William Russell, the great correspondent who reported the carnage of
imperial wars, may have first used the expression “blood on his hands”
to describe impeccable politicians who, at a safe distance, order the
mass killing of ordinary people.
The price of Vietnam being allowed to come out of isolation was the destruction of its health services
In reporting Bill Clinton’s visit to Vietnam, the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent declared that what the Vietnamese needed was “more economic growth”. The question begged: why send a reporter all the way to Hanoi when the British ambassador would have happily propagated this line?
Nuclear War, courtesy of NATO
Kosovo, like Vietnam, has liberal support. But what of our weapons?
Vietnam Now
John Pilger reported the Vietnam War for a decade, right up until the last day. Twenty years on he returns to find a country facing a new battle. This time there are no bombs and there is no napalm. But already the civilian casualties are mounting again.
Torture is news but it’s not new
Writing in the Daily Mirror, John Pilger recalls the news coverage of the war in Vietnam and how American atrocities and torture were not considered newsworthy. The same was true of the brutality of British colonial adventures.
US foreign policy has not changed since Vietnam and, potentially, it is more dangerous than ever
The other day, an Indonesian friend took me to his primary school where,in October 1965, his teacher was beaten to death, suspected of being a communist.
Heroes
The shabby treatment of returning combat soldiers from Vietnam is investigated. “On patrol… a hand would reach back, followed by a reassuring voice, ‘C’mon, man, let’s go!’ The voice would come from a street corner in the Bronx, a rural town in the Confederacy, a steel mill in Pennsylvania – little people’s America.” John Pilger’s […]
Do You Remember Vietnam
Three years after the fall of Saigon, Pilger returns to examine the new regime. “Do you remember Vietnam? Do you remember all those television pictures of far-away suffering, of reporters shouting over the noise of meaningless battles. Vietnam ran longer than Z Cars and at times had popularity ratings even higher than Kojak… Some nostalgia […]
Vietnam: The Quiet Mutiny
The incredible account of the break-up of the US military in Vietnam John Pilger’s first film, The Quiet Mutiny, made in 1970 for the British current affairs series World in Action, broke the sensational story of insurrection by American drafted troops in Vietnam. In his classic history of war and journalism, The First Casualty, Phillip […]
