Word: viets
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Anyone who switched on television last week could not dodge the images, old and new, of Viet Nam: U.S. helicopters retreating from Saigon ten years ago, gaily garbed celebrators parading through the streets of that city, now named after Ho Chi Minh, on the tenth anniversary of the Communist victory. The screen poured forth pictures of life in Viet Nam today: peasants toiling in paddies, cyclists pedaling along busy avenues, children smiling into the camera lens. Yet those scenes did not tell the full story; network correspondents were not allowed free access to "re-education camps," where thousands of Vietnamese...
...flare-up was in response to a monologue by Le Duc Tho, 73, who sat opposite Kissinger during the Paris peace talks in the early 1970s and still serves in Viet Nam's Politburo. Smiling like a kindly uncle but persistently ducking the questions of Nightline's Ted Koppel, Tho thanked "the American people for their support and contribution to our present victory." That smug expression of gratitude, delivered about a war that holds such painful memories for Americans, further galled Kissinger. On ABC's Good Morning America next day, he reiterated his complaint about television's handling...
Even though much of the exhaustive television reporting from Viet Nam was quite good, Kissinger's comments reflected an understandable uneasiness among many viewers about the total picture presented. Correspondents for all three networks did point out the country's odious human rights record, but, of course, there were no pictures to accompany the commentary. Since television relies on images to get its message across, the words about Viet Nam's abuses may have faded from viewers' minds, while the footage of happy Vietnamese lingered...
...Viet Nam staged last week's celebrations with the American press, especially the networks, very much in mind. When NBC News Vice President Gordon Manning approached Hanoi officials a year ago about beaming live satellite reports back to the U.S. to mark the fall of Saigon, he found looks of surprise. "They kept saying that the 40th anniversary of the Vietnamese Communist Party's independence day (Sept. 2) would be important," said Manning. "The tenth anniversary was nothing." Network executives acknowledge that the Vietnamese built up the April 30 parade into an extravaganza of 10,000 marchers...
...networks provided live pictures from Viet Nam, but the costs did not seem worth it. NBC News spent an estimated $1.2 million for its live coverage, including four Today programs, with Bryant Gumbel as host, from Ho Chi Minh City. ABC News paid about the same, mostly for four Nightline shows from Indochina and reports on Good Morning America. CBS decided against live broadcasts, relying instead on taped segments (and spending only about $450,000). Howard Stringer, executive vice president of CBS News, said that his network believed live coverage in a restricted society like Viet Nam's promised...