In the latest interview in our ongoing video archive series, Audrey and Seymour Topping reminisce about their life together as globe-trotting journalists, and discuss experiences covering some of the biggest stories of the 20th century.
OPC Foundation President Bill Holstein interviews the toppings about their life abroad, from China to Vietnam, Moscow and Berlin.
Seymour, a longtime member of the OPC and former member of the club’s board, covered conflicts in Asia for the Associated Press before joining The New York Times, where he served as chief correspondent, foreign editor and managing editor in Moscow and in Southeast Asia. During the interview, he talks about covering the Chinese Civil War, Vietnam War, Cuban missile crisis and assassination of John F. Kennedy, as well as his interview with Fidel Castro during the height of the Cold War.
He retired in 1993. Seymour wrote about his experiences in On the Front Lines of the Cold War: An American Correspondent’s Journal from the Chinese Civil War to the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam.
Audrey is a documentary filmmaker and author who wrote China Mission: A Personal History from the Last Imperial Dynasty to the People’s Republic, a memoir recounting her family’s history in China, which stretches back generations to 1891. This interview was filmed and edited by their daughter, Lesley Topping.