Press Release: RosettaBooks and The Associated Press Collaborate on a Line of Books, Re-purposing Archived AP Content
New York, NY April 23, 2015: RosettaBooks kicks off its publishing collaboration with The Associated Press and commemorates the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, with the release of Saigon Has Fallen, an intimate and exclusive remembrance by Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnam era correspondent Peter Arnett.
As Saigon fell on April 30, 1975, Arnett was one of the three AP reporters remaining in the bureau.
Arnett, who has recounted this period of his career before, uses his own recollections, as well as his original reporting dispatches, to shed new light on events before, during and after the fall. Never before told accounts of high-level delegations returning to Vietnam over the ensuing years, reveal America's attempts to remove the lingering doubts that continue today.
"Vietnam was America's last uncensored war, and we journalists were pushed between a rock and a hard place, browbeaten by government officials to present their optimistic version of the war while our news industry executives back home demanded we report the unvarnished truth," Arnett said. "We chose the truth, sharing with our audiences the bitter realities of an unwinnable war that, for the Americans and South Vietnamese who fought it, came to an unbearable, heart-rending end forty years ago."
Arnett won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1966 for his Vietnam coverage. He later joined CNN and became well-known to TV audiences during the first Gulf War when he broadcast live from Baghdad during the U.S. bombing raids.
The gripping opening words of Saigon Has Fallen details the chaotic final hours in and around the U.S. Embassy and provides a vivid picture of desperation for both the fleeing Americans and their Vietnamese partners, many of whom were left behind. The memoir also provides an interesting look back at the role of The Associated Press as the guidepost of American journalism in the sixties and seventies, and shows how its role in traditional, fact-based reporting remains strong, even today.
"AP is proud to co-publish a line of titles with RosettaBooks using content from our vast archives, and this incredible, moment-by-moment recounting by Peter Arnett of the fall of Saigon is a great start to this relationship," said Peter Costanzo, AP's Digital Publishing Specialist. "We're looking forward to producing important snapshots of history like this throughout the year."
"Saigon Has Fallen represents the mission of our co-publishing relationship with The Associated Press - to stimulate, inform and provoke discussion around pivotal moments in history," said Roger Cooper, Associate Publisher at Large, RosettaBooks. "Peter Arnett's recollections will inform not only those who lived through the Vietnam experience, but is integral to a whole new generation of young people who through this book can learn important lessons from the past."
Saigon Has Fallen features 21 dramatic photographs from the AP archives as well as Arnett's personal collection and is available exclusively for Kindle at Amazon.com. A paperback edition can be found wherever books are sold.
The second book project in collaboration with The Associated Press is World War II: Stories and Photographs by Correspondents of The Associated Press in recognition of the 70th anniversary of VE-Day, to be published in May.
About RosettaBooks: RosettaBooks is the leading independent digital publisher. Its prominent author collections include 52 works of Winston Churchill, 35 titles by renowned science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, 20 works by Kurt Vonnegut, 12 titles from international bestselling business author Stephen R. Covey and 18 works by Robert Graves, celebrated 20th century English poet, critic, and author of I, Claudius and Claudius, the God. RosettaBooks also publishes eBook lines in collaboration with AARP, Harvard Health Publications and Mayo Clinic. Publisher of ten Kindle Singles, including Ray Bradbury's The Playground, RosettaBooks has launched nine of them to bestseller status. RosettaBooks is an Inc. 500 company, on the exclusive list of the fastest growing private companies in the United States. For more information, please visit RosettaBooks.com and follow the e-publisher on Facebook.
About AP: The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is the most trusted source of independent news and information. On any given day, more than half the world's population sees news from AP. On the Web: www.ap.org.
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