ap explore

Divided America

Americans are more divided than ever, gridlocked over social issues, race, gender and the economy. In this series, The Associated Press explores what divides us and how deep those divisions run.

Islamic State: A savage legacy

In the two years since the Islamic State began building its self-styled “caliphate,” it has killed thousands of people, displaced millions, forced the abandonment of entire villages, and taken over key cities in Syria and Iraq. Here, the AP chronicles the casualties of the IS war.

Seafood from slaves

An AP investigation helps free slaves in the 21st century.

Thailand is the world's third-largest seafood exporter. It's supply chain has been notoriously murky and is staffed largely by poor workers from neighboring regions. Many are tricked or coerced by brokers who sell them onto fishing boats. Sometimes they are even drugged and kidnapped. That's what four AP reporters found during an 18-month investigation into human trafficking and forced labor in Southeast Asia's seafood industry. The investigation started with a simple question: Could the catch from men enslaved on Thai fishing boats at sea be tracked to U.S. households?

APRIL 30, 1975:
SAIGON HAS FALLEN

A look back over Peter Arnett’s dozen-plus years reporting the war that deeply divided Americans.

Forty years after the fall of Saigon (present-day Ho Chi Minh City), Peter Arnett has written a new memoir, “Saigon Has Fallen.” Arnett won a Pulitzer Prize in 1966 for his coverage of the Vietnam War for The Associated Press and later gained fame as a correspondent for CNN. In this vivid recounting, Arnett describes his experience of reporting a war that divided Americans and altered the lives of those who covered it.

EAST GERMANY OPENS BORDER

AP covers the fall of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall, which had seemed as normal as the rising sun, came down 25 years ago on Nov. 9, 1989. AP’s Vienna Bureau Chief Alison Smale was well-positioned to witness the key moments leading to the fall of the wall. Explore and watch how AP and Smale report the story.

THE DEATH OF A PRESIDENT

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 50 years later

“I grabbed that phone when it rang and Ike said, ‘Bob, the president has been shot!’ I said, ‘Ike, how do you know?’ He said, ‘I was shooting pictures then and I saw it. There was blood on his face. Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and grabbed him. She cried, ‘Oh no!’ And the motorcade raced on.’”

CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964

50 years later

Fifty years ago, on July 2, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Explore the historic social movement, through AP’s coverage, leading up to this landmark legislation.

My Time with the Kings

A Reporter’s Recollections of Martin, Coretta and the Civil Rights Movement

The ’60s were powerful days. To say AP reporter Kathryn Johnson was unprepared for plunging into chaotic events is an understatement. She barely begun as a full-fledged Associated Press reporter when the civil rights struggle spread rapidly across the South. From dressing as a student during the integration of the University of Georgia to being trapped in a phone booth by several Ku Klux Klansmen, Johnson's courageous coverage brought the Civil Rights Movement in the south to the AP wires.

FOOTPRINTS ON THE MOON

The Associated Press covers the Apollo missions

Forty-five years ago, three Americans made history becoming the first to set foot on the moon. For the first time ever, explore AP’s coverage of the Space Race in the new eBook, ‘Footprints on the Moon,’ available now.

VIVE LA FRANCE!

AP’s combat reporters capture the liberation of Paris

Seventy years ago, Allied forces liberated Paris after four years of German occupation.

VIETNAM

The Real War

To cover the Vietnam War, The Associated Press gathered an extraordinary group of superb photojournalists in its Saigon bureau, creating one of the greatest photographic legacies of the 20th century. Collected in “Vietnam: The Real War” are images that tell the story of a war that has left a deep and lasting impression on American life.

THE WAR TO END ALL WARS

The Associated Press covers the greatest story of the era

The Associated Press had covered war before, but not since the Napoleonic wars a century earlier had so many armies battled to so great an extent.

MALCOLM BROWNE AND THE BURNING MONK

50 years later

Fifty years ago, on June 11, 1963, AP Saigon correspondent Malcolm Browne shook the world with his picture of the ritual suicide by fire of a Buddhist monk in protest against South Vietnam’s repressive U.S.-backed regime.