The Press and Vietnam
SIR,—While I agree with Christopher Booker that newspapers should devote more space to what is actually happening in Vietnam, he should recognise fairly what newspapers have already done. He says (in somewhat more graphic words) that the only correspondent to report war operations at first hand has been the special correspondent of The Times, and that this correspondent's report on March 15 was 'almost' the first to extract any first- hand life from the scene. Since he mentions the Daily Telegraph in the next sentence, may 1 point out (without, seeking to detract from The Times special correspondent's excellent reporting) that the Daily Telegraph has had a staff correspondent regularly in Vietnam for months past, that the present correspondent, Frank. Robertson, has been reporting the war from 'the spot since January 5, more than six weeks before The Times special correspondent started, and his first full-scale account of a major military oper'ation which he accompanied was published in the Daily Telegraph on February 9, five weeks earlier than The Times report to which Mr. Booker refers.
mAt:RiCE GREEN
Editor The 'Daily Telegraph,' Fleet Street, EC4
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