Day: October 17, 2007

Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1969-1975 is a book I own for one reason: my cousin’s picture is on the cover. He wrote one of the articles, and he provided the picture because one of the editors asked if he had any photos from that period. Turns out he did, and it fit what they wanted.

Last month, I finished the collection of articles from newspapers and magazines and books. They helped color the facts and narrative I learned a few weeks earlier in Vietnam, A History. I read many of the early articles over a few years, but last month I kept this volume on the top of the pile and read the last half of the collection in a rush.

Early in the chronological collection, James Michener covers the Kent State killings. In a pre-CSI time, Michener dissects the many divergent reports and does his best to explain what happened as best he can. A lot of detail to fill in the story behind Neil Young’s “four dead in Ohio” — this isn’t something I’d ever known beyond the headline.

The collection ranges from brief reports to an entire book, finishing with Michael Herr’s Dispatches. What a depressing, picturesque experience he shares.

I don’t think I’ll track down the earlier volume, which covered from 1959 to 1969, but I learned much from this volume.

Neal Stephenson’s website doesn’t even list The Cobweb as one of his works. The reason? It was originally published, in 1996, under his pseudonym Stephen Bury. But, after Quicksilver made him a NYTimes bestselling author, it was a no-brainer to re-publish under his real name. No mention of what Stephenson might be working on now…

I enjoyed the smart send-up of everything from agricultural grants to the politics of intelligence agencies. Set in the build-up to the first Iraq war — at the time, the only one we had… ahh, those were the days — The Cobweb has two unlikely heroes. Both Clyde Banks, an Iowa deputy, and Betsy Vandeventer, a CIA analyst, pick at the frayed edges of an Iraqi conspiracy and arrive at the unlikely truth: real WMDs, made in America, for use in Iraq. Banks saves the day, directly.

The first President Bush comes across as rather quick, here. His cameo in the book is fun. The book is a thriller, with its utter implausibilities… but I sped through it more quickly than any other book in recent months. You’ll enjoy it, too.

Thanks to the Internet, I know now that listed co-author J. Frederick George really is a separate person: Stephenson’s uncle!