The Evening News by Arthur Hailey Read Free Book Online Page B

he also took risks. On occasion he went along on missions to where the Viet Cong were operating, was sometimes in the midst of firefights, and in dangerous moments wondered, with normal fear , whether he would make it back alive . As it turned out, he always did and was seldom away more than twenty-four hours. Also, when he came back it was invariably with dramatic combat pictures plus human interest stories about young Americans in battle, the kind of fare that New York wanted . Following his plan shrewdly, Sloane didn't overdo the dangerous exploits and was usually available in Saigon for military and diplomatic briefings which, at the time, were newsworthy. Only much later would it be realized how superficial Sloane's kind of coverage had been and how-for television-dramatic pictures were a first priority, with thoughtful analysis and sometimes truth trailing far behind. But by the time that became apparent, to Crawford Sloane it didn't matter . Sloane's overall ploy worked. He had always been impressive on camera and was even more so in Vietnam. He became a favorite with the New York Horseshoe producers and was frequently on the evening news, sometimes three or four times a week, which was how a correspondent built up a following , not only among viewers but with senior decision makers at CBA headquarters . Harry Partridge, on the other hand, stayed with his own game plan and operated differently. He sought out deeper stories which required longer investigation and which took him, with a cameraman, to more distant parts of Vietnam. He made himself knowledgeable about military tactics, American and Viet Cong, and why sometimes those of both sides didn't work. He studied the balance of forces, stayed in forward areas gathering facts on ground- and air-attack effectiveness, casualties and logistics. Some of his reports contradicted official military statements in Saigon, others confirmed them, and it was that second kind of reporting-faimess to the U.S. military-that separated Partridge and a handful of others from the majority of correspondents reporting out of Vietnam . The bulk of reportage on the Vietnam war was, by that time, negative and adversary. A generation of young journalists -some of them sympathetic to anti-war protesters at homedistrusted, at times despised, the U.S . military, and most media coverage reflected that conviction. An example was the enemy's Tet offensive.
    The media proclaimed Tet as a total, smashing communist victory, a claim which calmer research two decades later showed to be untrue . Harry Partridge was one who, at the time, reported that U.S. forces at Tet were doing much better than they were being giver! credit for; also that the enemy was doing less well than generally reported and had failed in some of its objectives. At first senior Horseshoe producers queried those reports and wanted to delay them. But after discussion, Partridge's record of solid accuracy won out and most were aired . One Partridge report which was not aired involved a criticism of negative personal opinion presented in a news context by the venerable Walter Cronkite, then anchorman for CBS . Cronkite, reporting from Vietnam, declared during a CBS "post-Tet special ” that "the bloody experience of Vietnam ” would "end in stalemate ,” and "for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us . . .”
    He continued, "To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe . . . the optimists who have been wrong in the past .”
    Therefore, Cronkite urged, America should "negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could .”
    Because of its source, this strong editorializing-intertwined with honest news-had tremendous effect and gave, as a commentator put it, "strength and legitimacy to the anti-war movement .”
    President Lyndon Johnson was reported as saying that if he had lost Walter Cronkite, he had lost the country .