Leading war journalist Peter Arnett knew best how to cover conflict zone

His demise at 91 leaves a great legacy for aspiring reporters of all countries

By Tirthankar Mitra

Having dodged bullets and ducked bombs for a considerable part of his working life, trailblazing war journalist Peter Arnett died in his bed. He was 91. Arnett managed to stay ahead of death in the different theatres of war. In the process, he brought eye witnesses to the world from the paddy fields of Vietnam to the deserts of Iraq, Arnett leaves behind a legacy for aspiring journalists and historians for generations to come.

Intrepid, fearless and a beautiful story teller be it behind a type writer or in front of a camera, Arnett was one of the greatest war correspondents of his times. Having won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for his Vietnam reporting, he never looked back.

He seemed to have been destined for a career in journalism when young Arnett stepped into the office of Southland Times, a local newspaper in New ,Zealand. He sat down at his little desk and had an “enormous delicious feeling that I had found my place *, he said.

Challenges came his way and Arnett accepting then emerged with flying colours. He became a household name in 1991 after he broadcast live updates during the first Gulf War from Iraq.

He cut his journalistic teeth in Vietnam which the French had abandoned after being defeated at Dien Burn Phu. After joining Associated Press, he was injured in what be are known as Double Seven Day Scuffle while trying to cover a protest of Buddhist monks against the South Vietnamese government.

In one of his outstanding dispatches after the Battle of Be n Tre, Arnett wrote ” It became necessary to destroy the town to save it ‘ a United States Army major said today.

He was stating the decision about US commanders to bomb and shell the town regardless of civilian casualities to rout the Vietcong. Arnett never revealed his source except to say it was one of the four officers he interviewed that day.

He covered the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Gulf War. and his account of civilian damage in the latter campaign was not well received by the coalition administration. Two weeks into the war he obtained an exclusive interview with Saddam Hussein.

Arnett interviewed Osama Bin Laden. His interview became the subject of s film, The War Story. Arnett stood up to be counted. Not taking any sides, he filed a report titled The Valley of Death in 1970 that US army had used sarin, s nerve agent against s group of deserting US soldiers in Laos.

In response Pentagon commissioned another report contradicting Arnett’s story. It concluded that the report was flawed and no sarin was involved. If awards and felicitation came his way, so did retrenchments after his nerve agent story. But Arnett had many takers. never having to rest on past glories.

A living legend of print and television journalism, cancer and age finally caught up with him ending his journey to unravel unpleasant truth. Otherwise, Arnett would have died in his boots. (IPA Service)