Flashbacks: On Returning to Vietnam

New York: Random House, 1990. Fourth printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xv, [1], 206, [2] pages. Illustrations. Occasional footnotes. Morley Safer (November 8, 1931 - May 19, 2016) was a Canadian-American broadcast journalist, reporter, and correspondent for CBS News. He was best known for his long tenure on the news magazine 60 Minutes, whose cast he joined in 1970 after its second year on television. He was the longest-serving reporter on 60 Minutes, the most watched and most profitable program in television history. During his 60-year career as a broadcast journalist, Safer received numerous awards, including twelve Emmys, a Lifetime Achievement Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, three Overseas Press Awards, three Peabody Awards, two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, and the Paul White Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association. Morley's curiosity, his sense of adventure and his superb writing, all made for exceptional work done by a remarkable man." Derived from a Kirkus review: Safer returned to Vietnam, where he had spent a significant part of his career. In addition to a TV program, he returned with a journal, which offers an allusive amalgam of evocative wartime reminiscences and wry commentary on the current state of the Communist-led nation. The author still perceives distinctive differences between the dour North and easygoing South. Safer recalls his role in a broadcast that put shocking pictures of US troops torching a Vietnamese village on home-front TV sets. This time around, he quietly interviews General Vo Nguyen Giap, attends an edgy gathering of enemy veterans, and otherwise puts himself in touch with bygone battles. The author also documents the grassroots impact of Hanoi's tentative efforts to normalize relations with Washington in hopes of securing economic aid. An absorbing log from an acute observer probing for realities amidst the ambiguities of a turbulent past and an uncertain present.