David Hume Kennerly

The First Lady

August 27, 2022 By David Hume Kennerly

Showtime recently announced that The First Lady series is cancelled. Mercifully it only had one season. This will spare other former presidential wives from the historical malpractice visited upon the three women portrayed in the show by creator Aaron Cooley. It will, however, be a crushing disappointment for those waiting for the Jacqueline Kennedy and Melania Trump stories.

I didn’t know that much about Eleanor Roosevelt, and even though I photographed Michelle Obama a few times, had no clue about the innerworkings of her world. Based on this show I’m sure I still don’t.

But I ‘m very well acquainted with Gerald R. Ford and his family thanks to a close friendship with the president, Mrs. Ford, and their children. I was the chief White House photographer with upstairs/downstairs access to the East and West Wings and everywhere in between. I probably spent more time with Mrs. Ford than anyone outside of her family. In this contorted version of Betty Ford’s life she was shown navigating their Alexandria home then later the White House in a cliche-infused-alcoholic haze. Nope, that’s not how it happened. If you want to know the real story read Mrs. Ford's book, "The Times of My Life." She didn't shy away from discussing her battle with pain killers and alcohol, quite the opposite, but she wasn't prancing around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue plastered.

Betty Ford played by Michelle Pfeiffer (Photo by Murray Close/Showtime)

In their Hollywood imagination Cooley & Co. also drummed up a scenario where Mrs. Ford lectured her husband in their bedroom after he pardoned Richard Nixon. In a fiery and astonishing scene Mrs. Ford says, “You let him off without consequences for his actions. You know that makes us look complicit, that we are part of the coverup.” That was huge. You go strong woman! Give that presidential mate a piece of your first lady’s mind. Great stuff. Except it was 100% false. She in fact was sympathetic to the Nixons who were old family friends. Mrs. Ford was an empathetic human being who felt a deep sadness for former first wife Patricia Nixon. Betty Ford thought her husband had done the right thing, and wholeheartedly supported his decision. But hell, that’s not good television.

When The First Lady team was conjuring up this fantasy, neither creator Cooley nor any of his nine executive producers reached out to the Ford children or anyone else who knew them for input. They didn’t get in touch with me either and I was portrayed in an episode. One of the kids asked me why they didn’t call them for information. I said that they were going to make the show they had in mind and didn't want facts to get in the way of what turned out to be a subpar story badly and erroneously told.

I understand this wasn’t a documentary purporting to tell the real story and I didn’t expect that standard of accuracy. When Viola Davis, who played Michelle Obama in the series, was being interviewed by Leslie Stahl on CBS Sunday Morning she was questioned about the truth of a scene with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel talking condescendingly to Mrs. Obama. Ms. Davis, who was also an executive producer of the project said, “With Rahm we took some liberties for dramatic purposes.” Indeed they did, and not only with Rahm. No White House chief of staff with half a brain would have done anything like that. Except for Ronald Reagan’s chief Donald Regan, who hung up the phone on First Lady Nancy and was fired shortly after. As Jim Baker who had been Reagan’s previous chief put it, “Hell, that wasn’t a firing offense, it was a hanging offense.”

Michelle Pfeiffer is Betty Ford, Viola Davis is Michelle Obama, Gillian Anderson is Eleanor Roosevelt (Showtime)

“Taking liberties” should not be grabbing history by the short hairs and tossing it kicking and screaming off the cliff. There is a professional responsibility in keeping historical drama within a realistic framework, unless of course you are Monty Python. It should have been designated a “fiction based on real characters” and a disclaimer at the beginning of each episode added that said:

The producers of The First Lady apparently had no idea what really went on with these ladies so they just made up the “facts.”

Another fabrication in this saga was portraying Don Rumsfeld, the president's White House chief of staff, and his deputy Dick Cheney as the requisite bad guys out to suppress the president’s “plucky wife” Betty Ford. Nope. Not the way it went down. In one overblown scene, Rumsfeld storms aboard Mrs. Ford's plane before she was about to take off to Atlanta for the funeral of Martin Luther King's mother. In a vaguely racist statement Rumsfeld told her what a bad idea it was for her to do that. Dammit, "I'm Jerry's chief of staff!" Nope. That scene never happened either. At the time, Mrs. Ford was the wife of Vice President Ford, and Rumsfeld was in Europe serving as Nixon’s U.S. Ambassador to NATO. Oops. Great alibi though. He didn't become chief until six weeks after Ford became president. Plus Rumsfeld didn’t call him Jerry after Ford became the chief executive. It was always "Mr. President." Same with Cheney. Same with me. Same with most people.

In another four-Pinocchio moment, the downer boys, Rumsfeld and Cheney, showed up in the Family Residence of the White House on Christmas Eve, 1975. In this depiction the Fords were in the middle of a nice, quiet, private holiday dinner. The downer duo’s mission was to admonish Mrs. Ford for another outspoken moment that they felt was going to hurt “Jerry’s” presidential campaign. Kind of unimaginable that anyone would do something like that on Christmas. They didn't. The Fords weren't even in the White House that night, they were in Vail. I was with them having dinner. Guess what? Neither Cheney nor Rumsfeld interrupted them there either. Another reason why not? Donald Rumsfeld had become Secretary of Defense, was no longer chief of staff, and was running the Pentagon, not trying to screw with Betty Ford's life. Details, details.

The requisite bad guys. Rhys Wakefield as Dick Cheney and Derek Cecil as Donald Rumsfeld (Showtime)

A fine young actor Cody Pressley played my character. His scene was based on what happened the day before the Fords left office on January 19, 1977. In real life Mrs. Ford was in the West Wing saying her goodbyes to the staff. We passed the empty Cabinet Room. She peeked in, looked at me with her trademark mischievous grin and said, "You know, I've always wanted to dance on the Cabinet Room table." The former Martha Graham dancer kicked off her shoes, jumped up on the table, and struck a pose that captured her irrepressible personality. She was also symbolically planting the feminist flag right in the middle of a predominantly white male domain. Nothing against Cody, but they had him carrying one of his cameras bandolier-style in a way you couldn’t quickly take a picture. It might work for tourists from Omaha, but not pros in the White House. He was also dressed in a light-colored turtleneck and not wearing a coat and tie. A photo of me and Mrs. Ford from that day by Eddie Adams would have helped the wardrobe department get it right.

Cody Pressley plays me in "The First Lady" (Showtime)

Mrs. Ford had given up dancing professionally long ago, but the producers of The First Lady took care of that. Michelle Pfeiffer, who portrayed Mrs. Ford, (Ms. Pfeiffer is the one thing Mrs. Ford would have liked about this series), started dancing around the table. Cody (as me) is taking pictures. President Ford walks into the Room and is “shocked” by the scene but thinks it’s funny. He exits. Two problems. The president didn’t find out about it until 15 years later when I showed him the picture. He exclaimed to his wife, “Betty, you never told me you did that!” She jokingly said, “There a lot of things I never told you, Jerry.”

Aaron Eckhart plays President Ford (Showtime)

The second problem is that their version played out in the Roosevelt Room. Another unforced error. All they had to do was look at my relatively well-known photograph of the moment to at least get that right, but hey, that would have involved paying a researcher.

Michelle Pfeiffer on The Roosevelt Room table (Showtime)

Betty Ford on The Cabinet Room Table (Kennerly)

The danger here is that many people who saw this thing will believe that this was how things happened and that they now know the real Betty Ford. They will not. My advice to those who really care about history is to read about the people who made it in their own words or in the words of trusted historians.

The First Lady wasn’t picked up for another season because it was fatally flawed historically, but for the ultimate sin in the entertainment world. It sucked, and toward the end people quit watching it. If you’re making shit up, at least make it interesting. And don’t pretend it’s based on real life.

Mrs. Ford and I in The Cabinet Room right after the shoot. Unlike the actor in the scene I'm wearing a coat and tie! (Eddie Adams)

The Real Betty Ford on The Cabinet Room Table (Kennerly)

Farewell Dirck Halstead

July 23, 2022 By David Hume Kennerly

Everyone needs a mentor. Mine was Dirck Halstead. His was Robert Capa. Dirck never met Capa, but he was able to bid him farewell.

Dirck Halstead and David Kennerly in Vietnam, 1972

Halstead had just graduated from high school in 1954 when he heard that photographer Robert Capa had been killed covering the Vietnam War. Dirck wrote about it in his book, “Moments in Time.” “Robert Capa dead? Couldn’t be. Robert Capa was my hero. To me he was the epitome of a war photographer: handsome, brave, had an affair with Ingrid Bergman . . . I heard that Capa was being brought to the United States for burial in Amawalk, New York . . . On the day of the ceremony I arrived at the Quaker cemetery early . . . A few minutes before the burial was supposed to take place, John Morris who was then the head of Magnum Photos, came up and asked me to leave. At this point, a rough wooden casket, almost like a shipping box, was ushered into the cemetery . . . I began to cry. John Morris suddenly looked stricken, and he asked me to wait. A moment later he came back and said, ‘You know, you are a photographer, he would have wanted you here.’ So I photographed the burial and wrote a story for the Patent Trader about what Capa meant to me.”

Robert Capa’s casket, from Dirck's book, "Moments In Time"

Capa’s mother Julia grieves and is comforted by her other son Cornell (Moments In time)

A week later Dirck gave John Morris a set of the funeral prints. He told Dirck that there was a story that might interest him about a group of American students going to Guatemala to build a school. Dirck had also heard about a possible war brewing there. “I thought this was my big chance,” he said. Dirck approached LIFE Magazine about the school-building assignment, and they liked it. The editors said they would give him $1,000 and free film. “That was a goldmine to a kid who had been getting ten dollars a picture!” The LIFE editors didn’t know that they were sending a 17-year-old kid into danger.

Before Dirck left the states he visited his hero’s grave. “As I walked to Capa’s tombstone the wind started to kick up. A clap of thunder echoed through the cemetery as rain started to pour down. I stood over his grave as the rain ran down my face.

For a moment I thought I could feel the great photographer’s presence. Whatever it was, I allowed it to mingle with mine. I was convinced that I had taken on Robert Capa’s spirit and that I was going to be covering my first war.”

Dirck’s picture of combat in Guatemala City (Moments In Time)

And he did. It was a short one, but Dirck made some good action photos of the combat. LIFE wrote in their contents page about Dirck and a letter to his parents: “Dear Folks—as I sit here at my typewriter pounding out this letter I can hear gunfire in the distance . . . You guessed it—I’VE COVERED MY FIRST BATTLE!”

LIFE story about Dirck (Moments In Time)

Dirck’s final wish was that his ashes be left at Robert Capa’s grave. I put some in a small Canon battery case and placed it at the tombstone. it was a full-circle moment that honored Dirck’s love of Canons and Capa. The spirit and presence of one great photographer was joined with another.

Capa had to be smiling.

Dirck’s ashes in a Canon battery case that I left at Capa's grave (Photos by Rick Smolan)

50th Anniversary of the Watergate Break-in

June 18, 2022 By David Hume Kennerly

Kennerly's Watergate Photo Gallery

This is the 50^th anniversary of the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office Building. It led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

WASHINGTON -- 1970: Attorney General John Mitchell and wife Martha Mitchell enter the Department of Justice, Washinton, D.C., 1970. (photo by David Hume Kennerly/GettyImages)

This image of Martha Mitchell was John F. Kennedy, Jr’s favorite political photo. I took it in 1970. Martha was the wife of Attorney General John Mitchell and known as, “The Mouth of the South.” She couldn’t help talking to the press, and gave them some of her husband’s secrets. President Richard Nixon blamed her for his troubles. He told David Frost in an interview, “If it hadn’t been for Martha, there’d have been no Watergate.” Her husband John, (behind her here), left Martha in 1973, and was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury. He spent 19 months in prison. “It could have been a hell of a lot worse," he said, "They could have sentenced me to spend the rest of my life with Martha.”

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Republican Sen. Howard Baker and chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee Democrat Sen. Sam Ervin. Howard Baker had the most memorable line from the hearings when he asked witness John Dean, ‘What did the president know, and when did he know it?”

Former CIA officer E. Howard Hunt testifies before the committee. He was convicted of burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping. Hunt spent 33 months in prison for his Watergate antics.

Spiro Agnew in the back seat of a car after resigning

Not related to Watergate, but contributing to Nixon’s problems, was the resignation of Vice President Agnew on Oct. 10, 1973. Two days later House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford was nominated to replace Agnew, and less than a year later would replace Nixon.

WASHINGTON -- OCTOBER 21: Former Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox after speaking with reporters at the National Press Club in Washington DC on October 21, 1973, the morning after President Richard Nixon fired him during what is knowns as the Saturday Night Massacre. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox leaves a press conference after the Nixon Administration refused to give him the White House tapes. He said, “I'm not looking for a confrontation… I'm certainly not out to get the President of the United States.” The next night, on October 20th, 1973, in what became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre” Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliott Richardson to fire special prosecutor Cox. He refused and resigned. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus do it, and he also resigned. Robert Bork became acting AG, and carried out the command.

During the Saturday Night Massacre, Watergate

That night I rushed to Special Prosecutor Cox’s office to get photos, but was blocked by an FBI agent from entering the room. It made an even better picture.

WASHINGTON DC - DECEMBER 6: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES) Gerald R. Ford shakes hands with U.S. President Richard M. Nixon (r) during Ford's Vice President Inauguration in the House Chamber, U.S. Capitol on December 6, 1973 in Washington, DC. The oath was administered by Chief Justice Warren Burger of the Supreme Court. James Eastland, President pro Tempore of the Senate (back) attends ceremony. Ford was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon after Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned his office while under criminal investigation from his time as an office holder in Maryland. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

On December 6, 1973, Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as Vice President of the United States. President Nixon was there to congratulate him on the floor of the House in the U.S. Capitol.

WASHINGTON, DC - 1973: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES ) Protestors with conflicting U.S. President Richard Nixon viewpoints in front of the White House 1973 in Washington, DC. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

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A man holds an “Impeach Nixon” sign in front of the White House as supporters of the president pass behind him. The nation was in turmoil over the Watergate affair.

Former Attorney General John Mitchell walks past a protester after appearing before Judge John Sirica at the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON - 1973: (NO US TABLOID SALES) Washington Post Reporters (L) Bob Woodward and (R) Carl Bernstein walk from Federal court after covering the President Richard Nixon Watergate hearings 1973 Washington DC. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

Famed Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein leave the U.S. District Court while covering the Watergate trial. They were the ones who broke the Watergate story.

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Republican first-term Congressman from Maine William S. Cohen broke with his party over Watergate and joined Democrats in demanding the Nixon White House tapes in 1973. He also voted to impeach Nixon. Cohen thought his fledgling political career was dead. “I had come to the conclusion based on all of the hate mail I had gotten, all of the flak I had gotten, that I wasn’t coming back,” recalled Mr. Cohen, who had been elected less than a year earlier. “I was O.K. with that.” Rather than cratering his career he went on to three terms in the Senate and became President Clinton’s secretary of defense. Liz Cheney is the William Cohen of today, her political future unclear. Her heroism is not in question, however.

WASHINGTON -- 1974: Hillary Rodham, a young lawyer advising the Rodino Committee stands next to chief lawyer John Doar during impeachment proceedings against President Nixon in the House Judiciary Committee Room, 1974 (photo by David Hume Kennerly/GettyImages)

Young attorney Hillary Rodham with Judiciary Committee chief counsel John Doar during the House impeachment hearings at the U.S. Capitol. On July 27–30, 1974, members of the Democratic-led Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against Nixon. He resigned before they reached the House floor for a vote.

WASHINGTON - AUGUST 9: President Richard Nixon waves goodbye as he boards a helicopter to leave from the South Lawn of the White House after resigning the presidency, August 9, 1974, in Washington, DC. In the first and last frames of this contact sheet Vice President Gerald R. Ford and Mrs. Ford say good bye. Ford was sworn in as president minutes later. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly)

President Richard Nixon waves goodbye as he boards his helicopter after announcing his resignation, August 9, 1974. He remains the only president to resign.

My cover picture on TIME Magazine of Gerald R. Ford after he became the 38th President of the United States. In his remarks after being sworn into office he declared, “Our long national nightmare is over.”

On Winning a Pulitzer Prize 50 Years Ago

April 30, 2022 By David Hume Kennerly

Fifty years ago today, May 1, 1972, a message reached me in Saigon that changed my life. It said I had just won the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for Feature Photography. Here’s an edited version of the story as recounted in my book Shooter published in 1980.

I got the call at 4 a.m. from Saigon United Press International news bureau chief Bert Okuley. He said, "You'd better come down here and have a look at this message.” His voice was grave. All I could think was there had been a problem with the photos I sent out earlier taken by a freelancer of the North Vietnamese offensive in Quang Tri near the DMZ. I ran down the stairs from my apartment to Okuley's office. "Look at this," he said, handing me a sheet of paper torn from the wire machine:

“KENNERLY HAS WON PULITZER FOR FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY”

The cable read (in all caps): "01170 SAIGON-KENNERLY HAS WON PULITZER FOR FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY, WHICH BRINGS CONGRATS FROM ALL HERE. NOW NEED EFFORT SOME QUOTES FROM HIM AND PINPOINT HIS LOCATION WHEN ADVISED FOR SIDEBAR STORY, BRANNAN/NX CABLES."

I was dumbfounded. I didn’t believe it. How could I have won my profession’s highest award when I didn’t even know I was nominated? I thought it was a mistake or a prank. Bert sent a message back to New York, asking for clarification: "02054 EXHSG BRANNAN'S 01170 ARE YOU KIDDING? IF SO IT ISN'T MUCH OF A JOKE. IS THERE A PULITZER AWARDED TO A UNIPRESS PHOTOG AND IS IT KENNERLY? OKULEY." At that moment the wire machine decided to break down and we were cut off from the world. I hadn't had a cigarette for months, but right then and there I started smoking again.

Three hours and many cigarettes later, the wire machine finally came back to life and a flood of messages spewed out. The first one said, "01181 OKULEYS 02054 NO KIDDING AND CAN YOU REACH KENNERLY FOR SUDDEN COMMENT NEED TO KNOW WHERE HE WAS WHEN HE GOT THE NEWS. WOOD/NX CABLES."

The Pulitzer Prize is the premier award in the news business, something almost all photographers and writers dream of winning. Without my knowledge, UPI’s top photo editor Larry DeSantis had submitted a portfolio of pictures I'd taken the year before in Vietnam, India, Cambodia, and at the Ali-Frazier championship fight right before I left for Saigon. There were eleven photos, all taken in 1971.

The citation from the Pulitzer committee read: "For an outstanding example of feature photography, awarded to David Hume Kennerly of United Press International for his dramatic pictures of the Vietnam War in 'They also noted that "he specializes in pictures that capture the loneliness and desolation of war." The representative picture the committee selected from my portfolio was the one I had taken of a G.I., his weapon at the ready, walking over the scarred landscape of a god-forsaken place the soldiers had given the improbable name of LZ Hot Lips.

One of my Pulitzer Prize photos showing the “Loneliness and desolation of war.”

That night I lay in bed staring at the slowly rotating blades of the ceiling fan while the question circled in my mind: "What does it mean?" I decided it meant I had to go back out in the field and take pictures. My opportunity came the very next day, when Dirck Halstead, my close friend and mentor, showed up to cover the ongoing North Vietnamese offensive for Time Magazine.

Four years earlier Dirck had convinced the UPI executives in New York that a young photographer named Kennerly who was working for them in Los Angeles should be brought to New York. It was a big step up. Not long after I arrived in the city I began getting important assignments thanks to him. Halstead was UPI’s star shooter, and I was grateful that he chose to share some of the best jobs with me.

"Where's the action?" Dirck asked.

“ An Loc, the NVA have cut the place off," I told him. An hour later we jumped into an old ’58 Ford from the Caravelle Hotel and headed toward the action. Leon Daniel, a UPI newsman and one of the bravest correspondents I had ever met, joined us. (Leon was shot in the leg during the Korean War and still limped because of his old wound.) When we got to the area about 30 miles from Saigon we stopped to photograph South Vietnamese armored vehicles. Leon took a photo of me and Dirck in front of one.

Dirck Halstead and I moments before it hit the fan on Highway 13

All was quiet, but not for long. At that moment a bullet pinged off the pavement near Leon's good leg. We all hit the deck near our cAR. Two other newsies who had arrived minutes behind us in a white Toyota, decided to depart. A B-40 rocket blew up where they had been seconds before. We were crouched down near our car, but it was a target.

Leon Daniel with Dirck Halstead take cover by the old Ford

We told our driver to take off, and he high-tailed it. We ran toward soldiers who were returning fire. Incoming mortar rounds were blowing up all around us. We were surrounded.

South Vietnamese troops under fire

Intense fire from the NVA kept us pinned down. A dozen or more ARVN troops were killed all around us and many were wounded during the firefight. One soldier lay near me bleeding to death, he had been shot in the crotch. A medic bandaged him up.

A gravely wounded South Vietnamese soldier during the battle

Communist troops were so close we could see them running across the road. One South Vietnamese soldier pointed in their direction and started screaming, "Beaucoup V.C! Beaucoup V.C!" Sgt. Ronald MacCauley, a U.S. advisor to the Vietnamese shouted, "Shoot the fuckers, don't just yell at them!" (MacCauley was awarded a Silver Star for his participation in the battle for An Loc for his heroic actions three weeks after we were with him).

U.S. advisor Sgt. Ronald MacCauley during the North Vietnamese firefight

We'd been pinned down for more than two hours when the first air strikes called in by Sgt. MacCauley and a Vietnamese major came in on top of the North Vietnamese combatants. A giant piece of shrapnel from one of the exploding bombs whizzed over our heads. It had been raining and we were covered with mud. Dirck got a shot of me that I later used on the cover of my book. It definitely caught the moment! I crawled over to Dirck and asked if this was what he'd had in mind for action. Always cool under fire he calmly said, “Can’t wait to have a drink at the Melody Bar tonight.”

Photo taken of me by Dirck Halstead during the battle

After being heavily blasted from the air the North Vietnamese finally withdrew, and things quieted down. Wet and shaken, we were wondering how we were going to get our asses out of there. In the distance we heard the sound of a car heading our way fast. He’s back! Our driver screeched to a stop, and yelled, “Need a ride?” He was laughing as we scrambled aboard. He got a big tip for that mission.

Back at the Melody Bar that night Dirck, Leon, and I tossed back a few and marveled at how close we’d come to getting whacked. Dirck apologized for being the catalyst that almost got me (and him) killed. He hoisted his cognac and said, “Oh, by the way, congrats on winning the Pulitzer.” We laughed and clinked glasses.

Dirck and I after the firefight along Highway 13

To celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of me receiving the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for Feature Photography on May 1, 1972, I’m making the winning portfolio of those pictures available for purchase in a boxed set. It will include the photo Dirck took of me in combat the day after I won.

https://kennerly.com/archive-deck/new-pulitzer-prize-portfolio

Contact me at pix@kennerly.com for details!

Triple Play

March 10, 2022 By David Hume Kennerly

Fifty years ago on March 9, 1972, I celebrated my 25th birthday in Saigon. It was an occasion I never thought I’d see. I arrived in Vietnam a year earlier, and during the ensuing months saw combat in Cambodia, the India-Pakistan War, and of course, Vietnam. There were so many close calls that by rights I shouldn’t have made it. But I did.

Every year after that special day has been a gift, one that I deeply appreciate. When I hit 50 I doubled up, and on my 75th, I scored a triple! You will never ever hear me complaining about getting old, I’m just happy to be here.

Along those lines I would like to recognize my colleagues who are covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I can’t even begin to express how much I admire every one of them, and how critically important their work is to the world. I gladly admit that I didn’t consider going to Ukraine, but I’m gratified and at the same time anxious for those who did, and for those photographers from there.

I send love and admiration to them all including Carol Guzy, Lynsey Addario, Marcus Yam, Erin Trieb, Emilio Morenatti, John Stanmeyer, Peter Turnley, Wolfgang Schwan, Aris Messinis, Chris McGrath, Mstyslav Chernov, Jérôme Sessini and so many others. They are the eyes of freedom.

(Photo by Robert Wiener under fire near An Loc, South Vietnam on one of the many days I didn't think I would make it out alive. You can see clearly see that in my expression!).

Kennerly Commencement Address at U of Arizona

December 17, 2021 By David Hume Kennerly

David Hume Kennerly’s address to the Commencement and SBS Convocation, 2021 graduating class of the School of Social Sciences & Behavioral Sciences, “The People College” at the University of Arizona, Tucson, December 17, 2021

What an amazing group!

Congratulations to the graduating Class of 2021. You have survived and triumphed over our ongoing Covid nightmare, and from the looks of it have not only emerged intact, but raring to get on to the next step.

I wouldn’t be standing here today if it wasn’t for University of Arizona president Dr. Robert Robbins the driving force behind the university’s acquisition of my archive for the Center for Creative Photography, the CCP. I’m assuming that also makes me an official Wildcat, but I don’t want to be presumptuous. Your most excellent leader Dean John Paul Jones III has become a dear friend and invited me to speak today. Depending on how this goes you may or may not want to thank him.

It’s a real pleasure to speak to you. I’ve had my fair share of significant moments, but none of them include a college graduation, so each of you has already surpassed my academic achievements!

My dear friend Ansel Adams was co-founder of the CCP, I hope you know that his archive is right here on campus. I was privileged to take his portrait for the cover of TIME.

Ansel Adams on cover of TIME Magazine, September 3, 1979

He is the first and only photographer to be featured there. Ansel was also a philosopher. He said, “You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, and the people you have loved.”

I thought I would share this with you because Ansel’s words apply not only to photography, but to life.

After graduating from high school in 1965 the world was changing in ways I couldn’t imagine.

Cops fight off protestors at San Francisco State College, 1968.

I felt compelled to tell my generation’s story with my weapon of choice--a 35mm camera. That desire to document turned into a life-long journey that has (so far) produced hundreds of thousands of photos. I’ve photographed 11 presidents, traveled to more than 100 countries, been in several wars, saw the horror of Jonestown, and have produced movies and documentaries.

Five Presidents in the Oval Office, 2009. (former President George Bush, President-elect Barack Obama, President George W. Bush, former Presidents Bill Clinton & Jimmy Carter)

I’d like to pass along some wisdom from my dad, O.A. “Tunney” Kennerly who was a traveling salesman.

O.A. “Tunney” Kennerly, David Hume Kennerly’s dad, Portland, Oregon, 1967

During his life he sold everything from plastic garden tools to automobiles. As a youngster I accompanied him around my home state of Oregon watching him sell people things they didn’t really need, or at least didn’t know they needed! One bit of advice he shared with me was, “If you want to get along with people don’t discuss politics or religion.” That advice might be more pertinent now than ever.

Observing Dad in action helped me understand his real secret. He was selling himself first. He put people at ease and made them laugh. Tunney was a genuine individual who liked his fellow humans and they liked him back. And bought his stuff.

His example helped me get behind closed doors with my camera.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michell Obama, Inauguration Night, January 20, 2009

I became very good at convincing (selling) politicians and others on the idea of letting me into their lives to document their important work and to photograph them in genuine moments.

One of my earliest assignments as a 19-year-old cub newspaper photographer was covering Sen. Robert Kennedy’s visit to Portland. I set off on that mission with words from the managing editor ringing in my ears, “Don’t screw it up, kid.”

Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Kennerly, Portland, Oregon, 1966

I arrived at the Portland Labor Hall where Kennedy was going to speak. It was so crowded I couldn’t get in. But I had to or possibly lose my job. I spotted a photographer who was travelling with Kennedy. I asked him, ‘How do you get through all these people?’

He was Bill Eppridge of LIFE Magazine, one of the world’s best. Sensing my panic he said, “Grab onto my coat.” He zigzagged through the crowd and deposited me right up on the stage. He added, “This is the best angle.”

Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Portland Labor Hall, 1966

It was also a career saver! This image that I made of Kennedy is still one of my most meaningful pictures.

Afterwards I followed the senator and his entourage out to the airport. RFK plunged into the cheering crowd then he dashed up the airplane’s steps.

Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in crowd at Portland Airport, 1966

But that’s not what rang my bell. THE moment, the one that’s so clear to me even now, was when Bill Eppridge followed Kennedy, stood on the top of the plane’s stairs then spotted me in the crowd. He flashed me a wink and a smile then turned and disappeared inside the plane. The door closed behind him, and the aircraft taxied out and took off into the night.

I was overwhelmed with emotion. Why? I wanted to be on that plane, to go where history was being made and to photograph the people making it. My path was suddenly clear. I would run away and join the political circus. (Full circle note: I was right here on campus with him in 1968 when he made a campaign stop).

We’re all here because someone pointed us in the right direction. Somebody cleared away obstacles--or let us hang onto their coat. You haven’t had to walk alone. With luck you’ll run into compassionate and inspiring people like Bill Eppridge who will bless you with their drive, expertise, and most of all kindness.

Kennerly and Bill Eppridge, Jefferson, New York, 2012

A few months before Bill died I was able to thank him for helping me find my way. It’s hard to express how important that was for me.

As I was coming up through the ranks of photographers I had no idea what decades of my pictures might reveal. I never thought I would make it this far, and there were so many times when I almost didn’t. Overcoming fear to do my job was essential, but trust me, it didn’t make me less scared on occasion!

Kennerly under fire, Chon Thanh, S. Vietnam, 1972

Getting the shot and telling the story is what drives me. An example is a picture that I took in Vietnam of a lone soldier carefully picking his way across a devastated hillside.

Lone Soldier above A Shau Valley, S. Vietnam, 1971 One of the photos from David Hume Kennerly's portfolio that won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for Feature Photography. The Pulitzer committee described this image as showing, Òthe loneliness and desolation of warÓ. " A Shau Valley, South Vietnam

I saw him coming from across the way and moved to position where I could frame him through some shattered trees if he stayed on his path. I prayed he would hold that course. He did. That photo became the centerpiece of my Pulitzer Prize-winning portfolio of pictures I took in 1971.

So be patient. Wait for it. Think ahead. And most important don’t give up. You never know what might come next!

Another Tunney Kennerly saying was, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” People can’t read your mind. They don’t know what you want. It’s a tough choice because you might rightfully believe that an opportunity could disappear if you push too hard for it. So what? Take a chance. Even if the person you’re talking to is the President of the United States!

President Richard Nixon waves goodbye from his helicopter after resigning, August 9, 1974

Gerald R. Ford Sworn in as President, East Room of the White House, August 9, 1974

I was on the South Lawn of the White House lawn as Richard Nixon departed in disgrace after resigning the presidency. He was the first and last president to do that.

Two hours later Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the nation’s 38^th president.

I had covered him for TIME Magazine while he was the vice president, and then watched him go right into presidential history.

Kennerly’s TIME Magazine cover of Gerald R. Ford, the 38th President of the United States of America

I got along well with the vice president. He liked me and my pictures. I suspected he might ask me to become his chief photographer, but I wasn’t sure that I wanted the job.

Nixon’s photographer’s legacy was a rough road. He had extremely limited access to his boss, and his photographs showed it. History was not well-served and even though it wasn’t his fault he missed critical moments. There are few photos that show Nixon’s handling of the Vietnam War and the Watergate cover-up that brought him down. I could not and would not work under those restrictive conditions.

That night President Ford and I sat in his living room. He popped the question.

Cover of Kennerly’s book, “Extraordinary Circumstances”

Would I like to be his personal photographer?

I told him I had misgivings and why. Then looked him right in the eye and said, “Mr. President, I would love to take the job, it would be an honor, but I have two conditions: I report directly to you AND have total access to everything going on in the White House.” (To this day I still can’t believe those words came out of my mouth). President Ford appeared slightly flummoxed and stopped smoking his pipe. I thought, “OK, I blew that one.” Then he laughed, and said, “You don’t want Air Force One on the weekends?”

Hallelujah! I hadn’t blown it.

Kennerly and President Ford walk along the White House Colonnade, 1975

I didn’t have to call my parents to tell them that the president offered me a job but I told him to shove it. Ford understood that my wanting to always be “in the room” came from my desire to document his presidency from all angles – to create a visual record for history and that I didn’t want to miss anything.

The Ford presidency was one of my most rewarding and exciting assignments.

Gerald R. Ford in the Oval Office after becoming president, 1974

I faithfully, objectively, and I hope accurately, documented every moment of history that I could – and history happened 24/7 for the next two-and-a-half years. And yes, I spent hundreds of hours on Air Force One—but only when the president was on board!

Kennerly in the doorway of Air Force one, Portland, Oregon, 1974 (photo by Stanford Smith)

Documenting history since the 60s has given me a unique perspective of our proud and imperfect nation. We are a place of heroes, villains, and those in between. But I remain an optimist.

No matter how powerful the lens, one person can’t capture it all. I believe my life's work can inspire confidence in our ability to improve as a people. It can also be a sobering reminder of how often we screw things up.

With luck my pictures will motivate a new and diverse generation (you) to be passionate chroniclers and not impartial observers (unless you’re a journalist, of course!) of our collective experience.

You can all participate in this idea. Whether you’re receiving degrees in American Indian Studies, Anthropology, Geography, History, Law, or any field, you can document your own point of view. There are social media vehicles to do that but more important, keep notes about your work and your unique perspective of the world around you. You’re seeing history every single day, so don’t let it slip away. And by all means, supplement those observations with photos!

The best line in any graduation speech is, “And in conclusion.” Here it is:

A long list of people helped and trusted me along the way. The same goes for you. Look around. You’ll see family, friends, professors, and employers. Thank them for helping you to become the person you are, and for shaping the person you will become. We are all in this together. We’re not flying solo.

Good luck and love to the 2021 graduates of The People College of the University of Arizona. You now have the Wildcat wind at your back, and an incredible journey ahead.

I’m leaving you with one of my favorite photos. I took this on assignment for Bank of America. It even went viral!

First Lady Michelle Obama hugs former President George W. Bush at the opening of the National African Museum of History and Culture, 2016

This is First Lady Michelle Obama hugging former President George W. Bush at the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and personifies an optimistic note on how we can get along, no matter what gender, color, or political party. I hope it sums up how you feel today.

I love the University of Arizona’s motto: Bear Down!

A scholarly cat watches Kennerly's commencement address. (Photo by John Rodrigues).

A selfie in Centennial Hall after commencement address to University of Arizona’s “The People College.”

General Colin Powell: Soldier & Statesman

October 20, 2021 By David Hume Kennerly

“First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

Henry Lee’s eulogy honoring General George Washington could well have been written for General Colin Powell.

WASHINGTON DC - FEBRUARY: US Chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell February 1991 in Washington, DC. Powell was overseeing military operations both stateside and in Operation Desert Storm during the war against Iraq that broke out in January 1991. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

Our paths didn’t cross in Vietnam where he pulled two tours, the first in 1962-63, and then in 1968. During that second deployment Major Colin Powell was decorated for bravery after he survived a helicopter crash and single-handedly rescued three others from the burning wreckage, including his commanding general.

I first got to know Powell in 1991 when he was chairman of the JCS shortly after the U.S. launched Operation Desert Storm against Iraq after they invaded Kuwait. I flew with him and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney to Saudi Arabia where they met with CENTCOM commander General Norman Schwarzkopf in the war room in Riyadh. Schwarzkopf, like Powell, was another Vietnam vet who had also been wounded several times in combat. At this point the Allied forces had been bombarding the Iraqi forces from the air, and Cheney and Powell’s trip was the prelude to the ground invasion that would free Kuwait from Saddam Hussein’s military occupiers.

SAUDI ARABIA - FEBRUARY 12: (L-R) General Colin Powell Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, CENTCOM Commander General Norman Schwarzkopf and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy Paul Wolfowitz discuss plans for Operation Desert Storm (to re-take Kuwait from Iraq) February 12, 1991 in Riyadh , Saudi Arabia. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

Cheney and I knew each other since working closely together in the Ford White House, and he had invited me to accompany them on the Saudi trip. But Powell was new to me. I’m always comfortable around people who shared the Vietnam experience, and Powell was no exception. We immediately hit it off, and even managed to compare a few war stories on that long ride as only those who’ve been through the combat wringer can do. He was confidant, easy-going, and had a terrific sense of humor. Most people who rise through the ranks of the military tend to be rather humble and modest, and Powell was no different. That’s also where he started referring to me as “Kennerly,” and it stuck. Even George W. Bush picked up on it.

During the trip to Saudi Arabia we also visited a secret air base at an “undisclosed location.” Let’s just say it was out in the desert, and in Saudi that covers a lot of territory. I photographed Cheney and Powell addressing the troops framed by warplanes. It was a very dramatic setting, and a visual prelude to the upcoming ground war.

When we returned to D.C., Cheney and Powell met with President George H.W. Bush to discuss battle plans, then appeared in the Rose Garden for a press conference. The picture typifies how the same people never seem to go away until they pass away.

WASHINGTON DC - FEBRUARY: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES) U.S President George H.W. Bush and staff brief the press on the front steps of the White House in regards to the 1991 war with Iraq February 1991 in Washington, DC. Standing next to Bush is Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (L, with eyeglasses), General Colin Powell (r, in uniform), Vice President Dan Quayle (c, back). In the far back stands National Security Advisor Brent Skowcroft (L, holding notebook) and Secretary of State Jim Baker (c, between Quayle and Bush). (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

It was a who’s who, who was who, and who would be who of American politics moment. (left to right), National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, also NSC advisor to President Gerald Ford. CIA Director Robert Gates, future Secretary of Defense under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, former White House chief of staff for President Gerald R. Ford, congressman, and later Vice President of the United States for President George W. Bush. Vice President Dan Quayle, was a U.S. Senator, and congressman. Secretary of State James Baker, former White House chief of staff and Treasury Secretary for President Ronald Reagan, and later chief of staff for Bush 41. President George H.W. Bush, Reagan’s vice president, CIA Director for Ford, U.S. Ambassador to the UN for Nixon, and congressman. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin Powell, NSC advisor to President Reagan, would become Secretary of State for President George W. Bush. Whew!

Two years later, and during his final months as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, LIFE Magazine assigned me to photograph Powell before he retired from the Army. One of my prized possessions, now in my archive at the Center of Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, is a letter from Powell essentially agreeing to my proposal, but I had to negotiate the terms of my access. He was no pushover, but it ended up working out.

The highlight of my coverage was a trip that Powell made to Somalia to visit U.S. troops. They were there to help starving people whose lives had been torn apart by war. The operation was Powell’s baby. To underscore that point Powell visited a hospital and held up a newborn child whom the mother named “Colin” in appreciation for America’s help. It might go down as one of the more unusual situations I have photographed, and Powell seemed to enjoy it.

General Powell loved his troops and they loved him. He was a rock star to them. They all wanted to have their photo taken with him, and I obliged as many as I could. Powell seemed happiest when he was around his fellow soldiers, and I could see why they liked him. He wasn’t asking any of them to do something he hadn’t already done.

SOMALIA - APRIL: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES )
General Colin Powell smiles with U.S. soldiers1993 in Somalia. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

We also paid a visit to the USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship that was cruising of the coast of Somalia in support of the operation. Powell addressed the sailors and Marines on board, and received cheers and applause.

I caught a quiet moment of him on the ship as he reviewed some documents.

Back in the states I got a look at Powell the grandfather as he raced across the lawn near his quarters at Ft. Myer with his delighted grandson. He told me that one real regret he had was never getting enough time with his family.

VIRGINIA - APRIL: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES )
General Colin Powell with his grandson at Fort Myer Military Community April 1993 in Fort Myer, VA. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

On the last day of the assignment I rode with Powell on his helicopter back to the Pentagon. As he looked out the window I had a feeling that there was more in store for him after he left the military.

Flash forward two years later. 1995. People in both political parties were encouraging Powell to run for president. I wrote Powell a letter encouraging him to jump in and also telling him that if he did I would like to cover his campaign. I added that if he won I would also happily become the chief White House photographer for the second time. But alas, he didn’t go for it, citing a lack of passion for politics. He later told me he absolutely would have had me along for the ride. My close-up observation of thirteen presidential campaigns is that most people who run for president would step over their mother’s body to get to the White House. Powell (and Gerald Ford) were not among them.

CRAWFORD - DECEMBER 16: President elect George Bush announces his first cabinet appointment of General Colin Powell as Secretary of State on December 16, 2000 at an elementary school in Crawford, Texas, near the Bush's ranch. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

But Powell was not out of the game. On Dec. 16, 2000, President-elect George W. Bush named Powell as his choice for Secretary of State, the first Black person to achieve that position. At the announcement in Crawford, Texas, Powell thanked Bush for not holding the ceremony at his nearby ranch and joked, “I’m from the South Bronx,” he said, “and I don’t care what you say, those cows look dangerous.” Bush picked Condoleezza Rice as his NSC adviser. She would replace Powell as Secretary of State four years later.

Powell’s relationship with VP Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was not always warm and fuzzy, but early-on they appeared to get along fine. On one occasion I was with them in Rumsfeld’s office at the Pentagon when Powell became the butt of a joke, and laughed along with them. It was genuinely good natured at that moment, but wasn’t always that way. However, in a statement issued by former VP Cheney after Powell died he said, "I'm deeply saddened to learn that America has lost a leader and statesman. General Powell had a remarkably distinguished career, and I was fortunate to work with him. He was a man who loved his country and served her long and well."

WASHINGTON - APRIL: (L-R) Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell in Rumsfeld's Pentagon office April 2001 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

The graceless Donald Trump on the other hand said, "Wonderful to see Colin Powell, who made big mistakes on Iraq and famously, so-called weapons of mass destruction, be treated in death so beautifully by the Fake News Media. Hope that happens to me someday. He was a classic RINO, if even that, always being the first to attack other Republicans. He made plenty of mistakes, but anyway, may he rest in peace!" Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the former Vice President’s daughter, called Trump’s words “pathetic garbage.”

Seven months after Powell became Secretary of State TIME Magazine ran a cover story with the headline, “Where Have You Gone Colin Powell?” The story accused him, among other things, of, “leaving shallow footprints.” It was pretty much a hose job, and Powell was pissed. The day it came out he pulled me aside to vent about the story. (I was working for Newsweek then, fortunately for me). I said, “Who cares, they ran a great photo of you on the cover, and that’s all anyone will remember.” Three days later I ran into him again, and he was wearing a big smile. “Goddammit Kennerly, you were right! Everyone told me how great that story was, they must not have even read it.” I said, “General, you have just discovered the power of photography, so you better treat me nice.” He laughed. Three days later was September 11, 2001, and that Powell story was instantly forgotten.

What’s not ancient history is Powell’s speech at the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003. In it he tried to convince them and the rest of the world that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction as a pretext for war. It turns out they didn’t, but the war did. Powell told Barbara Walters in 2005 after he left the Bush Administration, that the speech was a “blot” on his life. He said “It will always be part of my record. It was painful. It’s painful now.”

Three years ago as I was walking into Union Station in Washington, D.C. I heard someone yell, “Hey Kennerly!” I turned around and there was General Powell standing by his car after dropping his wife Alma off. We shared a hug. That was the last time I saw him.

General Colin L. Powell. A good guy. I will miss him.

IN FLIGHT - 1996: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES)
General Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs Colin Powell aboard a Blackhawk heliocopter arriving at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. 1996.

GETTY IMAGES UPLOAD 03/10/03
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Final farewell. General Colin Powell is carried from the Washington National Cathedral by members of his beloved U.S. Military after his funeral service, November 5, 2021

In and Out of Afghanistan

September 7, 2021 By David Hume Kennerly

September 11, 2001. I was in Washington, D.C. on an assignment for Newsweek. Just before 9 a.m. I tuned in to ABC’s Good Morning America. They were holding on a live shot of the North Tower of the World Trade Center where it appeared that an airplane had crashed into the building. It was smoking and on fire. Minutes later, at 9:03 am, a jetliner streaked in from the right side of the screen and smashed squarely into the adjoining South Tower. A ball of flame exploded a millisecond later. It became instantly clear that this was a coordinated and unprecedented attack on the United States. I grabbed my cameras and headed to my office at Newsweek on Pennsylvania Avenue a block from the White House. I wondered if they were going to attack the nation’s capital next. They did.

The Pentagon was hit by hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 at 9:37 am, shortly before I arrived at Newsweek. I immediately went out on the deck where I could clearly see the Department of Defense across the Potomac River. Thick black smoke billowed from its west side. I started shooting photos, and also placed a camera on a tripod and trained it on the U.S. Capitol. God only knew what was going to happen next, and I wanted to be ready.

The rest of the day was a blur. The only good news was that neither the Capitol or the White House were attacked thanks to the heroic crew and passengers aboard the fourth hijacked plane, United flight 93. The people aboard fought to retake control of the plane and it crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania before the hijackers reached their target in Washington. Everyone on board died, but most likely the U.S. Capitol Building itself was spared.

WASHINGTON - - Sept 12:The day after. A giant American flag is unfurled by military personnel and firefighters next to where a plane crashed into the Pentagon, September 12, 2001. (David Hume Kennerly/Center for Creative Photography/University of Arizona).

I had became close with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his wife Joyce when I worked with him during President Gerald R. Ford’s Administration. He was White House chief of staff, and then Ford appointed him the 13th (and youngest) Secretary of Defense in 1975. He returned to the post in 2001 when President George W. Bush made him the 21^st SECDEF. Knowing Rumsfeld was at the Pentagon when the plane flew into it, I called Joyce to see how she was doing, and asked about her husband. She told me that she was in shock and that Don had been in his office when the plane hit the other side of the building, but that he was okay. He had also helped pull people from the burning building. In all 184 people died there, including 125 people in the Pentagon, 53 passengers, 6 crew, and 5 hijackers.

The horrors of that day would lead to the longest war that America has ever fought. Like all wars the end was heartbreaking, messy, and tragic to many.

At 5 a.m. the next morning I met up with Rumsfeld at his home and rode with him to the Pentagon. His first stop was at the crash site where he talked to first responders, thanking them for their brutally hard work. That early morning visit would become a ritual with Rumsfeld. Later that day President George W. Bush came to see the damage. A giant American flag was unfurled by firemen and military personnel near where the plane crashed into the building. It was an emotional moment for all of us who saw it. My photograph of Bush and Rumsfeld against the backdrop of the crash site was a grim illustration of what had happened the day before. Afterward they gathered in a conference room with the Pentagon’s top brass to discuss what to do next. The smell of burning jet fuel and smoke still permeated the building.

On Sept. 13th I again joined Rumsfeld on his short drive from Northwest Washington across the Potomac to the Pentagon. We immediately went to the site, and he again talked to rescue workers who were still searching for victims. A few minutes later his security guards urgently informed him that another attack might be imminent, and he had to get out of there. We jumped back in his car and left the area. Rumsfeld had previously scheduled a secure phone call with Secretary of State Colin Powell and instructed his driver to head to the State Department where he could meet Powell in person. As we were driving past the Federal Reserve a block away from State he told the driver to pull over. “Turn around and head back to the Pentagon,” he said, “I’m not going to let terrorists control my life.” I said, “Do you mind if I jump out?” He chuckled, knowing I was kidding, and we sped back to the Pentagon. The attack didn’t happen, but the rumors kept flying. He never let them force him away from the Pentagon again.

Under the direction of Secretary Rumsfeld the U.S. went into overdrive to plan a strike at the heart of Al-Qaida and their Taliban protectors in Afghanistan. Rumsfeld didn’t like the terminology “war on terror” but that’s how it was defined by President Bush, and that is how most people looked at it. He also thought it was a mistake to personalize the operation by putting major emphasis on Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Muhammed Omar. He also thought catching them or killing them was unlikely. However, Rumsfeld was all-in on making sure the attackers were made to pay for their crimes, and that became his central mission.

10/4/01, enroute to Tashkent

Overhead view of then interior of the C-17 cargo plane carrying Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and party to Uzbekistan from Egypt. Rumsfeld is at the right of table in blue shirt.

photo by David Hume Kennerly

In early October I joined Rumsfeld as he set out on a trip to visit with leaders in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. The purpose was to inform them of the American plans to enter Afghanistan, and he wanted to make sure they were on board. They were. He met with Omani ruler Sultan Qaboos in a tent in the desert. The Sultan, a friend of the West, became emotional talking about 9-11, and told Rumsfeld he thought the attacks should be a wake-up call for Americans about the dangers of Islamist extremism. He offered up the Omani controlled Masira Island in the Arabian Sea as a C-130 base. Rumsfeld’s meeting with Uzbek President Islam Karimov also went well, and he gave the green light to allow U.S. special operators to use that country as a jumping off point against Afghanistan. Rumsfeld’s last stop in Turkey also extracted a promise to lend cooperation and military assistance for the upcoming operation.

When Rumsfeld returned to Washington after his trip he transmitted President Bush’s order authorizing Operation Enduring Freedom to CENTCOM commander Gen. Tommy Franks who would run the show. The game was on. Early on October 7^th I was in Rumsfeld’s office during the first attack and photographed him watching a video released by Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden saying the United States would fail to oust them from Afghanistan and calling for jihad against the West. I got the definite impression from Rumsfeld that he was pretty sure OBL and company were going to lose. Rumsfeld’s chief of staff Larry DiRita, senior military assistant Vice Admiral Ed Giambastiani, and chief counsel William Haynes were with him at the outset among many others.

Washington DC, Oct. 7, 2001

Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld watches Osama bin Laden and ? as U.S. and British forces attacked terrorists in Afghanistan.

photo by David Hume Kennerly

Washington DC, The Pentagon, Oct. 7, 2001

Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld and aides monitor the progress the strike against terrorists in Afghanistan in Rumsfelds's office at the Pentagon.

exclusive photo by David Hume Kennerly

Four days later, a month to the day after the 9-11 attacks, the tragedy was remembered in a solemn ceremony at the Pentagon. Everyone who attended was given a small American flag that they held in front of them. President Bush was no exception.

Rumsfeld made a low-key visit to Afghanistan on December 16, 2001 and I went with him. He was the highest ranking official to visit there in 25 years. American-led forces had displaced Al-Qaeda and their Taliban hosts after the 9-11 attacks on the United States. Rumsfeld sat on a folding chair next to Hamid Karzai in a room with camouflage netting and the 82^nd Airborne’s symbol on the wall. The meeting took place at the old Soviet Bagram Airbase a few days before Karzai became president of the country. The place was littered with Soviet-era MiG fighter jets and other airplanes that had fallen into disrepair. American helicopters were lined up and flying around the area. Those Soviet piles of junk, along with the American hopes and dreams for the country, have now been joined by U.S. military hardware abandoned by our forces.

BAGRAM, AFGHANISTAN - APRIL 4: U.S. soldiers April 4, 2002 at Bagram Air Force Base in Bagram, Afghanistan. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

In 2002 Bertram van Munster and I produced a series for ABC called “Profiles from the Front Lines” about special forces and other soldiers in Afghanistan. I returned to Bagram where Big America was alive and well, and bringing in U.S. goods by the megaton. While there I photographed weary American soldiers returning from patrol, and had my tent blown away by fierce winds one night. A minor inconvenience considering what the troops went through everyday.

I also went out on the U.S. aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy operating in the North Arabian Sea where I photographed combat operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom that were in full swing protecting American soldiers on the ground. In one instance an F-14 Tomcat flew by the ship breaking the sound barrier and produced one helluva picture.

SONIC BOOM

A jet fighter drops flares and breaks the sound barrier as it flies by the U.S. aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Pakistan. The carrier was conducting combat operations into Afghanistan.

One of my most significant trips to Afghanistan was in April of 2012 at the invitation of Eileen O’Connor, a friend and colleague who was working for the U.S. State Department. She asked if I would be interested in giving lectures around the country to students, and meeting with working journalists and photographers. I was all for it. I love what I do, and particularly like sharing experiences and ideas with your people who want to enter the field.

I’ll never forget being picked up by a driver at Kabul International Airport who would take me over to the U.S. Embassy compound where I would be staying. I asked him how things were going, and he said great, there hadn’t been an attack in Kabul in months. Oh jeez, I thought. That’s like talking about how there’s no traffic on the 405 right before it slams to a halt. Yep.

DUBAI TO KABUL -- APR 14: The flight from Dubai, UAE to Kabul, Afghanistan, , April 14, 2012 (David Hume Kennerly)DUBAI TO KABUL -- APR 14: The flight from Dubai, UAE to Kabul, Afghanistan, , April 14, 2012 (David Hume Kennerly)

The next day I was conducting a workshop for more than a dozen Afghan photographers at a compound a block from the Parliament Building. I was accompanied by Esperanza Tilghman from the U.S. Embassy who was handling my logistics. I’d been talking and showing photos for about 15 minutes when gunfire and explosions erupted nearby. It was a full-on terrorist attack against the Parliament and other government building and embassies right down the street. We were trapped, no getting in or out, it was way too dangerous. So against the backdrop of small arms and machinegun fire, and with nowhere to go, I decided to carry on with the show. In one ironic moment I was showing some Vietnam pictures as another loud explosion rocked the building accompanied by the crackle of rapid-firing AK-47s. (I knew that sound well from Vietnam). Esperanza was in touch with the U.S. Embassy, and they were also under attack. She said they were considering sending a rescue force, but I said no, it would be way too dangerous for any vehicles coming up that street. It was a war zone out there. After a few hours the fighting subsided, and we were able to get out in the car that brought us. Esperanza was totally cool under fire, and I was glad she was along for the ride. At the end of that siege around Kabul more than 40 militants were killed, 18 of them just a few hundred yards from us. When I got back to the embassy Eileen asked me if I wanted to stick around or head back to the U.S. I chose to stay.

What compelled me was my belief in the First Amendment, particularly freedom of the press. So many of my colleagues have died telling the story, and are a tribute to the guarantees we have been given by the Founders. Of course it works differently everywhere else. My audiences were really taken with the notion of a free press and wanted to know more, so I couldn’t just sky out on them. I lectured at Herat and Kabul Universities, and to press agencies, newspapers, camera clubs, anywhere where people would listen. In all I talked to several hundred Afghans. I also visited schools where young men and women were learning how to paint and draw.

KABUL -- APR 15: Scenes around Kabul, Afghanistan and Kabul University, April 15, 2012 (David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images).

A few days ago I had a conversation moderated by Rick Smolan with Afghan photographer Massoud Hossani. I was deeply moved by Massoud’s comments about losing his country and knowing that he can’t go back. Massoud won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for his shocking photo of a girl crying among the dead bodies of people killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul. Despite being badly injured in the blast, Massoud continued to photograph the aftermath.

In our conversation he said that the Americans showed Afghan people the path to democracy, then pulled the rug out from underneath them. Although it’s hard for me to understand what that would be like, I have some idea. During my 2012 trip I could see the hope in the eyes of those I talked to as they looked toward a brighter future for their country, one where democracy could flourish. But that is gone. As Massoud put it, “The Americans have turned control of my country over to the Taliban, the largest and most dangerous terrorist organization on the earth.” He also blamed the corrupt regime of President Ashraf Ghani and others for the swift fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. What’s particularly painful is that all those students and journalists I talked to will most likely be targets of the Taliban for the simple act of pursuing their craft.

I feel complicit. I was one of those who pointed to that shining city on a hill that represents an idealistic world of individual freedom and optimism. That’s what I’ve always felt and believed. But it’s not the way it has turned out in Afghanistan. The photo that symbolizes where things are now I took in Herat. It shows a shrouded woman walking. She casts a shadow on the pavement. She is alone.

Four Days of The Mayaguez

May 7, 2021 By David Hume Kennerly

On May 12, 1975, two weeks after the evacuation of Vietnam, President Gerald R. Ford faced another international crisis: an American cargo ship, the SS Mayaguez, was captured by Khmer Rouge forces off the coast of Cambodia near Kom Pong Som. The drama played out over four days in Cambodia, and inside the White House where life and death decisions were made to end the crisis. I was in the room documenting what happened. My son Byron Hume Kennerly recently interviewed me on video about the incident.

After word of the ship’s capture reached the president the administration tried to secure the release of the crew through diplomatic channels. They sent messages through the Chinese who were allies of the Khmer Rouge. There was no reply, however, and some doubt that anyone, including the Chinese, really knew who was running the show in Cambodia. The president was certain of one thing, he had to get the crew back, and fast. The National Security Council was called into emergency session, and contingency plans were presented to the President Ford, ranging from massive B-52 strikes around the capital of Phnom Penh to more localized military operations.

Throughout the discussions I shot photographs of the NSC meetings that were primarily held in the Cabinet Room. Assembled around that big table were the nation's big shots: the President, Vice President, Secretaries of State and Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Director of the CIA, Chief of Naval Operations, the White House Chief of Staff, and well you get the picture.

The debate of course centered on the problem of releasing the captured ship. Each proposed solution assumed the existence of a viable government in Phnom Penh, one that would cave in under military pressure. One option on the table was darkening the skies above Cambodia with B-52s and bombing the shit out of them, bringing the Khmer Rouge to their knees. That seemed like a particularly bad option to me.

I’d never spoken out in a presidential meeting, but this time I couldn't contain myself. I might have been the only person in the room who had ever been in Cambodia, in fact the CIA had flown me in there a few weeks earlier on a fact-finding mission on March 29^th just days before the country fell to the Communists.

"Has it occurred to anyone," I asked the startled group, "that this whole thing may have been the act of one local commander taking matters into his own hands and seizing the ship?"

The President did not choose to exercise his strongest option, and the B-52s never took off from Guam. Instead, Navy fighters from a nearby aircraft carrier made an air strike around Kom Pong Som, and the Marines landed on a small island where the seamen were thought to be held. Ford also ordered jet fighters to blow some Cambodian patrol vessels out of water. The local attacks, Captain Miller of the Mayaguez later said, saved him and his crew. I photographed the President jubilantly announcing to his top aides that the crew had been released. You could almost see the weight of the last three days lift from the president's shoulders as he spoke.

It’s worth noting also that In some of the Mayaguez meetings, the president’s advisers offered up hypotheticals on how certain decisions might “play.” They wanted to make sure the world knew that America might still use overwhelming force in achieving its ends. Mr. Ford didn’t want to hear that. He had no bloodlust. He knew Vietnam was a debacle; it had been his painful duty to oversee the end of that horrible chapter of American history. But he refused to make innocent Cambodians pay for America’s mistakes in Vietnam.

The photo of the president, glasses on his head as he makes a key decision is emblematic of him finally making the presidency his own. If it needs a word to describe it and him, “resolute” comes to mind. The man I came to know, admire, and love had a quiet and powerful sense of self, and he easily passed that confidence on to all who surrounded him.

An avid golfer to the end, he would never surreptitiously nudge his ball to improve his lie, and that was a central theme to his character. No single picture will ever sum up the life of President Ford. One picture does, however, cast a momentary glimpse into the soul of a man who will be missed in an era where character doesn’t seem to count as much as it did then.

50th Anniversary of the “Fight of the Century”

March 3, 2021 By David Hume Kennerly

In late 1970 I hounded the bosses at United Press International (UPI) to send me to Vietnam to cover the fighting. The opportunity was slipping away as the U.S. withdrew its troops and transferred the responsibility of conducting the war to the government of South Vietnam. As a young news photographer this was the biggest American story of my generation, the kind I lived to tell, and I didn’t want to miss it.

In January of 1971 UPI finally agreed to transfer me to Saigon. I was going to replace Kent Potter who had been covering Vietnam for three years. Potter and I were the same age, 23. I was really excited about finally being able to get to the action. Although several photographers had died there over the years, I hadn’t let that bother me, until two weeks later on February 10, when four photographers were shot down in a helicopter over Laos and were killed. A personal hero of mine Larry Burrows of LIFE, Henri Huet of AP, Keisaburo Shimamoto of Newsweek, and UPI’s Kent Potter who was supposed to switch out with me. Although I didn’t know Potter it freaked me out to think of stepping into his job under these circumstances. What was I doing? This was seeming totally nuts and even more dangerous all of a sudden. I started to have grave second thoughts, but the idea of changing my mind and not going seemed like an even worse option. I also didn’t want to look back years later and regret not doing it, an even scarier thought.

The next few weeks turned into one big going away bash. It seemed like I and everyone else thought this was going to be a one-way trip, so the theme became, Let’s Party!

As a parting gift to me, or perhaps a guilty farewell present because they knew I was going off to my death, the UPI brass offered me a coveted assignment. A ringside position at the Ali-Frazier “Fight of the Century" at Madison Square Garden in New York on March 8th. It was my last domestic job before shipping out to Vietnam.

When fight day arrived I was totally fatigued from too much booze, cigarettes, and fun . . . The afternoon of the fight I could barely move. I was staying at friend and mentor Dirck Halstead’s place in NYC. As I was preparing to drag myself out the door to go the fight he took one look at me and said, “Jesus Kennerly, you look like shit, here, take this pill.” I had no idea what it was, but I definitely needed something.

By the time I got to the Garden I was on fire. My eyes were wide, my reflexes cat-like. The spiderwebs had been exorcised from my brain. Bring ‘em on, I couldn’t wait for the main event.

Screen Shot by David Burnett of me Photographing Fight.

I was squeezed in between three other photographers as we all leaned over the apron of the ring trying to shoot under the ropes. Turned out I couldn’t miss. In the fifth round I froze Frazier as he drove a right hook into Ali’s head that ricocheted off his face. It happened in a nanosecond. Ali’s expression was contorted by the force of the blow.

NEW YORK -- MARCH 8: Muhummad Ali takes a hit from Joe Frazier during their heavyweight match in Madison Square Garden, March 8, 1971, (photo by David Hume Kennerly)

As the fight culminated in the 15th and final round it appeared that Frazier was ahead.

Smokin’ Joe sealed the deal with a lightning-fast left hook that knocked Ali off his feet. This video shows just how fast it all happened.

I caught The Greatest as he headed down. In my head it was slow motion, in reality it was a fraction of a second, and I nailed it.

The final bell rang, and Frazier raised his gloved hand in victory right above me. After the fight, Larry DeSantis, UPI’s chief editor, congratulated me on my coverage.

I woke up the next morning to see my Ali knockdown photo on the front of the New York Times. It was also my 24th birthday. I also scored the front of the New York Daily News with my image of Frazier landing the right to Ali’s head. Being published on page one of both those papers when they had several of their own photogs at the event was unprecedented, and my colleagues most likely weren’t happy about it. I was probably going to be safer in Vietnam! That photo of Ali falling also became part of my Pulitzer portfolio for the work I did in 1971. It included photos from the Vietnam War, Cambodia combat, and refugees pouring into India from East Pakistan.

The only other person who caught that decisive moment was Elliot Erwitt who was up in the stands shooting for Magnum.

His wide shot must have been taken within a millisecond of mine, because it happened so fast and ended almost as soon as it started. I am in Elliott’s frame, second from left of the four photographers on the apron in the foreground as Ali goes down.

The day after the fight I asked Dirck what the hell he gave me. “That was a purple heart,” he said. (Further research revealed that the tag came from the pill’s triangular shape and blue color. Officially it was Dexamyl, a mood elevator that was an amphetamine/barbiturate combo). First and last time I took one of those, but who knows what would have happened otherwise. One thing’s certain, and this can be corroborated by family and friends, I usually produce plenty of my own energy, and that’s normally how I fly!