In the years following World War II, the United States suffered
its most severe military and diplomatic reverses in Asia while Mao
Zedong laid the foundation for the emergence of China as a major
economic and military world power. As a correspondent for the
International News Service, the Associated Press, and later for the
New York Times, Seymour Topping documented on the ground the
tumultuous events during the Chinese Civil War, the French
Indochina War, and the American retreat from Vietnam, Cambodia, and
Laos. In this riveting narrative, Topping chronicles his
extraordinary experiences covering the East-West struggle in Asia
and Eastern Europe from 1946 into the 1980s, taking us beyond
conventional historical accounts to provide a fresh, first-hand
perspective on American triumphs and defeats during the Cold War
era.
At the close of World War II, Topping -- who had served as an
infantry officer in the Pacific -- reported for the International
News Service from Beijing and Mao's Yenan stronghold before joining
the Associated Press in Nanking, Chiang Kai-shek's capital. He
covered the Chinese Civil War for the next three years, often
interviewing Nationalist and Communist commanders in combat zones.
Crossing Nationalist lines, Topping was captured by Communist
guerrillas and tramped for days over battlefields to reach the
People's Liberation Army as it advanced on Nanking. The sole
correspondent on the battlefield during the decisive Battle of the
Huai-Hai, which sealed Mao's victory, Topping later scored a
world-wide exclusive as the first journalist to report the fall of
the capital.
In 1950, Topping opened the Associated Press bureau in Saigon,
becoming the first American correspondent in Vietnam. In 1951, John
F. Kennedy, then a young congressman on a fact-finding visit to
Saigon, sought out Topping for a briefing. Assignments in London
and West Berlin followed, then Moscow and Hong Kong for the New
York Times. During those years Topping reported on the Chinese
intervention in the Korean conflict, Mao's Cultural Revolution and
its preceding internal power struggle, the Chinese leader's
monumental ideological split with Nikita Khrushchev, the French
Indochina War, America's Vietnam War, and the genocides in Cambodia
and Indonesia. He stood in the Kremlin with a vodka-tilting
Khrushchev on the night the Cuban missile crisis ended and
interviewed Fidel Castro in Havana on its aftermath.
Throughout this captivating chronicle, Topping also relates the
story of his marriage to Audrey Ronning, a world-renowned
photojournalist and writer and daughter of the Canadian ambassador
to China. As the couple traveled from post to post reporting on
some of the biggest stories of the century in Asia and Eastern
Europe, they raised five daughters. In an epilogue, Topping cites
lessons to be learned from the Asia wars which could serve as
useful guides for American policymakers in dealing with present-day
conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
From China to Indochina, Burma to Korea and beyond, Topping did
more than report the news; he became involved in international
diplomacy, enabling him to gain extraordinary insights. In On the
Front Lines of the Cold War, Topping shares these insights,
providing an invaluable eyewitness account of some of the pivotal
moments in modern history.
General
Imprint: |
Louisiana State University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
From Our Own Correspondent |
Release date: |
March 2010 |
First published: |
March 2010 |
Authors: |
Seymour Topping
|
Dimensions: |
235 x 155 x 38mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Paper over boards
|
Pages: |
488 |
Edition: |
New |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8071-3556-3 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
General
Books >
Humanities >
History >
General
Books >
History >
General
|
LSN: |
0-8071-3556-9 |
Barcode: |
9780807135563 |
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