The Evening News (7 page)

The first was the name the press corps gave to military briefings; the second, a hotel that was a popular watering hole for the international press, senior military and U.S. Embassy civilians
.”
If you're talking about risks
,”
Sloane had answered huffily, "I'm
willing to take as many as you are
.”

"Forget risks. We'll all be taking them. I'm talking about coverage in
depth. I want to get deep into this country and understand it. Some of
the time I want to be free from the military, not just tagging along on
fire fights, reporting bangbang the way they'd like us to. That's too
easy. And when I do military stuff I want it to be in forward areas so
I can find out if w
hat the USIS flacks say is happ
ning really is
.”

"To do all that
,”
Sloane pointed out, "you'll have to be away for days
,
maybe weeks at a time
.”

Partridge had seemed amused
.”
I thought you'd catch onto that quickly
.
I'm sure you've also figured that the way I plan to work will make it
possible for you to get your face on the news almost every night
.”

Sloane had been uncomfortable at having his mind read so easily, though
in the end that was how it worked out
.
No one could ever say about his time in Vietnam that Sloane didn't work
hard. He did, and he also took risks. On occasion he went along on
missions to where the Viet Cong were operating, was sometimes in the
midst of firefights, and in dangerous moments wondered, with normal fear
,
whether he would make it back alive
.
As it turned out, he always did and was seldom away more than twenty-four
hours. Also, when he came back it was invariably with dramatic combat
pictures plus human interest stories about young Americans in battle, the
kind of fare that New York wanted
.
Following his plan shrewdly, Sloane didn't overdo the dangerous exploits
and was usually available in Saigon for military and diplomatic briefings
which, at the time, were newsworthy. Only much later would it be realized
how superficial Sloane's
kind of coverage had been and how-for television-dramatic pictures were a first priority, with thoughtful analysis and sometimes truth trailing far behind. But by the time that became apparent, to Crawford Sloane it didn't matter
.
Sloane's overall ploy worked. He had always been impressive on camera and
was even more so in Vietnam. He became a favorite with the New York
Horseshoe producers and was frequently on the evening news, sometimes three
or four times a week, which was how a correspondent built up a following
,
not only among viewers but with senior decision makers at CBA headquarters
.
Harry Partridge, on the other hand, stayed with his own game plan and
operated differently. He sought out deeper stories which required longer
investigation and which took him, with a cameraman, to more distant parts
of Vietnam. He made himself knowledgeable about military tactics, American
and Viet Cong, and why sometimes those of both sides didn't work. He
studied the balance of forces, stayed in forward areas gathering facts on
ground- and air-attack effectiveness, casualties and logistics. Some of his
reports contradicted official military statements in Saigon, others
confirmed them, and it was that second kind of reporting-faimess to the
U.S. military-that separated Partridge and a handful of others from the
majority of correspondents reporting out of Vietnam
.
The bulk of reportage on the Vietnam war was, by that time, negative and
adversary. A generation of young journalists -some of them sympathetic to
anti-war protesters at homedistrusted, at times despised, the U.S
.
military, and most media coverage reflected that conviction. An example was
the enemy's Tet offensive.

The media proclaimed Tet as a total, smashing
communist victory, a claim which calmer research two decades later showed
to be untrue
.
Harry Partridge was one who, at the time, reported that U.S. forces at Tet
were doing much better than they were being giver! credit for; also that
the enemy was doing less well than generally reported and had failed in
some of its objectives. At first senior Horseshoe producers queried those
reports and
wanted to delay them. But after discussion, Partridge's record of solid accuracy won out and most were aired
.
One Partridge report which was not aired involved a criticism of negative
personal opinion presented in a news context by the venerable Walter
Cronkite, then anchorman for CBS
.
Cronkite, reporting from Vietnam, declared during a CBS "post-Tet special
”
that "the bloody experience of Vietnam
”
would "end in stalemate
,”
and "for
every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us . .
.”

He continued, "To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe
.
. . the optimists who have been wrong in the past
.”

Therefore, Cronkite
urged, America should "negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable
people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best
they could
.”

Because of its source, this strong editorializing-intertwined with honest
news-had tremendous effect and gave, as a commentator put it, "strength and
legitimacy to the anti-war movement
.”

President Lyndon Johnson was reported
as saying that if he had lost Walter Cronkite, he had lost the country
.
Partridge, through interviews with a series of people on the scene, managed
to suggest that not only might Cronkite be wrong but that, well aware of
his power and influence, the CBS anchorman had behaved, in one
interviewee's words, "like an unelected President and contrary to his own
vaunted tenets of impartial journalism
.”

When Partridge's piece reached New York it was discussed for hours and went
to the highest CBA levels before a consensus was reached that to attack the
national father figure of "Walter
”
would be a no-win gambit. However
,
unofficial copies of the Partridge report were made and circulated
privately among TV news insiders
.
Partridge's excursions into areas of heavy fighting usually kept him away
from Saigon for a week, sometimes longer. Once, when he went underground
into Cambodia, he was out of touch for nearly a month
.
Every time, though, he returned with a strong story, and after the war some
were still remembered for their insights. No
one, including Crawford Sloane, ever disputed that Partridge was a superb journalist
.
Unfortunately, because his reports were fewer and therefore less frequent
than Sloane's, Partridge didn't get noticed nearly as much
.
Something else in Vietnam affected the future of Partridge and Sloane. She
was Jessica Castillo
.
Jessica . . .

Crawford Sloane, driving almost automatically over a route he traveled
twice each working day, had by now turned off Fifty-ninth Street onto York
Avenue. After a few blocks he swung right to the northbound ramp of the FDR
Drive. Mo-' ments later, alongside the East River and free from intersec-
tions and traffic lights, he allowed his speed to increase. His home in
Larchmont, north of the city on Long Island Sound, was now half an hour's
driving time away
.
Behind him, a blue Ford Tempo increased its speed also
.
Sloane was relaxed, as he usually was at this time of day, and as his
thoughts drifted they returned to Jessica . . . who, in Saigon, had been
Harry Partridge's girlfriend . . . but in the end had married Crawford
Sloane.

In those days, in Vietnam, Jessica had been twenty-six, slim, with long
brown hair, a lively mind and, on occasion, a sharp tongue. She took no
nonsensefrom thejournalists with whom she dealt as a junior information
officer at the United States Information Agency (known as USIS overseas)
.
The agency had its headquarters on Le Qui Don Street, in the tree-shrouded
'Eincoln Library
”
which used to be the Rex Theater, and the old theater
sign remained in place throughout the USIS tenure. Members of the press
went to the agency sometimes more than they needed, bringing queries that
they hoped might allow them time with Jessica
.
Jessica played along with the attention, which amused her. But in her
affections when Crawford Sloane first knew her, Harry Partridge was firmly
number one.

Even now, Sloane thought, there were areas in that early relationship
between Partridge and Jessica of which he had no knowledge, some things
he had never asked about and now would never know. But the fact that
certain doors had been closed more than twenty years ago, and had
remained closed ever since, never had . . . never would . . . stop him
wondering about the details and intimacies of those times.

Jessica Castillo and Harry Partridge were drawn instinctually to each other the first time they met in Vietnam-even though the meeting was antagonistic. Partridge had gone to USIS seeking information that he knew existed but that had been refused him by the United States military. It concerned the widespread drug addiction of American troops in Vietnam
.
Partridge had seen plenty of evidence of addiction during his travels
through forward areas. The hard drug being used was heroin and it was
plentiful. Through Stateside inquiries made at his request by CBA News
,
he learned that veterans' hospitals back home were filling up alarmingly
with addicts sent back from Vietnam. It was becoming a national problem
,
rather than just military
.
The New York Horseshoe had given a green light to pursue the story, but
official sources had clammed up tight and would provide no information
.
When he entered Jessica's cubicle office and broached the subject, she
reacted in the same way
.”
I'm sorry. That's something I can't talk about
.”
Her attitude offended him and he said accusingly, "You mean you won't
talk because you've been told to protect somebody. Is it the ambassador
,
who might be embarrassed by the truth
?
”

She shook her head "I can't answer that either.
Pa
rtridge, growing angry, bored in hard
.”
So what you're telling me is
that you, in this cozy billet, don't give a goddamn about the GIs out in
the jungle who are shit-scared, suffering, and then-for an outlet
,
because they don't know any betterdestroy themselves with drugs, becoming
junkies
.”
She said indignantly, "I said nothing of the kind
.”
Oh, but you said exactly that
.”
His voice was contemptuous
.”
You said
you won't talk about something rotten and stinking which needs a public
airing, needs people to know a problem exists so something can be done
.
So other green kids coming out here can be warned and maybe saved. Who
do you think you're protecting, lady? For sure, not the guys doing the
fighting, the ones who count. You call yourself an information officer
.
I call you a concealment officer
.”
Jessica flushed. Unused to being talked to that way, her eyes blazed with
anger. A glass paperweight was on her desk and her fingers clenched
around it. For a moment Partridge expected her to throw it and prepared
to duck. Then, noticeably, the anger diminished and Jessica asked
quietly, ""at is it you want to know
?
”