Scope and Contents

The collection consists of audio recordings documenting the work of New York Times war correspondent James Sterba in Vietnam from 1969-1970.

Biographical / Historical

James P. Sterba was born in 1943 in Detroit, MI. He worked as a war correspondent with the New York Times in Vietnam from 1969-1970 stationed at the Times' Vietnam Bureau in Saigon. He reported military briefings, battles, combat assaults, and pacification programs from all four Corps, visiting military units countrywide and interviewing infantrymen in the field. Major stories that he reported on included the beginning of U.S. military withdrawal starting with the 9th Division; Vietnamization; the double-agent murder case and trial of a Green Beret; A Company 3/21 Americal Division's mutiny; the ARVN incursion into Cambodia's Parrot's Beak; the 1st Cavalry Division and 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment's incursion into Cambodia; and the capture of the Snuol Airfield. After his time reporting the Vietnam War, he moved to Jakarta, Indonesia and became the Southeast Asian correspondent for the Times covering ASEAN countries.