Live From The Battlefield: From Vietnam to Baghdad, 35 Years in the World's War Zones

by Peter Arnett

From his controversial coverage of Vietnam, which incurred the wrath of President Johnson but won him a Pulitzer Prize, to his unforgettable and daring on-the-ground reporting of the Gulf War during one of the greatest airborne assaults in history, Peter Arnett has established himself as the leading voice of American war reportage. In Live from the Battlefield, one of the most highly-celebrated journalistic memoirs ever written, Peter Arnett gives us an engrossing account of the Vietnam era, as well as an indispensable portrait of battlefield reporting.

Live from the Battlefield captures the adventures, gambles, and glories that have marked this master journalist's life with a vividness and intelligence rare in any memoir. But more than that, Arnett provides an insider's view of some of the greatest and most tragic events of the century in a book of singular and enduring importance.

Genres: Nonfiction, Journalism, History, War, Memoir, Military Fiction, Military History

463 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1993

About the author

Peter Gregg Arnett, ONZM (1934–2025) was a New Zealand-American journalist. Arnett worked for National Geographic magazine, and later for various television networks, most notably CNN. He was well known for his coverage of war, including the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. He was awarded the 1966 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting for his work in Vietnam, where he was present from 1962 to 1975, most of the time reporting for the Associated Press news agency. In 1994, Arnett wrote Live from the Battlefield: From Vietnam to Baghdad, 35 Years in the World's War Zones. In March 1997, Arnett was able to interview Osama bin Laden. The Journalism School at the Southern Institute of Technology is named after him.

Reviews

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time hasn't faded this books great writing. It is a very interesting and well written account of conflict from a different view than we are used to. Usually you get the government line, or what 15second sound bite fit into that day's news depending on the personal beliefs of the network owner. But this is a view from someone who is there watching history unfold without interfering. It's a great story too of the lengths that reporters have to go to get to the story and to get it out of the country.

Much is said about network owned news services inability to get a story right or the way they gloss over a story, especially in this day and age of 24 hour media churn. Peter Arnett has documented what we usually didn't get to see or hear. And he usually went to great personal lengths to get it. I wish news agencies could allow these real reporters freedom to tell us the news in their words, with however many words it takes to tell the story, and be able to do follow ups to expand on stories where conditions (politics of the day, network restrictions, combatants etc) have meant the beginning of the story was not compete. Well done Peter I wish I had been a little bit younger to watch you in action.

[Marwan Asmar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Arnett lives it all, a war corespondent that allows you to experience it all from a reporter's point of view, in going to the field, covering the news, writing up the dispatch and sending to the news offices in New York. Its a journey to understand

[severyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reportage rather than autobiography; Arnett reveals little of himself or his life, but a lot of war reporting anecdotes, mostly from the Vietnam War, and I think there are better books on that.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of war anecdotes. Good for those who love field journalism.

[Willibrordus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sudut pandang wartawan selalu menarik untuk diselami. Mereka berpegang kepada kode etik dan juga upaya pencarian akan kebenaran. Dalam perjalanan mencari, mereka menemukan beragam hal yang mengubah kehidupan pribadinya. Dari kacamatanya, Peter Arnett mewartakan keadaan tempat dia hidup sebagai seorang manusia yang berasal dari Selandia Baru dan bekerja untuk industri media yang dominan dari Amerika Serikat, mulai dari Perang Vietnam hingga Perang Teluk.

Jika mencari tips menjadi wartawan, buku ini tidak secara terbuka mengatakannya. Anda perlu membaca keseluruhan kisah Arnett untuk mendapatkan pengetahuan tersebut.
Sangat disarankan untuk dibaca perlahan, anda tidak perlu mengikuti saya yang membacanya dengan impulsif sehingga menyelesaikan 400 halaman dalam semalam.

[Bill Lindenfelser · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a surprise. This memoir never lags, probably because the life described never lags. There's a close sense of life in the middle of the great danger of a shooting war. The section on Vietnam is the longest and most gripping, but the final piece, on Afghanistan, is also filled with a sense of the danger of a chaotic situation in a chaotic part of the world. Highly recommended.

[سلمان · Rating 4 out of 5]

المذكرات بشكل عام ممتعة، ترجع بنا إلى ألغاز نبحث عن حل لها.

[Lê Thành · Rating 4 out of 5]

Đọc bản dịch tiếng Việt của quyển sách này. Đây không phải là cái nhìn toàn cục về cuộc chiến Việt Nam mà chỉ là trải nghiệm của chính bản thân tác giả và một số đồng nghiệp.

[Quân Khuê · Rating 3 out of 5]

Từ chiến trường khốc liệt của Peter Arnett, phóng viên chiến trường người Mỹ gốc New Zealand, bản dịch tiếng Việt của Phạm Hoàng Chung. Bản gốc tiếng Anh hình như dài hơn, bản tiếng Việt chỉ dịch những phần liên quan đến Việt Nam và Iraq. Đọc để thấy cuộc sống của những phóng viên chiến trường như thế nào, trong nhiều trường hợp họ dũng cảm còn hơn những người lính trực tiếp chiến đấu. Lính thì có thế bỉ đẩy ra chiến trường còn phóng viên tự nguyện lao đầu vào chốn hiểm nguy. Đọc cũng để thấy ở đâu cũng có tầng tầng lớp gatekeeper, không phải chỉ ở Việt Nam mới có "lề bên phải". Bản dịch có vẻ như có nhiều lỗi, nhiều câu tiếng Việt không thể hiểu được. Dịch giả hình như là học trò của Peter Arnett trong một khóa học báo chí.

[Riley Haas · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What a life."

That was a lazy "review."

[Brian Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

LIVE FROM THE BATTLEFIELD: FROM VIETNAM TO BAGDAD, 35 YEARS IN THE WORLD’S WAR ZONES is an extraordinary work by an extraordinary journalist who made a career of pushing the boundaries of American journalism. This is one of those can’t-put-it-down reads.