IN the early morning darkness of January 31, 1968, the Washington Post’s Saigon bureau chief, Peter Braestrup, received an urgent phone call from his colleague Lee Lescaze. “They’re attacking the city,” Lescaze said. “What city?” Braestrup groggily asked. “This city,” Lescaze said patiently. “Saigon.” “Ridiculous,” replied Braestrup, a gruff, battle-hardened Marine veteran. “Just some incoming.”1 And then he went back to sleep.
