Reporting Vietnam, Part 1: American Journalism, 1959-1969 (Library of America) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1883011582 ISBN 13: 9781883011581

Publisher: Library of America, 1998

Synopsis

First published for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of Saigon, this unique two-volume anthology from the Library of America evokes a turbulent and controversial period in American history and journalism.

Drawn from original newspaper and magazine reports and contemporary books, this volume along with its companion brings together the work of over eighty remarkable writers to create an unprecedented mosaic view of the war and its impact on an increasingly fractured American society.

The first volume traces the deepening American involvement in South Vietnam from the first deaths of American advisers in 1959 through the controversial battle of “Hamburger Hill” in 1969. Malcolm Browne, Neil Sheehan, and David Halberstam report on the guerrilla warfare of the early 1960s; Jack P. Smith, Ward Just, and Peter Arnett experience the terrors of close-range combat in the Central Highlands; Marguerite Higgins and Frances FitzGerald observe South Vietnamese politics; Jonathan Schell records the destructive effects of American firepower in Quang Ngai; Tom Wolfe captures the cool courage of navy pilots over North Vietnam.

Writers who covered the bitter controversy at home are included as well—Meg Greenfield describing an early teach-in, Norman Mailer at the Pentagon March, Jeffrey Blankfort exploring the sorrowful impact of the war on a small town in Ohio. Thomas Johnson and Wallace Terry examine the changing attitudes of African-American soldiers fighting America’s first fully integrated war.

Included in full is Daniel Lang’s Casualties of War, the haunting story of a five-man reconnaissance patrol choosing between good and evil.

This volume contains a detailed chronology of the war, historical maps, biographical profiles of the journalists, explanatory notes, a glossary of military terms, an index, and a 32-page insert of photographs of the correspondents, many from private collections and never before seen.

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

About this title

Review:

In the last few years, with the publication of such books as Jacques Leslie's The Mark and William Prochnau's Once Upon a Distant War, historians and former correspondents have been examining closely the role of journalism in the conduct of the Vietnam War. The two volumes of Reporting Vietnam offer a trove of material for such studies. Part One contains combat-front writing by journalists who are well known to students of Vietnam War history--Stanley Karnow, David Halberstam, Frances FitzGerald, Bernard Fall, Neil Sheehan, Ward Just, and Zalin Grant among them. The hefty volume--which runs the gamut of journalistic genres, including hard news, analysis, profiles, think pieces, and interviews--covers the home front as well, from which the likes of Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe have their say.

The collection opens with a fairly dispassionate account from Time magazine reporting the deaths of the first U.S. military advisors in 1959; it ends with the complete text of Daniel Lang's long New Yorker piece, "Casualties of War," the basis for Brian De Palma's controversial movie of the same name. In between are accounts of battles on the streets of Chicago and the Central Highlands, studies of the rise of black-power militancy on the ever-changing front lines, and perceptive portraits of ordinary soldiers on both sides of the war. Among the book's many highlights is Neil Sheehan's memoir of his change from hawk to dove as the war progressed. "I have sometimes thought," he writes, "when a street urchin with sores covering his legs stopped me and begged for a few cents' worth of Vietnamese piastres, that he might be better off growing up as a political commissar. He would then, at least, have some self-respect." Such changing views, we can now clearly see, helped shift public opinion in the United States against the war. --Gregory McNamee

About the Author:

The editorial advisory board for Reporting Vietnam includes Milton J. Bates, professor of English at Marquette University; Lawrence Lichty, professor of radio, television, and film at Northwestern University; Paul L. Miles, professor of history at Princeton University; Ronald H. Spector, professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University; and Marilyn B. Young (1937–2017), professor of history at New York University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Library of America
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1883011582
• ISBN 13: 9781883011581
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 858