On the Frontlines of the Television War: A Legendary War Cameraman in Vietnam by Hirashiki Yasutsune & Irving Terry & Koppel Ted

Author:Hirashiki, Yasutsune & Irving, Terry & Koppel, Ted [Hirashiki, Yasutsune]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: eBook ISBN: 9781612004730
Publisher: Casemate
Published: 2017-03-19T04:00:00+00:00

ABC News correspondent Steve Bell was one of the first reporters to get back into Cambodia after the overthrow of Prince Sihanouk in March 1970. He and Tony got into a furious argument on a battlefield that ended with Tony calling Bell a “dictator.” As the years went by, it became “Dear Dictator” and a shared joke. (Courtesy Steve Bell)

A lot of insurgents would wear uniforms that looked like those worn by the Cambodian Army but usually they didn’t have military boots, just sandals. What Tan and Terry had both seen was that some of these men had “Ho Chi Minh” sandals—cut from the tires of downed American planes. No government soldier would have been caught dead in them, but Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers loved them as a sign of their coming victory.

In addition, they were carrying AK-47 rifles instead of the American M16s or French Fabrique National weapons the government had now begun to issue. Terry and Driver Tan talked about this but weren’t entirely certain so they continued. Just a few miles on, they hit a roadblock; piles of dirt, stones, sand, and tree branches laid across the road. Since the roadblock was an excellent place to hide landmines, only a tank would be able to clear it.

Without a tank at hand, they realized that they were trapped. There was no other option but to make a U-turn and head back. They had gone by the insurgents very quickly the first time, but they would definitely get stopped on a second pass.

And they were.

The soldiers weren’t lounging by the side of the road now; they were in the middle of the road with guns aimed at the blue car. In a perfect example of checkpoint etiquette, Tan opened all the windows and slowed down very gently. As he came up to the soldiers, he waved out the window to show he was going to stop.

I was told that Terry got out of the car first, picked out the leader, walked up to him, and stuck out his hand as if greeting a rebel commander was something he did every day. Taken by surprise, the leader shook hands, and Terry said later that he thought that handshake moved the situation towards talking rather than shooting.

I asked Terry how he knew who the leader was. He said, “There was only one guy with a pistol in a holster on his waist.”

Despite his air of calm confidence, Terry said it was one of the scariest moments of his life. He’d decided to treat the guerrilla leader as an unthreatening equal and see if that would build a relationship of trust that might get the crew out alive. Who knows? Sometimes, if you just act as if nothing is wrong, the other side does too.

Yuki and Tan exited the car and walked up, looking unafraid and proving they were unarmed. Steve Bell stayed well back in the rear seat of the big car where it was hard to see him clearly.

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