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In 1972, Ed Bradley flew to Saigon.
Nobody ordered him to go. He was a young CBS News stringer living in Paris, and after running out of money, he made a decision that would shape the rest of his life.
The biggest story in the world was unfolding in Southeast Asia.
So he bought a ticket and went straight toward it.
Thirty-four years later, just eleven days before his death, Bradley’s final investigation for 60 Minutes aired on national television.
The determination that had taken him to Saigon in 1972 had never disappeared.
From Philadelphia to Journalism
Ed Bradley was born in Philadelphia on January 22, 1941.
Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a schoolteacher. During the 1960s, he moved into radio journalism and began building the career that would eventually make him one of America’s most respected television correspondents.
By the early 1970s, Bradley was living in Paris and working as a freelancer.
Money eventually became a problem.
Instead of giving up, he looked toward the biggest story happening at the time: the Vietnam War.
He went to Saigon.
That decision became the beginning of a remarkable career.
Covering War From the Front Lines
Bradley spent several years reporting from Vietnam and Cambodia.
His work wasn’t performed from a comfortable distance.
In Cambodia in 1973, a mortar shell exploded near him. Shrapnel struck his back and arm.
He survived and recovered.
Afterward, he was briefly transferred to Washington, where he was assigned to the Capitol Hill beat.
It wasn’t for him.
The political routine didn’t provide the kind of journalism he wanted to pursue, and Bradley volunteered to return to Southeast Asia.
He went back to the place where the stories were happening.
In 1975, Bradley was among the last American journalists evacuated during the fall of Saigon.
His reporting on Cambodian refugees later earned him major journalism honors, including the Alfred I. duPont Award and the George Polk Award.
Breaking a Major Barrier at the White House
After returning to the United States, CBS assigned Bradley to cover Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign in 1976.
Carter won the election.
Bradley then made television history.
He became the first African American White House correspondent for a major television network.
It was an important achievement not only for Bradley but for the journalism industry.
At a time when opportunities for Black journalists at major networks were still severely limited, his position represented a major breakthrough.
But Bradley didn’t remain on the White House beat for long.
The job required following the president’s schedule and reporting on political events.
Bradley wanted something different.
He wanted to pursue stories according to his own instincts.
So he moved to CBS Reports and eventually found the place that would become the defining chapter of his career.
Twenty-Five Years on 60 Minutes
In 1981, Ed Bradley joined 60 Minutes.
He would remain with the program for the next quarter-century.
During those 25 years, he reported approximately 500 stories.
His subjects were rarely simple.
He investigated social problems, political controversies, institutional failures, discrimination, violence, corruption, and people whose stories were often overlooked.
He interviewed legendary figures and controversial personalities alike.
His reporting covered topics ranging from AIDS in Africa to sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, the murder of Emmett Till, police violence, nuclear testing, and institutional corruption.
Rather than treating troubling events as isolated incidents, Bradley often looked for the larger pattern.
He wanted to understand how and why failures happened.