Vietnam Báo Chí: Warriors of Word and Film

by Marc Phillip Yablonka

Overview

A military journalist shines a light on the unsung heroism and contributions of enlisted combat reporters in the Vietnam War in these revealing interviews.
 
Vietnam Bao Chi brings together interviews with thirty-five combat correspondents who reported on the Vietnam War. These brave men and women wrote the stories, captured the images, and filmed the television coverage of their fellow servicepeople on battlefields from the Mekong Delta to the DMZ and from the Tet Offensive in 1968 to the fall of Saigon in 1975.
 
Here you will meet Marine Dale Dye, who would go on to play an integral role in the making of the film Platoon; Green Beret Jim Morris, whose books, including War Story, recount the combat operations of Special Forces units in the Central Highlands; John Del Vecchio, whose classic work of fiction, The 13th Valley, mirrors his own existence as a combat correspondent with the 101st Airborne Division; and US Navy Frogman Chip Maury, renowned for his free-fall and underwater photography in Vietnam.
 
Yablonka’s extensive experience as a military journalist brought him into contact with many of these combat correspondents, giving him a unique insight into their professions and lives. This book honors these brave chroniclers in uniform who brought the Vietnam War home to us.
 
“[This] valuable collection of profiles . . . shines light on the all-but-forgotten role of American military báo chí (press in Vietnamese)." —Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612006888
Publisher:	Casemate Publishers
Publication date:	01/10/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Marc Yablonka is a military journalist and author. He has written for Stars and Stripes, Soldier of Fortune, Army Times, and previously worked for ABC, Reuters, and the Los Angeles Times. His interest in reporting on matters of military and aviation history is evidenced by 27 years of writing on the Vietnam War and its aftermath. He also served as a Public Affairs Officer (CWO-2) with the 40th Infantry Division Support Brigade and the Installation Support Group, California State Military Reserve, at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, California, between 2001 and 2008.

Table of Contents

Preface v

Acknowledgements viii

Taking on Hollywood Dale Dye 1

Soldier First, Photog' Second John Del Vecchio 11

They Were Marines Like Him Steve Stibbens 21

Rockin' and Rollin' With the Montagnards Jim Morris 27

Getting His Knees in the Breeze Chip Maury 33

Seeing the Action Through the Viewfinder Ken Hackman 39

He Shot More Photos than Bullets Marvin Wolf 49

He Had Survived Frank Lee 57

Connected with Vietnamese Refugees from Home John Taylor 69

Learned How to Deal with the Danger Bob Bayer 73

Covering Operation Homecoming Tom Lincoln 79

So That Others May Live Rick Fuller 85

Memorializing the Troops Roger Hawkins 91

Illinois Farm Boy Thrust into a Different World Mike Boggs 101

From the Peace Corps to the Coast Guard, San Francisco to Vietnam Donn Fry 105

Requested Vietnam Duty on Friday, the 13th Chris Jensen 113

221st, Unique by Any Definition of the Word Frank Lepore 127

The Country Needed to Know Chuck Abbott 147

MoPic Photog' Wearing the Blue Joe Montgomery 153

From Hot Rod Comics and Hemingway… to Vietnam Dennis "Bao Chi Mac" McCloskey 157

Played an Invaluable Part in Training New Army Photographers Stanton Pratt 165

A Rifle and a Hard Time Bill Christofferson 171

Chronicler of the Coast Guard Experience in Vietnam Paul Scotti 179

On a Special Purpose Mission Sonny Craven 189

Photography Became His World Robert Frank 219

Gunner with a Camera Ron Gorman 225

Never Ambushed Larry Letzer 231

A Magic Slice of Life David Sommers 235

No Photography on Night Patrols … Just Ambushes Terry Lang 243

Robert Capa Was His Hero Dick Durrance 249

Followed Directions and Kept His Mouth Shut Bob Douville 253

Vietnam Seemed Just Fine Mike Stokey II 261

There but for the Grace of God Go I Eddie Carroll 267

The War as Reported and Photographed by the Civilian Press 273

A One-way Ticket, $100 and Leica Catherine Leroy 275

Everything Is Okay Now Nick Ut 279

A Moment of Truth Eddie Adams 285

Bringing the War Home Requiem 289

Glossary 292

Select Bibliography 299

Index 300

Editorial Reviews

Vietnam Bao Chi isn’t for everyone because of its repetition and level of detail. But that was the mission of military correspondents: to provide context and details that arguably escaped recognition by civilian reporters.

Vietnam Veterans Of America: VVA

10/29/2018
Journalist Yablonka (Distant War) fills a void with this valuable collection of profiles of 35 American military journalists of varied sorts who plied their trade during the Vietnam War. Some, including former Marines Dale Dye and Bob Bayer, Green Beret Jim Morris, Army combat correspondent Marvin Wolf, and combat photographer Dick Durrance, went on to notable careers as civilian journalists, writers, and photographers. Others such as Frank Lepore stayed in the military. All of the former military correspondents, photographers, and TV and documentary cameramen and directors go into depth about day-to-day details of their war work. Some offer their opinions about what civilian war correspondents do: Sonny Craven, an Army radio-TV-motion picture officer, for example, is highly critical of “hot dog” civilian reporters trying to make a name for themselves in the war zone, but Lepore, who served in the same position, characterizes his interactions with civilian press members as “congenial,” since both groups of journalists “had to get to the action to record it.” Yablonka pays tribute to three of the civilians—photographers Eddie Adams, Catherine Leroy, and Nick Ut. This work shines light on the all-but-forgotten role of American military báo chí (press in Vietnamese) and fleshes out the history of Vietnam War journalism and journalists. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Among the civilian journalists their military counterparts were fortunate enough to know were the likes of Catherine Leroy, Eddie Adams, and Nick Ut. Some of the military journalist in this book continued into civilian journalism, and some went in other directions. But they did a difficult and also dangerous job with skill and dedication worthy of our admiration. VIETNAM BAO CHI: Warriors of Word and Film tells some of the most interesting stories of the war, told by people who were able to see it with a wide and unique perspective.

Special Forces Association Magazine

Marc Yablonka’s Vietnam Bao Chi stands alone among the scores of books written by and about American journalists who covered the Vietnam War. This unique and valuable book offers a revealing window into the little-known wartime lives of military journalists and correspondents who covered the war—often at great peril—for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and the Coast Guard. Their experiences were many and varied, but they all are intriguing and often eye-opening. Highly recommended.

The VVA Veteran Magazine

Vietnam Bao Chi isn’t for everyone because of its repetition and level of detail. But that was the mission of military correspondents: to provide context and details that arguably escaped recognition by civilian reporters.

Vietnam Veterans Of America: VVA

Vietnam_ Bao Chi is an outstanding book that is equally adept at informing and entertaining...Vietnam Bao Chi is unquestionably an important addition to the body of knowledge regarding the Vietnam War.

On Point: The Journal of Army History, Volume 25 Issue 1 - Rick Baillergeon

Other Vietnam histories provide dates and events or trace personal experience alone. Followers of Vietnam War history would do well to consult Autopsy of an Unwinnable War above most others: its ability to synthesize the extent of political, social, military, and personal experience for a clearer, bigger picture of why Vietnam was an impossible conflict all along makes it a winning, engrossing study that should be on the shelves of any definitive Vietnam War collection.

Midwest Book Review