Songs of the Doomed by Hunter S. Thompson

Author:Hunter S. Thompson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1990-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Rolling Stone: Abandon All

Hope Ye Who Enter Here

Wenner folded Straight Arrow Books shortly after the Saigon piece. I had to write that piece because the War had been such a player in my life for ten years. I needed to see the end of it and be a part of it somehow. Wenner folded Straight Arrow at a time when they owed me $75,000. I was enraged to find that out. It had been an advance for Shark Hunt. I wrote a seriously vicious letter—finally saying all I was thinking when I was taking off for Saigon. While in Saigon, I found I’d been fired when Wenner flew into a rage upon receiving the letter. Getting fired didn’t mean much to me. I was in Saigon, I was writing—except that I lost health insurance. Here I was in a war zone, and no health insurance. . . .

So, essentially, I refused to write anything once I found out. I found out when I tried to use my Telex card and it was refused. I called Rolling Stone to find out why (perfect phone system right to the end of the war). I talked to Paul Scanlon, who was sitting in for Wenner (off skiing)—he told me I was fired, but fixed my Telex card, etc. The business department had ignored the memo to fire me because it’d happened too many times before. They didn’t want to be bothered with the paperwork, so Wenner’s attempt had been derailed.

Anyone who would fire a correspondent on his way to disaster . . . I vowed not to work for them. It was the end of our working relationship except for special circumstances. About that time, they moved to New York. Rolling Stone began to be run by the advertising and business departments and not by the editorial department. It was a financial leap forward for Wenner and Rolling Stone, but the editorial department lost any real importance.

You shouldn’t work for someone who would fire you en route to a War Zone. . . .

I got off the plane greeted by a huge sign that read, “Anyone caught with more than $100 U.S. currency will go immediately to prison.” Imagine how I felt with $30,000 taped to my body. I was a pigeon to carry the Newsweek payroll and communication to those in Saigon. I thought we’d all be executed. It was total curfew when we got off the plane so we were herded into this small room with all these men holding machine guns. There I was with 300 times the maximum money allowance. We got out and I leapt on a motor scooter and told the kid to run like hell. I told Loren I wouldn’t give him the money until he got me a suite in a hotel. Not an easy task, but he came through.

The Leap of Faith . . . I had already picked up on Carter in ’74. It was a special assignment as everything was after Saigon. I was still on the masthead.

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