Overview
- Arnett began with the Associated Press in Southeast Asia, was expelled from Indonesia, and covered the Vietnam War through the fall of Saigon, earning the 1966 Pulitzer Prize.
- He stayed in Baghdad and reported live on January 17, 1991, as U.S. strikes began the Gulf War, becoming a defining face of CNN’s early war coverage.
- He secured rare interviews with Saddam Hussein and, in 1997, with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
- His involvement in CNN and Time’s 1997 Tailwind report led to internal investigations, public apologies and his departure from CNN in 1999.
- He preserved AP’s Saigon records that later entered the agency’s archives, and later worked for outlets including National Geographic and NBC before teaching journalism at China’s University of Shantou.