AWARD DATE: 1967
AWARD NAME: Best Magazine Reporting From Abroad
AWARD RECIPIENT: Linda Grant Martin
AWARD RECIPIENT AFFILIATION: The New York Times Sunday Magazine
AWARD HONORED WORK: “The Story of the 37-year War of the Village of Tan An Hoi”
Linda Grant Martin wrote “The Story of the 37-year War of the Village of Tan An Hoi” (Vietnam) on assignment for the New York Times Sunday Magazine. To the OPC panel judging category 9, it was a top reporting job “in writing, organization of material, continuity, impact and feeling.” To its author it
has become a bittersweet memory because of the tragedy it foreshadowed. Tan An Hoi typified the
villages she had known, where the pacification program had failed dismally; where the Communists
moved back in, the day after the anti-Communist teams moved out, labeling them “secure” alter months of effort. “When the Viet Cong launched the Tet offensive,” Linda recalled, “I read the story again and found it was all there-the signs that it was coming, as all of us in Vietnam could see it would.”
From her first visit to the community, she was challenged as a CIA agent by the aloof and suspicious
villagers. (Not illogically! Still in her middle twenties, she is slender, blue-eyed, blonde and beautiful.) Her credentials as a journalist convinced few, and by her eighth visit most doors were closed against her. She told it as it was. After obtaining her degree in journalism from Northwestern University, Linda’s first job was as associate copy editor for the Saturday Evening Post, in New York. Later, as a researcher for Newsweek, she met and was married to Everett G. Martin, chief of the magazine’s Saigon bureau, in 1965. From there, as a free lance, she wrote articles for various periodicals.
In January, 1968, resentful about Newsweek’s attitude toward the war, the Government of South
Vietnam requested the Martins to make their exit within seven days. They were on leave in the United
States until April 1, when they resettled in Hong Kong, from where they will continue to report on Vietnam developments.
Citation for Excellence: Jack Smith, Saturday Evening Post, for “Death in the Ia Drang Valley”
Citation for Excellence: Look for the special issue on Soviet Russia, with special mention to Leonard
Gross (editorial and article)
Citation for Excellence: Newsweek for Israel-Arab war coverage in the June 5th, 12th and
19th issues, with special mention to Kenneth Auchincloss, correlator for reporting team.