A Bright Shining Lie
Writing about David
Halberstam last nite got
me thinking today about another Vietnam war journalist -- Neil Sheehan.
Sheehan won a Pulitzer for his book, A Bright Shining Lie.
He
covered the war from deep in
Vietnam in the early 1960s. When he returned to the U.S., he then broke
the Pentagon
Papers story in 1971 in
the New
York Times with a series of
absolutely devastating reports. The Pentagon Papers was basically a
gigantic study commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
that documented three decades of American involvement in Southeast Asia
-- from the 1940s to the 1960s, cutting cleanly across both political
parties and four administrations. It's quite a read, I must say.
I was fortunate to meet Sheehan in 1991 when I graduated from the University of Lowell in Massachusetts. Sheehan was booked to speak at my graduation, and since I was a history major, I was dying to meet him and have him sign my book (which was the size of a brick). I interviewed him for the school paper and also a local paper in town. I had wanted to set up an interview when he arrived on campus, but the university brass would not help me at all. I tried everything and everyone. No help. So how many "Sheehans" are in the phone book in Washington, DC? I called them all! Finally, Neil picked up. And it turned out that, contrary to the university's contention that he didn't want to be bothered, he was actually happy to be interviewed.
After our two hour conversation, which was captivating, I asked if we could meet when he arrived at the school so he could sign my book. He was happy to, he said. We made plans to meet at the reception the university was having for him before his graduation speech. Perfect. The trouble was, as I found out later, that "reception" was only for "honors" students. The smart kids. And I only had a B. So, back to the university administrators I went. But this time I was asking for special permission to enter their "palace of special people" to meet the guy I had just interviewed. No go. Absolutely not, I was told. Honors students only. Nice.
So, I was pissed, as you could imagine. I mean ... I had studied Sheehan's work in class, I had just spoken to the guy himself for a couple of hours, I wrote two articles based on the interview, he had consented to a meeting, and now the snobs at ULowell were preventing me from meeting him because I got a B. I appealed to the Dean. Nope. Shut down.
So, screw it. I had a friend sneak me in to their prissy little reception. And I brought a couple of friends along just for fun. They got Bs too. But we were all Sheehan fans. When we walked in (through the back door, of course) we found Sheehan standing in the center of the room talking to the Dean and a bunch of honors students all finely dressed in their fancy new honors suites. We walked right up and introduced ourselves and had a fine conversation. The Dean was not a happy camper. But I was.
Sheehan won a Pulitzer for his book, A Bright Shining Lie.
He
covered the war from deep in
Vietnam in the early 1960s. When he returned to the U.S., he then broke
the Pentagon
Papers story in 1971 in
the New
York Times with a series of
absolutely devastating reports. The Pentagon Papers was basically a
gigantic study commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
that documented three decades of American involvement in Southeast Asia
-- from the 1940s to the 1960s, cutting cleanly across both political
parties and four administrations. It's quite a read, I must say.I was fortunate to meet Sheehan in 1991 when I graduated from the University of Lowell in Massachusetts. Sheehan was booked to speak at my graduation, and since I was a history major, I was dying to meet him and have him sign my book (which was the size of a brick). I interviewed him for the school paper and also a local paper in town. I had wanted to set up an interview when he arrived on campus, but the university brass would not help me at all. I tried everything and everyone. No help. So how many "Sheehans" are in the phone book in Washington, DC? I called them all! Finally, Neil picked up. And it turned out that, contrary to the university's contention that he didn't want to be bothered, he was actually happy to be interviewed.
After our two hour conversation, which was captivating, I asked if we could meet when he arrived at the school so he could sign my book. He was happy to, he said. We made plans to meet at the reception the university was having for him before his graduation speech. Perfect. The trouble was, as I found out later, that "reception" was only for "honors" students. The smart kids. And I only had a B. So, back to the university administrators I went. But this time I was asking for special permission to enter their "palace of special people" to meet the guy I had just interviewed. No go. Absolutely not, I was told. Honors students only. Nice.
So, I was pissed, as you could imagine. I mean ... I had studied Sheehan's work in class, I had just spoken to the guy himself for a couple of hours, I wrote two articles based on the interview, he had consented to a meeting, and now the snobs at ULowell were preventing me from meeting him because I got a B. I appealed to the Dean. Nope. Shut down.
So, screw it. I had a friend sneak me in to their prissy little reception. And I brought a couple of friends along just for fun. They got Bs too. But we were all Sheehan fans. When we walked in (through the back door, of course) we found Sheehan standing in the center of the room talking to the Dean and a bunch of honors students all finely dressed in their fancy new honors suites. We walked right up and introduced ourselves and had a fine conversation. The Dean was not a happy camper. But I was.
I found your story about Neil Sheehan very interesting. I was also surprized to hear he had won the Pulitzer Prize. I was in Korea with Neil in 1960-61. I was part of PIO office of the 7th division, and Neil was the editor of the division paper, "the Bayonet" I wasn't a reporter or anything like that, but I was encourage to write a story about troops training in the field. I can remember trying to get the story approved, past Neil's desk. We tried several times, finally he approved it. I know he didn't care for it but, was tired of hearing about it. Bernard Weinraub,who also ended up with the New York Times, was in the same office.
Posted by jack daghlian on July 28, 2008 at 08:56 AM JST #