War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters who Covered Vietnam
by Tad Bartimus
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.
From the Back Cover
“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
Keywords: War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters who Covered Vietnam, Books, Tad Bartimus, Tracy Wood, Kate Webb, Laura Palmer, Edith Lederer, Jurate Kazickas, Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975, Personal narratives, American, Journalists, Women journalists, United States, News Reporting, Sociology Of Women, Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy, Language Arts & Disciplines, Journalism, Asia - Southeast Asia, Women's Studies - General, Social Science
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