Author Mark Bowden’s latest book gave him an ‘opportunity to do something that hadn’t been done’
The famed author of the book “Black Hawk Down” will be in Burbank on Wednesday to talk about his latest project, which is about one of the most crucial battles during the Vietnam War and how it was affected by journalism.
Mark Bowden will be at the Buena Vista Branch Library at 7 p.m. to talk about his latest book, “Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam,” which centers around the Tet Offensive and the Battle of Hue.
Screenwriter Ken Nolan, who adapted Bowden’s “Black Hawk Down” into a screenplay for a movie of the same title, will be interviewing the author during the event.
Though the book has only been out since June, filmmakers Michael Mann and Michael De Luca have acquired film rights and are working on a miniseries for FX.
The 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive — the surprise assault by tens of thousands of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese on U.S. military forces during the start of the Lunar New Year — and the subsequent monthlong Battle of Hue, the bloodiest battle during the war, is coming up in January.
Bowden said it was time to take a closer look at what transpired.
“There really wasn’t a well-reported account of what happened there, so it gave me the opportunity to do something that hadn’t been done,” Bowden said. “I could tell a great story, and one that I think helps better understand the whole Vietnam experience.”
The battle was not only a surprise to the U.S. military, but also to Americans stateside who were reassured by government officials that the war was under control. It was journalists, both American and foreign, who gave the public some insight into what was actually happening in Vietnam.
Journalists such as Gene Roberts and Walter Cronkite were just a few of the many reporters who traveled to Vietnam and then shared their stories with the public.
“This story illustrates very dramatically the difference between independent reporting and the kind of propaganda that government officials are prone to broadcast and put out,” Bowden said. “In this particular case, the story being told by the United States government by the military leaders was completely false, and it was the reporting done by journalists who basically braved the dangers of the battlefields in Hue who were writing stories about what was really going on.”
anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
