Inside Television's First War: A Saigon Journal (Volume 1) - Hardcover

Steinman, Ron

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9780826214195: Inside Television's First War: A Saigon Journal (Volume 1)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826214193 ISBN 13: 9780826214195

Publisher: University of Missouri, 2002

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Inside Television’s First War recounts Ron Steinman’s tenure as head of the NBC news bureau in Saigon from April 1966 until July 1968. This was a time during the Vietnam conflict that included the major American buildup and the Tet Offensive and saw much of America turn from support of the war to opposition. During this period, television journalists learned how to report war in a distinctly new way: through the eye of a camera on the front lines, in the countryside, and in cities, towns, and villages. The experience of a living-room war was new, and its effects are still being felt today. Yet in our own era of high-tech journalism and hasty judgment, Vietnam’s lessons are all but forgotten. Steinman and his colleagues, mostly quite young, were covering an increasingly controversial war. They were going places and doing things that had never before been done on such a scale for an international audience. They used film that had to be shipped and then developed because satellites were rarely used before 1968. Correspondents and crews often drove to their assignments in rented cars, whether covering a battle, a riot, a political event, or a military briefing. When necessary, they resorted to military flights or erratic, unsafe commercial airlines. The author also provides glimpses into his personal life. He writes of his courtship of Josephine Tu Ngoc Suong, a young Vietnamese coworker who was seriously wounded and near death in 1967. After her recovery, she and Steinman were married and now have three children together. And he tells the story of his brother-in-law, a prisoner in a Communist reeducation camp after the war, to whom he tried to smuggle money and medicine during a visit in 1985. Inside Television’s First War is a behind-the-scenes look at how the Vietnam conflict influenced young journalists, and how their coverage of the war influenced the American public. Steinman offers an intimate portrait of what became the biggest story of many people’s lives. History buffs and general readers alike will benefit from this valuable contribution to understanding America’s coverage of Vietnam.

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About the Author:

Ron Steinman is Partner, Producer, Director, and Writer at Douglas/Steinman Productions in New York City. He is the author of The Soldiers’ Story: Vietnam in Their Own Words and Women in Vietnam: The Oral History.

From Booklist:

Steinman went to Saigon as NBC news bureau chief in April 1966 before the significance of the Vietnam War was clearly evident. It was the first war to be reported by television at a time when there was less government--and network--interference in war reporting. It was also a time before technology enabled the fast and constant relay of images and news from around the world. Steinman recalls the struggles he and his staff of young, multinational correspondents faced: learning how to report a war from the front lines, how to get past the canned news offered by the government, and how to get undeveloped film shipped out of Saigon. He recalls the hardships of living in a war-torn nation and the friendships that helped advance news gathering and personal survival. Steinman also recalls his courtship of a young Vietnamese coworker whom he later married. This is an intense look behind the scenes at how television reported on the growing conflict in Vietnam and how those images influenced American public opinion of the war. Vanessa Bush
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