These are scans of journalist Jon Swain's spare British passport that he and his fellow journalists forged in a desperate attempt to ensure the safety of Dith Pran, the Cambodian ‘fixer’ who had heroically saved their lives.

 Pran was working in Phnom Penh for Sydney Schanberg, the correspondent of The New York Times. On the day of Phnom Penh’s fall, Schanberg, Swain and freelance photographer Al Rockoff were captured by Khmer Rouge soldiers and taken away to be murdered.

 At great personal risk, Pran intervened and after a long discussion managed to persuade the Khmer Rouge to release them. Afterwards, they all moved into the French Embassy for safety.

 But like all the Cambodian men sheltering inside Pran was ordered to leave to face what seemed to be certain his death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge outside.

 He had saved their lives and the journalists desperately wanted to save his. They came up with the idea of forging Swain’s spare passport. They replaced Swain’s passport photo with a photo of Pran and adapted Swain’s name. Thus, Pran became a British subject with the right to stay in the embassy with all the other foreigners.

 Unfortunately, it was a rotten forgery done in desperate haste. French embassy officials immediately saw through it and fearing the Khmer Rouge would too, they insisted Pran had to leave with the other Cambodians to avoid putting everyone else in the embassy at risk.

 Accordingly, Pran left, watched by a despondent Schanberg, Swain and Rockoff. Miraculously, he survived the Khmer Rouge genocide and in 1979 he escaped to Thailand to be reunited with an overjoyed Schanberg.

 This story is told in the movie, The Killing Fields.