From Publishers Weekly
Often only hours before you took that first sip of ricard or your martini... you had been watching a medic give up on a kid of eighteen or nineteen and flip a cold poncho over his face. Often you could hear the artillery of a battle across the Saigon River. So Kate Webb, a former UPI correspondent, recalls her days as a reporter in Vietnam, moving back and forth between the devastation of the field and the decadent and chaotic nightlife of Saigon. Her story is part of War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters Who Covered Vietnam, written by former correspondents including Denby Fawcett, Jurate Kazickas and UPI's Webb and Tracy Wood. The book collects nine reporters' memoirs that recall the period of 1966 1975, when women's reportage, as Gloria Emerson notes in her introduction, was much rarer than today.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Women correspondents in Vietnam were a rarity and frequently discouraged by the military as well as by paternalistic editors who resisted giving them combat assignments. But the nine women reporters whose harrowing war stories are recounted here e.g., Bartimus (Associated Press), Edie Lederer (Associated Press), Anne Merrick (ABC-TV), Laura Palmer (ABC and NBC Radio), and more were determined to go to Vietnam to cover the biggest story of their generation. In the course of their work, one was captured and imprisoned by the enemy and two others were seriously injured. For each woman Vietnam was a life-changing event, her "phantom limb," as Bartimus calls it. These powerful stories of sex, drugs, fear, adventure, horror, and pathos, as well as "the unabashed love" that these reporters observed the men on the battlefield expressing to one another, offer a new perspective on the war and warfare journalism that should be in demand in all public and academic libraries. Highly recommended. Faye Powell, Portland State Univ. Lib., OR
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Booklist
This fascinating book chronicles the experiences of nine women reporters who covered the Vietnam War from 1966 until 1975. There was no censorship of war coverage, and reporters even went on bombing missions, but there were concerns about allowing women journalists near the fighting because they were considered a distraction. This attitude led female reporters to fight for their right to cover the war, and they won, earning the privilege to face the same horrific, life-threatening situations as male reporters. Several of them, like the soldiers they covered, found some comfort in drugs, alcohol, and sex. They also recall friendships with soldiers and the Vietnamese and their growing cynicism as the controversial war continued. One reporter remembers how Vietnam gave her a family: she met her husband there, and she adopted two Vietnamese orphans. A wire service reporter recounts her brief imprisonment by North Vietnamese in Cambodia. All nine share vivid recollections of danger, loss, and anguish and relay how covering Vietnam changed their lives professionally and personally. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
?This book is about our experiences as women reporters covering the Vietnam War from 1966 until the fall of Saigon, in 1975. Each of us has written a chapter about what we saw and felt in Indochina?our adventures, fears, excitement, and the difficulties and loneliness.
?Vietnam was a unique war for all journalists, because there was no censorship. The U.S. military provided extraordinary access to combat operations. We could fly on bombing missions, parachute into hostile territory with an airborne unit, spend a week with the Special Forces in the jungle, hitch a ride on a chopper and land amid rocket and artillery as a battle raged, or be taken prisoner like a soldier. This access gave women reporters a chance to show that they could cover combat bravely and honorably, holding their own even under the most frightening and stressful circumstances.
?Some of us went on to cover other wars, but there was never any other quite like Vietnam. We are writing about Vietnam now because we feel it is important to keep those agonizing yet strangely exhilarating days alive, those dark days that changed us in ways we are still trying to understand. Many younger Americans know Vietnam only as an abstraction?a few paragraphs in a textbook, a documentary on the History Channel, or as thousands of names on a black granite wall in Washington, D.C. But for those who served and those who suffered, for those who fought and those who watched it unfold on television, Vietnam will always be a part of us.?
?from War Torn
?Vietnam was a unique war for all journalists, because there was no censorship. The U.S. military provided extraordinary access to combat operations. We could fly on bombing missions, parachute into hostile territory with an airborne unit, spend a week with the Special Forces in the jungle, hitch a ride on a chopper and land amid rocket and artillery as a battle raged, or be taken prisoner like a soldier. This access gave women reporters a chance to show that they could cover combat bravely and honorably, holding their own even under the most frightening and stressful circumstances.
?Some of us went on to cover other wars, but there was never any other quite like Vietnam. We are writing about Vietnam now because we feel it is important to keep those agonizing yet strangely exhilarating days alive, those dark days that changed us in ways we are still trying to understand. Many younger Americans know Vietnam only as an abstraction?a few paragraphs in a textbook, a documentary on the History Channel, or as thousands of names on a black granite wall in Washington, D.C. But for those who served and those who suffered, for those who fought and those who watched it unfold on television, Vietnam will always be a part of us.?
?from War Torn
Book Description
For the first time, nine women who made journalism history talk candidly about their professional and deeply personal experiences as young reporters who lived, worked, and loved surrounded by war. Their stories span a decade of America’s involvement in Vietnam, from the earliest days of the conflict until the last U.S. helicopters left Saigon in 1975.
They were gutsy risk-takers who saw firsthand what most Americans knew only from their morning newspapers or the evening news. Many had very particular reasons for going to Vietnam—some had to fight and plead to go—but others ended up there by accident. What happened to them was remarkable and important by any standard. Their lives became exciting beyond anything they had ever imagined, and the experience never left them. It was dangerous—one was wounded, and one was captured by the North Vietnamese—but the challenges they faced were uniquely rewarding.
They lived at full tilt, making an impact on all the people around them, from the orphan children in the streets to their fellow journalists and photographers to the soldiers they met and lived with in the field. They experienced anguish and heartbreak—and an abundance
of friendship and love. These stories not only introduce a remarkable group of individuals but give an entirely new perspective on the most controversial conflict in our history. Vietnam changed their lives forever. Here they tell about it with all the candor, commitment, and energy that characterized their courageous reporting during the war.
They were gutsy risk-takers who saw firsthand what most Americans knew only from their morning newspapers or the evening news. Many had very particular reasons for going to Vietnam—some had to fight and plead to go—but others ended up there by accident. What happened to them was remarkable and important by any standard. Their lives became exciting beyond anything they had ever imagined, and the experience never left them. It was dangerous—one was wounded, and one was captured by the North Vietnamese—but the challenges they faced were uniquely rewarding.
They lived at full tilt, making an impact on all the people around them, from the orphan children in the streets to their fellow journalists and photographers to the soldiers they met and lived with in the field. They experienced anguish and heartbreak—and an abundance
of friendship and love. These stories not only introduce a remarkable group of individuals but give an entirely new perspective on the most controversial conflict in our history. Vietnam changed their lives forever. Here they tell about it with all the candor, commitment, and energy that characterized their courageous reporting during the war.
Back Cover copy
“This book is about our experiences as women reporters covering the Vietnam War from 1966 until the fall of Saigon, in 1975. Each of us has written a chapter about what we saw and felt in Indochina—our adventures, fears, excitement, and the difficulties and loneliness.
“Vietnam was a unique war for all journalists, because there was no censorship. The U.S. military provided extraordinary access to combat operations. We could fly on bombing missions, parachute into hostile territory with an airborne unit, spend a week with the Special Forces in the jungle, hitch a ride on a chopper and land amid rocket and artillery as a battle raged, or be taken prisoner like a soldier. This access gave women reporters a chance to show that they could cover combat bravely and honorably, holding their own even under the most frightening and stressful circumstances.
“Some of us went on to cover other wars, but there was never any other quite like Vietnam. We are writing about Vietnam now because we feel it is important to keep those agonizing yet strangely exhilarating days alive, those dark days that changed us in ways we are still trying to understand. Many younger Americans know Vietnam only as an abstraction—a few paragraphs in a textbook, a documentary on the History Channel, or as thousands of names on a black granite wall in Washington, D.C. But for those who served and those who suffered, for those who fought and those who watched it unfold on television, Vietnam will always be a part of us.”
—from War Torn
“Vietnam was a unique war for all journalists, because there was no censorship. The U.S. military provided extraordinary access to combat operations. We could fly on bombing missions, parachute into hostile territory with an airborne unit, spend a week with the Special Forces in the jungle, hitch a ride on a chopper and land amid rocket and artillery as a battle raged, or be taken prisoner like a soldier. This access gave women reporters a chance to show that they could cover combat bravely and honorably, holding their own even under the most frightening and stressful circumstances.
“Some of us went on to cover other wars, but there was never any other quite like Vietnam. We are writing about Vietnam now because we feel it is important to keep those agonizing yet strangely exhilarating days alive, those dark days that changed us in ways we are still trying to understand. Many younger Americans know Vietnam only as an abstraction—a few paragraphs in a textbook, a documentary on the History Channel, or as thousands of names on a black granite wall in Washington, D.C. But for those who served and those who suffered, for those who fought and those who watched it unfold on television, Vietnam will always be a part of us.”
—from War Torn
