www.mpnunan.net

8 June 2026: I’m delighted to share that on the weekend, I signed an agreement with Rob Thayer, as the representative of the Nate Thayer estate, that allows me to seek publication of Nate Thayer’s unpublished manuscript.

My goal is to produce a book that keeps Nate’s words intact, and supplements his narrative through interviews of the people who knew him, covered some of the same stories, and shared in some escapades.  I’d also like it to be rich with photography from the “era:” the decade plus from when Nate first started going to the border, until when he joined Nic Dunlop to confront Comrade Duch.

I am currently seeking a book agent, publisher and funding. A synopsis, below.

Sympathy for the Devil – the Untold Nate Thayer Story

History doesn’t happen by itself

It’s a story that’s never been told: how American journalist Nate Thayer found Pol Pot, one of the worst war criminals of the 20th century.

It takes a larger-than-life figure to singlehandedly track down a paranoid and secretive war-criminal, and the swashbuckling Thayer does not disappoint.

Pol Pot was the leader of the Khmer Rouge -- the genocidal communist insurgency that took power in Cambodia in 1975. History is agreed: US folly in the Vietnam War, next door, fueled the Khmer Rouge rise to power.

Overthrown in 1979, Pol Pot and his forces melted into the jungle, from which they continued to wage war. By 1997, Pol Pot had not been seen by outsiders in nearly two decades. Until Thayer found him.

Thayer thought he was living the last chapter of his Cambodia career – finding and interviewing Pol Pot, and bearing witness in the aftermath of Pol Pot’s suicide.

History had other ideas.

Months later, Thayer and colleague Nic Dunlop confronted “Duch,” a torturer who ran a notorious Khmer Rouge prison, whom Dunlop had found. Thayer’s courageous interview of Duch paved the way for Cambodia’s war-crimes tribunal, opening in 2009.

Thayer’s quest was not without its costs. But his most serious injury may have come from an unlikely source: Ted Koppel, of ABC News Nightline. Thayer sold footage of Pol Pot to the program, elements of which they shared online and with competing journalists - before Thayer’s own articles came out.

To Thayer, Koppel stole the story of his career. This represented a “moral injury” – a form of PTSD – and unleashed a landslide of latent trauma from which Thayer never truly recovered.  “Swashbuckling” has its costs.

Thayer’s been described as a “gonzo” journalist, a Hunter S. Thompson-like figure who undertook a mission to find Pol Pot amid Cambodia’s lawless 1990’s. He enjoyed his share of intoxicated, and occasionally gun-toting, exploits.

But his commitment was real, and his contribution was profound: Thayer’s singular work brought about an international war-crimes tribunal. By finding Pol Pot and his inner circle, he also wrote the closing pages of the Vietnam War.

Thayer passed away in 2023. His incomplete memoir, assorted stories, and photos have not yet been published.

If you’d like to support this project, please Venmo me at Mary-Nunan-1
or reach out at mpnunan@gmail.com. Thank you.