Q&A with journalist Andy Glass
Monday, April 16, 2012 at 4:21PM Andrew J. Glass arrived in Washington as a reporter in 1962, and has covered pretty much every major news event since then; he spent more than two decades as D.C. bureau chief for Cox Newspapers.
Q: As a reporter covering Washington for many years, do you think the Vietnam War had a lasting impact on presidential politics, and if so, how?
A: The failed war spawned distrust in the political process by the public and much of the media, including every race for the White House, which persists to this day.
Q: When you covered the Persian Gulf War in 1991, did you think the military and the Bush I administration had absorbed lessons from Vietnam?
A: The circumstances of that conflict were far removed from those that infused Vietnam, which was widely noted at time. A brief ground war and a low loss of life contributed to a feeling that it was a “good ” war.
Q: Do you think the Vietnam War was a "lost" war? Why or why not?
A: Fundamentally, a generation of U.S. leaders that had lived through the run up to World War II as adults saw Vietnam as an integral element in a bipolar power struggle with evil adversaries. It was many things, but it was not that. It was unwinnable as well because as Gen. Giap once told me on a visit to Hanoi, “we wanted to prevail more than you did.”
Q: In your opinion, what is the best course for President Obama to take in Afghanistan?
A: Withdraw all military and economic support ASAP.
Q: What is the most exciting story you've covered during your career, and why?
A: Running around in Soviet choppers not very high above Afghanistan in 1982 with an elite Spitznaz unit – their version of the U.S. Special Forces – while a colleague entered the country through Peshawar with the muhajadeen. We subsequently wrote a series of articles for the Cox Newspapers on the two faces of war. Our reporting effort received scant attention from most Cox editors and, perhaps as a consequence, little feedback from readers.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: We should know, that more often than not, we don’t know and, probably, cannot find out.
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