Sandy Gall
War Correspondant, Documentary Filmmaker, Author, Humanitarian
Sandy Gall joined Reuters in 1953 as a trainee foreign correspondent and three years later was covering the Suez Crisis of 1956, the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution, 1957-59, and the Congo Crisis of 1960-1963.
He was first ITN reporter to cover the Vietnam War, filming the landing of United States Marines at Cu Chi on 8 March 1965; he returned to Vietnam several times, and was among the journalists to remain after the fall of Saigon in 1975. In 1972 he was arrested by Idi Amin in Uganda and held for three days in the notorious Makindye police camp. He became best known, however, for his forays into Russian-occupied Afghanistan, where he made three documentaries about the Soviet occupation for ITV: Afghanistan: Behind Russian Lines (1982); Allah Against the Gunships (1984); and Agony of a Nation (1986). The latter two were nominated for BAFTA awards.
In 1983 he started Sandy Gall’s Afghanistan Appeal (SGAA), which has provided artificial limbs and walking aids for more than 20,000 Afghans, and physiotherapy for more than 50,000. He was awarded the Sitara-e-Pakistan in 1985, the Lawrence of Arabia Memorial Medal in 1987, the CBE in 1988 and the CMG in 2011.
Sandy retired from ITN in 1992. Apart from being Chairman of SGAA, he spends most of his time writing. His latest book, War Against the Taliban: Why It All Went Wrong in Afghanistan, was published by
Wednesday, March 6th, 10:00 in the Auditorium
The presentation will be 45 minutes long followed by a 15 minute Q/A session.
Students may purchase books and have them signed afterwards.
Literature, Sept. 2011. Web. 02 March 2013.
"Special Programmes." Sandy Gall's Afghanistan Appeal. Sandy Gall's Afghanistan
Appeal, n.d. Web. 02 March 2013.