The author traces his life story from Iowa to his West Point graduation (1968) and active militaryduty in Vietnam. For almost ten years after 1975, he reported for CBS News, the BBC, and Newsweek magazine from strategic borders between China and Vietnam; Pakistan, India and Afghanistan; and from Taiwan (Quemoy) near the Chinese mainland. He also witnessed the Killing Fields inside Cambodia, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, and the turmoil in Manila in the latter Marcos years. From the Heartland, on the way to the Promised Land.