The important point was that whatever errors America had made [in Vietnam] "we are so powerful [according to Secretary Kissinger] that Hanoi is simply unable to defeat us militarily" and must therefore eventually be forced to compromise.

His [Prince Norodom Sihanouk's] table was one of the best in town, often laden with gooseberries and guinea fowl... He had nine chefs "because I am a gourmet. They prepare me Cambodian food, French food, Chinese food, anything you want."

Together they [President Nixon and Secretary Kissinger] pursued ends that frequently had a tenuous link with reality, using means that were not merely disproportionate but counterproductive and untrue to those values they were meant to defend. In fact neither man demonstrated much faith in those values.

Cambodia was not a mistake; it was a crime. The world is diminished by the experience.