Peter Arnett

You are not permitted to download, save or email this image. Visit image gallery to purchase the image. War correspondent Peter Arnett reporting live on the war in Iraq from Baghdad in 2003. Photo: Getty Images Of the many New Zealand journalists who have reported around the globe, Peter Arnett arguably became one of the most visible on the international stage. Peter Gregg Arnett was born in Riverton on November 13 1934. the son of Eric Lionel Arnett and Jane (Gregg) Arnett. His great-great-grandmother was Ngāi Tahu and his family was entitled to gather muttonbirds on Poutama Island. Arnett once said that some of his richest memories from his youth came from muttonbirding, and that his early adventures on the tītī islands helped prepare him for the adventurous life he would go on to lead as a journalist. He and his brothers were boarding pupils at Waitaki Boy’s High School but Peter managed to get himself expelled for breaking school rules concerning dating. All three Arnett brothers wrote for the Southland Times at various times and Peter Arnett "covered my share of cat shows, backyard brush fires, minor sports events and lots of anniversaries and committee meetings of the most obscure organisations." However, Arnett’s sense of adventure was to take him much further afield, and into contact — and conflict — with world leaders. After a stint in Wellington Arnett worked for English-language papers in Thailand and Laos, before joining news agency Associated Press. Facing challenging communications to the outside world and closed roads out of the country, Arnett swam across a river with his story, passport and $200 in his teeth to reach Thailand. He sent the story by telegraph, and the next day it appeared in papers around the world. This was only the start of a career in which he would become a premiere war correspondent, thanks to acclaimed and Pulitzer Prize wining reporting on the Vietnam war. His peers lauded his work. "The best reporter of the [Vietnam] war" claimed New York Times journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner David Halberstam. "Maybe the quintessential war correspondent of our half-century" extolled the paper’s editor, Bill Keller. The following year Arnett was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, one of 60 journalism awards won during his long career. "I believed that gathering information was a worthwhile pursuit, and truth the greatest goal I could aspire to." The US quit Vietnam in 1973 and many journalists went with them but Arnett — feeling an obligation to stay and cover the end of a war he had covered from its beginnings — remained until 1975. He was one of the last journalists to leave Saigon when the Vietcong conquered the city. Peter Arnett with soldiers of the US 4th Infantry Division in Iraq in 2006. Photo: NZPA Arnett became a roving reporter for AP but was still best-known for his Vietnam coverage: in 1980 he was commissioned to write a Canadian television series Vietnam — The Ten Thousand Day War . Screen work started to interest him more and more and in 1983 Arnett produced and presented an award-winning documentary Poisoning for Profit . Iraq had invaded Kuwait in late 1990 and in subsequent months the United States attempted to build an international coalition to take military action against the Saddam Hussein-led regime. Operation Desert Storm — the liberation of Kuwait and invasion of Iraq began on January 16 1991 and Arnett and two CNN colleagues were the only reporters to secure access for live coverage directly from Baghdad during those initial hours. As the frontline neared the Iraqi capital Arnett was left as the sole western reporter in the city. Arnett’s coverage earned both controversy and awards: some Americans, including a number of politicians, called him the "traitor of Baghdad", especially after he was granted an exclusive interview with Saddam Hussein. Arnett later argued that CNN’s coverage was criticised because "we were giving a view not subject to US censorship. We