Notifications
Clear all
In-Country Vietnam
2
Posts
2
Users
0
Likes
2
Views
Topic starter
In 1999, the New York University Department of Journalism solicited nominations for the Top 100 Works of Journalism in the United States in the 20th century. The Vietnam War garnered four entries, including a 1965 "CBS Evening News" report by correspondent Morley Safer involving U.S. Marines in South Vietnam. This entry was nominated by New York University journalism professor and writer Mitchell Stephens, who described his submission as a "report for CBS on atrocities committed by American soldiers on the hamlet of Cam Ne in Vietnam." In his book A History of News, Stephens claims, "The Marines, who faced no resistance, held cigarette lighters to the thatched roofs and proceeded to 'waste' Cam Ne." The film and photos of Cam Ne were widely distributed and are among the most famous images of the Vietnam War. Did Professor Stephens get it right? This article investigates the incident at Cam Ne from the perspectives of both the media and the Marine Corps.
http://www.historynet.com/vn/blwhathappenedatcamne/
George T. Curtis (RIP. 9/17/2005)
Posted : 2003-11-20 17:52
Safer didn't get it right at Cam Ne August 3, 1965 and is still living off the shine of his mistake today. I think he was overzealous and didn't get the full story of the Cam Ne operation. He gave the Marines a black eye on the whole by his reporting that day. I think that's the problem with TV...depending on attention-grabbing sound bites and too little time to develop the full scope of the story means something important is inevitably going to be omitted. Too bad Safer didn't accompany the Marines into that area a month earlier when they sustained several KIAs and WIAs. I understand that Gen. Lew Walt was upset that he okayed Safer accompanying the Marines only to see the PR possibilities turn into the Reporter from Hell. No wonder there was an 'Us versus Them' mentality between the military and the press after that day. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf remembered the press from Nam when he bottled them up and spoon fed them 'cleared war news' in the Gulf War. For my money, I'll take one Joe Galloway over 10, er, 20 Morley Safers anyday. I spent time in the Cam Ne area in March 1970 and a day or two in August 1970....we found a lot of boobytraps with our feet and even heard the South Vietnamese tax collector's hooch explode in a ball of fire in the nearby Duong ville on the road. VC were heavily entrenched in the Cam Ne, La Bong, An Trach, Duong, etc. area. Safer was fortunate to have been protected by Marines that August 3, 1965 day otherwise he wouldn't have been able to report that 'atrocity.' I would like to have him return to Cam Ne and talk to some of the VC who were taking potshots at the Marines that August 3, 1965 day (and all other days)...and, maybe, just maybe, he'd get the full story at long last. Semper Fi, Dan Kellum, 1stLt., Echo, 2/1, 1970
Posted : 2004-04-07 03:15
