Dateline: Saigon

Lies, deception, and the dangerous search for truth

How does a nation slip into war? Dateline-Saigon profiles the controversial reporting of five Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists -The New York Times' David Halberstam, the Associated Press' Malcolm Browne, Peter Arnett, and legendary photojournalist Horst Faas, and UPI's Neil Sheehan -- during the early years of the Vietnam War as President John F. Kennedy is secretly committing US troops to what is initially dismissed by some as 'a nice little war in a land of tigers and elephants.' 'When the government is telling the truth, reporters become a relatively unimportant conduit to what is happening,' Halberstam tells us. 'But when the government doesn't tell the truth, begins to twist the truth, hide the truth, then the journalist becomes involuntarily infinitely more important.'

Cast

Sam Waterston

Narrator (voice)

Neil Sheehan

Self

Peter Arnett

Self

Malcolm Browne

Self

Horst Faas

Self

David Halberstam

Self

Walter Cronkite

Self (archival footage)

Crew

Thomas D. Herman

Director

Amy Macd

Associate Producer

Marianne Harris

Associate Producer

Steve Keeny

Director of Photography

Randel Cole

Director of Photography

Susan Grey

Associate Producer

Mark Bakker

Director of Photography

Bestor Cram

Director of Photography

Pepijn Aben

Sound Recordist

Lorie Conway

Post Production Supervisor