Live from the Battlefield: From Vietnam to Baghdad, 35 Years in the World's War Zone

I had no idea of the things Arnett had done before the 1st Iraq war. He has led quite an amazing journalistic life. Very enjoyable read.

I have read several reporters auto-biographies but Peter's is the most interesting and gripping. It is full of insightful detail that really makes you feel the excitement and terror of being a war correspondent.

For anyone with the least bit of interest in the Vietnam "police action" and the Gulf War, and honest wartime reporting from someone with an impenetrable sense of integrity, this autobiography is a "must read." Dr. Arnett's autobiography should also be required reading for all jounalism students as a measure of their worth and what it takes to persevere when the "real story," the story on the ground, may not necessarily match that of the "party line."

Want to know what really happened on the battlefield in Vietnam and else where? Read this book. As with most good journalists who stood firm maintaining the freedom of the press, and gave the public a true picture of what was happening abroad, he was railed on by the Pentagon and Whitehouse officials throughout his career. I've just read the book and something especially haunting was the last chapter. He is covering Afghanistan, the year was about 1993 after the 'freedom fighters' got rid of the communists and the entire country is ridden with corruption, violence, and warring factions. While waiting for his plane to Kabul he has a conversation with an influential Pakistani who blamed the chaos on the "mercurial American foreign policy". Saying "all you Americans cared about was destroying communism, and you welcomed extremists to the struggle and trained them to kill. But many of those people don't like you either, and you're the next target". On the very last page, Arnett ends the book as he is leaving Afghanistan, he writes: "The collapse of the Soviet empire, the end of the Cold War, had not brought harmony to Afghanistan, merely conflict and criminality. And the United States would reap a bitter harvest from the seeds of the Islamic revolution it helped sow. I was glad to be leaving Afghanistan but I knew that the story was not over". I would probably have to go back". As usual,the Pentagon and their right-wing pundits who attack people like Arnett as sympathizers, and conspiracy theorists, have been proven wrong by history, and the current events today.

A thrilling account by a master journalist who pursued `the story' for four decades over four continents. Guided by a determination to write only what he himself saw, Arnett sent out a steady stream of reports about what was actually happening in Vietnam, shrugging off the official military handouts as the "Five O'Clock Follies." His doggedness, bravery and resourcefulness in getting to where the action was resulted in Pulitzer Prize winning reports. He later became famous, if controversial, as one of the few American reporters to cover the Gulf War from inside Baghdad. An exhilarating read.