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.