AWARD DATE: 1968
AWARD NAME: The Asia Magazine Award For The Best Article or Report on Asia
AWARD RECIPIENT: Bernard Kalb
AWARD RECIPIENT AFFILIATION: CBS News
AWARD HONORED WORK: “The Viet Cong”
From that part of the world where he has ranged consistently since 1956, Bernard Kalb of CBS News last year produce a television feature on “The Viet Cong”, to which the OPC jury for the category voted first place among the entries, the accompanying $500 in cash. Audience interest in the program was heightened by the inclusion of some film captured behind enemy lines, depicting the day-to-day life of the characters collectively dubbed “Charlie “by American GIs.
His long and wide acquaintance with the region is a prime asset in the coverage provided from there by Kalb–older brother Marvin Kalb of the same network. Bernie is sometimes identified as “open collar Kabl” to distinguish him from his near relative, who operates from Washington on the diplomatic front and is therefore “button-down collar Kalb”.
Born in New York in 1933, Bernie Kalb has been one of the globe-trottingest of correspondents, but the assignments “from Greenland icy mountains to India’s coral strand”, or thereabout. After
graduation from City College of New York he became a news writer in 1946 for WQXR of The New York Times, and in 1955, a member of the foreign staff of that newspaper. His first six months in the post were spent on the Antarctica “Operation Deep Freeze I”.
1956 to 1961 he was based in Southeast Asia for the Times, the only western correspondent permanently on duty in Indonesia. He transferred in 1962 to CBS News, operating out of Paris until 1965, returning to Vietnam in October, 1966 and now spending up to half his time there, with Hong Kong as his base.
Prior to his advent of the New York Times, Bernie extended his familiarity with remote places and contrasting climates through two years army service in the Aleutians, where (naturally)he wrote for
the Army newspaper.
Citation for Excellence: Robert Christopher, Editor, and the Newsweek Staff, for “Vietnam: A Reappraisal.”
Citation for Excellence: Ernest Weatherall, Christian Science Monitor, for continuing coverage in depth of the nation of India.