[chatter] [video] [gunfire] they are now firing back. Could you tell us what is happening here and what the situation is . I think this is the second or third day i was in vietnam. This is the special Landing Force . They were trying to get to the ridgeline. Just before you go to the high ridge over there. Move, ias they began to caught the crossfire and this young marine was hit badly. They needed help getting him out. And naturally i helped. It doesnt take much imagination to know what i was thinking. We need some help over here. I will give you a hand. Mr. Rather i see this young man cut down. And you say to yourself my god, this is somebodys son, brother, husband. When you are there if you let your emotions for a second out of you, then you will not be able to do what you need to do. Dan rather, cbs news. Mr. Rather very few people in a lifetime get to see this as an observer. We are inside the main pagoda now. A tank just popped his head around the corner. Mr. Rather your role is to show them and tell them as best you can what it is like, what it is really like. Somebody just spotted the tank. They opened up on the tank now. Mr. Rather as opposed to what some imagine it is like or telling you it is like. A lot of people believe that was ar, death. Fe they do fear that, but its not the big fear. The biggest fear is that they will somehow let their comrade down. Worthyoldier that is leaveto believe they somebody on the field and abandon him. This outfit was rained on yesterday, rained on again this morning. They are going to pay out here until they find the body of rudolph nunez. Everybody gets to be like brothers. Hes the best friend you can never have. [helicopter] ladies and gentlemen, please welcome dr. Don carlton, executive director of the Briscoe Center for American History at the university of texas at austin. [applause] dr. Carlton good afternoon. The Briscoe Center is delighted to sponsor this session this afternoon, which is titled the war and the Fourth Estate. We are especially proud to sponsor the session because the center houses a valuable archive of papers and photographs documenting the history of the American News media, including the papers of Walter Cronkite and morley safer, and the photographic archives of eddie adams, Steve Northrup and david kennerly. The Briscoe Center has produced an exhibit of documentary material selected from these and other collections relating to the various aspects of the vietnam war. This exhibit is titled vietnam evidence of war, and its currently on display of the third floor of the lbj library. I invite all of you who are attending this summit to come and visit our exhibit while you are here. Today we are honored to have two renowned journalists on our panel who will explore the crucial role that the media played in shaping perceptions of the vietnam war. Those panelists are peter arnett, a Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Awardwinning correspondent who has spent nearly a lifetime covering wars and International Crises for major American News organizations. He covered the vietnam war for the Associated Press for 13 years, from the buildup of u. S. Military advisers in the early 1960s to the fall of saigon in 1975. He wrote more than 2000 news stories from vietnam for the Associated Press. He has written several books, including his autobiography. Live from the battlefield. And his memoir on the vietnam war called the fall of saigon. And then dan rather. My friend dan rather has been a fixture in broadcast news for over six decades. During which he has won every major journalism award. Dan has interviewed every president since eisenhower and he has covered almost every important date line of the last 60 years, including of course extensive coverage of the vietnam war. Dan spent 43 years at cbs, 24 years of which he served as the anchor and managing editor of the cbs evening news. Today he is founder, president and ceo of news and guts, an independent Production Company specializing in nonfiction content. Our moderator is andrew sherry, Vice President of communications at the night foundation, the countrys leading funder of journalism and media innovation. As a journalist he was based in hong kong, hanoi, and paris. First for the afp in the dow jones where he became the regional editor of the far east economic review. One of his most memorable assignments including covering the opening of vietnam. Please join me in welcoming our panel today. [applause] mr. Sherry thank you for that intro. It is great to be here. We are very fortunate to be here with two reporters whose long and storied careers personify the healthy tension between a free press and government. Just a word on format. I want to spend the first half of the panel asking i will be leading questions to them so we can bring up a range of insights that they have to offer, which really go from experiences in vietnam to the evolution of the relationship between the press and the military in later conflicts, to look forward to the fragmentation of the media landscape and its applications implications are. Now, peter, you are in vietnam from probably, your first reporting trip in 1962, before the u. S. Military buildup. And you did not leave until 1975, after the fall of saigon. Mr. Arnett basically yes. Mr. Sherry why dont you set the scene for us. Mr. Arnett i was here through the Conference Call yesterday and i saw Henry Kissingers presentation. Overnight i made a few notes. [laughter] mr. Arnett i think its clear from the Panel Discussions at this conference, the important policy of president kennedy, and nixon involving vietnam were carefully concealed from the American Public to maintain deception. And the media policies of all three president s attended heavyhanded news manipulation and intimidation of reporters in the field and their superiors back home. The objective was to proceed with actions in vietnam that the objective was to proceed with actions in vietnam that have publicly debated would meet resistance at home and concern abroad. Our leaders endeavored to compel a powerful news industry with a long tradition of bold, moral reporting to bend to the whims of policymakers making questionable judgments on issues important to the American Public. Judgments often made far from the battlefields. In earlier significant american wars, the government, with official censorship, took upon itself the burden of deciding what news was fit to print. What information gathered by reporters in the field might harm the security of military operations or what might not. To keep on message in terms of achieving the overall objectives and keeping the support of the public at large. But not for the war in vietnam. An enterprise deemed too sensitive politically let me say that again. An enterprise deemed too sensitive to justify censorship. So from the beginning, as early as june 1962 when i arrived in saigon, assigned to the ap bureau, the beginning of the credibility gap waiting media and military relations that only worsened as the years went by. In the course of our discussion this afternoon i know we will track this evolved situation that continues to plague American Media relations. I will conclude these initial remarks by quoting a letter sent to president kennedy on june 18, 1963 by the president of the American Society of newspaper editors herbert kroeker, then editor of the harvard he refers to an incident with a buddhist protests in saigon to the policies of president noted dim in 1963. I was beaten up by quite Plainclothes Police and later arrested with my ap colleague Malcolm Brown and held on assault charges. His letter in part said, in recent weeks, as you are aware mr. President , there have been charges that the enemy secret police pommel, knockdown and kicked american reporters and smashed their cameras. It is not yet certain that all possible efforts are being made to prevent further deliberate obstacles to free reporting. Whatever the difficulties, we urge you to bear in mind the needs of the American People that have the fullest possible factual information from south vietnam, no matter what anyone may think is right or wrong about the situation there. This letter not only represented the full support of the main stream media about open reporting from vietnam at that time, but remained the view of editors and tv producers at home who supported the war in the work of journalists in the field for the entirety of the war. Mr. Sherry i hope people in the audience were taking notes as well. We will open it up for questions and comments at the end. That was an interesting insight about the importance of from the Mainstream Media. Dan, im interested in hearing this. He went back and forth between vietnam and new york. How different was it the first time you arrived . What type of reception did you get for your reporting and how much did your Network Support you in telling what you thought was the complete story . Mr. Rather i went the first time in october of 1965 and state the better part of a year. I was back three times after that but never for that long. To answer your question, when i went to vietnam it was clear to me and it remained clear to me throughout all the time i was there that i had the complete unmitigated support of not just cbs news as a division of cbs incorporated, with the full support of the corporate entity that owned cbs news. William s paley who had found a cbs news was still have the corporation. There was never any question whatsoever about having support of the brass back home. That was a long cbs news tradition. They helped establish it as the predominant position of electronic journals and in general. There was not any doubt about it. When i went the first time i was unprepared to cover the war. Perhaps it can be said of most correspondents that they are unprepared to cover the war. I had covered the indiapakistan war in the summer of 1965. But this was the first time i have been privileged to Cover American men and women. It was almost men in combat exclusively men in combat. I was prepared unprepared is an understatement. He was three days after i arrived. I quickly went north to icorp and covered a combat operation near ton key. That was the first time i had seen eyewitness to war in which my neighbors and the young sons of people all over the country was involved. I never got over the shock of it. The real screams of the wounded, the moans of the dying. When i saw the first one did american i had ever seen in combat i had no apology for saying i threw up and then i wept. Mr. Sherry what was the impact that your reporting was having back in the United States . Peter, you are writing for the Associated Press and it was being sent all around the world. What kind of feedback we do getting of the impact of your storytelling . Mr. Arnett for the first three months i was there in 1962 we were getting messages from Washington Bureau saying, how come their coverage in washington of the government, the pentagon, the state department, and the white house was 180 degrees difference from what was happening in vietnam . Those of us in vietnam were not concerned too much about our buddies in washington. We were concerned about what we were seeing in the field. When i was assigned the vietnam, the ap president said peter, report the truth, report when you see and we will support you all the way. When i arrived David Halberstam came from the New York Times, Malcolm Brown from the ap with a great photographer, stanley carnot was coming in and out of hong kong for time magazine, all of us were reported but we refining. What were refining . What were we finding . American advisers, 10,000 when i arrived, would go to saigon or meet in the field and start complaining about the reluctance of the south vietnamese military to listen to their advice. There was an incident at a battle in the first few days of 1963 where several American Helicopters were shot down and americans were killed on the ground. We were tipped off by one of the pilots that call this to tell us about this. Neil sheehan and the reuters guy flew in a helicopter to the scene. I drove down 40 miles south of saigon with steve stevens, a texan working for the stars and stripes of the time. We got our information from the americans on the ground. The information we were getting also politically was that the american role in vietnam was not working. I will add one whether point one point. In december 1962, the speaker of the Senate Mike Mansfield visited vietnam of the team. He asked to meet us at the hotel. We thought he wanted us to brief him. He briefed us on what he felt were the negatives about the regime, the information being picked up all week during his visit. He criticized the american embassy. And what was interesting is he went back and briefed president kennedy on his version of the war, which was very similar to our version. This did not stop the pressure because soon after that president kennedy called me the managing editor of the New York Times asked that he be reassigned. Mr. Rather when i first got the vietnam, from the very first moments i was in vietnam the distance between what was the reality on the ground, what you poor witness to, and what was being spoken of washington and being talked about all over the country was that such variance it was a shock. It was a shock to never subsided. From the moment you were in vietnam, you had to say to yourself what im seeing is not matching with the politicians are saying. The longer i was there, the greater this cap. Gap got. When i came out of vietnam the first time after being there almost a year i was made the White House Correspondent for cbs news. At any rate, i was in Associated Press johnson said perhaps you would like to come to the Briefing Room downstairs. Its called the situation room. We can give you a briefing on what is going on. I found it somewhat curious, a briefing by people who never been there. [applause] [laughter] they had only been there for a very short time. This never left my mind and it underscores much of what peter just referred to. Im down in the situation room and a good and decent american, a very intelligent gentleman gave her briefing on the battlefield situations. He pointed with his pointer towards one particular place on the cambodian border near what became known as the hook. He was describing the success of our armor there. One of two things is very evident. I hate to use the word, either he is lying through his teeth or he is vastly misinformed because just before i left saigon i had been in the very area which is swampy. Believe you me nobody takes armor in there. In short, it in cap sold and cap sold encapsuled. And i think he believes it. Right there was the nut of the problem for me. The people who would been there, people like Peter Barnett let me pause and say theres never been a braver or more a correspondent with more valor that was there for all those years. The kind of things that peter and Malcolm Brown reported was in such variance that if you had any decency as a journalist you had to say i have been there. I spent almost more than a year there. What i saw was in does not match this breathing im getting. If thats the briefing the president got, then we can see how the problem developed over the years. Mr. Sherry what you think it is that made the relationship between the press, military and government so different in vietnam than it was in world war ii or korea . It seems like some of the military assumed it was a problem with society or the press. But if the nature of the conflict was fundamentally different and it led people to behave differently. Which do you think . Mr. Arnett i will answer that. Censorship was a difference. Every member talking to walter to walterber talking cronkite about censorship and world war ii. He says i did not particularly liked it. I did have access to the whole war. He flew over normandy in a glider on dday. He said at least ahead access to the war. After the war we could come out and we know all about it. Censorship was not introduced into vietnam. I interviewed the secretary of state. He said he did not feel the climate Political Climate at the time would have supported that kind of onerous restrictions involving having censorship of the war theater. Ok. But without censorship we were free to go and report stories where we can find them. What is not understood is that each American Division that landed in vietnam came from hometown, from fort bragg, fort hood. The 25th infantry division, the pineapple division from hawaii. Those soldiers one of the folks back home to know what they were doing in vietnam. The Information Officers from these units would come to saigon and lobby for the attention of the media. Im sure dan was invited many times. The marines had a very Successful Operation to invite journalists. All the units wanted our appearance. I wrote 2000 stories, many written with these troops in the field. Kept getting invited back. So in terms of the antagonism between the military and the media, it did not exist in vietnam. If you feel antagonist . Mr. Rather quite t