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Harrison Salisbury and the Vietnam War ─The Significance of His Coverage on Civilian Damage in the War─

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Harrison Salisbury and the Vietnam War ─The Significance of His Coverage on Civilian Damage in the War─ Harrison Salisbury and the Vietnam War ─The Significance of His Coverage on Civilian Damage in the War─ 葛谷明美 KUZUYA Akemi Introduction Among earlier studies dealing with Salisbury’s Vietnam War coverage, Lawrence Mark Atwood’s article“Mission This paper investigates the significance of Harrison Intolerable：Harrison Salisbury’s Trip to Hanoi and the Salisbury’s Vietnam War coverage in the debate over Limits of Dissent against the Vietnam War,”3 should be , the conduct of the war in the United States. Salisbury s noted. However, Atwood did not refer to enough primary dispatches from Hanoi challenged the Johnson sources now available in order to verify the significance administration’s official representations about the war of Salisbury’s coverage which disclosed the reality of in Vietnam, and generated an explosive debate about civilian damage. While his research is useful, I used the bombing of North Vietnam in the United States much more primary sources here to discuss the issue due to his revelations regarding civilian damage caused extensively. by the American bombing. He questioned not only the This paper is structured in the following three “surgical” precision of bombing runs targeting military chapters. In Chapter 1, the nature of Salisbury’s facilities in populated areas, but also the basic purpose of reportage will be examined from two perspectives. the strategy itself. In Salisbury’s view, civilian casualties The first perspective is Salisbury’s background. What were being inflicted deliberately to break the morale of were Salisbury’s motives in visiting North Vietnam? the populace, a course he believed to be both immoral In answering this question, how deeply Salisbury was and doomed to failure.1 Even before Salisbury’s coverage concerned about North Vietnam at the time will be broke, the December 13-14 U.S. raids of 1966 were examined through his background. The second one is controversial among the American public. The major Salisbury’s new perspective on the war in Vietnam, issue was the credibility of the United States government that is, the view from the enemy side. In Chapter 2, the and people questioned whether Johnson administration circumstances of Salisbury’s trip to North Vietnam will officials had been truthful in its reports on level of be examined. Chapter 3 will take an in-depth look at destruction and death among civilians in North Vietnam. Salisbury’s challenges to the Johnson administration’s Throughout this period, Johnson administration officials claims about the war in Vietnam. repeatedly said that they bombed only military targets, that they had not bombed Hanoi, and that any civilian Chapter 1 The Nature of Salisbury’s Reportage damage was purely accidental. Such statements created the false impression that“the bombing operations were An assistant managing editor at The New York Times, executed with such“surgical” precision that they had Harrison Salisbury was the first American journalist , dropped bombs only on the military targets.”2 Salisbury s allowed into North Vietnam and he covered conditions reports from North Vietnam, however, disclosed the there from late 1966 to early 1967. Salisbury was an reality of civilian casualties and damage to residential accomplished journalist working for The New York Times, areas in North Vietnam. one of the most prestigious and influential newspapers ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ 1 The Pentagon Papers： The Defense Department History of United States Decisionmaking on Vietnam, The Senator Gravel Edition, Vol. IV,（Boston： Beacon Press, 1971）, 388. 2 Phil G. Goulding, Confirm or Deny： Informing the People on National Security（New York： Harper & Row, 1970）, 52. 3 Lawrence, Mark Atwood,“Mission Intolerable： Harrison Salisbury’s Trip to Hanoi and the Limits of Dissent against the Vietnam War,” Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 75, No.3（2006）, 429-459. 63 Harrison Salisbury and the Vietnam War ─The Significance of His Coverage on Civilian Damage in the War─ in the United States and his revelations regarding as the“two other hermit kingdoms on my list.”6 North the damage caused by the American bombing Vietnam, in particular, held Salisbury’s attention, for campaign in North Vietnam gave rise to a fierce reasons he makes clear in the following passage： controversy in the United States. The controversy , over Salisbury s coverage stemmed from the way Korea had drifted further and further out of world he challenged the Johnson administration’s claims interest but Vietnam, bloody, desperate, nagging, about the war in Vietnam. His reports from Hanoi Vietnam the quagmire, bottomless reservoir of had a great impact on the American public and trouble, breeder of tension, eater of manpower, , aroused people s suspicion regarding the Johnson omnipresent danger, loomed larger and larger over , administration s statements of the conduct of the the American scene.7 war in Vietnam. Prior to his visit to Hanoi, Salisbury had spent much Salisbury began his campaign to visit North Vietnam of his life visiting“difficult, inaccessible, impossible by first sending a letter to the North Vietnam Premier countries‒Communist countries for the most part.”4 Pham Van Dong proposing that“Hanoi permit an During World War II, as a United Press correspondent, American journalist, a representative of the country’s he reported from London during the Blitz and Moscow greatest newspaper, to come and take a first-hand look at during the Nazi advance across western Russia. what was going on.”8 After transferring to The New York Times in 1949, he What were Salisbury’s motives in trying to visit became the first correspondent to visit post-Stalin North Vietnam? By 1966, President Johnson had Siberia and Central Asia. Salisbury subsequently won rapidly escalated the U.S. military commitment to permission to report from other off-limit countries‒ South Vietnam. As American troop levels rose and such as Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Mongolia as well the bombing of North Vietnam intensified, relations as the Soviet Union‒and he won a Pulitzer Prize for between the United States and the rest of the world his coverage of the Soviet bloc in 1955. In addition, became increasingly strained. Nations in Asia and Salisbury also sought, but never received, permission Europe, for example, criticized the escalation of the to enter Communist China（the People’s Republic American intervention in Vietnam. Even in the United of China, PRC）. Salisbury described himself as“an States, criticism emerged and debates over the conduct intrepid traveler to the secretive communist capitals”5 of the war galvanized politicians and policymakers in for his achievements in visiting Communist countries. Washington. Among the American public, on the other In spite of his self-proclaimed position, Salisbury hand, there was a growing disbelief in official statements, ultimately failed to finish his exploration of Communist which led to the so-called“credibility gap”‒a public nations. relations phrase conveying the lack of trust the American While attempting to secure a visa from the PRC people had in official government statements. government, Salisbury grew increasingly interested in In his book, Salisbury commented on his serious North Vietnam and North Korea, which he described reservations regarding the U.S. escalation of the war in ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ 4 Harrison E. Salisbury, Behind the Lines： Hanoi, December 23, 1966-January 7, 1967（New York： Harper & Row, 1967）, 2. 5 Salisbury, Behind the Lines, 3. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid. 64 Harrison Salisbury and the Vietnam War ─The Significance of His Coverage on Civilian Damage in the War─ Vietnam, writing“Why, when France finally called it and Salisbury was told by the North Vietnamese that quits in Indochina, had we picked up the commitment? “Every North Vietnamese child knew his［Morrison’s］ We had done this by our own positive action. It was story.”15 Salisbury did not know Morrison or his widow, not a casual deed. Like most Americans I knew only Anne Morrison. In his book, Salisbury described how he in the vaguest of ways how we had gotten involved came to gain Anne Morrison’s support, writing“John in Indochina.”9 Later in the book, Salisbury continues, Corry, a warm and sympathetic Times reporter, knew “At first in such a small way that few even realized Anne Morrison. Through Corry’s good glances, she we had taken a stake in the conflict or the area, but wrote a letter supporting my hopes for reporting from which each year like some cancer had grown and North Vietnam. She vouched for me.”16 Anne Morrison grown until it now dominated the whole horizon of wrote a letter of inquiry to Hanoi on Salisbury’s behalf our concern.”10 As President Johnson escalated the supporting his efforts to obtain a visa. Later in the book, U.S. intervention in Vietnam, and the“credibility gap” Salisbury continues,“Anne’s words, I am certain, won increasingly grew among the American public, Salisbury my entry into Hanoi.”17 Her commitment to educating keenly hoped at least that“Out there on the ground I Americans about the conditions in North Vietnam is might gain some comprehension of what we were doing‒ evident in a letter she wrote to Salisbury on April and how we had gotten there.”11 It was against this 12, 1966： background that Salisbury had tried to get permission to visit Hanoi.12 At this critical time in international affairs, there In the spring of 1966, Salisbury made two-and-a-half is great need here for accurate information month trip around the periphery of China in an attempt about conditions in Vietnam. it is my belief to find an opening to Hanoi. After he returned to New that truth itself contains power to evoke change. York, Salisbury received an unexpected but influential Presenting Americans with a clearer and truer supporter for his project‒Anne Morrison Welsh, widow explanation of the Vietnam tragedy should increase of Norman Morrison, the American Quaker who had the possibilities for a peaceful settlement.
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