On Their Own: Women Journalists and the American Experience in Vietnam (review)

On Their Ownis generally solid, fairly well documented in its journalistic elements, and the language is straightforward. It contributes a little bit to our understanding of the military-media relationship during that era. It is not, however, about the "American Experience in Vietnam," at least not to any appreciable degree. This is a book about female reporters, first and foremost, and their struggle for equality within the field of journalism. The fact that the setting is Vietnam, during the largest American war of the past sixty-plus years, generally seems to be little more than a backdrop to the real story journalism professor Hoffman wanted to present: How women gained equal rights in a traditionally male-dominated field. Hoffman's secondary point, that women reported the war in a different manner than male reporters due to some element inherent in their gender is interesting, but unproven. Beyond repeated assertions, Hoffman does not even attempt to prove the latter point with the presentation of evidence.

Fifteen female journalists are highlighted here, although Hoffman takes care to note that over the course of the war there were some 467 women "accredited" by MACV public affairs. The majority of these women were, however, apparently the wives of journalists, clerical workers, and in some cases, girlfriends with connections. Indeed, only about 70 women wrote or broadcast from Vietnam during the war, although that alone was a change for journalism.

Moving chronologically from the first visits to Vietnam by Gloria Emerson (in her case having gone to be with her paramour, CIA agent John Gates), through the semi-tragic story of photojournalist Dickey Chapelle, and to such notables as Frankie FitzGerald and Martha Gellhorn, Hoffman presents a sequential story of the social changes that took place in journalism from the late 1950s through the early 1970s. Although only seven of the women truly get in-depth treatment here, there is enough supplemental material to flesh out the others. One wishes, however, that Hoffman had taken the same space to provide evidence for the reader regarding her sub-thesis contention that women reported news in a way that was different than what men wrote. (The fact that in the early years of the war the women were prevented, by their stateside editors, from covering military events in the war zone is a different issue.)

Hoffman's overwhelming focus is upon the individuals in this group biography and their places within the context of the history of women in journalism. This is fine, for a history of journalism, but in effect it means that this book might as well have been set in Des Moines. War, the military, and interactions of the subjects with anyone but other journalists seem to be a bother to the author. This detracts from the work as it makes it appear that Hoffman could be writing about any aspect of journalism that was male dominated...such as financial reporting from Wall Street in the 1950s-70s, or sports. Basic errors abound when she touches upon the military. In writing about a Marine Corps operation near Chu Lai, for example, she wrote: "It was the largest American death toll for any operation to date. Upwards of 5,000 Marines in the India and Hotel companies had trapped members of the Viet Cong 1st Regiment, which lost more than six hundred men in the battle" (p. 138).

Somehow the Marines managed to put 5,000 men into two rifle companies? This must be a new record. Such mistakes, sadly, are typical in On Their Own.

Her lack of research skills, historical knowledge, or perhaps merely her uncritical acceptance of journalistic accounts vice historical accounts, also led Hoffman to repeat several of the old journalistic saws that historians discredited long ago. For instance, she writes that, "From the time American ground troops first landed," African American casualties were disproportionate. As her source...