cover image Live from the Battlefield: From Vietnam-Baghdad 35 Yrs Inside Worlds War Zones

Live from the Battlefield: From Vietnam-Baghdad 35 Yrs Inside Worlds War Zones

Peter Arnett. Simon & Schuster, $23 (464pp) ISBN 978-0-671-75586-7

Associated Press correspondent Arnett was made a pariah by U.S. military authorities in Saigon because of his vividly blunt reports from the combat zone. He became controversial again as a CNN reporter covering the opening days of Desert Storm and as an interviewer of Saddam Hussein; he was denounced on the floor of congress and accused by several members of playing Josef Goebbels to Saddam's Hitler. In this engrossing memoir, Arnett describes his adventures and misadventures in covering several wars, airs his views on the media as an instrument of power and provides memorable portraits of several journalistic colleagues. Reporters will find intriguing his account of his methodical training as a combat correspondent by Malcolm W. Browne, AP bureau chief in Saigon. Arnett states as a simple fact that there's no thrill comparable to covering a war, and that he's good at it. Readers of this exciting memoir will agree with him on both counts. Photos. (Jan.)