The First Casualty: the War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-maker from the Crimea to Kosovo

This is the story of war reporting, of war correspondents, and the legion of influences that can distort and obstruct efforts to report the truth. It tells of the war correspondent and his search for truth or his role as a propagandist for his, or another government. From William Howard Russell who blew the whistle on the appalling conditions of the British forces in the Crimea to the correspondents who lifted the lid on the reality of the Vietnam War, theirs is a story of a web of heroism and manipulation, censorship and espionage. The lengths to which governments lie, to fool the citizens of the enemy and, even more so, to fool their own, has not diminished with the years it is argued - it has grown.