Nate Thayer

Nathaniel Talbott Thayer was born in 1960{{cite magazine |last=Gourevitch |first=Philip |url=https://www.newyorker.com/archive/1997/08/18/1997_08_18_025_TNY_CARDS_000377797 |title=The Talk of the Town, 'Ink,' |magazine=The New Yorker |date=August 18, 1997 |page=25 |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=October 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021143559/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1997/08/18/1997_08_18_025_TNY_CARDS_000377797#ixzz1BDIGFgBN |url-status=live}} in Washington, D.C.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/world/asia/nate-thayer-dead.html|title=Nate Thayer, Bold Reporter Who Interviewed Pol Pot, Dies at 62|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 6, 2023|accessdate=January 6, 2023|last=Mydans|first=Seth|url-access=limited|archive-date=January 6, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230106165928/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/world/asia/nate-thayer-dead.html|url-status=live}} He was the son of Joan Pirie Leclerc and Harry E. T. Thayer, who was United States Ambassador to Singapore from 1980 to 1985. His mother was from the Carson, Pirie, Scott family. His uncle was lawyer Robert S. Pirie, and his great-uncle was Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson II.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/29/business/robert-pirie-corporate-lawyer-dies-at-80.html | title=Robert Pirie, 80, Lawyer and Banker in Mergers and Takeovers, Dies | work=The New York Times | date=January 29, 2015 | last1=Roberts | first1=Sam }}{{cite web |url=https://issuu.com/westoverschool/docs/42717_spring_mag_spreads-lr/26&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwia09eCksn8AhVglIkEHSWZCDcQFnoECAQQAg&usg=AOvVaw2YnmsS0zAsApF7YVEfActq |title=2014 Spring Magazine by Westover School – Issuu |date=March 28, 2014 }}

Thayer studied at the University of Massachusetts Boston, though he did not receive a degree. From 1980 to 1982 he was involved with the Boston-based Clamshell Alliance, acting as spokesman during protest events at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant{{cite news|first=Randy |last=Shipp|title=Antinuclear coalition set for fresh assault on Seabrook|work=The Christian Science Monitor|date=May 22, 1980|page=7}}{{cite news|first=Michael |last=Knight|title=1,500 Repulsed at Seabrook Trying to Take Nuclear Site; Two Officers Injured On Easy Ground|work=The New York Times|date=May 25, 1980|page=22}}{{cite news|title=Clamshell Plan to Protest Reactor Move to Seabrook|work=Boston Globe|date=February 18, 1981|page=1}}{{cite web |author=No Writer Attributed |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1981/3/4/250-protest-at-seabrook-nuclear-site/ |title=250 Protest at Seabrook Nuclear Site |work=The Harvard Crimson |date=March 4, 1981 |via=thecrimson.com |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=June 29, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629111052/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1981/3/4/250-protest-at-seabrook-nuclear-site/ |url-status=live }} as well as anti-draft protests.{{cite news|first1=Edward |last1=Quill |first2=Richard H.|last2=Stewart|title=Draft Foes Partly Padlock Post Office|work=Boston Globe|date=July 23, 1980|page=1}}

Thayer began his career in Southeast Asia on the Thai-Cambodian border, taking part in an academic research project in which he interviewed 50 Cham survivors of Khmer Rouge atrocities at Nong Samet Refugee Camp in 1984.{{cite journal|url=https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=97786157|first=Ben|last=Kiernan|title=Orphans of Genocide: the Cham Muslims of Kampuchea Under Pol Pot|journal=Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars|volume=20|number=4|year=1988|page=2|doi=10.1080/14672715.1988.10412580|access-date=September 5, 2017|archive-date=August 24, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100824034346/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=97786157|url-access=subscription}}{{cite book|first=Ben |last=Kiernan|title=The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975–79|place=New Haven|publisher=Yale University Press |year=1996|page=264 |isbn=978-0-300-14434-5}} He then returned to Massachusetts where he worked briefly as the Transportation Director for the state Office of Handicapped Affairs.{{cite news |first=Frances |last=Robles |title=Many Who Depend on The Ride Say They Can't |newspaper=Boston Globe |date=August 21, 1988 |page=33 |department=Metro}}{{cite news |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/59666265.html?dids=59666265:59666265&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Sep+16%2C+1988&author=Joe+Ferson%2C+Contributing+Reporter&pub=Boston+Globe+%28pre-1997+Fulltext%29&desc=HANDICAPPED+CRITICIZE+MBTA+ON+VAN+SERVICE+FREQUENT+DELAYS%2C+FAULTY+EQUIPMENT+CITED&pqatl=google |first=Joe |last=Ferson |title=Handicapped Criticize MBTA on Van Service: Frequent Delays, Faulty Equipment Cited |work=Boston Globe |date=September 16, 1988 |page=82 |id={{ProQuest|}} |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=June 28, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628215635/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/59666265.html?dids=59666265:59666265&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Sep+16,+1988&author=Joe+Ferson,+Contributing+Reporter&pub=Boston+Globe+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=HANDICAPPED+CRITICIZE+MBTA+ON+VAN+SERVICE+FREQUENT+DELAYS,+FAULTY+EQUIPMENT+CITED&pqatl=google |url-status=dead }} Thayer himself noted, "I got fired. I was a really bad bureaucrat."{{cite journal |url=http://www.publicintegrity.org/assets/pdf/pi_1999_03.pdf |first=Nate |last=Thayer |title=Finding Pol Pot: Nate Thayer's Story-Behind-the-Story |journal=The Public I: Newsletter of the Center for Public Integrity |volume=7 |number=2 |date=March 1999 |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=August 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807155609/http://www.publicintegrity.org/assets/pdf/pi_1999_03.pdf |url-status=live }}

Thayer later worked for Soldier of Fortune magazine{{cite web|first=Nate|last=Thayer|url=http://natethayer.typepad.com/blog/publications-soldier-of-fortune/|title=Cambodian Border Massacre American Crosses the Line to Save Lives|work=Soldier of Fortune|date=October 1989|via=TypePad|access-date=January 12, 2012|archive-date=December 22, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111222184144/http://natethayer.typepad.com/blog/publications-soldier-of-fortune/|url-status=live}} reporting on guerrilla combat in Burma, and in 1989 he began reporting for the Associated Press from the Thai-Cambodian border.{{cite news|first=Nate |last=Thayer |title=Aid Workers Flee as Cambodia Fighting Intensifies|agency=Associated Press|date=September 13, 1989}} In October 1989, Thayer was nearly killed when an anti-tank mine exploded under a truck he was riding in.{{cite news|title=U.S. Reporter Injured, One Killed by Mine in Cambodia|date=October 16, 1989|agency=Reuters}} In 1991 he moved to Cambodia where he began writing for the Far Eastern Economic Review.{{cite news|first=Nate|last=Thayer|title=Rubies are Rouge|work=Far Eastern Economic Review|date=February 7, 1991|pages=29–30}}{{cite web|url=http://revolution.typepad.com/one/2005/04/nate-thayer-vs-pol-pot.html|first=Andrew|last=Sherry|title=Nate Thayer vs. Pol Pot|website=(r)evolution|via=TypePad|date=April 5, 2005|access-date=January 12, 2012|archive-date=September 9, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110909020302/http://revolution.typepad.com/one/2005/04/nate-thayer-vs-pol-pot.html|url-status=live}}

In August 1992, Thayer traveled to Mondulkiri Province and visited the last of the United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO) Montagnard guerrillas who had remained loyal to their former American commanders.{{cite news|first=Nate |last=Thayer |title=Montagnard Army Seeks UN Help|work=The Phnom Penh Post|date=September 12, 1992}} Thayer informed the group that FULRO's president Y Bham Enuol had been executed by the Khmer Rouge seventeen years previously.{{cite news|first=Nate |last=Thayer |title=Forgotten Army: The Rebels Time Forgot|work=Far Eastern Economic Review|date=September 10, 1992|pages=16–22}} The FULRO troops surrendered their weapons in October 1992; many of this group were given asylum in the United States.{{cite news|first1=Nate |last1=Thayer |first2=Leo |last2=Dobbs |title=Tribal Fighters Head for Refuge in USA|work=The Phnom Penh Post|date=October 23, 1992}}{{cite news|first=Nate |last=Thayer |title=Trail of tears: 'Lost' Montagnard Army Vows to Fight On|work=Far Eastern Economic Review|date=September 10, 1992|pages=18–22}}

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 Cambodian bovine known as the kouprey.{{cite news|url=http://www.wildcattleconservation.org/WildCattleNews/wildcattlenews06.html#news052006|title=Search for the kouprey: trail runs cold for Cambodia's national animal|work=The Phnom Penh Post|via=wildcattleconservation.org|date=April 2006|access-date=January 26, 2011|archive-date=February 2, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202125814/http://www.wildcattleconservation.org/WildCattleNews/wildcattlenews06.html#news052006|url-status=dead}} Thayer later wrote: "After compiling a team of expert jungle trackers, scientists, security troops, elephant mahouts 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 old Ho Chi Minh trail."{{cite news|first=Nate |last=Thayer |title=Motley crew moves out on jungle mission impossible|work=The Phnom Penh Post|date=April 22, 1994}}

On July 3, 1994, Thayer was asked to help negotiate Prince Norodom Chakrapong's release and safe passage to the airport after the prince had been accused by Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh of plotting a coup d'état.{{cite news|first=Nate |last=Thayer |title=Frantic calls from Regent's Rm 406|work=The Phnom Penh Post|date=July 15, 1994}}{{cite news|first=Nate |last=Thayer |title=As It happened...|work=Far Eastern Economic Review|date=July 14, 1994|pages=15–16}} Thayer was subsequently expelled from Cambodia by Prince Ranariddh, but he returned anyway.{{cite magazine|first=Philip |last=Gourevitch|title=Guns 'N Deadlines|magazine=HQ Magazine|date=November–December 1997|pages=116–119}}

In early 1997, he was again expelled from Cambodia for exposing connections between Prime Minister Hun Sen and heroin traffickers.{{cite news|first=Nate |last=Thayer |title=Narco-nexus|work=Far Eastern Economic Review|date=April 24, 1997|volume=160 |number=17|page=20}}{{cite news|first=Nate |last=Thayer |title=Drug Suspects Bankroll Cambodian Coup Leader|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=July 22, 1997}} Thayer then decided to pursue a fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. He was a visiting scholar at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.{{cite web |url=http://www.jhu.edu/jhumag/1197web/brother.html |first=Dale |last=Keiger |title=In Search of Brother Number One |work=Johns Hopkins Magazine |publisher=Johns Hopkins University |date=November 1997 |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=September 29, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120929205255/http://www.jhu.edu/jhumag/1197web/brother.html |url-status=live }}

In July 1997, Nate Thayer and Asiaworks Television cameraman David McKaige visited the Anlong Veng Khmer Rouge jungle camp inside Cambodia where Pol Pot was being tried for treason.{{cite news|first=Nate |last=Thayer |title=Pol Pot, I Presume|work=The Wall Street Journal|date=August 1, 1997}} Thayer had hoped for an interview but was disappointed:

{{blockquote|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.{{cite interview |first=Nate |last=Thayer |url=http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/stories/s372434.htm |title=Cambodia: Trial of Pol Pot |interviewer=Gareth Evans and Tep Kunnal |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |access-date=June 27, 2010 |archive-date=September 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100920010632/http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/stories/s372434.htm |url-status=live }}}}

Thayer noted, "Every ounce of his being was struggling to maintain some last vestige of dignity."

Thayer believed that the trial had been staged by the Khmer Rouge for him and McKaige:{{cite interview |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1109778 |title=Journalist Nate Thayer was on the scene in Cambodia recently when Pol Pot, the leader of the guerrilla force, the Khmer Rouge, was sentenced to life imprisonment in a show trial |work=NPR |interviewer=Terry Gross |first=Nate |last=Thayer |date=August 7, 1997 |access-date=April 3, 2018 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074652/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1109778 |url-status=live }}

{{blockquote|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 been purged. 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.}}

According to Thayer, Ted Koppel of ABC News made a verbal agreement with Thayer to use footage from the trial on Nightline, then violated that agreement:{{cite web|url=http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=2282|first=Kelly|last=Heyboer|title=A Journalistic Coup Turns Sour|work=American Journalism Review|date=September 1997|pages=10–11|access-date=January 12, 2012|archive-date=March 15, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315150819/http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=2282|url-status=live}}

{{blockquote|[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 on Nightline. 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 and public 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 for Nightline". But I turned it down—the first time anyone had rejected a Peabody in its 57-year history.{{cite web |last=Thayer |first=Nate |url=http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitemprint.aspx?id=101508 |title=Freelancers' Vital Role in International Reporting: With the rise of media conglomerates, foreign news has been shoved aside |work=Nieman Reports, December 2001 |via=Harvard University |date=September 11, 2011 |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=March 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307162333/http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitemprint.aspx?id=101508 |url-status=live }}}}

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."Jeffrey Schneider, VP, ABC News, quoted in Richard Linnett and Wayne Friedman, "Marketing the news: the selling of Pol Pot". Advertising Age, November 18, 2002, Vol. 73, Issue 46; Section: Briefs.

In October 1997, Thayer returned to Anlong Veng and became only the second western journalist (after Elizabeth Becker in 1978Becker E. When the War was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution. 1st PublicAffairs ed. New York: PublicAffairs, 1998, {{ISBN|978-1-891620-00-3}}, p. 516.) ever to be granted an interview with the former dictator{{cite web|url=http://www.cybercambodia.com/dachs/polpot.html|first=Nate|last=Thayer|title=Dying Breath The inside story of Pol Pot's last days and the disintegration of the movement he created|work=Far Eastern Economic Review|via=Digital Archive of Cambodian Holocaust Survivors|date=April 30, 1998|access-date=January 12, 2012|archive-date=November 13, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111113101253/http://www.cybercambodia.com/dachs/polpot.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://digitaljournalist.org/issue9711/rewindcambodia.htm |first=Dirck |last=Halstead |title=Rewind: Wars and Memories (Part I) |website=The Digital Journalist |date=October 17, 1997 |access-date=June 27, 2010 |archive-date=July 21, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100721200959/http://digitaljournalist.org/issue9711/rewindcambodia.htm |url-status=live }} and, along with McKaige, was certainly the last outsider to see him alive. Thayer recounted the story of his interview with Pol Pot in his unpublished{{cite web|url=http://natethayer.wordpress.com/category/sympathy-for-the-devil/|first=Nate|last=Thayer|title=Sympathy for the Devil|publisher=Nate Thayer|via=natethayer.wordpress.com|access-date=October 22, 2013|archive-date=October 24, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131024080952/http://natethayer.wordpress.com/category/sympathy-for-the-devil/|url-status=live}} book Sympathy for the Devil: Living Dangerously in Cambodia – A Foreign Correspondent's Story.{{cite book|first=Nate|last=Thayer|title=Sympathy for the Devil: Living Dangerously in Cambodia – A Foreign Correspondent's Story|publisher=Penguin Putnam |place=New York |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-670-88576-3}} Pol Pot told Thayer:

{{blockquote|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 stop Kampuchea 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.{{cite journal|first=Nate|last=Thayer|title=Day of Reckoning|journal=Far Eastern Economic Review|date=October 30, 1997|pages=14–20}}}}

Thayer visited Anlong Veng again on April 16, 1998, only a day after Pol Pot had died. After photographing the corpse he briefly interviewed Ta 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."Thayer, "Dying Breath", April 30, 1998. Thayer was then asked to transport Pol Pot's body in his pickup truck to the site a short distance away{{cite web |url=http://www.talesofasia.com/cambodia-anlongveng.htm |first=Gordon |last=Sharpless |title=Anlong Veng: Normalcy returns to the former Khmer Rouge stronghold |work=Tales of Asia |date=July 2000 |edition=2005 |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=March 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304125339/http://www.talesofasia.com/cambodia-anlongveng.htm |url-status=live }} where it was later cremated.{{cite web |url=http://mrjam.typepad.com/diary/2009/10/a-brief-history-of-feer.html |first=Nury |last=Vittachi |title=A brief history of FEER |website=mrjam.typepad.com |date=October 1, 2009 |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=March 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304024038/http://mrjam.typepad.com/diary/2009/10/a-brief-history-of-feer.html |url-status=live }}

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".{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/259622.stm|title=Killing fields leader 'killed himself'|work=BBC News|date=January 21, 1999|access-date=September 22, 2009|archive-date=March 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306110815/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/259622.stm|url-status=live}}

In April 1999, Thayer, alongside photojournalist Nic Dunlop, interviewed Kang Kek Iew (Comrade Duch) for the Far Eastern Economic Review after Dunlop had tracked Duch to Samlaut and suspected strongly that he was the former director of the notorious S-21 security prison.{{cite book|first=Nic |last=Dunlop|title=The Lost Executioner: A Journey to the Heart of the Killing Fields|place=New York|publisher=Walker |year=2006|isbn=}} Dunlop wanted Duch to provide clues that would reveal his identity, and Thayer began probing Duch's story that he was Hang Pin, an aid worker and a born-again Christian:

{{blockquote|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.{{rp|271–72}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/02/world/70-s-torturer-in-cambodia-now-doing-god-s-work.html|title=70's Torturer in Cambodia Now 'Doing God's Work'|work=The New York Times|date=May 2, 1999|access-date=February 17, 2017|archive-date=September 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912115603/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/02/world/70-s-torturer-in-cambodia-now-doing-god-s-work.html|url-status=live}}}}

Duch surrendered to the authorities in Phnom Penh following the publication of this interview.{{cite news |url=http://dartcenter.org/content/photography-genocide-and-justice |first=Stan |last=Alcorn |title=Photography in the Killing Fields |newspaper=Dart Center |publisher=DART Center for Journalism and Trauma |date=September 9, 2009 |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112195439/http://dartcenter.org/content/photography-genocide-and-justice |url-status=live }}{{cite news|first1=Nic |last1=Dunlop |first2=Nate |last2=Thayer|title=Duch Confesses|work=Far Eastern Economic Review|date=May 6, 1999|volume=170|number=3|page=76}} 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".{{cite web |url=http://www.sais-jhu.edu/bin/s/d/reportsapril.pdf |title=Associated Press Team Wins '99 SAIS-Novartis Prize|work=SAIS Reports |publisher=Johns Hopkins University |date=April–May 2000 |page=2 |access-date=January 12, 2012}}

Nate Thayer also covered Albania,{{cite news|first1=S. |last1=Jayasankaran|first2=Nate |last2=Thayer|title=From Logs to Lotus|work=Far Eastern Economic Review|date=December 12, 1996}} Indonesia,{{cite news|first1=Syamsul |last1=Indrapatra|first2=Nate |last2=Thayer|first3=Bertil |last3=Lintner|first4=John |last4=McBeth|title= Worse to come|work=Far Eastern Economic Review|volume=162|number=30|date=July 29, 1999|pages=16–18}} Mongolia{{cite journal|first=Nate|last=Thayer|title=Forward Steppes|journal=Far Eastern Economic Review|date=March 27, 1997|page=20}} and the Philippines.{{cite news|first1=Rigoberto |last1=Tiglao|first2=Andrew |last2=Sherry|first3=Nate|last3=Thayer|first4=Michael |last4=Vatikoitis|title='Tis the season|work=Far Eastern Economic Review|volume=161|number=52|date=December 24, 1998|pages=18–20}} In 2003, he reported on the Iraq War in a five-part series for Slate magazine.{{cite web |last=Thayer |first=Nate |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2080432/entry/2080434/ |title=A Live Report From Baghdad |date=March 19, 2003 |work=Slate |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=February 21, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221070336/http://www.slate.com/id/2080432/entry/2080434 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last=Thayer |first=Nate |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2080432/entry/2080570/ |title=The Bombing of Baghdad |date=March 22, 2003 |work=Slate |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=January 25, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110125065415/http://www.slate.com/id/2080432/entry/2080570/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last=Thayer |first=Nate |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2080432/entry/2080592/ |title=Baghdad Gets Scarier |date=March 24, 2003 |work=Slate |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=February 21, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221070409/http://www.slate.com/id/2080432/entry/2080592 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last=Thayer |first=Nate |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2080432/entry/2080619/ |title=More American Bombs, and More Iraqi Defiance |date=March 24, 2003 |work=Slate |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=February 21, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221070152/http://www.slate.com/id/2080432/entry/2080619 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last=Thayer |first=Nate |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2080432 |title=The Road From Baghdad |date=March 28, 2003 |work=Slate |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=February 2, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110202142711/http://www.slate.com/id/2080432/ |url-status=live }} He also covered the Bangkok 2010 Redshirt riots.{{cite web |url=http://videos.apnicommunity.com/Video,Item,1381497323.html |title=Thai crisis: CTV News Channel: Nate Thayer in Bangkok. |publisher=Videos.apnicommunity.com |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=March 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303070237/http://videos.apnicommunity.com/Video,Item,1381497323.html |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/asia-travel/thailand/vengeful-redshirt-protesters-threaten-thai-tourism-industry-m6w3qhjdmdb |first1=Michael |last1=Sheridan |first2=Nate |last2=Thayer |title=Vengeful redshirt protesters threaten Thai tourism industry |date=May 23, 2010 |work=The Times |location=UK |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=May 30, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100530171726/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7133938.ece |url-status=live }} During 2011 he worked for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' Center for Public Integrity writing a three-month investigation on North Korea as a rogue state financed by criminal activity.{{cite web|first=Nate|last=Thayer|url=http://natethayer.typepad.com/blog/north-korea-criminal-syndicates/|title=North Korea: A Glimpse at a Simple Criminal Syndicate Posing as a Government|date=December 21, 2011|website=natethayer.typepad.com|access-date=January 12, 2012|archive-date=February 24, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130224070844/http://natethayer.typepad.com/blog/north-korea-criminal-syndicates/|url-status=live}} (Excerpts from an unpublished study of the criminal syndicates run by Kim Jong Il as central State policy){{cite web|url=http://natethayer.typepad.com/blog/2011/12/north-korea-a-mafia-crime-state-by-nate-thayer.html|first=Nate|last=Thayer|title=North Korea: The World's Only Mafia Crime State: How North Korea Funds their Army, Nuclear Weapons Programme, and Small Group of Elite Cadre in Control|date=December 19, 2011|website=natethayer.typepad.com|access-date=January 12, 2012|archive-date=June 24, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120624094900/http://natethayer.typepad.com/blog/2011/12/north-korea-a-mafia-crime-state-by-nate-thayer.html|url-status=live}} (Excerpts from an unpublished study of the criminal syndicates run by Kim Jong Il as central State policy){{cite web|url=http://natethayer.typepad.com/blog/2012/01/arrest-for-insufficient-grief-at-kim-jong-il-death-unlikely-media-hype.html|first=Nate|last=Thayer|title=Arrest for 'Insufficient' Grief at Kim Jong Il Death?: Unlikely Media Hype|date=January 16, 2012|website=natethayer.typepad.com|access-date=May 24, 2012|archive-date=April 27, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120427202925/http://natethayer.typepad.com/blog/2012/01/arrest-for-insufficient-grief-at-kim-jong-il-death-unlikely-media-hype.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://natethayer.typepad.com/blog/2012/04/an-atol-investigation-all-of-kim-jong-euns-men-by-nate-thayer.html |first=Nate |last=Thayer |title=All of Kim Jong-eun's men |date=April 3, 2012 |publisher=Nate Thayer |access-date=May 24, 2012 |archive-date=June 30, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120630081227/http://natethayer.typepad.com/blog/2012/04/an-atol-investigation-all-of-kim-jong-euns-men-by-nate-thayer.html |url-status=live }} In December 2011, he came out in opposition to the International Treaty to Ban Landmines, believing that militant groups would then resort to alternative tactics, many of which pose a greater risk to civilians.{{cite web|url=http://natethayer.typepad.com/blog/landmines/|first=Nate|last=Thayer|title=Why Landmines Should not be Banned|website=natethayer.typepad.com|access-date=January 12, 2012|archive-date=February 24, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130224070820/http://natethayer.typepad.com/blog/landmines/|url-status=live}}

In 2015, Thayer was the author of a controversial series of articles about racially motivated demonstrations which occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, in the wake of the shootings which were carried out by Dylann Roof.{{cite web|url=http://www.marxrand.com/archives/1281|title=The education of A Lone Wolf|date=July 3, 2015|work=MarxRand.com|access-date=September 19, 2015|archive-date=July 9, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150709034514/http://www.marxrand.com/archives/1281|url-status=live}} The stories, which were first published on MarxRand.com, eventually attracted attention from the mainstream press. In particular, a story called "Patriot Games"{{cite web |url=http://www.marxrand.com/archives/1499 |title=Patriot Games |date=July 17, 2015 |work=MarxRand.com |access-date=September 19, 2015 |archive-date=September 1, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150901185222/http://www.marxrand.com/archives/1499 |url-status=live }} was picked up by mainstream news organizations after being published on MarxRand.com. It was subsequently commissioned as a separate story run in Vice later the same week.{{cite news|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/ku-klux-klown-the-racist-behind-todays-proconfederate-flag-demonstration-is-hated-even-by-other-klansmen/|title=Ku Klux Klown: The Racist Behind the Pro-Confederate Flag Demonstration Is Hated Even by Other Klansmen|date=July 18, 2015|work=Vice |access-date=July 18, 2015|archive-date=July 20, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150720173310/http://www.vice.com/read/ku-klux-klown-the-racist-behind-todays-proconfederate-flag-demonstration-is-hated-even-by-other-klansmen|url-status=live}} In the original version of the story, Thayer claimed that a Ku 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 on White 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".{{cite news|url=http://www.nate-thayer.com/the-ku-klux-klan-threatened-to-decapitate-my-dog-how-political-extremists-are-a-pain-in-the-ass/ |title=The Ku Klux Klan threatened to decapitate my dog: How political extremists are a pain in the ass |first=Nate |last=Thayer |date=October 18, 2009|work=Nate-Thayer.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160114190048/http://www.nate-thayer.com/the-ku-klux-klan-threatened-to-decapitate-my-dog-how-political-extremists-are-a-pain-in-the-ass/|archive-date=January 14, 2016 |url-status=usurped |access-date=October 14, 2021}}

Blogger Jeremy Duns accused Thayer of plagiarism on March 7, 2013,{{cite web|url=http://jeremyduns.blogspot.se/2013/03/nate-thayer-is-plagiarist.html|first=Jeremy|last=Duns|title=Nate Thayer is a Plagiarist|website=jeremyduns.blogspot.se|date=March 7, 2013|access-date=March 10, 2013|archive-date=January 11, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111101849/http://jeremyduns.net/|url-status=live}} a claim that was echoed in New York magazine.{{cite web|first=Joe|last=Coscarelli|url=https://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/03/nate-thayer-atlantic-charged-with-plagiarism.html|title=Did Nate Thayer Plagiarize in the Article The Atlantic Wanted for Free?|work=New York|date=March 2013|access-date=February 18, 2020|archive-date=January 11, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111101841/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2013/03/nate-thayer-atlantic-charged-with-plagiarism.html|url-status=live}} Mark Ziegler, author of the article in question, told the Columbia 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".{{cite news|first=Nate|last=Thayer|url=http://www.nknews.org/2013/03/slam-dunk-diplomacy/|title=25 Years of Slam Dunk Diplomacy|website=NKNews|date=March 4, 2013|access-date=March 10, 2013|archive-date=March 8, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130308043326/http://www.nknews.org/2013/03/slam-dunk-diplomacy/|url-status=live}}{{cite news |last=Morrison |first=Sara |title=Nate Thayer: Freelance Plagiarist? |newspaper=Columbia Journalism Review |date=March 7, 2013 |url=https://www.cjr.org/the_kicker/nate_thayer_freelance_plagiarist.php |access-date=March 11, 2013 |archive-date=March 11, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130311084702/http://www.cjr.org/the_kicker/nate_thayer_freelance_plagiarist.php |url-status=live }} The Columbia 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.{{Cite web|url=https://archives.cjr.org/the_kicker/nate_thayer_freelance_plagiarist.php|title=Nate Thayer: freelance plagiarist?|access-date=January 11, 2023|archive-date=December 25, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221225035812/https://archives.cjr.org/the_kicker/nate_thayer_freelance_plagiarist.php|url-status=live}}

In September 2021, Thayer created a Substack called "Exit Wounds: Nate Thayer on Political Extremism".{{cite web |last=Thayer |first=Nate |title=Exit Wounds: Independent Journalist Nate Thayer |url=https://natethayer.substack.com/ |access-date=January 7, 2023 |via=Substack |language=en |archive-date=January 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107125608/https://natethayer.substack.com/ |url-status=live }} Thayer subsequently published three stories; two about the Oath Keepers, largely in relation to the January 6 United States Capitol attack,{{cite web |last=Thayer |first=Nate |title=Guns, Bad Attitudes, & Cheap Whiskey: Inside the Oath Keepers Armed 'Quick Reaction Force' on January 6 |url=https://natethayer.substack.com/p/guns-bad-attitudes-and-cheap-whiskey |access-date=January 7, 2023 |website=Exit Wounds |via=Substack |date=April 11, 2022 |language=en |archive-date=January 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111101841/https://natethayer.substack.com/p/guns-bad-attitudes-and-cheap-whiskey |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last=Thayer |first=Nate |date=July 8, 2022 |title=Mysterious Oath keeper 'operations commander' for January 6 identified |url=https://natethayer.substack.com/p/mysterious-oath-keeper-operations |access-date=January 7, 2023 |website=Exit Wounds |via=Substack |archive-date=January 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111101842/https://natethayer.substack.com/p/mysterious-oath-keeper-operations |url-status=live }} and one entitled, "Why I am a journalist and Anti-Fascist",{{cite web |last=Thayer |first=Nate |title=Why I am a journalist and Anti-Fascist |url=https://natethayer.substack.com/p/why-i-am-a-journalist-and-anti-fascist |access-date=January 7, 2023 |website=Exit Wounds |via=Substack |date=August 30, 2022 |language=en |archive-date=January 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107125608/https://natethayer.substack.com/p/why-i-am-a-journalist-and-anti-fascist |url-status=live }} in which he described his medical struggles and his relationship with anti-fascist documentarian Rod Webber. In December 2022, Thayer posted a four-minute segment to Facebook of Webber's animated documentary "The Man Who Killed Pol Pot",{{cite web |title=Nate Thayer |via=Facebook |url=https://www.facebook.com/nate.thayer/posts/pfbid02VJqMHBPB5JqtLbUjWRn3QeCaQ4LxcHHEdV5skGRsa2HyfDkntFNeVafpFSgbKcFdl |access-date=January 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107122251/https://www.facebook.com/nate.thayer/posts/pfbid02VJqMHBPB5JqtLbUjWRn3QeCaQ4LxcHHEdV5skGRsa2HyfDkntFNeVafpFSgbKcFdl |archive-date=January 7, 2023 |language=en}}{{Primary source inline|date=February 2024}} 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."{{cite AV media |title=The Man Who Killed Pol Pot (Documentary – Chapter 1) |via=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WC3E4Zmz2s |language=en |access-date=January 7, 2023 |archive-date=January 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107125605/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WC3E4Zmz2s |url-status=live }} In a final article posted to the Exit Wounds Substack, Webber announced Thayer's death and that, "Nate was working on a major exposé which we will publish here."{{cite web |last=Webber |first=Rod |title=Nate Thayer has passed away |url=https://natethayer.substack.com/p/nate-thayer-has-passed-away |access-date=January 7, 2023 |website=Exit Wounds |via=Substack |date=January 3, 2023 |language=en |archive-date=January 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107125608/https://natethayer.substack.com/p/nate-thayer-has-passed-away |url-status=live }}

According to an article in the New York Times, Thayer's health had been declining around the last decade of his life. Around this time, he also used alcohol and drugs. On Facebook in August 2022, Thayer wrote that he had been afflicted with "two strokes, two heart attacks, two bouts with Covid, sepsis infections which went viral and left me with heart and other damage".

On January 3, 2023, Thayer was found dead at home in Falmouth, Massachusetts.{{cite news |date=January 4, 2023 |title=Nate Thayer, who interviewed Pol Pot, dead at 62 |language=en |website=Radio France Internationale (RFI) |agency=American Free Press (AFP) |url=https://www.rfi.fr/en/people-and-entertainment/20230104-nate-thayer-who-interviewed-pol-pot-dead-at-62 |url-status=live |access-date=January 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230104215024/https://www.rfi.fr/en/people-and-entertainment/20230104-nate-thayer-who-interviewed-pol-pot-dead-at-62 |archive-date=January 4, 2023}} His brother, Robert, who found his body, said that it was not clear exactly when he died.

Thayer resided in the U.S. and in Cambodia. His website, Nate-Thayer.com, which was active for many years, is no longer accessible.{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.nate-thayer.com/|website=Internet Archive Wayback Machine |title=Captures of Nate-Thayer.com|access-date=October 14, 2021}}{{cbignore}} In 2000, Thayer returned to the United States and bought a farmhouse in Maryland. Then he moved to Falmouth, Massachusetts on Cape Cod along with his pet dog Lamont.{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2023/01/06/1147424198/nate-thayer-rebel-reporter-who-interviewed-pol-pot-in-the-cambodian-jungle-has-d|title=Nate Thayer, rebel reporter who interviewed Pol Pot in the Cambodian jungle, has died|first=Anthony|last=Kuhn|date=January 6, 2023|publisher=NPR|access-date=January 11, 2023|archive-date=January 9, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230109173833/https://www.npr.org/2023/01/06/1147424198/nate-thayer-rebel-reporter-who-interviewed-pol-pot-in-the-cambodian-jungle-has-d|url-status=live}}

Thayer's reporting earned him the 1998 Francis Frost Wood Award for Courage in Journalism, given by Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York to a journalist "judged to best exemplify physical or moral courage in the practice of his or her craft."{{cite news|title=Hofstra forms journalism award selection committee|work=Long Island Business News|date=April 6, 1998|volume=45 |number=14|page=19}} He was the first recipient of the Center for Public Integrity's ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting in November 1998.{{cite news |url=http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/icij/journalists/profile/856/ |title=ICIJ Journalists: Nate Thayer |newspaper=Center for Public Integrity |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609194339/http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/icij/journalists/profile/856/ |archive-date=June 9, 2011 }} Upon awarding Thayer the ICIJ Award, the judges noted:

{{blockquote|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 of factional characters.{{cite journal|url=http://www.publicintegrity.org/assets/pdf/pi_1999_03.pdf|first=Maud S.|last=Beelman|title=Reporting Across Borders|journal=The Public I: Newsletter of the Center for Public Integrity|volume=7|number=2|date=March 1999|via=publicintegrity.org|access-date=January 12, 2012|archive-date=August 7, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807155609/http://www.publicintegrity.org/assets/pdf/pi_1999_03.pdf|url-status=live}}}}

According to Vaudine England of the BBC, "Many of the region's greatest names in reporting made their mark in the pages of the Review, from the legendary Richard Hughes of Korean War fame, to Nate Thayer, the journalist who found Cambodia's Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot."{{cite news |last=England |first=Vaudine |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8268105.stm |title=Leading Asian Magazine to Close |work=BBC News |publisher=BBC |date=September 22, 2009 |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=January 6, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106010103/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8268105.stm |url-status=live }}

Thayer was also the first person in 57 years to turn down a prestigious Peabody Award, because he did not want to share it with ABC News' Nightline who he believed stole his story and deprived him and the Far Eastern Economic Review of income.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/your-scoop-nah-its-ours-if-we-want-it-1157187.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/your-scoop-nah-its-ours-if-we-want-it-1157187.html |archive-date=June 18, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Your scoop? Nah. It's ours if we want it|work=The Independent|date=May 25, 1998}}{{cite news|first1=Richard |last1=Linnett |first2=Wayne |last2=Friedman|title=Marketing the News: The Selling of Pol Pot|work=Advertising Age|date=November 18, 2002|volume=73|number=46}}

Since 1999 Hofstra University's Department of Journalism and Mass Media Studies in the School of Communication has awarded the Nate 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/1999/ho019900008.pdf |title=Student Information Package, Financial Aid Section |website=hofstra.edu |publisher=Hofstra University |page=45 |access-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=April 2, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402230704/http://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/1999/ho019900008.pdf |url-status=live }}

{{Notelist}}

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

{{Portal|Biography}}

• {{Official website}}
• [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/june97/cambodia_6-18.html "Continuing Unrest"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140104210804/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/june97/cambodia_6-18.html |date=January 4, 2014 }}, PBS interview with Sydney Schanberg and Nate Thayer, June 18, 1997
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ9_BMshyiw Nate Thayer's Interview with Pol Pot, October 1997], youtube.com
• [http://projectpineapple.blogspot.com/2010/06/nate-thayer-and-project-pineapple.html "Educating Nate Thayer"] by Al Rockoff and Project Pineapple, June 9, 2010
• [https://china-underground.com/2017/07/11/chinese-recruit-american-journalists/ Interview With Nate Thayer: How The Chinese Recruit American Journalists As Spies, July 2017], china-underground.com

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thayer, Nate}}

Category:1960 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:American male journalists

Category:Landmine victims

Category:Peabody Award winners

Category:Journalists from Massachusetts

Category:American war correspondents

Category:University of Massachusetts Boston alumni

Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers

Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:People from Falmouth, Massachusetts