Archives » Friday, September 12, 2008
-
David Botti
|
Sep 12, 2008 08:24 AM
While conducting research for a book about his experiences covering
Vietnam, former Swedish broadcaster Erik Eriksson stumbled upon film
footage taken in Hanoi on March 14, 1973. The subject: a group of
American POW's in transit from North Vietnamese holding facilities to
the welcoming salute of a U.S. military officer waiting to take them
home. Among them is 37-year-old John McCain quietly standing in
formation with the others, and surveying the scene around him. He
walks with a slight limp and does not speak. Eriksson told the
Associated Press he'd contracted a local North Vietnamese photographer
to film the prisoner release. From the AP:
"This summer when I was preparing the release of my book we were
putting together a DVD with some of my reports from Vietnam and then I
thought, 'I wonder if we have McCain here?'" Eriksson said...
...Eriksson
said he covered the Vietnam War for SVT as well as U.S. television
networks CBS and NBC. He explained that in February 1973, he was in
Hanoi filming the release of the first American pilot prisoners, but
had to return home to edit the film "because it was the first release
that was sensational.""However, we knew that more prisoners
would probably be released shortly, so we left a camera and lots of
film with a North Vietnamese photographer and asked him to film all the
releases of U.S. prisoners," Eriksson said.
VIEW AN ASSOCIATED PRESS EDITED VERSION OF THE VIDEO HERE.
More
