1. John Laurence is an American television correspondent, author, print reporter and documentary filmmaker.
25 Facts About John Laurence
1. 2.
John Laurence is known for his work on the air at CBS News, London correspondent for ABC News, documentary work for PBS and CBS, and his book and magazine writing.
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John Laurence won the George Polk Memorial Award of the Overseas Press Club of America for "best reporting in any medium requiring exceptional courage and enterprise abroad" for his coverage of the Vietnam War in 1970.
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John Laurence joined CBS News as a radio correspondent in January, 1965.
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John Laurence volunteered to go to South Vietnam in August 1965 as a radio reporter.
6.
An American camera crew, Jim Wilson and Bob Funk, was available, so John Laurence started reporting for TV, beginning with an exclusive report on the arrival of the 1st Cavalry Division's advance party in South Vietnam.
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John Laurence covered Operation Piranha, the Battle of An Ninh, the Siege of Plei Me, the aftermath of the Battle of Ia Drang, and Operation Masher among other stories.
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In December, 1965, Laurence was promoted from reporter to correspondent by Fred W Friendly, the president of CBS News.
9.
John Laurence was initially supportive of US policy in Vietnam and gave favorable if neutral coverage in what was referred to by the US Army public information officers as "being with the program".
10.
On 10 March 1966, following the Battle of A Sau, John Laurence interviewed Marine Lieutenant colonel Charles House, commander of HMM-163, the helicopter squadron which had evacuated the survivors of the battle and who had himself been shot down and taken command of US and Vietnamese forces.
11.
John Laurence left Vietnam in late May, 1966, returning to the US and working out of CBS bureaus in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta.
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John Laurence covered the Battle of Dak To, the Tet Offensive, the siege of Con Thien, the Battle of Khe Sanh, the Battle of Hue, corruption among the Vietnamese, and the plight of South Vietnamese civilians among other combat stories.
13.
Kay and John Laurence received a cable from Walter Cronkite congratulating them on their work.
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John Laurence had dinner with Walter Cronkite the night before the CBS anchorman returned to the US following his two week tour of Vietnam to study the aftermath of the Tet Offensive.
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John Laurence tried to impress on Cronkite his belief that the war had reached a stalemate and that America was wasting the lives of its own troops and those of the Vietnamese people by continuing the war.
16.
John Laurence reported the 1968 documentary "Hill 943", an hour-long special report on CBS News, recounting the lives of Company A, 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division trying to capture Hill 943 during the Battle of Dak To.
17.
John Laurence received an Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his 1968 series of investigative reports called "Police After Chicago" on the CBS Evening News.
18.
In 1969, John Laurence reported a one-hour documentary on what had become known in the United States as the Generation Gap, the difference in attitudes between young people and their parents.
19.
In March, 1970, John Laurence returned to Vietnam to produce and report a documentary called The World of Charlie Company.
20.
In 1970, John Laurence moved to London to take over as bureau chief from Morley Safer.
21.
John Laurence covered the October War between Syria, Egypt and Israel in 1973.
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In 2003, John Laurence accompanied a rifle company from the 101st Air Assault Division into Iraq at the start of the Iraq War.
23.
In 1977, John Laurence left CBS News and began working on his book, "The Cat from Hue: a Vietnam War Story".
24.
In July 1982 John Laurence returned briefly to Vietnam for the first time since 1970.
25.
The documentary film John Laurence produced and directed, "I am an American Soldier" was shown at film festivals in New York, Orlando and Traverse City, Michigan in 2007.