Ian E. Brodie dies aged 75
on 11 May 2008
Ian Ellery Brodie, a British foreign correspondent who covered Vietnam and worked out of Moscow before moving to the United States in 1975, has died of a stroke aged 72.
The Daily Telegraph, a paper Brodie worked for, has an obituary and
the Washington Post remembers an incident involving Brodie and Dan Quayle,
In October 1989, Mr. Brodie, then the Washington correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, was accompanying Vice President Dan Quayle to Southern California when a major earthquake struck San Francisco. As Quayle's aides dithered about heading back to Washington, Mr. Brodie intervened.
"Home?" he asked incredulously, according to a Washington Post magazine story. "Your man has to go up there! Do you want him high-tailing it out of California just a couple of hours after he was posing for pictures with San Francisco police who are now digging people out of the rubble?"
"He's going home," Quayle's aide said doggedly.
"You're out of your mind, all of you," Mr. Brodie replied. "Is he a national leader or is he not a national leader?" Then he threw down his best British gauntlet by invoking the name of the administration's favorite foreign leader. "Mrs. Thatcher wouldn't be asking questions. Mrs. Thatcher would be up there in a minute."
Quayle took his advice. Mr. Brodie went with him, and he scooped the world with a helicopter tour of the devastated area. link
