War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters who Covered Vietnam (Hardcover)

by Tad Bartimus (Author), Tracy Wood (Author), Kate Webb (Author), Laura Palmer (Author), Edith Lederer (Author), Jurate Kazickas (Author) "One afternoon in the fall of 1966, I went to the Saigon Zoo..." (more)
Key Phrases: women reporters, North Vietnamese, New York, South Vietnamese (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Often only hours before you took that first sip of ricard or your martini... you had been watching a medic give up on a kid of eighteen or nineteen and flip a cold poncho over his face. Often you could hear the artillery of a battle across the Saigon River. So Kate Webb, a former UPI correspondent, recalls her days as a reporter in Vietnam, moving back and forth between the devastation of the field and the decadent and chaotic nightlife of Saigon. Her story is part of War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters Who Covered Vietnam, written by former correspondents including Denby Fawcett, Jurate Kazickas and UPI's Webb and Tracy Wood. The book collects nine reporters' memoirs that recall the period of 1966 1975, when women's reportage, as Gloria Emerson notes in her introduction, was much rarer than today.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Women correspondents in Vietnam were a rarity and frequently discouraged by the military as well as by paternalistic editors who resisted giving them combat assignments. But the nine women reporters whose harrowing war stories are recounted here e.g., Bartimus (Associated Press), Edie Lederer (Associated Press), Anne Merrick (ABC-TV), Laura Palmer (ABC and NBC Radio), and more were determined to go to Vietnam to cover the biggest story of their generation. In the course of their work, one was captured and imprisoned by the enemy and two others were seriously injured. For each woman Vietnam was a life-changing event, her "phantom limb," as Bartimus calls it. These powerful stories of sex, drugs, fear, adventure, horror, and pathos, as well as "the unabashed love" that these reporters observed the men on the battlefield expressing to one another, offer a new perspective on the war and warfare journalism that should be in demand in all public and academic libraries. Highly recommended. Faye Powell, Portland State Univ. Lib., OR
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (August 20, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375506284
• ISBN-13: 978-0375506284
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #715,991 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where was I?, September 1, 2002

By	Marilyn Engelke (Bay Village, OH United States) - See all my reviews

" Having been born in the early forties, Vietnam was MY war. Unlike the women of WAR TORN, I busied myself with raising a family in the good, old, safe & sound USA. I cannot say enough about the impact this book had on me. These selfless, courageous, determined correspondents took me on a tour of a Vietnam that I never knew existed. Reading WAR TORN was truly an educational, eye-opening experience for me. They way these women express their adventures, insights, and emotions is absolutely glorious. This is a must read for people of all ages."

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Women who broke barriers, September 1, 2002

By	"jas7665" (Naples, FL United States) - See all my reviews

I enjoyed this book because, although I was fairly young during the Vietnam War, it's events shaped my generation....The book is interesting because of the different experiences & writing styles of the nine authors. And, yes, all of the authors have definite opinions as to the role of the USA there.
Although it is short & easy to read, I found it taught me a number of things about the people involved; the military, journalists and civilians caught in that mayhem.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Different Look at Vietnam, October 20, 2002

By A Customer

The stories in War Torn are riveting and capture the will and determination of women journalists to have equal access to cover the war. But they also bring Saigon and Vietnam in the 60s and 70 alive to anyone too young to remember. I applaud these women for making the Vietnam war accessible to a generation who grew up after the war.
War Torn leave the reader happy and sad but thoroughly enchanted. For anyone who is a history buff, a traveler planning to visit Vietnam or simply a lover of great tales, I highly recommend this book.