'Blade' in Dark on Book Deal

By: Joe Strupp A recent multi-part series in The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, about the slaughter of dozens of Vietnamese villagers by an elite U.S. Army unit will now become a book, according to a literary agent who struck the deal. David McCormick of Collins McCormick of New York said the lead writers of the series, Mitch Weiss and Michael Sallah, completed an agreement about two weeks ago with Little, Brown and Co. for the book and would receive an undisclosed advance.

But when E&P asked Blade Publisher John R. Block and Executive Editor Ron Royhab about the book Thursday, each said he did not know that a deal had been worked out. Block expressed concern that The Blade be properly compensated and informed before any final contract was signed. "What if they make a lot of money?" Block asked. "Do we share it? We have to find out what happens generally when there is interest in a book like this."

McCormick said the deal was done but the contract not yet signed, expecting that to occur next week. E&P found out about the project via the subscription-only deals section at www.publishersmarketplace.com, where it was posted earlier this week. It indicated that the editor at Little, Brown would be Geoff Shandler.

Block expressed support for any book project stemming from the series, which ran Oct. 19-22 and detailed a four-and-a-half year government investigation into the actions of a platoon of soldiers from the elite 101st Airborne known as Tiger Force who allegedly killed and mutilated dozens of Vietnamese civilians during a seven-month period in 1967. But he stressed that the newspaper would have to OK such a deal before it is finalized.

"The details have to be worked out with us before they agree to it and that hasn't happened," Block told E&P Thursday. "I would have to discuss it with my colleagues and review it. We are not looking for reasons to reject it, but it has to be fair to us."

Royhab said he knew that Weiss and Sallah were discussing a book project with agents and publishers, but was unaware that a deal had been finalized. "It's news to us," he said. "I think it is a great thing to do a book, but we have not been updated to this extent. We would want to make sure we retain ownership of the property."

McCormick, who said no timeline had been established for the book to be finished, said he believed The Blade had already given its blessing to the project. "We expect it to be signed next week," he added. "Once you make the deal, the deal is done."

Weiss and Sallah were not at work Thursday, having taken the day off to travel to Bowling Green University for several appearances before students to discuss the series. Weiss spoke with E&P by cell phone late Thursday, saying Block and Royhab knew about their efforts to obtain a book contract and vowing to make sure everything would be done in a fair and open manner for the paper. "I don't know why anyone is surprised because we told them," Weiss said. "We haven't signed anything, but our paper knows we are going to take a leave of absence to hopefully write this book."

Block, who said the writers had approached him about a leave of absence, expressed concern about losing the reporters for an extended period of time to work on the project. "That would be a major undertaking," the publisher said. "One of the options is to keep them on the payroll and assign them to work on the book. Our corporate attorney will be involved and they will probably have their own attorney."

The series came about after The Blade obtained classified documents last February related to the official U.S. Army investigation into the 1967 slaughtering of civilians in a Vietnamese village. The investigation apparently concluded that at least 18 soldiers committed war crimes, but nothing was ever publicly disclosed, no charges were filed, and the documents had remained classified since 1975. The Blade's investigation, adding to the military's findings, and based on interviews with Tiger Force soldiers and Vietnamese civilians, concluded that the unit killed hundreds of unarmed people.

Weiss and Sallah continue to write follow-up stories to the series, including a piece that ran last Sunday on a former military journalist who witnessed many of the killings, but said he was forced to keep quiet about them in his reports. Weiss said more articles would likely appear before the end of the year and a first draft of the book is expected to take at least six months to write. "We have a lot of material we didn't use in the series," he said. "There is a lot more to tell."