He certainly did represent Viet Nam veterans intelligently and well. I kidded my husband that he must’ve written the script! And he was a hawk on Viet Nam for exactly the reasons Jack was, that of geo-politics. He, too, had had a poli sci degree (from Temple, in Philly). My husband, too, had served in Viet Nam, several years later. And I shut my eyes and thought that intellectually, he could’ve been my husband’s long-lost bro. Shut your eyes and you couldn’t tell them apart.

I remember father and son appearing on tv in 1983, the tenth anniversary of the cease fire. In a time when anyone with money, education, or influence was buying their way out, Jack Smith could’ve done the same, using all the strings his dad could’ve pulled. When I realized Jack’s background, including being the son of an influential journalist who was one of our favorites, I thought it took a lot of guts to enlist, just like anyone. Smith died on April 7 from pancreatic cancer and a stroke. In 2000, Smith moved to California to launch the Jack Smith Media Group, a consulting business that teaches clients how to prepare for television appearances.

He hosted “Biography” on A&E and narrated The Learning Channel’s award-winning documentary, “Vietnam: The Soldiers’ Story,” which incorporated his own experiences in the war. Smith spent nine years as a principal correspondent for “This Week With David Brinkley,” and covered both the White House and the State Department for “Good Morning America.” In the 1990s, he tracked the ups and downs of Silicon Valley for the “Cutting Edge” segment of “World News Tonight With Peter Jennings.”ĭuring his 26-year broadcast journalism career, Smith won two Emmys and a Peabody Award. In 1980, he transferred to the Washington bureau, where he contributed stories to “World News Tonight” and “Nightline.” He joined ABC News as an intern in the 1970s, landed an assignment as the network’s Paris correspondent and covered the invasion of Cambodia. Smith earned a history degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a master’s degree from Oxford. When he returned to the U.S., his father interviewed him for a program called “A Father, a Son and War.” Serving with the 7th Cavalry in Vietnam, he earned a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart. Smith, Jack attended the Georgia Institute of Technology for a short time, then enlisted in the Army to make something of himself. The son of the late ABC News anchor Howard K. Jack Prescott Smith was an Army veteran who became an Emmy Award-winning journalist.

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