The Mark: A War Correspondent's Memoir of Vietnam and Cambodia

Leslie's memoir of his stint as Los Angeles Times correspondent during the last two years of U.S. involvement in Indochina is a touch unusual, for the author admits that his love/hate relationship with the war was more a matter of love. As reprinted here, his reporting of the 1972 Easter Offensive was outstanding, as were his non-combat pieces. Accompanied by an Agence France Presse reporter, Leslie scored a journalistic coup with a vist to a Viet Cong liberated zone. Eventually expelled from Vietnam (``We can accept criticism,'' explained a government spokesman, ``but not insults''), he was reassigned to Cambodia, where he covered Phnom Penh's final days before the Khmer Rouge takeover. Leslie reveals his opinions of his colleagues, particularly Gloria Emerson (``a mournful Auntie Mame'') and Sydney Schanberg (``unscrupulous''). Deprived by the peace accords of his ``beloved, resplendent Vietnam War,'' Leslie succumbed to depression after returning to L.A. and admits that he is a not quite recovered ``addict'' of that experience. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour. (Mar.)