The Atlantic
The Women Who Changed War Reporting
Two new books show that diversifying the ranks of journalists served to diversify the kinds of stories that get told to the American public.
March 6, 2021
The Atlantic
Marines recovering a dead comrade while under fire in South Vietnam. Photographer Catherine LeRoy holds cameras behind them.Larry Burrows / The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty
In 1966, a young American journalist named Frances FitzGerald began publishing articles from South Vietnam in leading magazines, including this one. She was the unlikeliest of war correspondents born into immense privilege, a daughter of the high-WASP ascendancy. Her father, Desmond FitzGerald, was a top CIA official; her mother, Marietta Tree, a socialite and liberal activist. FitzGerald was raised with servants and horses, and she had to fend off advances from the likes of Adlai Stevenson (her mother’s lover) and Henry Kissinger. Her family contacts got her through the door of feature jou