In 1986 he became a US citizen with his first wife Ser Moeun Dith. He then remarried Kim DePaul but they also divorced. While in the U.S. he campaigned for recognition of the Cambodian genocide victims, especially as founder and president of the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness. He was a recipient of an Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1998 and the Award of Excellence of the International Center. On March 30 2008, Pran died at aged 65, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just three months earlier. He was living in Woodbridge, New Jersey when he passed.

In 1975, Pran and New York Times reporter Sydney Shanberg stayed behind in Cambodia to cover the fall of the capital Phnom Penh to the Communist Khmer Rouge. Shanberg and other foreign reporters were allowed to leave the country; however Pran was not. Pran hid his intelligence and told the Khmer Rouge that his former occupation was driving a taxi. Pran was eventually thrown into a work camp (concentration camp) where he had to endure against all odds. Pran made a desire escape and along his journey discovered mass graves with decaying dead. He later coined the phrase "Killing Fields" from this experience. During the revolution his three brothers and one sister were killed in Cambodia. Pran traveled back to Siem Reap only to hear the horrible news about his family’s demise. When he feared that the Vietnamese would discover his U.S. ties he fled to Thailand. After his dismal experience Pran worked as a photojournalist with the New York Times from 1980 till his death.

The film Killing Fields produced in 1984 depicts Dith Pran's struggle for survival during the Khmer Rouge revolution. In this movie directed by Roland Joffe, Haing S. Ngor portrays the physical and emotional struggle of escaping the genocide. As the movie rises to a climax it expresses Dith Pran’s desires to become a professional reporter. Through his desire to live and ability to mask his previous life Pran and Ngor escape the clasp of a chaotic nation into Thailand.

Pran was born in Siem Reap, Cambodia. His father worked as a public works official. He learned French at school and taught himself English. Due to his versatility the United States Army hired him as a translator; however communications were discontinued and Pran began to work with a British film crew. (Sydney Shanberg)