People packed into Club Quarters on Tuesday March 23, and were taken to 1950s China and Saigon, whisked to London, New York and Moscow. This whirlwind trip was courtesy of long-time OPC member Seymour Topping who relayed his experiences on his vast journalistic career and his thoughts on the present state of journalism and world affairs. OPC Foundation President William J. Holstein served as interlocutor.
Topping started the evening at the podium, relaying a few important dates that have stuck with him over the years.
“Some of these dates are burned on my consciousness and I wake up at night thinking about it,” said Topping. “The most memorable for me is October 20, 1950.”
This is the date that President Harry S. Truman launched the United States into what Topping called the “Saigon morass.” On this particular day, Audrey Topping was in a French hospital in Saigon about to deliver their first daughter, Susan. The doctor was with the French Army and Topping suspected he had likely never delivered a child before. Shortly after the delivery, with the baby in her arms, Audrey said, “I’m okay. Go back to work.”
Topping went back to the Associated Press office, which was actually a small cubby hole in their tiny apartment above a bar where the French Foreign Legion sang mostly German folk songs all night long. He wrote the story about how from this point forward, Chinese could train Vietnamese troops from South China and the guerrilla face of the war in Indochina.
While still in Saigon, the Toppings had a visit by then-Senator John Kennedy and his brother Robert, who were on a “familiarization tour” of South East Asia. Topping recalled bobby ducking under the wing of the plane looking smiley and boyish, waving at him. He asked if he could stop by, when he arrived he said he’d only stay a few minutes but he ended up staying for more than two hours, asking about every aspect of what was going on in Indochina. He asked what the Vietnamese thought about the United States.
“A year ago, the Vietnamese thought we were wonderful and wanted a similar arrangement that the U.S. had with the Philippines, but that didn’t happen. Now they hate us,” Topping said, relating what he told to Kennedy, then a member of the House of Representatives.
Topping said that Ho Chi Minh made eight appeals to President Truman in the hopes of bridging some political or economic help to become independent. Ho was hoping for a similar process that the Philippines had, but Truman never responded. “This could’ve saved the war in Vietnam and 58,000 American soldiers,” Topping said.
The Toppings were then sent to London, as he covered the Korean War. In 1959, he joined The New York Times.
“I was told by a Times executive that they had me earmarked to go abroad,” he said. “I told them only place I can’t go is Moscow because no correspondents had gone before with children, and by this time we had four daughters.”
Toppings’ first stop as a foreign correspondent for the Times: Moscow.
During a meeting in New York in 1963, Topping was speaking with Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger on the 14th floor, hoping to land an assignment in Washington, D.C. Clifton Daniels, managing editor, broke into the meeting and said that President Kennedy has been shot and may be dying.
“We went to the third floor and the place was in an uproar,” Topping said. “We didn’t have an obit ready.”
Topping went to work on the foreign relations aspects of Kennedy’s biography while Homer Bigart wrote the domestic side. Between 2:30 and 6:30 p.m., the two reporters wrote a full page obituary.
“Then we went to Blick’s bar on 40th Street,” he said. “Homer said he wanted to call his wife, but when I looked through the glass, he was weeping. So I left him. The lights were down in Times Square and I went to the Astor Hotel and didn’t sleep. In the morning, I scribbled about Saigon and what would Kennedy had done if he had lived.”
Topping left the podium and sat with William J. Holstein who asked questions about his coverage of war, Indochina and the current state of journalism and world affairs. Holstein equated the “war on terrorism” with the war against communism and questioned if either “war” should be fought or could be won. Topping said that the greatest shortcomings of Presidents like Truman and George W. Bush is a reluctance to diplomacy.
“There was a certain rigidity, a paralysis of anti-communism where each country has its own interests,” Topping said. “From a diplomatic point of view, we can influence, and if nothing else, we can at least know the enemy. Bush refused to do this with Syria and Iran.”
Topping said he was pleased that the Obama Administration has changed this policy and reached out to these countries and to less radical wings of the Taliban. “It may not work,” Topping said, “but he wants to explore these possibilities.”
Now that people are questioning Afghanistan, there’s a strong effort to support General McChrystal to reach out to the young Taliban for training and jobs, which Topping said is “absolutely vital.” “There’s no winning in Afghanistan if you can’t create a stable environment,” he said.
Holstein asked about the role of media today and if traditional media is in a “retreat” mode.
“One lesson we should’ve learned in Asia and in the Middle East is that we’ve had government lie and cover up and taken action without Constitutional Authority,” Topping said. “It’s necessary to have a fourth state. The press that’s always checking on the three branches and laying out what’s happening so Americans know how to vote and protect their interests. Staffs are being cut, budgets slashed, presses are have great difficulties to safe-guard our national security.”
When asked what story he’d chase now if he were just starting out as a reporter, Topping said, “A single issue of national security, the nuclear story. The possibility of an Israeli strike of Iranian facilities, nuclear proliferation in North Korea. These stories relate to the well being of us all. It’s a great challenge that national security reporters now face.”
Many former colleagues and old friends came out to hear Topping discuss his book and life, many in the crowd – Richard Pyle, Ralph Blumenthal to name a two – asked questions and their congratulations for the book. Four of the Topping’s five daughters were also in attendance.