People & Places NEWS/FEATURES Sheehan, Pentagon Papers
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ARAB TIMES, SUNDAY, JANUARY 10, 2021 NEWS/FEATURES 13 People & Places This image released by Netflix shows Vanessa Kirby in a scene from ‘Pieces of a Woman,’ which is streaming on Netflix. (AP) Obit Obituary Prolifi c fi lmmaker Author chronicled ‘A Bright Shining Lie’ of Vietnam Apted, director of ‘Up’ Sheehan, Pentagon Papers reporter, dies doc series, dies at 79 WASHINGTON, Jan 9, (AP): Neil for public service in 1972 for its Pen- ry, a Vietnam veteran, told an audience Sheehan, a reporter and Pulitzer Prize- tagon Papers coverage, and the paper’s at a 2017 screening of a Vietnam docu- LOS ANGELES, Jan 9, (AP): Michael Apted, the winning author who broke the story editors praised Sheehan for his central mentary that he never understood the acclaimed British director of the “Up” documentary of the Pentagon Papers for The New role. full extent of the anger against the war series and fi lms as diverse as the Loretta Lynn biopic York Times and who chronicled the “We are all particularly proud of until he read “A Bright Shining Lie,” “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and the James Bond fi lm deception at the heart of the Vietnam Neil Sheehan for the tenacity, knowl- which showed him that all the way up “The World Is Not Enough,” has died. He was 79. War in his epic book about the war, edge and professional ability that the chain of command “people were A representative for the Directors Guild of Amer- died Thursday. He was 84. contributed so pivotally to the whole just putting in gobbledygook informa- ica said his family informed the organization that he Sheehan died Thursday morning project,” said A.M. Rosenthal, then the tion, and lives were being lost based passed Thursday night. No cause was given. of complications from Parkinson’s managing editor of the Times, after the on those lies and those distortions,” ac- An incredibly prolifi c di- disease, said his daughter, Catherine cording to a New York Times account. rector, Apted’s legacy is per- Pulitzer was announced. Journalist Neil Sheehan is shown in Sheehan Bruno. The war had a deep effect on Shee- haps most defi ned by the nine The Nixon administration tried to New York, Nov 29, 1988. Sheehan, His account of the Vietnam War, “A discredit Ellsberg after the documents’ han’s outlook. “Up” fi lms, which followed a reporter and Pulitzer Prize-winning the lives of 14 economically Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann release. Some of President Richard “It transformed my thinking and I author who broke the story of the Pen- and America in Vietnam,” took him 15 think the thinking of my whole genera- diverse British children from tagon Papers for The New York Times Nixon’s top aides orchestrated the age 7 to 63. The project started and who chronicled the deception at years to write. The 1988 book won the September 1971 break-in at the Bev- tion,” Sheehan told The Harvard Crim- in 1964 with “Seven Up!” the the heart of the Vietnam War in his Pulitzer Prize for nonfi ction. erly Hills offi ce of Ellsberg’s psychia- son in a 2008 interview. “We believed brainchild of the late Cana- epic book about the war, has died. He Sheehan served as a war correspond- trist to fi nd information that would in authority fi gures and what they told dian fi lmmaker Paul Almond. was 84. (AP) ent for United Press International and discredit him. The White House called us. And it turned out they were wrong Apted served as a researcher then the Times in the early days of US the secret unit the “plumbers,” since its or lying to us.” on the fi rst fi lm and took over involvement in the Vietnam War in the role was to stop leaks. Once Sheehan launched into the as director seven years later, 1960s. It was there that he developed For leaking the Pentagon Papers, project, the intense and driven writer Apted continuing to check in with the Variety a fascination with what he would call Ellsberg was charged with theft, found it dominated his life. subjects every seven years. “our fi rst war in vain” where “people conspiracy and violations of the Es- “I was less obsessed than I was “He turned it into a nice film, but I turned it into were dying for nothing.” pionage Act, but his case ended in a trapped in it,” he said. “I felt a great a political document,” Apted said in a DGA Quar- NEW YORK: A planned book by Sen As a national writer for the Times mistrial when evidence surfaced about sense of being trapped.” terly interview in 2018. “That if you were born into Josh Hawley, who objected to Presi- based in Washington, Sheehan was government-ordered wiretappings and Neil Sheehan was born Oct. 27, 1936, a certain environment, you had no chance at all of dent-elect Joe Biden’s win and backed the fi rst to obtain the Pentagon Papers, break-ins. in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and grew achieving any ambition. It was going to be contro- baseless claims that the election was a massive history of US involvement up on a dairy farm. He graduated from stolen, has been canceled by its pub- in Vietnam ordered up by the Defense Publication Harvard, and worked as an Army jour- versial, crude, no holds barred, and was going to lisher in the wake of the insurrection at tell it as it was. It had a huge effect on the country, Department. Daniel Ellsberg, a former After the publication of the Penta- nalist before joining UPI. After he left the US Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump consultant to the Defense Department gon Papers stories, Sheehan became Vietnam, he worked for the Times in not just on television, because it showed graphically supporters, a decision the Missouri Re- how awful things were.” who had previously leaked Vietnam- increasingly interested in trying to Washington as a Pentagon reporter and publican called “Orwellian” and vowed related documents to Sheehan, had capture the essence of the complex later at the White House, before leaving Apted credited the late fi lm critic Roger Ebert for to fi ght in court. bringing the series to the attention of American audi- copied the papers and made arrange- and contradictory war, so he set out to the paper to write his Vietnam book. In a statement Thursday, Simon & write a book. ences. The ambitious project earned him an Institu- Schuster announced that “After witness- ments to get them to Sheehan. Early in the research for “A Bright, tional Peabody Award in 2012 and also had the honor ing the disturbing, deadly insurrec- The Times’ reports, which began “I tried to tell the story of what hap- Shining Lie,” Sheehan was involved of being satirized by “The Simpsons” in a 2007 epi- tion that took place on Wednesday in in June 1971, exposed widespread pened in Vietnam, and why it hap- in a near head-on car crash that broke sode. The last fi lm, “63 Up,” came out in 2019. Washington, DC, Simon & Schuster has government deception about US pros- pened,” he said in a 1988 interview multiple bones and put him out of ac- decided to cancel publication of Senator pects for victory. Soon, The Washing- that aired on C-SPAN. “The desire I tion for months, but writer friends Success Josh Hawley’s forthcoming book, ‘The ton Post also began publishing stories had is that this book will help people urged him to continue his book project. “The series was an attempt to do a long view of Tyranny of Big Tech.’ about the Pentagon Papers. come to grips with this war. ... Viet- He and his wife, Susan, a writer for English society,” Apted told Slant Magazine in 2019. “We did not come to this decision The Pentagon Papers looked in ex- nam will be a war in vain only if we The New Yorker, sometimes struggled “The class system needed a kick up the backside.” lightly,” the publisher added. “As a cruciating detail at the decisions and don’t draw wisdom from it.” to make enough money to pay the fam- Apted was born in Aylesbury to a middle class publisher it will always be our mis- strategies of the war. And they told Sheehan thought his book about the ily’s bills while he was working on the sion to amplify a variety of voices and how involvement was built up stead- war could be best told through his ac- book. He combined fellowships with family in 1941. Scholarships allowed him to study at viewpoints: at the same time we take Cambridge, where he counted John Cleese among his ily by political leaders and top military count of an offi cer he had met in Vi- occasional advances from his publish- seriously our larger public responsibility brass who were overconfi dent about etnam. John Paul Vann was a charis- er to get by. friends. He started in media with an apprenticeship at as citizens, and cannot support Senator Granada Television, working on productions such as US prospects and deceptive about the matic lieutenant colonel in the Army Sheehan wrote several other books Hawley after his role in what became a accomplishments against the North who served as a senior adviser to South about Vietnam, but none with the am- “Coronation Street.” dangerous threat to our democracy and He made his feature debut in 1972 on “The Triple freedom.” Vietnamese. Vietnamese troops in the early 1960s, bitious sweep of “A Bright Shining Echo” with Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson.