Civil rights worker and Vietnam journalist. Shimkin graduated from Urbana High School, Urbana, IL, in 1962, then attended the University of Michigan before volunteering to work for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1965. Arrested in Natchez, he was jailed for three days at Parchman State Prison Farm. He graduated with honors in government from Indiana University Bloomington in 1969, then became a community development worker with International Voluntary Services (IVS) in Laos and South Vietnam. While with IVS in Vietnam, Shimkin and another volunteer, Ronald Moreau (1945-2014), became sources for a New York Times story by Gloria Emerson published in January 1971 about the forced use of Vietnamese civilians by South Vietnamese officers and their American advisers to clear landmines near the village of Ba Chúc on the Cambodian border. Shimkin left IVS because of the story and became a stringer for Newsweek, working with Newsweek's Saigon bureau chief Kevin Buckley to assemble evidence of excessive civilian casualties in the 1968-1969 "Operation Speedy Express." Newsweek published part of their report in June 1972 under the title "Pacification's Deadly Price." Shimkin was killed by a grenade about a mile from Quảng Trị City when he and freelance reporter Charles "Chad" Huntley, who was only slightly wounded in the attack, drove their Jeep into North Vietnamese lines. His body was not recovered, and he was classified "missing in action." Former war correspondent Zalin Grant thought that he had Shimkin's grave "fairly well pinpointed" in 2002, but there was no further investigation. A month before he died, Shimkin was present (according to Time-Life reporter David Burnett) at Trảng Bàng when AP photographer Nick Ut captured his iconic photo of Phan Thị Kim Phúc, a young Vietnamese girl just then burned by napalm. A few days later he was photographed carrying a wounded Vietnamese soldier to safety under fire in fighting north of Saigon. Christopher Hitchens mentions Shimkin in his 2001 book, "The Trial of Henry Kissinger."
Civil rights worker and Vietnam journalist. Shimkin graduated from Urbana High School, Urbana, IL, in 1962, then attended the University of Michigan before volunteering to work for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1965. Arrested in Natchez, he was jailed for three days at Parchman State Prison Farm. He graduated with honors in government from Indiana University Bloomington in 1969, then became a community development worker with International Voluntary Services (IVS) in Laos and South Vietnam. While with IVS in Vietnam, Shimkin and another volunteer, Ronald Moreau (1945-2014), became sources for a New York Times story by Gloria Emerson published in January 1971 about the forced use of Vietnamese civilians by South Vietnamese officers and their American advisers to clear landmines near the village of Ba Chúc on the Cambodian border. Shimkin left IVS because of the story and became a stringer for Newsweek, working with Newsweek's Saigon bureau chief Kevin Buckley to assemble evidence of excessive civilian casualties in the 1968-1969 "Operation Speedy Express." Newsweek published part of their report in June 1972 under the title "Pacification's Deadly Price." Shimkin was killed by a grenade about a mile from Quảng Trị City when he and freelance reporter Charles "Chad" Huntley, who was only slightly wounded in the attack, drove their Jeep into North Vietnamese lines. His body was not recovered, and he was classified "missing in action." Former war correspondent Zalin Grant thought that he had Shimkin's grave "fairly well pinpointed" in 2002, but there was no further investigation. A month before he died, Shimkin was present (according to Time-Life reporter David Burnett) at Trảng Bàng when AP photographer Nick Ut captured his iconic photo of Phan Thị Kim Phúc, a young Vietnamese girl just then burned by napalm. A few days later he was photographed carrying a wounded Vietnamese soldier to safety under fire in fighting north of Saigon. Christopher Hitchens mentions Shimkin in his 2001 book, "The Trial of Henry Kissinger."
