The Storied Life Of a Newsman

R.W. "Johnny" Apple Jr. of the New York Times, who died yesterday at 71, kept his friends well stocked with anecdotes. These always were (and long will be) anecdotes about Apple, his outrages (numerous) and his triumphs (even more numerous). When asked yesterday to appreciate Apple for Style, it occurred to me that the best way to do this was to ask some of his best pals to share their favorite stories.

Ward Just, the novelist and Washington Post war correspondent who with Apple covered the Vietnam War:

"I have spoken to Cao Van Vien," Apple said. "I have made him a proposition."

This was sometime in 1967. Apple and I were correspondents in Vietnam, he for the Times, I for The Post. Gen. Cao Van Vien was chief of the general staff of the South Vietnamese Army. On this occasion we were drinking somewhere, probably in Apple's villa in Saigon.

"I have asked him to select the finest unit of the Vietnamese army," Apple went on. "I have asked him to allow us to accompany this unit on its next operation to see if the army is all he says it is -- aggressive, disciplined and tactically sound."

"Us together?" I said. Johnny Apple was the fiercest competitor I have ever known. What was going on here?

"Yes," he said. "Our reports will be authoritative. We leave in the morning, we rendezvous at Can Tho."

Rendezvous we did and remained with this Vietnamese battalion for two days while it beat its way through villages in a contested zone south of Saigon. The soldiers seized chickens, one chicken after another; lunches, dinners of chickens, stolen from pens, from back yards, from the bush. Apple and I had brought beverages, so the meals were -- hilarious.

We interviewed the lieutenant colonel commanding, seeking enlightenment on the precise military purpose of this operation. We were told they had cleared the enemy from the area. No shots fired in anger. In fact, no shots of any kind. The operation therefore was a complete success.

Our dispatches were very droll. And before filing, Apple was careful to ensure that we used different datelines so that our foreign editors would not discover that we had marched in lock step, the New York Times and The Washington Post, both under the protective cover of the chief of the Vietnamese general staff.

Jon Randal, author and foreign correspondent for The Washington Post and New York Times, spent many overseas assignments with Apple:

I first met Johnny Apple in Sardi's in Manhattan in 1965 when to my horror I was informed out of the blue that I was assigned to the New York Times Saigon bureau to work under this exceedingly brash young man. Within weeks, I was won over by Johnny's energy, curiosity, speed and willingness to listen, occasionally even to me. He was a superb bureau chief, insistent on sharing the good stories with the other reporters in the bureau.