Journalism in Action: Beverly Deepe Keever and Her Career

Freelance Journalism

For the first year, Keever worked as a free-lance reporter, submitting stories on speculation to the Associated Press and other newspapers. Her freelance status meant that unlike the eight other resident Western correspondents—all male—she was not tethered to Saigon and she chose to spend much of that time in the countryside. Her freelance status allowed her to report on civilian life, and her gender made her much more approachable to a wider range of informants, including the women in villages. Over her time in Vietnam, Keever wrote several articles about the the war’s effect on Vietnamese women and on civilian Vietnamese attitudes toward Communism and the American presence.

The New York Herald Tribune

In 1964, Keever began writing for the New York Herald Tribune, and she broke several major stories while working there. In 1964, Keever broke the story that North Vietnamese troops had been detected in South Vietnam, although both North Vietnam and the U.S. continued to claim only Viet Cong soldiers were present. After the U.S. elections, however, Washington confirmed the story.

In the same year, Keever revealed the tense relationship between the American and South Vietnamese governments when she published her exclusive interviews with Vietnamese prime minister Nguyễn Khánh. Khánh stated that America’s policy was misguided and that “the United States will lose Southeast Asia.” At the time, Keever was the only American correspondent who was not allowed into the regular U.S. military press briefings, but her articles caught the embassy’s attention and they began to take her work seriously, including letting her into press briefings. While this move may seem like a recognition of her importance as a journalists, it was more likely an attempt to give Keever their side of the story in hopes she would write more favorable press.

America Officially Enters the War

In 1965 and 1966, two major changes took place. In the political realm, the U.S. officially entered the war following the Tonkin Gulf Incident in 1965. This meant that the number of reporters in Vietnam exploded and the reporters were given increasing access to the U.S. military bases and personnel. Western Press could easily become Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) accredited journalist, which would allow correspondents into official press briefings, entitle them to free military transport, and insure cooperation from military officials in the field. With a press card, reporters could go almost anywhere and talk to almost anyone without U.S. military interference. If the journalist wrote an unfavorable story, the press cards could be revoked, but this was rare. Keever began covering more military stories during this time.

The second change came in 1966, when the New York Herald Tribune staff in New York started a strike that ultimately closed the paper permanently. During the strike and after the paper’s closure, Keever wrote for many papers in the U.S., U.K., and Australia, at the same time as she was trying to get another secure job.

The Christian Science Monitor

Eventually, Keever landed a job with The Christian Science Monitor. While working for the Monitor, she was one of the first reporters to suggest America might lose that war in response to the Tet offensive in 1968.

In 1969 she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in international reporting by the Christian Science Monitor for her earlier coverage of the Khe Sanh combat base while it was being bombarded by communist artillery. “Most of Beverly Deepe’s readers presume she is a man—for her beat in Vietnam is rough, tough and dangerous,” the Monitor’s nomination letter read, “Yet Miss Beverly Ann Deepe, who hails from little Carleton, Nebraska, has been reporting the war and political developments from Saigon and military outposts such as Khe Sanh for seven years now. She holds her own with hosts of masculine correspondents—and asks no favors.”

In 1968 when she left Vietnam, Keever was the longest serving Western news correspondent of the war.

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