REPORTING VIETNAM: Part One: American Journalism 1959-1969
Compiled by a Library of America advisory board
Library of America, 858 pages, $35
REPORTING VIETNAM: Part Two: American Journalism 1969-1975
Compiled by a Library of America advisory board
Library of America, 857 pages, $35
In this superb, two-volume collection of reporting and commentary about the Vietnam War by 80 writers, I came across this casual exchange between a TV correspondent and a corporal in a bunker that was under Viet Cong fire:
” ‘What do you think of the enemy?” …
” ‘When we first came up here, we used to call the enemy Victor Charlie. . . . But now we call him Charles. Mister Charles.’ “
That observation says much about the growing respect for the enemy held by American foot soldiers who were told they were fighting communism, or whatever. Nobody in Washington could ever convincingly explain why we inherited a French colonial war and fought in Vietnam for 10 years, through the presidencies of Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. In 1995, two decades after the end of the war, the U.S. established diplomatic relations with a united Vietnam.
“Reporting Vietnam” adds up to an unvarnished, often sorrowful account of our most unpopular 20th Century war.
From 1959 to 1975, about 58,000 Americans died in Indochina, most of them as a result of hostile action by “Mister Charles.’ ” In addition, tens of thousands were wounded or suffered psychological ailments, vaguely known as Vietnam syndrome; perhaps some still feel the effects of the war to this day. Millions of soldiers and civilians died in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. More bombs were dropped on Southeast Asia than in all the theaters of war combined during World War II. Yet none of this diminishes the personal courage of the Americans who did the fighting and dying there.
Both volumes can be read for their journalistic intensity as well as for their cautionary history. Two complete short books are included: Daniel Lang’s “Casualties of War,’ ” about a frightening, almost accidental atrocity that amounts to a miniature My Lai tragedy, and Michael Herr’s “Dispatches,’ ” an impassioned account of a young writer’s view of his generation’s war.
The big guns of American journalism today are well-represented; some first made their names as war correspondents and continue writing articles and books: David Halberstam, Sydney Schanberg, Seymour Hersh, Malcolm Browne, Neil Sheehan, James Sterba (all once New York Timesmen in Vietnam), Peter Arnett (of The AP and later CNN fame during the Persian Gulf war), Peter Kann (of The Wall Street Journal), and two former correspondents who became outstanding novelists: Philip Caputo (of the Chicago Tribune) and Ward Just (of The Washington Post).
Here is Hersh’s groundbreaking story about the My Lai massacre of innocent civilians, an atrocity that sickened American newspaper readers. Here, too, are the reporting roots of Halberstam’s book “The Best and the Brightest,’ ” which remains the most perceptive analysis of the self-deception by the men of the Washington Establishment–the civilian-military-intellectual complex that excused and expanded the American role in Vietnam.
At least two other brilliant journalists whose work appears here, both World War II correspondents and both now dead, deserve mention. Harrison Salisbury of The New York Times was condemned by the Pentagon for truthfully reporting the effects of B-52 bombing in North Vietnam. Homer Bigart, of the New York Herald Tribune and later the Times, was widely recognized by his colleagues as a fearless correspondent who gave the American censors and public-relations spinners no rest. In his reports, he exposed the fact that the U.S. commitment was deepened during the Kennedy administration. Early in 1962, Bigart presciently wrote:
“The struggle will go on at least ten years, in the opinion of some observers, and severely test American patience.
“The United States seems inextricably committed to a long, inconclusive war. The Communists can prolong it for years. . . . But it is too late to disengage; our prestige has been committed. Washington says we will stay until the finish.’ “
Among the young journalists in the books are 10 women, including the glorious Gloria Emerson, writing several heartfelt pieces about the men and boys fighting and dying in Laos; the history-minded Frances FitzGerald, writing with insight about the Vietnamese people and nation, subjects widely neglected during the war; Susan Sheehan, analyzing the personalities of the Viet Cong. Here, too, are reports by seasoned female correspondents who earned their battle stripes in previous wars, including Marguerite Higgins, on the pros and cons of the South Vietnamese regime, and Martha Gellhorn (who first reported on the Spanish Civil War alongside her future husband, Ernest Hemingway), on the civilian casualties in South Vietnam.
The home front is also covered in “Reporting Vietnam.’ ” There are reports by Francine du Plessix Gray on the anti-war movement; James A. Michener on the killing of student protesters at Kent State University; Hunter S. Thompson on the protests at the Republican National Convention in Miami in 1972; Norman Mailer on the march on the Pentagon in 1967; Russell Baker on the confusion over Vietnam policy in Washington.
There is also a piece by now-U.S. Sen. John McCain, a Navy pilot who was shot down and imprisoned in North Vietnam, describing how the POWs fought back by communicating with each other and keeping up their morale by passive resistance and prayer. McCain offers at least one controversial opinion: “The big furor over release of the Pentagon papers (a secret Defense Department study of U.S. involvement in Vietnam) was a tremendous boost for Hanoi.’ “
Inevitably, those familiar with the war coverage would have liked to see other material by journalists who played significant roles in the field. Morley Safer’s report for CBS News on the Zippo torching of suspected Viet Cong huts was an image that aroused deep feelings by TV viewers and accusations of traitorous press behavior. Jack Foisie of the Los Angeles Times, with four wars behind him, was a daunting reporter who always could be found with the grunts up front. And to get the views of soldier-reporters as well as civilian correspondents, it would have been desirable to include writings from The Stars and Stripes, the Army newspaper.
Still, “Reporting Vietnam’ ” is a needed work of history.
