The English-language “Caravelle Saigon-A History,” published last week, unfolds as a straight narrative interspersed with fascinating stories from an array of diverse individuals whose lives intersected with the hotel.
While its most compelling sections detail the tumult of the 1960s and early 1970s, the book provides a fascinating glimpse into the development of the hospitality industry in Saigon and concludes with the hotel’s extensive refurbishment in 1998.
Built to be the country’s most luxurious hotel when opened in 1959, the five-star Caravelle became inseparable from both the journalistic luminaries who covered the Vietnam War and a new and progressive brand of war correspondents.
As Saigon’s unofficial press club, the Caravelle was frequented by policy makers and such media icons as Peter Arnett, Neil Sheehan, David Halberstam and Walter Cronkite.
It also housed the offices of a number of international press organizations during the war period such as the CBS News, the ABC News and The New York Times.
A Vietnamese edition will be published by the end of the year, according to a Caravelle statement.
Reported by Vinh Bao |
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