Reunion in Retreat

The startling pullout by South Vietnamese troops from the northern provinces and the Central Highlands took the world by surprise, and foreign journalists stationed in the country were no exception. Actually, President Nguyen Van Thieu acted with such secrecy that even his Joint General Staff did not know of his decision to abandon the provinces until they read about it in a Saigon newspaper. To find out what was happening, journalistic improvisation was in order.

In Saigon, when the big retreat began, almost all U.S. news bureaus were shorthanded, as they had been ever since the 1972-73 U.S. troop evacuation. In many cases there was only a lone correspondent in the capital. Moving fast to help cover the refugees and troops streaming south, the American press jetted in reinforcements from everywhere. The Chicago Tribune switched its Far Eastern correspondent, Ronald Yates, from Phnom-Penh to Saigon within 24 hours of the news of the retreat; the New York Times moved in Pulitzer Prizewinner Malcolm Browne from Belgrade, Bernard Weinraub from India and Fox Butterfield from Tokyo; TIME dispatched William McWhirter from London and Tokyo Bureau Chief William Stewart; ABC pitched in with twelve full-time personnel.

Studiously Indifferent. Even the routes of retreat, moving around and getting word back were problems for the newsmen. In palmier days American troops had provided helicopters, telephone links and logistical support. Now the South Vietnamese army ran the show, and it was studiously indifferent. When some commercial flights within the country were suspended, newsmen had to turn to charter planes. Said NBC'S TV News vice president, Richard Fischer: "We are totally in the hands of the various crooks who run charter services."

However, in the confusion there was, surprisingly, no censorship or harassment of reporters by the Thieu regime --at least for the moment. Such freedom was a marked change from the secret-police tactic of beating up Western newsmen covering demonstrations, or the possibility that the Information Ministry might not renew the visa of any reporter writing an unfavorable story. It was almost old home week for the press in Saigon. But the shadow of defeat darkened the occasion.

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