Peter Arnett facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Peter Arnett ONZM
Arnett in 1996
Born	Peter Gregg Arnett (1934-11-13) 13 November 1934 (age 90) Riverton, New Zealand
Occupation	Journalist, anchorman
Years active	1960−present
Notable credit(s)	Awarded the 1966 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting for his work in Vietnam
Spouse(s)	Nina Nguyen (separated 1983)
Children	2

Peter Gregg Arnett ONZM (born 13 November 1934) is a famous journalist from New Zealand and America. He is well-known for reporting from war zones. He covered the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. In 1966, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting from Vietnam. This award is one of the highest honors in journalism. He worked mostly for the Associated Press news agency during that time.

Arnett also worked for National Geographic magazine. Later, he joined several TV networks, especially CNN, where he worked for almost 20 years. He wrote a book about his experiences called Live from the Battlefield (1994). In 1997, Arnett interviewed Osama bin Laden, who was the leader of Al-Qaeda.

Early life and first jobs

Peter Arnett was born in 1934 in a town called Riverton in New Zealand. His first job as a journalist was at a newspaper called The Southland Times.

Reporting in Southeast Asia

In his early career, Arnett worked in Southeast Asia. He was often based in Bangkok, Thailand. In 1960, he started his own small English newspaper in Laos. Eventually, he moved to Vietnam. At that time, France had left Vietnam after a war with North Vietnamese communists.

Reporting on the Vietnam War

Peter Arnett became a reporter for the Associated Press (AP). He was based in Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam. This was when the United States started to get involved in the conflict.

In 1963, Arnett was hurt during a clash between journalists and police. The reporters were trying to cover protests by Buddhist monks against the government. Arnett's articles often made the American government upset. They were increasing their troops in Vietnam and wanted positive news.

Arnett went on many missions with soldiers. He reported on the Battle of Hill 875 in 1967. He wrote about ordinary soldiers and civilians in a very direct way. This was sometimes criticized by officials who wanted more positive stories about the war. Important leaders like General William Westmoreland and President Lyndon B. Johnson tried to get the AP to remove Arnett.

Famous quote from the war

One of Arnett's most famous reports was from February 1968. He wrote about the Battle of Bến Tre. He quoted a U.S. major saying, "It became necessary to destroy the town to save it." This quote was about the decision to bomb the town to remove enemy forces, even if it hurt civilians. The exact words and who said them have been debated over the years. Arnett always said an American major told him this.

Arnett was one of the last Western reporters in Saigon when it fell to the North Vietnamese army. He even saw how the soldiers entered the city. Later, he helped write a 26-part TV show about the Vietnam War called Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War (1980).

Reporting on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Arnett was working for Parade magazine. He secretly entered Afghanistan from Pakistan. He dressed in local clothes and was guided by Afghan fighters. He reported from a rebel hideout.

Reporting on the Gulf War

From 1981 to 1999, Peter Arnett worked for CNN. During the Gulf War in 1991, he became famous worldwide. He was the only reporter broadcasting live from Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. His reports were dramatic, often with air raid sirens and bombs exploding in the background.

For the first 16 hours of the war, Arnett and two other CNN journalists, Bernard Shaw and John Holliman, reported live from Baghdad. CNN was the only news group with a working phone line to the outside world. This allowed them to broadcast Arnett's calls live for hours. Soon, other journalists left Iraq, leaving Arnett as the only one still reporting from Baghdad.

His reports about damage to civilian areas were not popular with the military leaders. They had said that their bombs were "smart" and very accurate. Some officials even said Arnett was being used by Iraq to spread false information.

Two weeks into the war, Arnett got an exclusive interview with Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq. Because of Arnett's reporting from the "other side," the Gulf War was the first war to be shown live on TV for five weeks.

During the war, the CIA thought the Iraqi military had a secret communication network in the basement of Arnett's hotel. The CIA wanted him to leave so they could bomb the hotel. But Arnett refused, saying he had toured the hotel and saw no such facility.

Interview with Osama Bin Laden

In March 1997, Peter Arnett interviewed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda. Bin Laden had just declared a "jihad" (holy war) against the United States. When Arnett asked about his future plans, Bin Laden replied, "You'll see them and hear about them in the media, God willing."

Operation Tailwind report

In 1998, Arnett narrated a report for CNN and Time magazine. It was about a military operation called "Operation Tailwind" in Laos in 1970. The report claimed that the U.S. Army had used a chemical weapon against American soldiers who had left their unit.

The the Pentagon (U.S. military headquarters) disagreed with CNN's report. CNN then did its own investigation. They found that the report was "flawed" and took back the story. It was confirmed that no chemical weapons were used in Operation Tailwind. Because of this, Arnett was criticized and left CNN in 1999.

Reporting on the 2003 Invasion of Iraq

In 2003, Arnett went to Iraq to cover the U.S. invasion for NBC and National Geographic. On March 31, 2003, he gave an interview to Iraqi state TV. He said that America was rethinking its war plans because of Iraqi resistance. He also said that his reports about civilian injuries and Iraqi resistance were helping those in the U.S. who were against the war.

These comments caused a lot of anger. NBC first defended him, but then they, MSNBC, and National Geographic all stopped working with Arnett. They said it was wrong for him to give an interview to state-controlled Iraqi TV during a war. Arnett admitted it was a "stupid misjudgment."

Later that day, Arnett was hired by a British newspaper, The Daily Mirror, which was against the war. He also got work from Greek and Belgian TV channels.

Academic career and later life

After stopping his field reporting in 2007, Peter Arnett moved to Los Angeles. He also teaches journalism at Shantou University in China. In New Zealand, a journalism school was named after him, the Peter Arnett School of Journalism. It closed in 2015.

Personal life

In 1964, Peter Arnett married Nina Nguyen, a Vietnamese woman. They had two children, Elsa and Andrew. They separated in 1983 but later got back together in 2006.

His daughter, Elsa Arnett, also became a journalist. She worked for The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. She helped her father write his 1994 book.

In 2007, Peter Arnett was given an award called Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to journalism in New Zealand.

Selected works

• Live from the Battlefield: From Vietnam to Baghdad: 35 Years in the World's War Zones. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. ISBN: 0671755862
• Saigon Has Fallen: A Wartime Recollection by the Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist. New York: Rosetta Books/Associated Press, 2015 ISBN: 978-0-7953-4643-9

See also

In Spanish: Peter Arnett para niños

• CNN controversies
• List of New Zealand television personalities

Images for kids

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  Dan Rather and Arnett talk about how media shapes views of the Vietnam War.