Newport Beach, California, 18 December (H.S.): Renowned war correspondent Peter Arnett, a Pulitzer Prize laureate synonymous with frontline journalism, breathed his last on Wednesday at age 91 in Newport Beach, California. Encircled by family and friends during his final moments, Arnett succumbed to complications from prostate cancer following hospitalization last Saturday.
His son Andrew confirmed the passing, noting the journalist's odyssey from Vietnam's rice paddies to Iraq's deserts, where he dodged bullets and bombs for decades to deliver eyewitness dispatches.
Pulitzer Glory Amid Vietnam Inferno
Arnett clinched the 1966 Pulitzer for International Reporting via Associated Press coverage of the Vietnam War, sustaining broadcasts from 1962 until Saigon's fall in 1975 .
Transitioning to CNN in 1981, he catapulted to household fame with live Gulf War updates from Baghdad in 1991, alongside incendiary interviews with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden . Post-1999 CNN exit, he chronicled the 2003 Iraq invasion for NBC and National Geographic, capping a career spanning Taiwan, UAE, Belgium outlets, and adjunct professorship at China's Shantou University until 2014 retirement.
Antipodean Roots to Global Battlefields
Born November 13, 1934, in Riverton, New Zealand, Arnett launched into journalism straight from high school at the Southland Times, later honing skills at Bangkok World before Indonesia and Vietnam postings. He departed AP in 1981, settling post-retirement with wife Nina Nguyen in Fountain Valley suburbia. Arnett leaves spouse Nina, children Elsa and Andrew—his legacy etched in raw war narratives that reshaped broadcast valor.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
