George Syvertsen - (1932-1970). Section F, block 4, lot 8, grave 6.

George Syvertsen, CBS correspondent, was known by his fellow reporters for his intrepid nature. A second-generation American son of Norwegian immigrants, Syvertsen spent most of his time abroad covering global events. This veteran war journalist and eight others died in Cambodia on May 31st, 1970. After his body was returned to the US, he was laid to rest on June 16th in a family plot beside his brother, Clifford Syvertsen, and nearby his parents, Olav and Ingrid Syvertsen.

TIME's James Bell alleges that during a 1963 encounter, Syvertsen was undaunted by Kremlin security and even charmed Nikita Khrushchev, who came to consider the then-Associated Press reporter one of his personal guests. Syvertsen worked in New York, Poland, and Moscow reporting for the Associated Press until 1966, when he joined CBS.

The lives and work of Syvertsen and his crew (Gerry Miller, Remnik Leckhi, Tomharu Ichii, Kojiro Sakai, and Sam Leng), as well as three NBC correspondents also lost (Welles Hangen, Roger Colne, and Yoshiniko Waku) are celebrated by a memorial stone and tree planted in their memory at the village of Wa Po. At his Jacksonville Beach funeral, CBS personnel served as pallbearers and anchorman Walter Cronkite gave the eulogy.

As a war correspondent, George Syvertsen delivered vital information to the American public. Americans relied on televised news for timely updates on world news during the Vietnam period, as televisions had become commonplace in American households by the 1960s. War reporting influenced public opinion and perception of the war.

Walter Cronkite, a fellow commentator and journalist, gave the eulogy at George Syvertsen's funeral. Televised war correspondents like Cronkite and Syvertsen had power over American public opinion at this time, demonstrated by then-President Lyndon Johnson's remark that "If I have lost Walter Cronkite, I have lost Middle America."

During his time as a correspondent for CBS's Tokyo division, Syvertsen worked in the active war zone for one out of every three months. On May 31st of 1970, while following a lead that "something [was] up down south," George Syvertsen, his CBS crew, and three accompanying from NBC were ambushed and killed in a grenade explosion. George Syvertsen was only one media victim of the over 60 journalists to die during the war.

Syvertsen was killed in an ambush in Cambodia, a region which played a key role in North Vietnamese strategy during the war. North Vietnamese troops relied on sanctuary and supply lines beyond Laotian and Cambodian borders. Under the Geneva agreements US military activity in Laos and Cambodia was restricted, but North Vietnamese forces freely depended on their neighboring territories without formal acknowledgement.

23 Captured, One Dead. TIME. June 15th, 1970. 80.

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MRE member, Don North, remembers slain journalists in Cambodia, Military Reporters and Editors Association. May 30th, 2013. Accessed July 5th, 2023. https://militaryreporters.org/2013/05/mre-member-don-north-remembers-slain-journalists-in-cambodia/.

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