This event's registration at capacity. We allow guests in on a first-come-first-serve basis with priority to those who have pre-registered. Walk-in's will be allowed in pending seat availability.
Speakers:
Peter Arnett, Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist
Fox Butterfield, Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist
Edith Lederer, Associated Press Chief Correspondent of the U.N.
Nancy Trieu Giang Bui, Journalist
Moderators:
Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, Dorothy Borg Chair in the History of the United States and East Asia, Director of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
James Bennet, Senior Editor, The Economist
How did the harsh reality of the Vietnam War change war reporting, and how did these changes affect reporting for generations to come? What lessons in Vietnam remain relevant in today's war coverage?
This panel features renowned Vietnam War journalists Peter Arnett, Fox Butterfield, Edith Lederer, and Nancy Trieu Giang Bui, as they explore the evolution of war reporting from the Vietnam War to contemporary conflicts. Through their firsthand experiences, the panelists will discuss the challenges, ethical dilemmas, and transformative lessons learned in the field. This discussion hopes to shed light on the significant impact of journalism in times of war and how historical insights can guide today's war correspondents.
Speaker Bios:
Peter Arnett is a Pulitzer Prize winning print and television correspondent who spent 50 years covering America's wars and international crises. The 89-year-old now retired journalist worked on daily newspapers in his native New Zealand, Australia and Thailand, before joining the Associated Press as a correspondent in 1961, making an early mark with his daring coverage of a coup in Laos by swimming the Mekong River to file stories during a media blackout.
Arnett's extensive coverage of the Vietnam War during his 13 years with the AP, many of them eyewitness reports of major battles, earned him widespread acclaim. The late writer-historian Davd Halberstam described Arnett as “The best reporter of the Vietnam War. He is the journalist most respected and beloved by his peers. No one saw more combat, and no one would put himself more on the line." In 1981, Arnett transitioned to television, joining CNN and pioneering live war reporting during the Gulf War and the bombing of Baghdad, notably interviewing Saddam Hussein. His reporting not only boosted CNN's profile but also marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of news media, illustrating the impact of live broadcasting in shaping the 24/7 news cycle.
Throughout his illustrious career, Arnett received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1966 for his Vietnam War coverage, a Prime Time Emmy for his Gulf War reporting, and various lifetime achievement awards. His work earned him recognition in his native New Zealand as well, where he received a lifetime achievement award from the national Press Club and was named an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006.
Fox Butterfield was a New York Times correspondent in Vietnam from 1971 to the last day of the war in April 1975 when he was evacuated from Saigon by helicopter. On June 8, 1972, he was in Trang Bang and witnessed the tragic events that led to 9 year-old Kim Phuc running down the road after she was hit by napalm and her clothes burned off. He wrote a story about the incident for The Times. Butterfield was a member of The NY Times team that won the Pulitzer Prize for its publication of The Pentagon Papers. He also served as a Times correspondent in Taiwan, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Beijing where he opened the paper’s bureau in 1979 after the US and China normalized relations. A book Butterfield wrote about his experience in Beijing, “China: Alive in the Bitter Sea,” won the National Book Award. Butterfield majored in Chinese history at Harvard where he graduated summa cum laude. He speaks fluent Chinese.
He has written two other books: “All God’s Children,” about Willie Bosket, a black teenager in Harlem who murdered several men on the subway repeating a pattern set by his father and grandfather, and”In My Father’s House,” about a white family from Tennessee that had 60 members who went to prison. He now lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, Elizabeth Mehren, a former correspondent for The LA Times who has just published her fourth book, “I Lived To Tell the World.”
Courtesy of the Mach Family Gift for Global Vietnamese Studies
This talk is part of the Legacies of the Vietnam War 75th Anniversary series and the 75th Anniversary Global Asia Film Series Learn more about WEAI's 75th anniversary. It co-sponsored by the Columbia Journalism School, Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, SIPA Technology, Media, and Communications, and NYSEAN.
For more information on the other talks of the series, please click here: https://weai.columbia.edu/content/legacies-vietnam-war-75th-anniversary-series.
