrot's Beak, a jut of Cambodia
that cuts into South Viet Nam about
40 miles west of Saigon. Pines reports:
"In one village, where the V.C. had
burned a district office that Scan want-
ed to photograph, we two Americans cre-
ated quite a commotion. Scan, espe-
ouflage suit complete with flowing scarf.
He also shot 10,000 ft. of film for a doc-
umentary on the war, shipped it to his
home in Paris, and twice left to edit it be-
twccn, combat assignments. Recalls a
friend: "He said that his documentary
never would be finished until he had pia
tures of the other side."
During the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War
--one of his sidetracks-Flynn and an-
other reporter scavenged a Soviet re-
coilless rifle in the Sinai desert. hitched
it to their Volkswagen and took off,
with visions of donating it to a Tel
Aviv discotheque. The Israeli patrol that
intercepted them had other uses for it.
On assignment covering Richard Nixon
in Indonesia last July, Flynn rented a
beach house in Bali. A remarkably gen-
tle man, despite his daredevil reputation,
he had fallen in love with the serene sim-
plicity of the island and decided to re-
main there indefinitely. He returned to
Saigon last month merely to wind up af-
fairs in Viet Nam before returning to
Bali, where he had already taken an op-
tion to acquire some land.
Diplomatic Efforts. Flynn's Saigoil
roommate, Cameraman Stone, 30, a.
short, sardonic Vermonter, was once a
..lumberjack and merchant marinci..
When he went to Viet Nam in 1966,
Stone took up photography as a means'
of seeing the war. A veteran of many l:
hair-raising operations, he soon gained a l
reputation that gave him as many assign-
.ments.as he could handle. "There may be
greater technical skill in Viet Nam," says
TimeCorrespondent David Greenway,
"but there are none with more courage ,
and initiative than Stone and Flynn."
Why the Viet Cong suddenly seemed
intent on holding captured journalists re-
mains unknown. The leading speculation,.
is that the Communists hope to scare
journalists away from reporting their ac-
tivities in the border area. Intense dip-
lomatic efforts are being made for the
release. of all ten captives, and North
FLYNN & STONE BEFORE CAPTURE
Among the ablest-and bravest.
man Communist patrols armed with AK-
47 rifles. After hurrying back to the ,
capital, Flynn and Dana Stone (on as-
Vietnamese representatives in Paris have'.
agreed to make inquiries.
Is Wishing Success
signment for CBS News) agreed that a re- All over the world, English-language
turn trip was worth the risk despite newspapers comfort American tourists,
ominous reports of 10,000 Communist help teach native students and rake in
troops in the area. The two rented red local advertisers' bahts, cruzeiros, dinars,'.
Honda motorcycles and headed off. The pesos, rupees and yen. But some of the
next day villagers near Bavct reported papers are English in name only. As a
seeing the Viet Cong quietly capture splendid example, the first issue of Bue-
two Westerners on motor scooters. It nos Aires' new American 'News has
was the same area where the Frenchmen just announced its aims in a charming.
and two Japanese journalists had been. front-page letter from the editor:
captured the day before. "The American News wishes to cap-
Gentle Daredevil. Before going to ture, to tune in and to enlarge the Amer-
Viet Nam in 1965, Scan Flynn was a ican living beat. Born with these aims
game warden in Kenya, a fashion pho- in the heart, today is making them pub-
tographer in Paris, a big-game hunter lic from its pages. Xn the widespread mo-
in Pakistan, and had starred, uncom- saic of different sections a fanning on
? The known others: German-born NBC Pho. Portably, in a film, The Son of Captain the various aspects and issues affecting
tographer Dieter Bcllcndorf; French Photog. Blood. In Viet Nam, he made infantry, the American living or arriving 'to Ar-
raphers Gilles Caron, Guy Hannoteaux, Claude
Arpin; Michel Visot, a Phnom-Pe operations his photographic forte, slog- gentina will blow promptly." To-which
Phnom-Penh prot r
of law acting as a guide; nnpil,faa-- RI0b4t1~8foKaN?all8tturp13~6t069 tea only to add sa-
vision newsmen. Reporter A ira Kusaka ^nd with Special Forces troops, invariably lute and heartfelt hoping of many suc-
Cameraman Yujiro Tagaki. attired in a French ForeiSq. Le n ton cam- cessful futures.