Kate Webb in Vietnam before her capture in Cambodia.
The above is a low-res photograph of page 158 of Courageous Women of the Vietnam War
where the Kate Webb photo appears, courtesy of Getty Images.
After a blurred number of days and nights on foot, the prisoners and their captors stopped in a clearing. One by one, the soldiers singled out each prisoner for what they said were interviews. Thirty or forty minutes would pass, then a single shot would be heard. "As our numbers dwindled, we couldn't meet one another's eyes," Kate wrote later.
Her turn came. She was brought to a military man roughly in his 60s. Ever since her capture, Kate had been striving to view herself as more than a frightened prisoner and the group of them more than a herd of doomed cattle. Now, sitting before this military man, exhausted and ill though he appeared, Kate's hands shook with fear. She forced herself to remember that she was a respected journalist and the representative of an international news service.
"Do not be afraid," said the expressionless interpreter. "You are in the hands of the Liberation Armed Forces."
From "Kate Webb: Captive Journalist" from Courageous Women of the Vietnam War.
No comments:
Post a Comment