Dateline — Saigon (Documentary screening with producer and director Thomas D. Herman)

Link to the program recording here.

“If the government is telling the truth, reporters become a minor, relatively unimportant conduit to what is happening. But when the government doesn’t tell the truth, begins to twist the truth, hide the truth, then the journalist becomes involuntarily infinitely more important.” -- David Halberstam, The New York Times, in Dateline-Saigon

Southeast Asia. 1960's. Flash point of the Cold War. The award-winning documentary Dateline-Saigon tells the inspiring story of a small group of young journalists -- David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan, Malcolm Browne, Peter Arnett and the great photojournalist Horst Faas.

During the early years of the Vietnam War -- even as their own governments sought to discredit them–– these journalists reported truth on the ground vastly different from the rosy White House version, and all won Pulitzers.

Dateline-Saigon is a distant mirror to a present-day drama: the determination of courageous citizens to speak truth to power and hold the government to account. Narrated by Sam Waterston and produced and directed by Thomas D. Herman, the film combines the drama and high stakes of All the President's Men with the romance and danger of The Year of Living Dangerously.

This documentary is the third of three FCCT programs marking the 50th anniversary of the fall of Indochina to communism in April 1975.  Director Thomas D. Herman will be joining remotely from Boston.

Moderator: Dominic Faulder, FCCT vice president and Nikkei Asia associate editor.