Vietnam Diary

In the 1960s and 1970s, RFA Executive Editor Dan Southerland covered the Vietnam War. He went back recently for 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

Remembering Kate

2008-01-02

Kate Webb, who died of cancer in 2007, arrived in Saigon in 1967 without a job and with only a few hundred dollars in her pocket. She went on to cover some of the biggest stories in Asia.

A Mekong Sunset

2005-09-23

By the time Matt and I reach Ben Tre city on provincial roads, it's late afternoon. We have time to visit a park honoring "heroic women of the revolution" and take pictures of local people enjoying a stroll.

Return to Ben Tre

2005-08-26

I had been in and out of the Mekong Delta cities of My Tho and Ben Tre several times during the Vietnam War. But my most disturbing experiences there followed Viet Cong attacks on the two cities in the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 31, 1968.

Mekong's Fertile Delta

2005-08-12

Rule number one for foreign correspondents: If you want to know what's going on, get out of the cities.

The Perfect Spy

2005-07-29

On April 28, I meet with a man who was one of the top Viet Cong spies during the Vietnam war. had known Pham Xuan An when he worked as a Time magazine correspondent.

Honoring the Dead

2005-07-15

Before leaving for Vietnam, I had proposed an idea to a colleague. I’d never paid any formal respect to the Vietnamese soldiers who’d lost their lives, either on the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese side or on the Communist side.

Rewriting History

2005-07-07

As Matt and I start talking with people around the city, my rudimentary knowledge of the Vietnamese language begins to revive. A small phrase book helps me out.

A Tiger Unleashed

2005-07-01

"My son Matt and I decide it's pointless to continue to trudge on foot under a blazing sun if we want to get a feel for the sprawling city. We opt for taxis and, on one or two occasions, the backseats of motorbikes..."

Thirty Years Later

2005-06-24

"First the heat hits you - nearly 98 degrees Fahrenheit at midday. The airport concrete blasts back at you like a furnace. After more than two decades' absence, I'd forgotten how hot it can get in Saigon. Then the traffic assails you. Hundreds of Vietnamese on motorbikes moving in seemingly chaotic and opposing streams..."