Transcripts For CSPAN3 Women Reporters In Vietnam 20150831

But nothing, nothing, approaches what these women have done and what so many journalists, regardless of gender, i think you would all agree, men and women, did in opening the way to covering battlefields, to bringing the stories of american troops fighting in faraway places into our living rooms, into the front page of our newspapers. If nothing else, that era was such a turn in journalism that i probably dont have to explain to anybody in this room. And i thought that if were not all totally familiar with these womens backgrounds, we would just start by going down the line and have all of you briefly tell us how you came to be in vietnam. Its a far away place a long time ago. Lets just go down the line for a few minutes here. How did you get there . I got there it seems hard to believe, but someone in our day, like barbara, would be a pentagon correspondent. We reported on things like parties and gardening and cooking. We never really made the news because womens lives were so confined that we had our section, but the stories of women werent even news because their lives were tiny and circumscribed, so i got very bored at my job. I was reading papers all the time, so i decided i wanted to go to vietnam. I was the lowest person in that womens section covering the parties the Party Reporter didnt want to cover. I went in and said i want to go to vietnam and be a war reporter. They just about fell out of their chairs laughing. You can see it there, but this is you. Yes. If youre not getting it, were going to show you these women as they practiced their journalism in the middle of a war zone. So what year was this . This was 66. The editor of the morning paper approached me and asked me if i would like to be a reporter, but they didnt pay my way. I mhad to pay my own way to get there. He promised me 35 per story. At the time, i was making 80. If i wrote three stories, that would be a raise. After i got there, six months later i was hired as a fulltime reporter. Tell us a little bit about how you got there. Well, i was working at look magazine as a researcher just reading day in and day out coverage of vietnam and there was nothing else going on. It was the biggest story and it was my generation covering it. I knew i wanted to be a journalist. I asked look magazine to send me, and they said absolutely not. Inexperienced and female. Same thing. I quit look magazine, bought my oneway ticket to saigon, and showed up as a freelancer. I got my press pass and i was ready to go. Edith . I had a very different kind of experience because i was working for the Associated Press in san francisco, and i was covering the Antiwar Movement among many other things, which was, of course, a very hot topic. Every year, the ap would give you a form that asked basically what do you want to do when you grow up, and i would say that i wanted to be a Foreign Correspondent. But in the ap, that was really an impossibility because the ap had a Foreign Editor who refused to have a woman on the foreign desk, and that was the prerequisite for going overseas. So in 1971, i had been to europe. I had never been to asia. And with one my girlfriends, we got one of those incredible panam around the world tickets where in those days, eat your hearts out, you could stop every single place that panam stopped for the same price. Do you remember what you paid for the ticket . Do you remember what you paid . I think it was it was about it was under 1,000. It was like 195. I remember. I had one. I traveled the world in 99 days. It was quite incredible, and one of the places thats why panam is out of business. One of the places they stopped was saigon, so my girlfriend Nancy Goldner and i decided we were going to see this war witch i had been writing about, which she had been involved in also. She was a teacher. So we went to saigon for four days as war tourists, and the ap staff adopted us. What was fabulous was they took us to the 5 00 follies, which was the daily military briefing. We got to go on a helicopter ride over the mikong delta. And then we got on a plane and went to bangkok. You can imagine my surprise the following summer where, again, i had put on my, what do you want to do when you grow up form that i wanted to be a Foreign Correspondent to get a phone call from the president of the ap asking me if i wanted to go to vietnam for six months. And the first thing i said to him was, does that mean i have to go work on the foreign desk . He said, no, no, no, no. Youre just going to go to vietnam. Because we still had the same Foreign Editor and he still refused to have a woman on the foreign desk. Edith, tell me quickly what year did you join the Associated Press. 1966 in new york city. And still getting the scoops and still beating some people on this podium. Laura, tell us how you came to vietnam. I hitchhiked to vietnam. Vietnam was the last place i ever expected to go, unlike my wonderful colleagues. I had started college in 1968. I had been to every major protest movement, probably some that edith covered. I was deeply opposed to americas involvement in vietnam, and while i was taking my science requirement in california, i had gone to visit a friend in oregon and was hitchhiking back to the bay area with my teenage sister. We were told by the Highway Patrol we would be arrested if we didnt leave the interstate. I said to my sister, the next car has got to be it because we had no other way to get back there, and it was 100 degrees and she was in a bad mood. And i was thinking, what have i gotten us into. So i see a car coming down the highway. I see fishing poles. Its a green chevy. Its a hippy car. Theyll star. The driver of the car turned out to be a pediatrician, and that was who i went to vietnam with two months after graduating. My plan for my life was to go to law school and get black panthers out of jail. I was deeply committed to social justice issues, and the doctor and i were going he had finished his training and the plan was that he would take a job abroad, and we would do that for a few months. I was at home working as a cocktail waitress earning some extra money. I got a call from him saying ive been offered a job in vietnam. Do you want to go . I said yes without missing a beat. I had to work in vietnam and the only jobs that paid anything were working for the embassy, which was not on my list of things i could do, and then working for the media, so i made the rounds to all the news organizations. All i could answer was no. Do you have any experience in journalism . No. Do you think anything about the military . No. Do you speak vietnamese . No. How long have you been in country . Two months. Did you major in journalism . No, i majored in political science. So abc was looking for a radio stringer and it was 1972 and there were five people who applied. Denby was actually qualified for the job. She had a significant track record as a reporter, but she was married to an nbc correspondent and in that era that was not possible, so i was hired and i was hired by new york. And i was hired because it was 1972 and the New York Times was in the midst of a sex Discrimination Suit and the word was out that we need women in prominent places, so on my very first day at abc the bureau chief was sitting where eddie is. He looked at me and said, first words, i just want you to know of all the applicants, you were the least qualified. That was the beginning. And there we are. You know what strikes me by the way, very shortly, were going to get to questions. We have microphone stands on either side of the room, so get your questions lined up in a few minutes. What strikes me, you know, john very nicely talking about in my era we imbedded, and im sure many of you in the audience have seen when you turn your tv on in the years with iraq and afghanistan, you would see reporters standing there on a military base going out with military. It has come to be really the only way during the years of massive u. S. Military involvement that youre allowed to cover them because no longer do they allow what was so common and so interesting in your era, which is show up and get on a helicopter. Show up and go out in the field. Denby, i was reading that, in fact, in one instance in vietnam, you actually went not to just accompany them on patrol, but you walked point and you called in fires. Tell us tell us about i mean, today, no way. Id like to tell you about that, but i think the important thing to bring up, too, is we didnt just go there and then get out and cover combat. Once you got there, then the problem became vietnam was very free. Almost anybody could get accredited. There was no censership. To actually go out with a unit, you needed the unit commanders permission, and that was the roadblock for us. There were hardly any women there. Maybe five, maybe three. Then they would say, no. For me, they said to me, i was 24 then, i would never let you come out because you remind me of my daughter. You think, holy cow, they would never say that to a man. You remind me of my son. You might get killed. For me, that was the greatest difficulty in vietnam to convince people because there was so much prejudice in our era of women not being able to do anything, that they werent capable, and a woman could never report a war. For me, the miraculous thing that happened when i had almost given up is the u. S. Marines let me go out with them. I was surprised at the time, but someone reminded me later the marines love publicity. We all know the u. S. Marine and theyre the smallest branch of the service, so they need money, they need funding, they need to be important. The things that you describe calling in fire, that would be a violation of journalist ethics, but that was the first marines i went out with, the first people that allowed me to go out to a place when i arrived they were taking out bodies. I was like holy cow. I didnt think i would be in this hot of a place, but that evening, the marines we were being shelled. To combat the north vietnamese that were shelling our position, they were calling air strikes, so they asked me to call in the air strike. They wrote it out on paper. The pilots are navy pilots, so they cant see whats down below. I called in the air strike. This female voice saying in all technical language and its wrong for a reporter to do that. I wanted to pay them back for helping me get started. The navy pilot when he heard that said we were called girls. Hey, they have a girl down there. Howd you get a girl there . I suppose whsomewhat years later looking back it does Say Something about the lack of resources in that war that people were just beginning to understand. Very, very tough battlefield for so many Young American troops. Oh, yes. And i think all of you probably experienced that. Urate, i was reading edith and laura, the same thing. Its funny. Across the decades, across the years, what resonated with me when i looked at their histories and their stories, is youve all talked about remembering the faces, the kaleidoscope. I know, laura, you talked about vietnam, saigon being your hometown. Edith, you talked about the kaleidoscope. Urate, you talked about the faces. I just want to say that resonates with me so much about covering vietnam. Its interesting my era is a little different, but that resonates because in afghanistan, in iraq, i feel as though i know the faces of all the troops ive met. I dont know their names. I may not remember what units, but i see those faces and they all come back and the places come back. And im wondering if even all these years later, is it still something that resonates with you, seeing it in front of your eyes . Laura, do you feel that vietnam is still saigon is still so much of where your life was . When i said saigon is my hometown, i meant thats really where i feel like im from. Thats where i did work that i loved for the first time. Its where i met friends that i loved. Its where i felt for the first time that i mattered in life and where my life really began, so yes. I do feel that saigon is my hometown in some ways. New york city in others, but that was a very tender and precious part of my life. Do the images still come back to you . Oh, of course. People say vietnam is behind us. Well, why should it be behind us . Its in us. Its something we experienced. It was a Pivotal Moment of our lives. Its something i want to remember, to learn from, to grow from. I wrote a book called shrapnel in the heart. I think, for me, when the faces really clobbered me was when i went to see platoon and the opening montage in the film where kids just jumping out of choppers and i just sat there and wept. They were not only the boys i knew in vietnam. They were the ones i had written about in the book. I think that was one of the times i really cried for vietnam. I think what strikes me about the faces now when i see the kids that were sending to iraq and afghanistan is the faces stay the same. They still have that innocence. They still have that youth. They still have that fear. They still have when they come home that 1,000 yard stare, so i think thats what strikes me about the faces. They remain unchanged. They often talk about war sort of being the business of the young, isnt it . I think id like to say what was so unique about vietnam and different from current wars is this was a war of draftees. Now, they are military. Theyre professional. You know, they tow the line. Its a volunteer force. This was 18yearolds, 19yearolds. I was 24 and i was an old woman sometimes. Oh, i thought they were sending a girl. Not this and they were green. Some had never been out of their hometowns in small southern cities. They were afraid. They didnt understand the war. They were getting, you know, letters from back home writing about all the protests. So when you talk about faces, i mean, i saw fear, confusion, loneliness, and thats really, i think, what everybody knew someone who was in vietnam or had died in vietnam. These wars are very different, arent they . We are delighted theres so many young people with us this evening. If we still had a draft in this country, it would be a very different, a very different prospect, i suppose. Urate, can you tell us a little bit about being wounded . Well, you know, cason was a very big story, and i broke my rule since i was a freelancer, it was very hard to get things into newspapers. Never go where all the press goes. If everybody was up there, i was down in the delta, but this was such a big story. Marines were under siege since middle of january. I got the assignment from wr radio to interview new yorkers who were in caison. I hitched a ride on a helicopter. There was very limited press accessibility, and i saw, like we always did in vietnam, empty helicopter blades whirring. Being a girl, i had that advantage. I looked over and i said, where you going to caison by chance . Sure. Hope on. Public Information Officer was furious, because he had his roster of washington post, New York Times, upi, whatever. We made the fatal mistake of not throwing ourselves on the ground but running for the fox hole. When artillery shell hits the ground, it explodes this way. I got shrapnel in my legs, my face, and my back and whatever. And the pio officer later on said, well, she got what she was looking for. And that was not quite what i was liking for. Hardly. Well, thankfully, were past some of that attitude, but i just want to impress upon everyone here what you already know otherwise i dont think you would be here this evening. The women who are journalists today in war zones have so much to be thankful for for those who came before us. Were talking about being women, being women journalists, and being journalists. You were there when some of the pows came out. I think there are very few american journalists that can tell that story today. We all see the news clips, the old newsreel footage things, but you saw them. So i did. I was lucky enough to be in vietnam before, during, and after the pullout of the last american combat troops. I think a lot of people dont realize that the last american combat troops left at the end of march in 1973 and then the vietnam war went on for another two years fought by the South Vietnamese military with diminishing military and Financial Support from the United States until saigon fell on april 30th, 1975. But after the last american combat troops left, i was sent to cover the release of the First Americans who had been held in the south, in South Vietnam, by the viet kong. It was like this whole circle of helicopters that came in and landed at the airport. And these totally bedraggled american soldiers got off. Some limping. Many emaciated. Some seeming not to know where they were. But at the bottom of the helicopters, when they got off, there was a general standing there, and he saluted every one of them. And what was fascinating was i think at that moment, for some of them anyway, they realized they were free because they saw he was an American General, and almost every single one of them saluted back. It was an incredibly moving experience, and you always have to wonder when youre talking about faces and people that you remember how it impacted the lives of those young men. I guess, among many other things, ive always wondered were they able to rebuild their lives and to have good families and decent jobs and to really have a decent life. I want to interrupt then and tell an anecdote. Im going to take one second here. I was inside the pentagon working on the morning of 9 11, and as we came to understand the people who perished inside the pentagon, there was a man, older man, civilian, worked for the department of the army. His name was max bilky. You know who max was. Max bilky died in the pentagon on 9 11. Max as a young army draftee is listed in American History as the last combat american soldier out of vietnam, and he came home and he had a good life. Thats good. By all accounts. And he died that morning. So vietnam, its just its just fascinating because it is so woven in the fabric of this country and the journalists who covered it are so woven into the fabric of our profession. You know, let me be the one to ask the trite question. As you look back now laura, want to start with you and lets go down the line. Through the prism of history, where did it matter what you were a woman, a female journalist in terms of being denied the options that otherwise had . Lets talk about that. And as you look back seeing these americans come off helicopters, who on earth cares whether it is a man or woman covering that story as long as it is getting covered . It is partly looking through the prism of time. What am i going to do . Ask these women, did it matter being a woman in vietnam . Well, sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Talk to us about this. I was there so late in the war that i was standing on the shoulders of those who had made real sacrifices to give women the opportunity. As i mentioned, it was not only the women at the New York Times and the sex discriminate suit, but people like urate who fought to have women have access, so i didnt have obstacles in my path that way, but i think i knew as a woman i had to earn my place at the table. There were some things that were a given. I would never show fear. I would work as hard as any man, and i would never do anything that would embarrass my profession. I felt that very strongly. Did it matter being a woman . Was the coverage different . I think one thing for me being i was in vietnam from the time i was 22 to 24. I was young and i was always underestimated, so i was always smarted than i appeared. I was not threatening. I think sometimes politicians talked to me. G. I. S would talk to me. Vietnamese are not tall people. For a woman, youre the same size as the Government Official youre interviewing. I think sometimes that was an asset. I think as i dont know what my colleagues think. I think as a woman i was someone who was always more comfortable talking about feelings, so it wasnt it was a natural far me. So if im interviewing a g. I. , ill ask the second and third followup question. Denby . My thoughts on it were that i think being a woman was important because it showed that women could do that. Everyo even up to the end, edie and her boss and kate webb and other female reporters, we were kind of freelancer. Edie was among the first to become as a staffer, but her boss said no covering combat and also to tracy wood. He had sent them over. There was a push to have woman covering important things, but still you had this overhanging layer of my experience there, my worst we were almost on the edge of getting set back in my era. Mine happened when i was out at a forward fire base. The general in charge of the armed forces in vietnam, he happened to fly in because they were under fire and a lot of people had died. 36 people had died. It was very bad, so he came do give a pep talk. And he came around. I just waited until he was finished talking to the soldiers. And then he came up and he saw me and he said, oh, what are you doing here . And his family had rented a house near ours in hawaii and my mother played tennis with his wife. He said, oh, how long have you been here . I said, oh, two nights. He said, oh. Then he laughed. Then we heard later that urate and i and the few female reporters, he wanted to close it down for women reporters. He decided then that no women could spend the night in the field and that meant that we couldnt cover things because its not like you could call uber and say get me out of here. I have to be home for my bedtime. So, women all banded together, and we managed to get that changed. I think women matters because the women of our era were starting to get emboldened. It was the 1960s. What happened to women before us they would often buy into this myth that you cant do these things. I was a little bit that way myself, but the 60s are coming and the times, theyre a changing, so we were braver and we fought things. Start thinking about your questions. Were going to get to questions in about three minutes. If you dont have ones, ill call on you anyhow. What do you think . I think the military at that time was very paternalistic with us, like denbys story. Oh, you remind me of my daughter, and they would really say things like why arent you writing about widows and orphans. Occasionally, they would say, okay, youre here. You know, youre such a morale boost. Could you just go around the fire base and pose for photos . Pose for photos with with the kids there. You know, there was this weird disconnect. You had this legitimate press pass and were trying to write about combat. Yes, there were show girls in vietnam, and there were also nurses, but reporters very few. And it was very hard for them to see you as a professional. This is why i mean im sitting here and im just awestruck because anything we have been able to do in iraq and afghanistan, bosnia, the middle east, the horn of africa, really is owed to the women who have gone before. Edie, i suspect that maybe who any American General who told you you couldnt do something might have had an adjustment made to personality. I would like to start out by echoing laura and paying tribute to denby, urate and kate web. Kate web captured in cambodia and one of the very few people to come out alive, but i would also like to say that we were all products of the dawn of womens liberation. We were that generation that really started to believe that women could do anything that we put our minds to. And in a sense, thats what i think made a difference for all of the women who came of age and into this profession of being war correspondents and Foreign Correspondents starting in vietnam. We, as a whole group, were actually able to prove that women actually do have what it takes to cover wars and disasters. Unlike what aps then Foreign Editor ben bassett believed. Not that were naming names. I always felt that i was grateful that i could prove that he was wrong, and that i was able to do it not just in vietnam but in the many other wars i went on to cover. The other thing that i wanted to say about women was, you know, just because we were there and we were working hard doesnt mean that, at least for me, on many occasions i wouldnt use the fact that i was a woman to try to get information and to get stories because one of the things i learned instantly on arriving in vietnam was there was so few american women there that you could basically talk to any man about anything. And particularly in the military, where i actually did not know that much, you could ask them to explain things to you, or you could ask what might sound like a stupid question coming from a man and often would elicit great quotes for a story. I got no problem with that. I really dont. If they want to cough up the information, thats theyre problem. Lets go to some questions. I think you were probably first. You want to tell us who you are and who youd like to ask a question of. My names dee young. Could you tell us something that you hear from American People and from vietnamese or any other nation countries that people say about and how do they express their emotion about the wars . About how people today when you were in vietnam, when you hear the people say, when americans say or vietnamese or some other countries stay how do people feel emotionally about the war when they were reporting . What kind of emotions did you hear from the people of vietnam, i think thats your question, about the war when you were there and reporting on the war . What did you hear . What do they feel about you how did they feel about you as american journalists covering the war . I could answer just kind of briefly because i lived with the veietnamese family in the heart of saigon. It was so bizarre. They were just going about their business in the war. They were trying to make a living and trying to survive. And they didnt think of me as anything unusual at all because i was working too, so we didnt really discuss the war at all. We were just kind of going about our business. Yes, getting through life. Im so sorry. No, no, please. One of my great disappointments about having been in vietnam for almost two years, i did not write enough about the veietnamese people. I was so focused on the americans. For a freelancer, i would be very hard to get a story published and i regret it terribly. Thank god for Gloria Emerson who went there and wrote day of day about the vietnamese people. We went through the villages and the devastation and people crying. It was heartbreaking to see how much the vietnamese people suffered. Id just like to say that i think i echo what they said. There was a tremendous amount of suffering, and one of the stories that i did want to write was about the impact of the war on the South Vietnamese because we wrote about all the american casualties, but we didnt write about the massive South Vietnamese casualties. And in order to do this, i had to go and find a South Vietnamese family that had lost this woman had lost either three or four sons, and she had one who was still fighting. She didnt know whether he was still alive, and she was living under the most horrible circumstances in a shack where she didnt even have walls of her own. She had a roof over the walls of the two adjoining huts, and so i think that there was a tremendous amount of suffering, but i think a lot depended on the economic class of the people. I think there was a certain middle class in South Vietnam that sort of rolled with the punches and some who made money, but i think a lot of the very poor, the poorer people, really, really suffered. Maam . My name is peggy lewis and im with trinity washington university. We are so proud of you and so grateful to all of you for being here. I have a number of students and faculty here from the university who are aspiring to be journalists, but i wonder what your thoughts were when you heard Brian Williams embelli embellishing his experience and you were there. Im going to leave it to these ladies to decide if they want to answer. Its your floor. Anybody want to is that a no thank you. Im not trying to make you Say Something you dont want to say, but im certain women who had been there covering it, to see a man who embellished and was taken out of the anchor chair for the embellishment is it a gender issue . I dont know that it is. You have students here this evening . Are you guys up there in the rafters . Raise your hands. I think its an okay question, but it doesnt have to do with being a man. It would be anyone who would embellish and still have this position of stature and speaking out to the American People. You worry for them and feel sad and think, why did you do that. Journalism 101, accuracy, accuracy, accuracy. After that, theres really nothing. Its not about anybody else. Its about you and your accuracy. Im not commenting on mr. Williams. Im commenting on journalism, the journalism profession. Im a Political Communications student at gw. Thank you so much for being here. Raise your hands. Theres a great book by tim obrien, the things theyve carried. Its a fictitious account. I was hoping that you ladies could possibly share either some things that you brought along with you in your own bags as you traveled along or some of the momentos you picked up along the way. Thats a great question. Did you have a good luck charm . Did you have something you always had bottom of your bag . I know it was very important for me to still have some kind of femaleness out there. Im 6 feet tall. I mean, this is an amazon, walking through the jungles. As it should be. Dressed in fatigues, combat boots, carrying a pack, the whole thing. You know, i always kind of wore maybe like a yellow tshirt underneath my fatigues. I did put on lipstick every now and then. One of the nicest compliments i ever got after a couple of days on patrol in the rain, in the mud, sleeping in a fox hole with somebody, and the guy says to me, maam, i dont know how you do it, but you still smell better than we do. [ laughter ]. I took i was always thinking of eating. When im nervous, i like to eat. We had sea rations, which were canned. I would take an onion, saigon, and there was a little store there in the era, and they had a can of wine. Figuring this is going to be my last day on earth, so im going to have some wine with my feast. I didnt know that. I was also into the lipstick, nail polish, sort of wearing combat fatigues, but also trying to look like a woman. And i try and take that wherever i went. I also tried to sneak along some biscuits and cookies, stuff that was not part of any kind of rations. I dont remember taking anything with me, but something ive carried or kept is a small helicopter that was made from hospital junk. Iv tubing, some needle caps, and its a perfectly constructed miniature helicopter with a small rotor. It was made by a young boy who was, i think, about 10, who had been shot in the spine from an american chopper. He was paralyzed. What he did was create this helicopter from the junk in the hospital, and he was selling it for, you know, 25 cents or whatever, to raise money for himself and for his family. So ive always kept that very close by. Its usually on my desk. I keep it as a reminder of what war does. Thank you. Sir . Good evening. Gary thomas. Im a retiree. First off, i have to remind you the marines isnt the smallest service, it is the coast guard. Thank you. For all five of you for what you continue to do for role models, thanks. Denby, early in your career, you made career decisions about your professional life and personal life that sometimes had to be conflicted, and sometimes dealing with the fact that bob was also a journalist, brett was born overseas, things like that. Can you talk a little bit, for the younger people out here, how you made those decisions. How did you judge your personal life, professional life, and how did you make it work out in the end . Gary and i know each other, and he has a wife who is a pioneer, also. Shes an admiral in the u. S. Coast guard. We ran the 14th district on our island of oahu. I think, for me, i cant say there was a pattern. I just was alone for a long time in vietnam before i was married, reporting alone, and things kind of fell together. Then i always kept working when i was married. I dont know how i did it. It wasnt really a conflict. It just kind of fell along, fell together as i went along. I think one thing that struck me very dramatically was my decision to leave vietnam and to see how seductive war is. I knew i didnt want to be someone who went from one war to the next, and be kind of a war groupie. I couldnt make a life. I wrote once that i wanted roots that went down to the source of water. And at the time, when i was in vietnam, i wasnt sure what that would have meant, and i was too young to be thinking about that. But when i went back to vietnam in 1989, it was the first time, and i travelled with a small group, all the way through the country. I was in saigon, and i did the memory walk of the places i had lived. I realized, there was a moment when it just hit me, i thought of my daughter who was then 8, and i wanted to go home. I missed the life that i had created. I think that was when i really realized that i had done that, that i had somehow chosen or life had chosen me. I didnt want to just go from war to war, and i had to make another life, which i did. But its, you know, the tradeofs a trade offs are always there, and you do the best you can at the time. Barbara, can i Say Something . Please. I think of all of us here, im the only one who actually stayed being a Foreign Correspondent and a war correspondent for 25 years. And i think that it definitely was a tradeoff, particularly for my generation. Right. I think it would have been impossible for me to have covered all the wars and conflicts and gotten on planes and run off all over the world, and to have been married and raised a family. So it was a choice that i made, and i have had an incredible life. But it was a choice that i made. Hi. Im judith. My question is directed to most of you. Many of you had been both reporters before and after the vietnam war. My question is, how did it change the environment for women, both your life before and then coming back afterward . And my question is a little twofold. Also between you and other women journalists after the war, was there a different level of respect or ease because you had had the experience or no . No. No, no, no, no. Vietnam was, i remember first coming back from the war, and i was looking for a job in television, which was my experience. It was like, oh, yeah, you were in vietnam, but you dont know film and tape. It was like, oh, that was there, but this is now and you dont you know, there was a time when vietnam just was it wasnt almost heard. I remember when i went home, i was in the drugstore where i had been for years and years. They said, laura, i havent seen you for a while. I said, i was in vietnam for the last two years, and i was living in paris the past few years. Paris . Oh, tell us about paris. For a time, vietnam was erased in consciousness. For me, i agree. Vietnam was the war that everyone wanted to forget. When i came back, i went back to san francisco. I remember all my friends saying, oh, how was it . Did you have an interesting time . Yes, i did. Well, heres whats been going on while you were away. Professionally, for me, it was very positive because i left vietnam in like august of 1973. Then there was the war that broke out. I was one of by then, working for the ap, and wes gallagher, who sent me to vietnam, then sent me to israel and sent the other reporter to cairo. Professionally, it was a positive because we had proven that women could actually do the job. I think, one thing, shes talking about her job, and laura also, but it also is emboldening personally. You think, youve been in vietnam and youve covered that. Then things i didnt really know my profession and my craft, i went from being writing about parties to writing about wars. I needed to learn the craft. I needed to be a police reporter. I needed to cover courts. I needed to do politics. That gave me the guts to do that, even if i didnt understand it and i thought itd be hard. Hi. My name is meg. Im a student reporting here for the summer, so its awesome to see all of you. Im wondering, was there ever a moment when you were reporting or when youre stationed out in vietnam, when you just really, really wanted to go back home to the u. S. . While we were there working, i really didnt. I felt that it was such an amazing story. But it was very lonely. And i knew denby was out there, but i didnt know her. We were not friends. There were so few women. When i was out on patrol, i was with the guys. There was camaraderie. I felt really, you know, important, engaged, alive. After a couple days, go back to my little room in saigon, all alone, no one to really talk with. It was hard. Really had to say, okay, let me get out of saigon and back on patr patrol, back where the story was. We have i see a young man im sorry on the left. Well probably tie it off with you. Sir . Im sorry. Manners are terrible. Trying to learn patience right now. No, no. Its very hard to see. Its all right. Im so sorry. Aloha. I recently just moved here from maui. Graduated in 2012 from the best school west of the rockies. Anyway, my question is two parted. This is your job, and i understand that, and its an amazing job to have. But there are so many tragedies, so many things that maybe i shouldnt bring up, but its a question i want to know. How did you stay focused . How did you just like drain everything out and just remember that this is your job and your job is very important, because without your job, we wouldnt know any of the things youve put down in history. Also, i dont know about you guys, but its kind of hard. I just moved out here sorry you know. Jump in whenever you want here. Youre obviously very aware that covering a war, you see a lot of sadness, a lot of death, a lot of fear, a lot of injuries amongst troops. Journalists, you know, ill just say it, and jump back in where you want to, reporters are very famous for, oh, it doesnt get to me. We do the job and push it out of our minds and we go ahead and do what you know, its our job. Thats why were there. People handle things differently. It would depend on your question is really good. It would depend on the temperament of the individual. You wont know it until you get into something really hard, how youll handle it. I remember watching gone with the wind, and watch scarlet walk through a hospital with dead people, and people seeking her help. That was fiction. For me, i found out when i saw something terrible in vietnam, i did that. I closed it out. It was automatic. I didnt think about it. It was like a veil, to just keep going and not get deeply not bring it all in, like you were saying. How do you do it . So mine was a strange thing that happened automad icaltically. I think it comes back. Weve all read about young troops with posttraumatic stress. They tell us its a matter of resilience which is, you know, you acknowledge the stress, acknowledge what has happened to you, but how do you develop the techniques of resilience, to keep moving . Ill share a story. It was not in a war zone, but i walked into the room of a young marine who had been wounded. Were chatting about, where i had been in afghanistan and where he was wounded in afghanistan. This young marine had done a really hard time. I thought i was making a light hearted remark, something like, i would never be able to be in the area that you were in. It was so hard. It was so dangerous, et cetera. This young man looks at me and says, look, were all afraid. Anybody out there who tells you theyre not afraid, theyre lying. But its that ability, perhaps, to put one foot, you know, the soldiers who do this, the marines, the most awesome thing that you see, i think, in a war zone, is, of course, theyre afraid, but they still put one combat boot in front of the other. Thank you so much. I also have i think its important, too, one of the things that is very significant is that if theres meaning, if theres a reason to tell the story, ill do anything. I think that there is among the best journalists i know, a sense of mission and calling. People are doing the work because theyre passionate about it, that carries you, too. I think, yeah, i mean, i think the challenge is always, how do you keep the heart alive . How do you keep the heart open and not get numb . That takes, you know, a lot of work. I think one of the gifts of the reporting and one of the gifts of sort of entering into anything thats hard is that it takes you deeper into yourself. If you can find ways to work through it, it will break you open and break you open into a richer and deeper connection to life. And one of the really great things about great reporting, and i think of Gloria Emerson, particularly, is being able to capture that emotion that youre watching. And translate it into words, into stories that humanize war. And i mean, none of us are zombies. We all have emotions. The real talent is to be able to put those emotions in a place that you can report on whats actually happening, and then at a time when youre writing or broadcasting, that you can convey the sense of that incident to a broader public. I also have another question, as well. I dont know if you guys are religious or anything, but how did you guys come out of this war . Were you guys did you guys have more strength in your religious resolving, whatever your views are, it doesnt matter, but did you guys come in like, how did you guys come out of this war . Did you guys have more resolve in your religious views, or were you was your faith in humanity broken down into nothingness . Im sorry. Yes, thats my question. All right. Ill tell you what, what were going to do, because we have little time left, and i want everybody to get a question in, were going to have one of you answer, and well move it along so we get laura, ill have you answer. Im working as a hospital chaplain now. I went to seminary from 2006 to 2009. I think vietnam took me deeper into my own life. The question you get, of course, we all have to reconcile with, is where was god in vietnam . Where was god in the holocaust . How can there be something so awful . I was interviewing a woman who has been a nurse in vietnam. This was a question i had struggled with. She said to me, as any soldier will say to you if you talk to them, well, i never loved like i loved in vietnam. I loved my wife and kids, but i love my buddies. The nurses will say there was something about the love i had for my patients. It was so intense and so different. Linda vand linda said, i know in that love, thats where god was. That was the moment that i thought, yes, god is in the love, not the bonds of the bullets. Hi, im kay kofman, a former worker. The question i have, and youve talked a little about it, is reintegrating once you got back at the time. The gis were not welcomed the way they are now. We were not talking about posttraumatic stress disorder. How was it for you to come back and, to the extent you had to reintegrate into society, what were the challenges for you at that point . Lets have one person take that on so we keep moving. The only thing id like to say is my views on the war changed when i was there. I was prowar, because i was anticommunist. Toward tend, i saw the tragedy and the waste of war. But coming back to america and seeing the antivietnam demonstrators broke my heart. While politically, i agreed with them, to hear them ho, ho, ho, theyre going to win. You know, it was very, very difficult to walk straight into that very hostile environment. Just as a, i think, her point is excellent. It really wasnt until the dedication of the Vietnam Memorial that we were able to separate the warriors from the war. I think one of the, perhaps, ultimate obscenity about vietnam is the soldiers who went were blamed for our losing it, and the result of the war is not the outcome. The outcome of the war is not the result of the people who fought that. By the time the memorial was dedicated, we could see that as a nation, finally. Lets get through three more quick questions. Im sorry to rush you. Thats okay. My name is annie. My question is, what are your thoughts about vietnam and the war before and after you came to vietnam, becoming reporters . In a sound bite, i can say i went with all the answers and i left with the questions. I saw the war in black and white before i went there, and when i came back, after knowing vietnamese and seeing more sides of the pictures, there are many shades of gray. Great answer. I think i might have to use that in other circumstances. My name is dan. Im in the theater. I have a huge military family background. My question for edith. Based on your pow experience, and im curious, given recent comments, my question to you would be, what advice would you give or say to somebody who says that pows are not war heros, because theyve been captured, given everything that youve seen . Thats a loaded question. Well, you know. But i believe that anyone who puts his or her life on the line, ready to sacrifice for their country, in any shape or form, is basically a hero in the broader sense of the term. And for those who were inpris imprisoned and captures, suffered terrible hardships and indignities, its magnified. Because they actually had to face an even greater test than their fellow soldiers who survived and went home to their families when their tours were up. The word hero, i personally believe, has come to be sort of a catch all word. Everyone is a hero in our culture. Everyone is a hero. As i say, i think that soldiers, say it was marines ready to sacrifice for their country, they all should fall in that category. I think it can also be heroic to heal, to come to terms to the war, for someone who tries to find beauty and meaning in life again, who has to learn to walk again, tie a shoe. For the family who stands beside him, for the children who learn that dad or mom is upset because of i think there are many things that are courageous that we sometimes overlook in our need to create heros. Healing is ultimately very heroic. Thank you very much. Sir, youre going to have the last question of the evening. No pressure. Sure. My name is hunter forte. My question is for all of you. How might you see yourselves in journalist or reporters in particular, female journalist and reporters, in this modern or current age of journalism . I wouldnt want to be a war reporter today. I think its so dangerous and so just random. One thing about vietnam is our enemy there, the north vietnamese, they wanted to get through the war and live. They werent going to kill themselves or kill civilians. They tried it once before i came, blew up a boat in saigon that served this delicious pepper crab, and a lot of vietnamese would go there. They grenaded this boat, and a lot of vietnamese were hurt. They realized right off the bat, that was not a way for them to win the war and win them over to their side. So they stopped. But the danger in the current war is the people that are an enemy, they dont care. They will kill civilians, they will torture people. We did not have, when people were cabture tucaptured, like was not tortured. Vietnam was plenty frightening, but in a different way. I think theres no gender bias anymore. I may be wrong, but when i see women reporters covering from the middle east, its now, if im correct, more than 60 are female. Nobody bats an eye that shes standing there with a flat jacket. I think the opportunities are amazing for women. However, journalism itself as a profession has changed, and thats a different panel discussion. In the military, i learned the lesson of vietnam, keep reporters as far as you can from the field. Which is impossible. We did something that cant be replicated today, which is a tragedy. Most of the news organizations dont have foreign bureaus. I think thats a huge change. As someone who works for an organization that still does have a lot of foreign bureaus, one of the rare american organizations that still does, there are a lot of women out on the front lines. The United States is not involved in many countries where there are conflicts going on. There are more civil wars today than there are intercountry conflicts. I think the fact that we live in a 24 7 world, where the communications and the interconnections are so instantaneous, and the fact that you have not only governments, but you have rebel fighters, and then you have extremist groups on every range. The players have grown dramatically, and i think that for all of that, it is much more dangerous to be out in the field on the front lines today. But there are plenty of women and plenty of men who are doing it, and plenty of men, young men and plenty of young women who really would like to be doing it. And on that note, we want to thank everyone for coming. I think its been a terrific conversation amongst our panelists and with you in the audience. We really do thank you for coming out tonight. You know, the News Business has been changing, i think, more rapidly with more volatility and faster than most of us can really keep up with it. But what it really does come down to at the end of the day is the reporter out there, filing under the most difficult of circumstances, making sure that the story does get to the American People. And these are four women who stand head and shoulders in making that happen. [ applause ] so i think well turn up the house lights so nobody everyone can see their way out. Thank you again