. >>> in october of 1995 several vietnam war correspondents including peter arnett and bernard kalb shared their experiences covering the war. this conference was hosted by the non-profit organization no greater love. it's about an hour. -- >>> i got to vietnam late, in my terms about the middle of 1959 oorps. the vietnam war was just a cloud on the horizon at that point. the term vietcong had not been invented. actually the term vietcong was invented by the south vietnamese government. there were a few communist guerillas left over from the struggle against the french. they would occasionally pop up to stage quick raids and disappear. we had an ambassador there, the american ambassador by the name of eldridge der borrow, a rolly, poly figure with a rather rotarian manner whose gawk i can wife insisted on wearing the vietnamese dress in which she looked rather ridiculous. at the time the only foreign reporters in sigh gong with a handful of stringers and visitors like myself from hong kong. evidently unaware that vietnam had been a nation for about 3,000 years, der borrow kept telling us t

i'm bernard kalb, i yield back the balance of my time. spent about 500 years in vietnam in a very short time. when i first got there some 30 or so years ago, i quickly bought up all the porcelain and was ready to leave except i got a memo from new york suggesting i stay behind and do a few stories. when i think back to the early years of the war, i think chow chum many things were prior to the huge u.s. invasion. there was a comradery that existed not only among reporters, but as well with the vietnamese. of course, in the early days of the war, there was indeed censorship. the vietnamese on the other side of the table was a chap designated for a job he didn't particularly care for, and the question was for him to explore the copy to see what words might be deleted that might portray a slightly different, more positive picture back for readers in the united states. i remember on one occasion when there was a confrontation between the catholics and the buddhists coming out of the presidential palace, i remember writing a story talking abou