Live from the Battlefield: From Vietnam to Baghdad, 35 Years in the World's War Zones - Softcover

Arnett, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0684800365 ISBN 13: 9780684800363

Publisher: Touchstone, 1995

Synopsis

From his controversial coverage of Vietnam, which incurred the wrath of President Johnson but won him a Pulitzer Prize, to his unforgettable and daring on-the-ground reporting of the Gulf War during one of the greatest airborne assaults in history, Peter Arnett has established himself as the leading voice of American war reportage. In Live from the Battlefield, one of the most highly celebrated journalistic memoirs ever written, Peter Arnett gives us an engrossing account of the Vietnam era, as well as an indispensable portrait of battlefield reporting.

Live from the Battlefield captures the adventures, gambles, and glories that have marked this master journalist's life with a vividness and intelligence rare in any memoir. But more than that, Arnett provides an insider's view of some of the greatest and most tragic events of the century in a book of singular and enduring importance.

About this title

About the Author:

Arnett won a Pulitzer prize for reporting on the Vietnam War for the Associated Press.

Arnett won a Pulitzer prize for reporting on the Vietnam War for the Associated Press.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A world-class newsman's absorbing, anecdotal account of his experiences as a high-profile foreign correspondent. While Arnett has covered events in a host of remote venues, here he focuses on his lengthy stint with the AP in Southeast Asia's combat zones, as well as on a briefer but vastly more visible sojourn as CNN's man in Baghdad at the height of Desert Storm. The New Zealand-born author, 59, was first assigned to Vietnam in mid-1962. Although his front-line reportage on America's involvement there often infuriated the US military and their Washington masters, he earned himself a Pulitzer--and the respect of his professional peers (Malcolm Browne, Horst Faas, David Halberstam, et al.). Posted to the AP's Manhattan headquarters in 1970, Arnett returned to Vietnam frequently, filing dispatches with a variety of datelines--Hanoi, Hue, and even Saigon weeks after its fall to the Communists. Casting his lot in 1981 with the fledgling CNN, Arnett learned the TV trade on the job, in such hot spots as Afghanistan, Beirut, El Salvador, Moscow, and Panama. Heading once again toward the sound of the guns, the author (who became an American citizen following his tour in the Soviet Union) slipped into Iraq days before the US-led coalition unleashed a savage aerial assault on its capital city. Although his under-fire broadcasts from the al-Rashid Hotel, a lengthy interview with Saddam Hussein, and follow-up reports on civilian casualties gained him further enemies in official circles, Arnett's on-air exposure made him a star with the viewing public. Here, in offering his side of this story (and others), he provides compelling reminders that journalism is indeed a calling that--for all its sins of omission and commission--does free people a service whose value is often beyond reckoning. An engrossing memoir--complete with perceptive commentary on colleagues and contemporary notables--from one of the fourth estate's authentic paradigms. (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs-- not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Touchstone
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0684800365
• ISBN 13: 9780684800363
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464