Dateline: Saigon

Lies, deception, and the dangerous search for truth

201796m8.0 (1)
DocumentaryHistory

How does a nation slip into war? Dateline-Saigon profiles the controversial reporting of five Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists -The New York Times' David Halberstam, the Associated Press' Malcolm Browne, Peter Arnett, and legendary photojournalist Horst Faas, and UPI's Neil Sheehan -- during the early years of the Vietnam War as President John F. Kennedy is secretly committing US troops to what is initially dismissed by some as 'a nice little war in a land of tigers and elephants.' 'When the government is telling the truth, reporters become a relatively unimportant conduit to what is happening,' Halberstam tells us. 'But when the government doesn't tell the truth, begins to twist the truth, hide the truth, then the journalist becomes involuntarily infinitely more important.'

Crew

TD

Thomas D. Herman

Director

MB

Mark Bakker

Director of Photography

AS

Abdulkarim Sabham

Director of Photography

BC

Bestor Cram

Director of Photography

SK

Steve Keeny

Director of Photography

RC

Randel Cole

Director of Photography

TD

Thomas D. Herman

Writer

BC

Bestor Cram

Producer

Cast

Sam Waterston

Sam Waterston

Narrator (voice)

Neil Sheehan

Neil Sheehan

Self

PA

Peter Arnett

Self

MB

Malcolm Browne

Self

HF

Horst Faas

Self

DH

David Halberstam

Self

Walter Cronkite

Walter Cronkite

Self (archival footage)

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