Nate Thayer | |
|---|---|
 Thayer in 1990 | |
| Born | Nathaniel Talbott Thayer (1960-04-21)April 21, 1960 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Died | c. January 3, 2023(2023-01-03) (aged 62)[a] Falmouth, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Education | University of Massachusetts, Boston |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Father | Harry E. T. Thayer |
| Website | natethayer |
Nathaniel Talbott Thayer (April 21, 1960 –c. January 3, 2023) was an American freelance journalist whose work focused on internationalorganized crime,narcotics trafficking, human rights, and areas of military conflict.
He is most notable for having interviewedPol Pot, in his capacity asCambodia correspondent for theFar Eastern Economic Review. He also wrote forJane's Defence Weekly,Soldier of Fortune, theAssociated Press, and more than 40 other publications, includingThe Cambodia Daily andThe Phnom Penh Post.
On January 3, 2023, Thayer was found dead at home in Falmouth, Massachusetts. His health had been declining for about a decade. According to Thayer's brother, the exact timing of his death was not clear.
Nathaniel Talbott Thayer was born in 1960[1] in Washington, D.C.[2] He was the son of Joan Pirie Leclerc andHarry E. T. Thayer, who wasUnited States Ambassador to Singapore from 1980 to 1985.[2] His mother was from theCarson, Pirie, Scott family. His uncle was lawyerRobert S. Pirie, and his great-uncle was Democratic presidential nomineeAdlai Stevenson II.[3][4]
Thayer studied at theUniversity of Massachusetts Boston, though he did not receive a degree.[2] From 1980 to 1982 he was involved with the Boston-basedClamshell Alliance, acting as spokesman during protest events at theSeabrook Nuclear Power Plant[5][6][7][8] as well as anti-draft protests.[9]
Thayer began his career in Southeast Asia on the Thai-Cambodian border, taking part in an academic research project in which he interviewed 50Cham survivors ofKhmer Rouge atrocities atNong Samet Refugee Camp in 1984.[10][11] He then returned to Massachusetts where he worked briefly as the Transportation Director for the state Office of Handicapped Affairs.[12][13] Thayer himself noted, "I got fired. I was a really badbureaucrat."[14]
Thayer later worked forSoldier of Fortune magazine[15] reporting on guerrilla combat inBurma,[14] and in 1989 he began reporting for theAssociated Press from the Thai-Cambodian border.[16] In October 1989, Thayer was nearly killed when ananti-tank mine exploded under a truck he was riding in.[17] In 1991 he moved to Cambodia where he began writing for theFar Eastern Economic Review.[18][19]
In August 1992, Thayer traveled toMondulkiri Province and visited the last of theUnited Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO)Montagnard guerrillas who had remained loyal to their former American commanders.[20] Thayer informed the group that FULRO's presidentY Bham Enuol had been executed by the Khmer Rouge seventeen years previously.[21] The FULRO troops surrendered their weapons in October 1992; many of this group were given asylum in the United States.[22][23]
In April 1994, Thayer participated in (and funded) the Cambodian Kouprey Research Project, a $30,000, two-week, 150 km field survey to find the rare Cambodianbovine known as thekouprey.[24] Thayer later wrote: "After compiling a team of expert jungle trackers, scientists, security troops, elephantmahouts and one of the most motley and ridiculous looking groups of armed journalists in recent memory, we marched cluelessly into Khmer Rouge-controlled jungles along the oldHo Chi Minh trail."[25]
On July 3, 1994, Thayer was asked to help negotiate PrinceNorodom Chakrapong's release and safe passage to the airport after the prince had been accused by Prime MinisterNorodom Ranariddh of plotting a coup d'état.[26][27] Thayer was subsequently expelled from Cambodia by Prince Ranariddh, but he returned anyway.[28]
In early 1997, he was again expelled from Cambodia for exposing connections between Prime MinisterHun Sen and heroin traffickers.[29][30] Thayer then decided to pursue a fellowship atJohns Hopkins University. He was a visiting scholar at thePaul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies atJohns Hopkins University.[31]
In July 1997, Nate Thayer and Asiaworks Television cameraman David McKaige visited theAnlong Veng Khmer Rouge jungle camp inside Cambodia where Pol Pot was being tried for treason.[32] Thayer had hoped for an interview but was disappointed:
Pol Pot said nothing. They made it clear and I believed them, that I was to interview Pol Pot after the trial. Pol Pot literally had to be carried away from the trial—he was unable to walk—and I was not able to talk to him. I did try to talk to him ... he did not answer any questions, and he did not speak during the trial.[33]
Thayer noted, "Every ounce of his being was struggling to maintain some last vestige of dignity."[1]
Thayer believed that the trial had been staged by the Khmer Rouge for him and McKaige:[34]
It was put on specifically for us, to take the message to the world that Pol Pot has been denounced. They had reported on their radio, on June 19, that Pol Pot had beenpurged. No one believed them. After five years of lying over their radio, there was no reason anyone should take what they say credibly. It was clear to them that they needed an independent, credible witness to show what was happening.[31]
According to Thayer,Ted Koppel ofABC News made averbal agreement with Thayer to use footage from the trial onNightline, then violated that agreement:[35]
[Koppel] returned home with a copy of my videotape. I gave it to him in exchange for his strict promise that its only use would be onNightline. However, once he had the copy of the tape, ABC News released video, still pictures, and even transcripts of my interviews to news organizations throughout the world. Protected by its formidable legal andpublic relations department, ABC News made still photographs from the video, slapped the "ABC News Exclusive" logo on them, and hand delivered them to newspapers, wire services, and television ... All of these pictures demanded that photo credit be given to ABC News ... The story won a British Press Award for "Scoop of the Year" for a British paper I didn't even know had published it ... I even won a Peabody Award as a "correspondent forNightline". But I turned it down—the first time anyone had rejected a Peabody in its 57-year history.[36]
ABC News responded that they had "agreed to pay Nate Thayer the sizable sum of $350,000 for the rights to use his footage of former Cambodian dictator Pol Pot. Despite the fact that ABC provided prominent and repeated credit and generous remuneration for his work, Mr. Thayer initiated a five-year barrage of complaints coupled with repeated demands for more money."[37]
In October 1997, Thayer returned to Anlong Veng and became only the second western journalist (afterElizabeth Becker in 1978[38]) ever to be granted an interview with the former dictator[39][40] and, along with McKaige, was certainly the last outsider to see him alive.[14] Thayer recounted the story of his interview with Pol Pot in his unpublished[41] bookSympathy for the Devil: Living Dangerously in Cambodia – A Foreign Correspondent's Story.[42] Pol Pot told Thayer:
First, I want to let you know that I came to join the revolution, not to kill the Cambodian people. Look at me now. Do you think ... am I a violent person? No. So, as far as my conscience and my mission were concerned, there was no problem. This needs to be clarified ... My experience was the same as that of my movement. We were new and inexperienced and events kept occurring one after the other which we had to deal with. In doing that, we made mistakes as I told you. I admit it now and I admitted it in the notes I have written. Whoever wishes to blame or attack me is entitled to do so. I regret I didn't have enough experience to totally control the movement. On the other hand, with our constant struggle, this had to be done together with others in the communist world to stopKampuchea becoming Vietnamese. For the love of the nation and the people it was the right thing to do but in the course of our actions we made mistakes.[43]
Thayer visited Anlong Veng again on April 16, 1998, only a day after Pol Pot had died. After photographing the corpse he briefly interviewedTa Mok and Pol Pot's second wife Muon, who told Thayer, "What I would like the world to know is that he was a good man, a patriot, a good father."[44] Thayer was then asked to transport Pol Pot's body in hispickup truck to the site a short distance away[45] where it was latercremated.[46]
Thayer claims that Pol Pot committed suicide by drinking poison because of his belief that the Khmer Rouge were planning to "hand him over to the Americans".[47]
In April 1999, Thayer, alongside photojournalistNic Dunlop, interviewedKang Kek Iew (ComradeDuch) for theFar Eastern Economic Review after Dunlop had tracked Duch toSamlaut and suspected strongly that he was the former director of the notoriousS-21 security prison.[48] Dunlop wanted Duch to provide clues that would reveal his identity, and Thayer began probing Duch's story that he was Hang Pin, anaid worker and aborn-again Christian:
Then Nate said, "I believe that you also worked with the security services during the Khmer Rouge Period?" Duch appeared startled and avoided our eyes ... Again Nate put the question to him ... He looked unsettled and his eyes darted about ... He then glanced at Nate's business card ... "I believe, Nic, that your friend has interviewed Monsieur Ta Mok and Monsieur Pol Pot?" ... He sat back down...and inhaled deeply. "It is God's will that you are here," he said.[48]: 271–72 [49]
Duch surrendered to the authorities inPhnom Penh following the publication of this interview.[50][51] Dunlop and Thayer were first runners-up for the 1999 SAIS-Novartis Prize for Excellence in International Journalism, presented by The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, for "exposing the inside story of the Khmer Rouge killing machine".[52]
Nate Thayer also coveredAlbania,[53]Indonesia,[54]Mongolia[55] and thePhilippines.[56] In 2003, he reported on theIraq War in a five-part series forSlate magazine.[57][58][59][60][61] He also covered theBangkok 2010 Redshirt riots.[62][63] During 2011 he worked for theInternational Consortium of Investigative Journalists' Center for Public Integrity writing a three-month investigation onNorth Korea as arogue state financed by criminal activity.[64][65][66][67] In December 2011, he came out in opposition to theInternational Treaty to Ban Landmines, believing that militant groups would then resort to alternative tactics, many of which pose a greater risk to civilians.[68]
In 2015, Thayer was the author of a controversial series of articles about racially motivated demonstrations which occurred inCharleston, South Carolina, in the wake of theshootings which were carried out byDylann Roof.[69] The stories, which were first published on MarxRand.com, eventually attracted attention from the mainstream press. In particular, a story called "Patriot Games"[70] was picked up by mainstream news organizations after being published on MarxRand.com. It was subsequently commissioned as a separate story run inVice later the same week.[71] In the original version of the story, Thayer claimed that aKu Klux Klan leader named Chris Barker was doubling as an undercover FBI operative "working for and protected by the U.S.Joint Terrorism Task Force". As a result of Barker's outing and in September 2015, Thayer wrote that "Mr Barker (has called and) hung up the phone several times, sent me incendiary emails and made threatening phone calls, and has since gone onWhite Nationalist internet forums to try to denounce the articles and defend his reputation" and Thayer also wrote that other Klan members had "threatened to decapitate my dog".[72]
BloggerJeremy Duns accused Thayer of plagiarism on March 7, 2013,[73] a claim that was echoed inNew York magazine.[74] Mark Ziegler, author of the article in question, told theColumbia Journalism Review that he was "not ready to accuse Thayer of plagiarism", and said "I have no reason not to respect him as a fellow journalist." Ziegler said he was "not completely satisfied with the way [his article] was ultimately attributed" even in the corrected version of "25 Years of Slam Dunk Diplomacy".[75][76] TheColumbia Journalism Review concluded that Thayer's "attribution was sloppy and he represented quotes that were said in other places as if they were said to him" but that it did not appear to be a case of plagiarism. The CJR interviewed Thayer's sources, and at least one confirmed he was interviewed extensively by Thayer.[77]
In September 2021, Thayer created a Substack called "Exit Wounds: Nate Thayer on Political Extremism".[78] Thayer subsequently published three stories; two about theOath Keepers, largely in relation to theJanuary 6 United States Capitol attack,[79][80] and one entitled, "Why I am a journalist and Anti-Fascist",[81] in which he described his medical struggles and his relationship with anti-fascist documentarianRod Webber. In December 2022, Thayer posted a four-minute segment to Facebook of Webber's animated documentary "The Man Who Killed Pol Pot",[82][non-primary source needed] about Thayer's exploits. According to Webber's description of the video, "The narration is taken from Nate's essays as well as his 800-page manuscript."[83] In a final article posted to theExit Wounds Substack, Webber announced Thayer's death and that, "Nate was working on a major exposé which we will publish here."[84]
According to an article in theNew York Times, Thayer's health had been declining around the last decade of his life. Around this time, he also used alcohol and drugs.[2] On Facebook in August 2022, Thayer wrote that he had been afflicted with "twostrokes, twoheart attacks, two bouts withCovid,sepsis infections which wentviral and left me withheart and other damage".[2]
On January 3, 2023, Thayer was found dead at home inFalmouth, Massachusetts.[85] His brother, Robert, who found his body, said that it was not clear exactly when he died.[85][2]
Thayer resided in the U.S. and in Cambodia. His website, Nate-Thayer.com, which was active for many years, is no longer accessible.[86] In 2000, Thayer returned to the United States and bought a farmhouse inMaryland. Then he moved toFalmouth, Massachusetts onCape Cod along with his pet dog Lamont.[87]
Thayer's reporting earned him the 1998 Francis Frost Wood Award for Courage in Journalism, given byHofstra University inHempstead, New York to a journalist "judged to best exemplify physical or moral courage in the practice of his or her craft."[88] He was the first recipient of theCenter for Public Integrity's ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting in November 1998.[89] Upon awarding Thayer the ICIJ Award, the judges noted:
He illuminated a page of history that would have been lost to the world had he not spent years in the Cambodian jungle, in a truly extraordinary quest for first-hand knowledge of the Khmer Rouge and their murderous leader. His investigations of the Cambodian political world required not only great risk and physical hardship but also mastery of an ever-changing cast offactional characters.[90]
According to Vaudine England of theBBC, "Many of the region's greatest names in reporting made their mark in the pages of theReview, from the legendaryRichard Hughes ofKorean War fame, to Nate Thayer, the journalist who found Cambodia's Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot."[91]
Thayer was also the first person in 57 years to turn down a prestigiousPeabody Award, because he did not want to share it with ABC News'Nightline who he believed stole his story and deprived him and theFar Eastern Economic Review of income.[92][93]
Since 1999 Hofstra University's Department of Journalism and Mass Media Studies in the School of Communication has awarded theNate Thayer Scholarship to a qualified student with the best foreign story idea. Winners are selected on the basis of scholastic achievement or potential as well as economic need.[94]
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