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Laurence volunteered to go to ] in August 1965 as a radio reporter while ], ], ] and others did television. However, as an extra camera crew was available, he started reporting for TV as well as radio. His TV work began with an exclusive report on the arrival of the ] advance party in South Vietnam. He covered ], the ], the ], the aftermath of the ] and ]. Laurence volunteered to go to ] in August 1965 as a radio reporter while ], ], ] and others did television. However, as an extra camera crew was available, he started reporting for TV as well as radio. His TV work began with an exclusive report on the arrival of the ] advance party in South Vietnam. He covered ], the ], the ], the aftermath of the ] and ].


Laurence was initially supportive of U.S. policy in Vietnam and gave favorable if neutral coverage in what was referred to by the U.S. Army public information officers as "being with the program".<ref name=Laurence/>{{rp|123-5}} However, as he saw more and more of the war, witnessing the deaths of Vietnamese civilians, the accidental bombing of a village in neutral Cambodia, coming under fire from friendly forces and seeing the corruption endemic in South Vietnam, he became more critical of the U.S. presence and what might actually be achieved there.<ref name=Laurence/>{{rp|293}} Laurence was initially supportive of U.S. policy in Vietnam and gave favorable if neutral coverage in what was referred to by the U.S. Army public information officers as "being with the program".<ref name=Laurence/>{{rp|123-5}} However, as he saw more and more of the war, witnessing the deaths of American GIs and Vietnamese civilians, the accidental bombing of a village in neutral Cambodia, coming under fire from friendly forces, and seeing the corruption endemic in South Vietnam, he became more critical of the U.S. presence and what might actually be achieved there.<ref name=Laurence/>{{rp|293, 219-20}}


Through his friendship with UPI photojournalist Steve Northup, Laurence became a regular visitor at 47 Bui Thi Xuan, Saigon, the home of Northup and fellow correspondents ], ], David Stuart-Fox, ], ], and later ]. It was known as "Frankie's House" after the resident Vietnamese houseboy. One of the members, Sam Castan, was killed at ]. Frankie's House became a social club for a small group of young correspondents and their friends who partied and smoked marijuana between field assignments.<ref name=Laurence/>{{rp|295-314}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Young|first=Perry|title=Two of the Missing: Remembering Sean Flynn and Dana Stone|publisher=Press 53|year=2009|isbn=9780981628097|page=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Page|first=Tim|title=Page After Page|publisher=Paladin Books|year=1990|isbn=0689120885|page=100-5}}</ref> Through his friendship with UPI photojournalist Steve Northup, Laurence became a regular visitor at 47 Bui Thi Xuan, Saigon, the home of Northup and fellow correspondents ], ], David Stuart-Fox, ], ], and ]. It was known as "Frankie's House" after the resident Vietnamese houseboy. One of the members, Sam Castan, was killed at ] while leading three GIs to safety, an act of courage for which he was awarded an Army Commendation medal.<ref>Christie, Michael (2012) Vietnam Magazine 17 Sept 2012 </ref> Frankie's House became a social club for a small group of young correspondents and their friends who talked, listened to music and smoked marijuana between field assignments.<ref name=Laurence/>{{rp|295-314}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Young|first=Perry|title=Two of the Missing: Remembering Sean Flynn and Dana Stone|publisher=Press 53|year=2009|isbn=9780981628097|page=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Page|first=Tim|title=Page After Page|publisher=Paladin Books|year=1990|isbn=0689120885|page=100-5}}</ref>


On 10 March, 1966, following the ], Laurence interviewed Marine Lt. Col. Charles House, commander of ], the unit which had evacuated the survivors of the battle and who had himself been shot down and rescued from the battlefield. House stated that panicking ] troops had overloaded the evacuation helicopters. The crews and ] troops had to fire on them to restore order. The story caused outrage when broadcast and led to an investigation by ] (MACV) and ] but no further action was taken.<ref>{{cite book|last=Shulimson|first=Jack|title=U.S. Marines in Vietnam: 1966, an Expanding War|publisher=History and Museums Division, USMC|year=1982|url=https://archive.org/details/AnExpandingWar|page=62-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Yarborough|first=Thomas|title=A Shau Valor: American Combat Operations in the Valley of Death, 1963–1971|publisher=Casemate|year=2016|isbn=9781612003542|page=}}</ref> On 10 March, 1966, following the ] (also known as A Shau), Laurence interviewed Marine Lt. Col. Charles House, commander of ], the unit which had evacuated the survivors of the battle and who had himself been shot down and rescued from the battlefield. House stated that panicking ] troops had overloaded the evacuation helicopters. The crews and ] troops opened fire on them to restore order. The story caused outrage when broadcast and led to an investigation by ] (MACV) and ] but no further action was taken.<ref>{{cite book|last=Shulimson|first=Jack|title=U.S. Marines in Vietnam: 1966, an Expanding War|publisher=History and Museums Division, USMC|year=1982|url=https://archive.org/details/AnExpandingWar|page=62-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Yarborough|first=Thomas|title=A Shau Valor: American Combat Operations in the Valley of Death, 1963–1971|publisher=Casemate|year=2016|isbn=9781612003542|page=}}</ref>


Laurence left Vietnam in late May, 1966, returning to the U.S. and working out of CBS bureaus in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta. He covered racial/police violence in Cleveland, Ohio in 1966, the civil rights movement in the South and other domestic stories in the United States.<ref name=Laurence/>{{rp|421-5, 432}} Laurence left Vietnam in late May, 1966, returning to the U.S. and working out of CBS bureaus in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta. He covered racial/police violence in Cleveland, Ohio in 1966, the civil rights movement in the South and other domestic stories in the United States.<ref name=Laurence/>{{rp|421-5, 432}}


Laurence returned to Vietnam in August, 1967.<ref name=Laurence/>{{rp|435}} He covered the ], the ], ], the ], the ], corruption among the Vietnamese, and the plight of South Vietnamese civilians among other combat stories. With cameraman Keith Kay, he was the first television crew to reach Hue to cover the battle on its third day and was first to get film of the battle on the air. Kay and Laurence received a cable from ] congratulating them on their work.<ref>{{cite book|last=Arlen|first=Michael|title=Living Room War|publisher=Viking Press|year=1969|isbn=|page=86-102}}</ref> Laurence returned to Vietnam in August, 1967.<ref name=Laurence/>{{rp|435}} He covered the ], the ], ], the ], the ], corruption among the Vietnamese, and the plight of South Vietnamese civilians among other combat stories. With cameraman Keith Kay, he was the first journalist to report the intense shelling of the Marine outpost at Con Thien in September, 1967. Kay and Laurence received a cable from ] congratulating them on their work.<ref>{{cite book|last=Arlen|first=Michael|title=Living Room War|publisher=Viking Press|year=1969|isbn=|page=86-102}}</ref> Later, Laurence and Kay were the first TV team to reach Hue on the third day of the battle and first to get their film on the air in the U.S.<ref name=Laurence/>{{rp|3-90}}


In February, 1968, Laurence had dinner with Walter Cronkite the night before the CBS anchorman returned to the United States following his two week tour of Vietnam to study the Tet Offensive. He tried to impress on Cronkite his belief that the war had reached a stalemate and that America was wasting the lives of its own troops and those of the Vietnamese people by continuing the war. Soon after, Cronkite broadcast a special report on CBS calling for negotiations to end the war.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/walter-cronkite-vietnam-special-50th-anniversary-lbj-trump-truth-20180222.html|title=50 years ago, Walter Cronkite told America the bitter truth. We need more Cronkites today|publisher=Philadelphia Inquirer|date=22 February 2017|accessdate=26 February 2018}}}}</ref> In February, 1968, Laurence had dinner with Walter Cronkite the night before the CBS anchorman returned to the United States following his two week tour of Vietnam to study the Tet Offensive. He tried to impress on Cronkite his belief that the war had reached a stalemate and that America was wasting the lives of its own troops and those of the Vietnamese people by continuing the war. Soon after, Cronkite broadcast a special report on CBS calling for negotiations to end the war.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/walter-cronkite-vietnam-special-50th-anniversary-lbj-trump-truth-20180222.html|title=50 years ago, Walter Cronkite told America the bitter truth. We need more Cronkites today|publisher=Philadelphia Inquirer|date=22 February 2018|accessdate=26 February 2018}}}}</ref><ref>Brinkley, Douglas (2012) Cronkite. Harper/Harper/Collins (New York)</ref>


Laurence reported the 1968 documentary "Hill 943," an hour-long special report on CBS News, recounting the lives (and death) of a small American unit trying to capture a hill during the Battle of Dak To. "The grim and unpublicized routine of the war in Vietnam--the dangerous assignment of an American company to penetrate the jungle and take Hill 943--was related with unusual intimacy in last night's news special of the Columbia Broadcasting System," New York Times TV reviewer Jack Gould wrote.<ref>{{cite news|last=Gould|first=Jack|title=|publisher=The New York Times|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/06/05/77177146.pdf|date=5 June 1968|accessdate=}}</ref> Laurence reported the 1968 documentary "Hill 943," an hour-long special report on CBS News, recounting the lives (and death) of a small American unit trying to capture a hill during the Battle of Dak To. "The grim and unpublicized routine of the war in Vietnam--the dangerous assignment of an American company to penetrate the jungle and take Hill 943--was related with unusual intimacy in last night's news special of the Columbia Broadcasting System," New York Times TV reviewer Jack Gould wrote.<ref>{{cite news|last=Gould|first=Jack|title=|publisher=The New York Times|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/06/05/77177146.pdf|date=5 June 1968|accessdate=}}</ref>

Revision as of 07:06, 26 February 2018

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John Laurence
BornJohn Laurence
1939
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Occupation(s)TV news correspondent, author, documentary filmmaker.
Notable workThe World of Charlie Company (1970)
The Cat from Huế: a Vietnam War Story (2002)
I Am an American Soldier: One Year in Iraq with the 101st Airborne (2007)

John Laurence (also known as Jack Laurence) (born 1939 in Bridgeport, Connecticut) is an American television correspondent, author and documentary filmmaker best known for his work on the air at CBS News, London correspondent for ABC News, documentary work for PBS and CBS, and his book and magazine writing. He won the George Polk Memorial Award for "best reporting in any medium requiring exceptional courage and enterprise abroad" for his reporting from Vietnam in 1970.

Biography

Laurence attended Fairfield College Preparatory School and then Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania. While at the University of Pennsylvania, he started working at the campus radio station, WXPN which led to his career in broadcast journalism. He worked at WWDC (AM/FM) in Washington D.C. for a year and then at WNEW-AM/FM in New York from 1962-64. He joined CBS News as a radio correspondent in January, 1965. He covered the U.S. intervention in the Dominican Civil War in April-May 1965 where he produced a radio documentary on the revolution.

Vietnam War

Laurence volunteered to go to South Vietnam in August 1965 as a radio reporter while Morley Safer, Charles Collingwood, Peter Kalischer and others did television. However, as an extra camera crew was available, he started reporting for TV as well as radio. His TV work began with an exclusive report on the arrival of the 1st Cavalry Division's advance party in South Vietnam. He covered Operation Piranha, the Battle of An Ninh, the Siege of Plei Me, the aftermath of the Battle of Ia Drang and Operation Masher.

Laurence was initially supportive of U.S. policy in Vietnam and gave favorable if neutral coverage in what was referred to by the U.S. Army public information officers as "being with the program". However, as he saw more and more of the war, witnessing the deaths of American GIs and Vietnamese civilians, the accidental bombing of a village in neutral Cambodia, coming under fire from friendly forces, and seeing the corruption endemic in South Vietnam, he became more critical of the U.S. presence and what might actually be achieved there.

Through his friendship with UPI photojournalist Steve Northup, Laurence became a regular visitor at 47 Bui Thi Xuan, Saigon, the home of Northup and fellow correspondents Tim Page, Martin Stuart-Fox, David Stuart-Fox, Simon Dring, Joseph Galloway, and Sean Flynn. It was known as "Frankie's House" after the resident Vietnamese houseboy. One of the members, Sam Castan, was killed at Landing Zone Hereford while leading three GIs to safety, an act of courage for which he was awarded an Army Commendation medal. Frankie's House became a social club for a small group of young correspondents and their friends who talked, listened to music and smoked marijuana between field assignments.

On 10 March, 1966, following the Battle of A Sau (also known as A Shau), Laurence interviewed Marine Lt. Col. Charles House, commander of HMM-163, the unit which had evacuated the survivors of the battle and who had himself been shot down and rescued from the battlefield. House stated that panicking CIDG troops had overloaded the evacuation helicopters. The crews and Special Forces troops opened fire on them to restore order. The story caused outrage when broadcast and led to an investigation by Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) and III MAF but no further action was taken.

Laurence left Vietnam in late May, 1966, returning to the U.S. and working out of CBS bureaus in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta. He covered racial/police violence in Cleveland, Ohio in 1966, the civil rights movement in the South and other domestic stories in the United States.

Laurence returned to Vietnam in August, 1967. He covered the Battle of Dak To, the Tet Offensive, the siege of Con Thien, the Battle of Khe Sanh, the Battle of Hue, corruption among the Vietnamese, and the plight of South Vietnamese civilians among other combat stories. With cameraman Keith Kay, he was the first journalist to report the intense shelling of the Marine outpost at Con Thien in September, 1967. Kay and Laurence received a cable from Walter Cronkite congratulating them on their work. Later, Laurence and Kay were the first TV team to reach Hue on the third day of the battle and first to get their film on the air in the U.S.

In February, 1968, Laurence had dinner with Walter Cronkite the night before the CBS anchorman returned to the United States following his two week tour of Vietnam to study the Tet Offensive. He tried to impress on Cronkite his belief that the war had reached a stalemate and that America was wasting the lives of its own troops and those of the Vietnamese people by continuing the war. Soon after, Cronkite broadcast a special report on CBS calling for negotiations to end the war.

Laurence reported the 1968 documentary "Hill 943," an hour-long special report on CBS News, recounting the lives (and death) of a small American unit trying to capture a hill during the Battle of Dak To. "The grim and unpublicized routine of the war in Vietnam--the dangerous assignment of an American company to penetrate the jungle and take Hill 943--was related with unusual intimacy in last night's news special of the Columbia Broadcasting System," New York Times TV reviewer Jack Gould wrote.

Laurence's second tour in Vietnam ended in May 1968. Based in New York, he covered racial violence in Chicago, Detroit, Newark, Kansas City and San Francisco.

Sigma Delta Chi, the U.S. professional journalism society, made its television reporting award for Distinguished Service in Journalism to Laurence for his coverage of the Vietnam war in 1967. Laurence received an Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his 1968 series of investigative reports called "Police After Chicago" on the CBS Evening News.

In 1969, Laurence reported an hour documentary on what had become known in the United States as the "Generation gap," the difference in attitudes between young people and their parents. "People are so much more interesting than statistics, a fact demonstrated once again last night on the Columbia Broadcasting System's superb television study of the generation gap, "Fathers and Sons" wrote George Gent in the New York Times.

In March, 1970, Laurence returned to Vietnam to produce and report a documentary that would later become The World of Charlie Company. Along with his cameraman, Keith Kay, and sound technician James Clevenger, they spent four months recording the daily lives and experiences of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, in Tây Ninh Province in War Zone C near the Cambodian border. They lived, ate and marched with them, while sending reports for the CBS Evening News. In April 1970, Laurence and his team accompanied C Company as they conducted a helicopter assault into Memot District at the start of the Cambodian Campaign attempting to engage the North Vietnamese military headquarters known as COSVN. For his work, Laurence received a Columbia duPont Silver Baton award.

1970s

In 1970, Laurence moved to London to take over as bureau chief from Morley Safer. He and Keith Kay covered the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 from East Pakistan.

In 1977, Laurence left CBS News and began working on his book, "The Cat from Hue: a Vietnam War Story." In 1978, he joined ABC News as a London correspondent at a time when its new president, Roone Arledge, was building the TV news division to make it more competitive with CBS and NBC.

In July 1982 Laurence returned briefly to Vietnam for the first time since 1970.

Laurence's memoir of his years covering the war in Vietnam, "The Cat from Hue: a Vietnam War Story," was published in 2002 by PublicAffairs Press in New York. It received positive reviews, especially in The New York Times. The book received the Cornelius Ryan Award from the Overseas Press Club, its sole annual book award, for "Best Reporting on International Affairs".

References

  1. "C.B.S. Team Wins Award for a Vietnam Project". The New York Times. 27 March 1971. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  2. ^ Laurence, John (2002). The Cat from Hue. Public Affairs. p. 425. ISBN 1586481606.
  3. Christie, Michael (2012) Vietnam Magazine 17 Sept 2012
  4. Young, Perry (2009). Two of the Missing: Remembering Sean Flynn and Dana Stone. Press 53. ISBN 9780981628097.
  5. Page, Tim (1990). Page After Page. Paladin Books. p. 100-5. ISBN 0689120885.
  6. Shulimson, Jack (1982). U.S. Marines in Vietnam: 1966, an Expanding War. History and Museums Division, USMC. p. 62-3.
  7. Yarborough, Thomas (2016). A Shau Valor: American Combat Operations in the Valley of Death, 1963–1971. Casemate. ISBN 9781612003542.
  8. Arlen, Michael (1969). Living Room War. Viking Press. p. 86-102.
  9. "50 years ago, Walter Cronkite told America the bitter truth. We need more Cronkites today". Philadelphia Inquirer. 22 February 2018. Retrieved 26 February 2018.}}
  10. Brinkley, Douglas (2012) Cronkite. Harper/Harper/Collins (New York)
  11. Gould, Jack (5 June 1968). The New York Times https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/06/05/77177146.pdf. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. . The New York Times. 12 April 1968 https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/04/12/77176354.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. . The New York Times. 27 May 1969 https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/05/27/78347086.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. Gent, George (13 August 1969). The New York Times https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/08/13/89019010.pdf. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. https://journalism.columbia.edu/dupont#duPont_Winners_Archive. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. Kutler, Stanley (21 April 2002). "Apocalypse Then". The New York Times.
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