"They suffer just the same," said Pran, after a pause. "The only difference, maybe, is that with Cambodians the grief leaves the face quickly, but it goes inside, and stays there for a long time."
Liberty is the freedom to make choices.
He could find out from his Cambodian liaison in the French Embassy what the feeling was about Giscard d'Estaing deciding to recognise the legitimacy of the Khmer Rouge.
It is a mystery how Sydney can be so brave without a belief in Buddha or in his own God to give him strength. It must be, as Pran has always suspected, because Sydney understands. His idea of himself is total. He doesn't need gods to help him see his place in the scheme of things. Death is like another assignment.
All he could think of was that a look had come back into Pran's eyes he dreaded to see again - a look of fatalism, which to Schanberg was the same as hopelessness. Perversely it seemed to give Pran an inner strength. He was quite calm.
Pol Pot's murderers were recognised - were they not ? - by the United States and England as the legitimate government of Kampuchea. The red flag of the Khmer Rouge flew over the United Nations building in New York as it had flown over the death camps of its own people.
