I was prompted to buy this book, You Don't Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War from watching a TV interview its author (Elizabeth Becker, herself a journalist who had covered the war in Cambodia during the early 1970s) gave to the CSPAN BOOK TV program.

I cannot praise this book enough. It does a fine job of highlighting the wartime experiences in Vietnam and Cambodia of 3 exceptional, talented, smart, and resourceful women who worked hard, often against the at times disdainful, sexist and contemptuous attitudes of many of their male colleagues , to perform outstanding work --- both on the front lines, streets, and alleyways of Vietnam and Cambodia --- as war correspondents.

Catherine Leroy was a petite Frenchwoman who arrived in South Vietnam in 1966 (during the early phase of the American involvement in the Vietnam War), where she managed to ingratiate herself with the U.S. military establishment --- and the coterie of journalists and news services covering the war --- as a photographer, often accompanying paratroopers and soldiers into combat. Several of Leroy's photographs are featured in this book, and they are some of the best war photographs I've ever seen, conveying the tragedy and misery of war on soldiers and civilians alike.

Frances FitzGerald hailed from an affluent, privileged background in New York society, was a graduate from Radcliffe College (Class of 1962) who made her way to South Vietnam in January 1966, intent on writing a few articles from there about the war. With the help of several influential people she knew in Vietnam, FitzGerald took it upon herself to gain an understanding of the Vietnam conflict that she felt wasn't being reflected in the press. She would go on to spend a considerable amount of time in Vietnam before returning later in the decade to the U.S., where she would begin work on one of the first books to provide a nuanced, comprehensive look at the U.S. involvement in Vietnam that also examined the culture and history of Vietnam as well: Fire in the Lake, which became a critically acclaimed, best-seller in 1972 and won several top literary awards.

Kate Webb, a university graduate from Australia in her early 20s with scant journalistic experience, made her way to Vietnam in the mid-1960s. She knew no-one there and had few resources she could call upon. But Kate Webb had grit, determination, and through the final withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Vietnam in April 1975, would establish a sterling reputation as one of the most astute, resourceful, and courageous journalists working first, from Saigon, where she received her baptism of fire covering the Tet Offensive first-hand, to the widening, horrific conflict in Cambodia.

I was very much taken in by the stories of these three women who "challenged the rules imposed on them by the military, ignored the belittlement of their male peers, and ultimately altered the craft of war reportage for generations."

Anyone with an interest in Vietnam and war reportage should read this book. Indeed, You Don't Belong Here should be required reading in any college or university syllabus covering the Vietnam War. I cannot praise it enough.