|
CNN AMERICAN MORNING WITH PAULA ZAHN
Interview with John Lawrence, Jack Smith
Aired April 5, 2003 - 09:26 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Want to bring in two very special guests on CNN today. In San Francisco, Jack Smith is with us, a former war correspondent for ABC News. And here in Kuwait with me is John Lawrence, who's working on behalf of "Esquire" and NPR and a long-time journalist for CBS and ABC as well, many years in Vietnam, wrote a book called "The Cat from Hue: A Vietnam War Story."
Great to have you both men here today.
All right, Jack, I want to start with you right now in San Francisco. Give us an idea, knowing that you came under intense battles in Vietnam during your time there, for viewers at home who do not quite understand what would drive a reporter into battle, as a former member of the U.S. military yourself and later a journalist, what is the drive and the appeal?
JACK SMITH, FORMER ABC NEWS WAR CORRESPONDENT: To be a war correspondent? It's the fascination for seeing major events unfold right in front of you. And to tell you the truth, war is dangerous and war is horrible, but there's also a short of thrill to it. You see human beings at their best and at their worst. And the story just literally falls into your hands and almost tells itself.
HEMMER: Is it so thrilling, John, that you can't avoid not coming?
JOHN LAWRENCE, "ESQUIRE" MAGAZINE: I came because I needed a job, and I enjoy covering big stories. But the thrill of battle is something that I'm now too old to feel. When I was in my 20s, I did feel it, as Jack suggests. But now that I'm in my 60s, it's harder and harder to get it up, just ...
HEMMER: Why is that?
LAWRENCE: Greater fear of being killed.
HEMMER: Yes. Jack, why would it be, then -- John was telling me your story about Vietnam in November of 1965, when your unit, I believe, maybe 300 strong at the time, took on a heavy and high number of casualties. Why is it that you, after seeing that firsthand, would make the decision to go back in?
SMITH: I have often asked myself, and I've never quite gotten the answer. I was simply -- after the war, I became a journalist, and I was overseas, and I just began to cover wars. And I surprised myself. I thought that I would be too frightened to do it. But I wasn't. As John so sagely says, it's a young man's game. And I, at the time, was a young man, and I could do it. I couldn't do it any more.
HEMMER: Wow. All right, listen, John, you were, you were telling me, one of the first unofficial embeds in the entire history of the Vietnam War. Tell us your story of what happened in the late 1960s.
LAWRENCE: A group of us wanted to make an hour-long documentary about the lives of the grunts, the American GIs, in the field in Vietnam. And we got permission from the 1st Cavalry Division to live with a company, Charlie Company, 2nd in the 7th. In fact, it was Jack Smith's old unit...
HEMMER: Wow.
LAWRENCE: ... from '65 that we spent three months with, living in the field, sharing the dangers, winning the trust of the soldiers so that eventually, the camera and the camera crew, the three of us Americans with them, became part of the landscape. And they didn't treat us as journalists any more but as one of them.
HEMMER: Yes, there were some who suggested there is a danger in getting too close to the story, too close to the Marines or the soldiers you're working with. At this point, I know you were embedded with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq. How do you believe the system is working right now as you look at it here?
LAWRENCE: It's astonishingly. The speed of the communications, the way in which a viewer can respond to events unfolding on tape or live in front of them is much more visceral than with reading a newspaper report or a wire service report or having an anchor report read to you. I think that the feelings of our viewers back home must be much more intense, watching the battle unfold live.
I'm impressed by the quality of the journalism, although it's been very sketchy at -- in parts. And -- but still, the journalistic ethic of trying to report as much as one can see is still there. And that's a good thing.
HEMMER: John, thanks, John Lawrence, "Esquire" magazine, NPR, working on a piece here.
I wanted to get back to Jack Smith, where we lost the satellite signal from San Francisco. But we've had some gremlins today.
Good to see you in person. Good luck to you, OK?
LAWRENCE: Thank you.
HEMMER: And be safe.
LAWRENCE: Thanks, Bill.
HEMMER: Jack Smith, again, thanks to you as well in San Francisco. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
|
