Peter Arnett, the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist renowned as one of the world’s most fearless and influential combat correspondents, has died at the age of 91. His death occurred on Wednesday after a battle with prostate cancer, according to US media reports.
Arnett earned the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for his gripping coverage of the Vietnam War with The Associated Press (AP), a conflict that helped define his legacy and cement his reputation as a reporter willing to risk his life to tell the world’s most difficult stories.
He rose to global prominence as a wire-service correspondent in Vietnam, where he reported from 1962 until the war’s end in 1975, often accompanying troops on dangerous missions and narrowly escaping enemy fire. Arnett was among the last journalists to remain in Saigon as the city fell to communist-backed North Vietnamese forces.
After nearly two decades with the AP, Arnett joined CNN in 1981, where he quickly became one of the network’s most recognizable faces. His stature soared during the first Gulf War in 1991, when he reported live from Baghdad, even as bombs fell. His on-the-ground broadcasts—some delivered via mobile phone—captivated global audiences and made him a household name. During the conflict, he also conducted a rare interview with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Arnett resigned from CNN in 1999 following the network’s retraction of a report he narrated alleging the use of Sarin nerve gas against American defectors in Laos during the Vietnam War era.
He later continued his frontline reporting during the second Gulf War, working with NBC News and National Geographic. However, his tenure with NBC ended in 2003 after he gave an interview to Iraqi state television in which he criticized US military strategy.
Born on November 13, 1934, in Riverton, New Zealand, Arnett began his journalism career at the Southland Times before moving on to work for an English-language newspaper in Thailand. He later became a naturalized American citizen.
In 1995, he published his memoir, Live From the Battlefield: From Vietnam to Baghdad, 35 Years in the World’s War Zones, offering a firsthand account of decades spent reporting from some of the world’s most dangerous conflicts.
Arnett had lived in Southern California since 2014. He is survived by his wife, Nina Nguyen, and their two children, Elsa and Andrew.
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