Jeff Glor, CBS Evening News anchor, is in Vietnam to cover the summit between President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. He’s anchoring the evening newscast Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week from Vietnam. It’s exactly 12 hours later in Vietnam than it is in the eastern U.S. So when it’s 6:30 p.m. at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York, it’s 6:30 a.m. in Vietnam, when Glor goes live.
Glor said one has to be “strategic” about getting a bit of shuteye before going live. “You find windows, an hour or two hours,” he said. “It’s part of what’s involved with covering these events.”
Trump and Kim Jong-un had dinner Wednesday at the Metropole hotel in Hanoi. The full-scale effort to denuclearize North Korea happens later, on a much smaller stage. “The real work is behind the scenes,” said Glor.
Trump and Kim Jong-un met in Singapore last year. The U.S. is hoping for a greater commitment from the North Korean leader to scale back the nation’s nuclear ambitions.
Glor has tackled stories other than the summit while in Vietnam, reporting for CBS This Morning, CBS News Radio, where he does a daily 5 p.m. ET newscast, and CBSN in addition to what he’s doing for CBS Evening News. There was one story on an American woman who lost her husband when his plane crashed on a combat mission on March 1, 1968. His remains were finally found last fall, and returned to the widow this week. The man’s funeral happens March 2.
Glor also took a look at CBS News’ role in Vietnam going back to the Vietnam War. He wrote:
“On March 8, 1965, cameras were rolling as U.S. marines landed in Da Nang. Just four months later, Walter Cronkite's crew prepared to fly.
For the first time in American history, news from the frontlines was sent straight into living rooms across the country: The realities of war, minus the fog.
In August, as the war was escalating, Morley Safer documented marines destroying homes in Camne. One hundred and fifty homes were leveled in retaliation for a burst of gunfire. Safer's report painted a new kind of picture, an ugly, uncensored one.
The reels kept coming. From the jungles of Hoai Chau to the streets of Saigon, America's first TV war dragged on.”
On the Wednesday show, Glor reports on an Honor Flight event involving 53 veterans coming from Wisconsin to Ho Chi Minh City. “It was unbelievably emotional, seeing their reaction as they went around to different sites,” said Glor.
The anchor speaks of a high level of excitement among the Vietnamese to be hosting the summit. He said most every street corner in Hanoi has the flags of North Korea, America and Vietnam grouped together. “Ten years ago, 20 years ago, 50 years ago, would you ever have imagined that?” he said.
