A PILOT’S PILOT

few years ago, I wrote a book called , a biography of Jack Belden, a Time-Life war correspondent who was retired and living in Paris when I was working as a foreign correspondent in the 1970s and ’80s. One of the finest war reporters of his generation, Belden said that much of his life had been spent in “lonely wanderings among the dreary wastelands of war,” which included China and Burma, where he traveled with his friend and fellow rebel, U.S. Army General Joseph W. Stilwell. He was the only reporter to accompany Stilwell on his “walkout” from Burma—remains a classic.