The Vietnam war has been called the first truly televised war – and the Caravelle Hotel in old Saigon was one of the vital media hubs from where journalists beamed their war stories to the world. As American involvement in the Vietnam war increased in the 1960s, so did the world’s media attention. International news crews, reporters and photojournalists descended on Saigon, the capital of then South Vietnam. They set up camp in the city’s hotels, especially those on strategically located Lam Son Square. Media, military and intelligence personnel rubbed shoulders and war stories were sniffed out in the bars and restaurants. The Caravelle became a local character in three decades of dramatic history. At times the hotel was simply a good, practical base for the press corps – and at other times it was a target itself. Many iconic war scenes were filmed and photographed from its balconies and journalists witnessed the dramatic end of American involvement in the war from its rooftop. Some of these veteran reporters who lived and worked there share their fascinating memories, from the early days of the war in the 1960s, through to the fall of Saigon to communist North Vietnam in 1975. Renowned AP correspondent Peter Arnett, NBC correspondent Jim Laurie, local Vietnamese UPI photographer Hoang Van Cung and BBC cameraman Eric Thirer, together with John Gardner, one time manager of the hotel, recall the life and death events that unfolded around this extraordinary war hotel.
