Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/12/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]When I wrote my previous message on this subject I had no idea the = topic was already being discussed. I=B4d been away and off the = Luglist for the past three weeks. Let me now now add something personal on this issue. With the = "ultimate Photographer=B4s War" I ment to stress the undeniable fact = that no war in history was ever so accessible for the news media as = the one in Vietnam. Not before, and most likely, not ever again! = During my all too short tenure as a combat cameraman in Vietnam it = was only I myself who set the limits for what to cover. The = hospitality and generosity of the US Army and Marine Corps was just = incredible! And keep in mind that I=B4m a Swede. And you all know = what the Swedish government thought and publicly said at that time = about the US involvment. Eventually it was the South Vietnamese authorities that decided to = through me out at the end of =B472. The rest of the war I spent in = Cambodia where the US forces never officially were. And there was = certainly neither any generosity or hospitality shown by the = Cambodian forces towards us journalists. Those of us who have covered, or have tried to cover, later US = military involvments certainly know that we will most likely never = again get as close to the action as we were allowed in Vietnam. Of = course, more of us will survive, but will we ever again be able to = show the real truth about the wars? Marc James Small wrote: > >Well, I for one, feel a bit aggrieved at the job done by Western >photo-journalists in Viet-Nam. The US, for God's sake, was putting men IN >HARM'S WAY and the photo-journalists, by undermining their efforts, = stabbed >them rather dramatically in the back. It wasn't journalism: it was = trash. With all due respect for Marc=B4s true feelings I can only hope that = even he one day will come to realize that what we all the time = strived for was good honest news reporting. It wasn=B4t trash, thank = you, it was simply the truth! And that truth brought the boys home, = right? How many more young Americans do you think should have been = killed in that dead-end-alley, Marc? If you really mean what you say why don=B4t you say it to the loved = ones of those 135 brave and dedicated photographers who were killed = in Vietnam Yes, maybe we did stab the US military brass in the back. But I hear = very few of those praising that war today. It was simply a no-win = situation. Even without tha media "backstabbing". Claes