heren made his mark covering indian independence in 1947, creating a furore in britain and india with graphic eyewitness accounts of communal massacres in the punjab. subsequently he was posted to israel, beirut, jordan, korea, vietnam, egypt, singapore, india, germany and washington, dc. he was the first to report to the world the discovery of the dead sea scrolls. while india correspondent, he heard rumours of another plot to assassinate gandhi, so he joined his weaving workshop in order to get a scoop (he was unsuccessful as the assassination happened elsewhere). heren reported from vietnam in the early days of american intervention in the 1950s. he is widely accepted amongst journalists as the inspiration for the thomas fowler character in "the quiet american" by graham greene. the author was a guest of heren and his wife patricia on their houseboat in singapore. peter mackay of the daily mail wrote in 2002 of the remarkable physical resemblance of heren and actor michael caine (in their maturity), who played the role of fowler in the film production of "the quiet american" of that year.