A Letter From The Publisher: Aug. 17, 1970

NOT long ago, after several journalists covering the war in Cambodia had been captured by hostile forces, TIME Correspondent Robert Anson speculated that, come what may, newsmen would still be venturing out into the hazardous Cambodian countryside. In isolated Phnom-Penh, he explained in a cable to New York, reliable information is so hard to come by that even diplomats "would start an interview by asking the correspondent: 'Now what can you tell me?''

Anson reported the fight for Saang, the first sizable engagement of the war, and was the first newsman to reach Siem Reap when the Communists were overrunning the temples...