His work on the Vietnam War while at the Seattle Times landed him on the master list of Nixon political opponents. His Vanity Fair magazine article “Adventures in the Ransom Trade” was inspiration for the 2000 film Proof of Life. His novel “Trinity Child” was the basis for 1990’s “By Dawn’s Early Light.” He also wrote “Once Upon a Distant War: David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan, Peter Arnett–Young War Correspondents and Their Early Vietnam Battles.”