Remembering Anne Morrissy Merick, Vietnam War Journalist

Anne Morrissy Merick passed away a few days ago. She was an iconic war reporter who covered the Vietnam War. She was a pioneer in an industry that was dominated by men. She broke boundaries right from her college days to her time in Vietnam.

Here are a few things to know about her:

She began her journalism career as the sports editor of her college, Cornell University, in 1954. She was the first woman to become the college's sports editor and even conducted interviews in men’s locker rooms. She was also the first woman to be admitted to the press box a the Yale Bowl.

After her college experiences, she became sports editor of the International Edition of the New York Herald Tribune, and was on assignment in Syria when she was arrested for being a spy.

She was then hired by ABC as a producer and was posted to Saigon in Vietnam.

Women covering the Vietnam war had been barred from staying overnight on the battleground. Merck fought against this order and gained access to the battlefield. She was the only woman TV correspondent in Saigon.

“My objective was to get ‘the story behind the story, not only what these men did but how they felt about it',” Morrissy Merick said.

She is the author of War Torn: Stories of War From the Women Reporters Who Covered Vietnam, a book which she co-authored with eight colleagues in 2002.

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