Witness in Hanoi by John R
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TURNING POINTS Witness in Hanoi by John R. MacArthur When In December 1966, Harrison Salisbury reported civilian casualties on a residential street In Hanoi (above), the news contradicted the Pentagon and became a watershed in the relationship between the media and the military. Now, a generation later, Deng Gluan An (right), Is living proof of who was telling the truth. s a tourist destination, Pho Nguyen Thiep in Hanoi tion and censorship surrounding the invasions of Panama has little to recommend it. Just one block long and and Grenada, as well as the gulf war. The lesson of Pho perpendicular to the bridgehead of the massive Long Nguyen Thiep, it would appear, is well worth relearning by Bien railroad bridge, where it ends, the teeming, densely the press — which is why 1 went there last September to re- populated street doesn't even rate identification on the hotel report a story that not only marked a watershed in govern- maps of the Vietnamese capital. Close by the Red River ment-press relations in Vietnam, but that also severely erod- embankment in the Old City, just north of the lovely but rel- ed the public's trust in the war-time claims of President atively modern legacy of French colonial architecture, Pho Lyndon Johnson. (for street) Nguyen Thiep would seem, at rust glance, to be Of course there were many events that could be called of interest only to Sinologists studying the Cantonese roots turning points in the Vietnam war and its coverage, but for of some of its residents or the Chinese structures in the sur- dramatic impact, it would be hard to top the reporting of rounding neighborhood. But for journalists, particularly Harrison Salisbury, starting with his Christmas Eve 1966 those curious about the history of war reporting and censor- account in The New York Times of American-inflicted civil- ship, Pho Nguyen Thiep should be the first stop on any ian casualties on Pho Nguyen Thiep — coming as it did Hanoi itinerary. For it was here thirty years ago that the U.S. when the Johnson administration was denying that U.S. government found itself caught in a lie about war — certain- bombs were dropping on innocent North Vietnamese ly the first really well-publicized lie of the period. bystanders. So many lies about Vietnam would follow the one about His first dispatch, published on Christmas Day, was Pho Nguyen Thiep that by 1975, when the war ended, it remarkably understated given the sensation his coverage A seemed that no self-respecting reporter would ever again ultimately caused. The Times played it in the lead position believe a government statement concerning the American on the front page, but with just a one-column headline military. Yet today the headlines announce a gulf war syn- whose top deck announced: "A Visitor to Hanoi Inspects drome "coverup" by the Pentagon, which follows on the Damage Laid to U.S. Raids." Not until the jump page, in the extensive record of largely unchallenged government decep- ninth paragraph, did Salisbury's leisurely feature arrive at the actual news: "Christmas Eve found residents in several John R. MacArthur is publisher of Harper's Magazine and parts of Hanoi still picking over the wreckage of homes said author of Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf to have been damaged in the United States raids of Dec. 13 War. and 14. United States officials have contended that no Ca JANUARY /FEBRuAV 19o7 49 attacks in built-up or residential Hanoi during his two-week stay in enemy ter- ing of the North, also announced that have been authorized or carried out." ritory touched raw nerves. The admin- he would not seek re-election to the Then Salisbury was permitted the clos- istration counterattacked — a Pentagon presidency. est thing to sarcasm that could be spokesman, Arthur Sylvester, for just As influential as Salisbury's report- found in the sober news pages of the one example, denounced the work of ing was, it did contain one significant 1966 Times: "This correspondent is no "Harrison Appallsbury of the New flaw. In his memoir, My Life and The ballistics expert, but inspection of sev- Hanoi Times" — but the government Times, the paper's executive editor in eral damaged sites and talks with wit- was forced to acknowledge that civil- 1966, Turner Catledge, conceded that nesses make it clear that Hanoi resi- ian areas had been hit by "accident." the Times had erred with some of dents certainly believe they were he eminent historian Barbara Salisbury's early dispatches by not bombed by United States planes, that 1 Tuchman, in The March of Folly, attributing casually figures to the they certainly observed United States wrote that after Salisbury's visit to North Vietnamese government: planes overhead and that damage cer- North Vietnam, "Johnson's rating in "Quickly, with an air of triumph," he tainly occurred right in the center of the polls for handling of the war slid wrote, "U.S. government officials town." Obviously, American pilots in into the negative and would never declared that Salisbury's casualty fig- that pre-smart-bomb era were aiming again regain a majority of support." ures were the same as those put out by for the Long Bien bridge, technically Salisbury's historic 1966-67 reporting the government of North Vietnam." A outside the Hanoi city limits, and had clearly accelerated a tide of opposition "silly" point, according to Catledge, dropped some of their explosives short to the war that had been rising slowly since Salisbury hadn't claimed to have of the target. since the early '60s, fed by the work of counted the bodies himself. But a cru- Salisbury wasn't the first Western correspondents like Malcolm Browne, cial point in a journalistic way, as reporter to visit North Vietnam during Neil Sheehan, Peter Arnett, and David Catledge also acknowledged: "I'm the war, but as he told me years later, Halberstam, and by 1968 the tide sorry to say that we in New York com- "in many cases what you're reporting seemed to reach flood level. That was pounded an editorial slip that gave is not so important as the critical time the year of the Tet offensive, and the Salisbury's critics something to harp when it's reported." Whatever the tim- year Lyndon Johnson, at the end of a on.... To end the issue, we noted in ing, Salisbury's direct contradiction of televised address to the nation later articles that the figures came from White House and Pentagon dogma announcing a partial halt to the bomb- North Vietnamese officials." The CONGRATULATIONS 44, Craig Torres, Mexico City bureau chief, The Wall Street Journal for winning the first "Best of Knight-Bagehot" Award for the best financial journalism by a former Knight-Bagehot Fellow. And congratulations to Columbia University and the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism for twenty-one years of fostering probing, insightful coverage of global financial and economic issues. We're proud to support you in your mission to improve the quality of business journalism. AbemathAtcGregor Grcup Inc. CNN Kekst and Company Siegel & Gale Inc. Airbus Industrie of North Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. MCA/Universal Structure Tone America, Inc. Cravath, Swalne & Moore McCann-Dickson Worldwide Time Inc. Andersen Consulting CS First Boston MCI Communications Corp. Viacom Inc. BBDO New York The Walt Disney Company Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. Visa U.S.A. Inc. The Blackstone Group Dow Jones & Company, Inc. The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. Bloomberg News The Dreyfus Corporation The New York Times Company Bridge News (formerly Knight- Ford Motor Company PaineWebber Inc. Ridder Financial News) GE Capital Services Penske Truck Leasing Business Week General Motors Corporation Pfizer Inc Charterhouse Group International Goldman, Sachs & Co. Salomon Inc Clark & Weinstock Hill and Knowlton, Inc. Schering-Plough Corporation 50 Gil jANUARY/FESPUARY 1097 jaV#':X.K•rk. r• • "silly" point may have cost Salisbury a Pulitzer Prize in 1967 when the advi- sory board rejected the 4-1 recommen- CLASSIFIED dation of the international-reporting Employment Opportunities jury and voted 6-5 against Salisbury. JOURNALISM ETHICS-Knight Chair in Journalism. Teach undergraduate courses Turner Catledge said the vote was in journalism ethics; develop ethics components for existing courses in reporting and unquestionably dictated by politics: "I editing: create interdisciplinary courses/symposia on global press theory; conduct was convinced that my colleagues conferences involving undergraduates and professionals; conduct workshops and sem- made their decision on political rather inars for professionals; write for the professional, academic and popular press. Endowed professorship, with tenure, beginning 7/1/97. Qualifications: Required: than journalistic grounds; indeed, they graduate degree (Ph.D. preferred) with significant component in ethics; evidence of made no bones about it. They support- distinguished professional achievement; demonstrated exposure to newsroom and ed the war, so they voted against leadership roles in journalism organizations (e.g.. SPJ, RTNDA, ASNE, etc.) Preferred: Salisbury." Politics aside, the "editori- minimum 10 years experience in teaching applied or professional ethics. Salary: al slip" Catledge acknowledged gave Competitive and negotiable. Application: Detailed letter of application, complete the anti-Salisbury contingent a journal- resume, student evaluations, list of academic and professional references. Deadline for applications: Feb. 1, 1997. Send application to: Hampden H. Smith, Department of istic rationale. As John Hohenberg Journalism and Mass Communications. Washington and Lee University. Lexington, wrote in his history The Pulitzer VA 24450. Inquiries: 540-463-8434; [email protected] Prizes, "Those who opposed Salisbury argued that . he had failed to give DEAN OF THE MEDILL SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY. Northwestern University seeks nominations and applications for dean of the Medill the sources of casualty figures" in School of Journalism.