Toni Ann Booras
BU Professor Mitchell Zuckoff Discusses His Book 13 Hours in Washington, DC
Toni Ann Booras
Spring 2016
Mitchell Zuckoff, Boston University journalism professor and New York Times best-selling author, talked to BU students and alumni in Washington, DC about his latest book, 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi. The event, put on by the BU Alumni Association and the BU Washington, DC Program, was held at the BU Washington office on Feb 10.
A former Boston Globe reporter whose books include Frozen in Time and Lost in Shangri-La, Zuckoff is currently serving as COM’s Sumner M. Redstone Professor in Narrative Studies.
Author Mitch Zuckoff discusses his book 13 Hours at the BUDC Office on Feb. 10
13 Hours, which was turned into a movie by the same name released in January, tells the story of what happened on the ground in Benghazi, Libya when an American diplomatic compound was attacked on Sept. 11, 2012. Zuckoff said he was first approached with the idea by his agent about nine months after the events in Benghazi.
“Like everyone, I think at that point I was aware of Benghazi in the political sense,” he said. “It became such a political football at that point within a few months of these events”
The Benghazi attack was politicized from the start, with questions quickly being raised about what government officials in the U.S. had known prior to the attack, as well as then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of it. With this as the backdrop, Zuckoff had his reservations about taking on the book.
“I wish I could say I immediately rose to the challenge,” he said. “But the simple truth is I hesitated.”
Zuckoff said it took something more to change his mind.
“Then I met the guys, the guys who are really at the center of this story,” he said. “As much as we heard about Benghazi, we did not know what happened on the ground that night.”
Mitch Zuckoff, author and BU professor, talks to BU alumni and BUDC students about his book 13 Hours.
Zuckoff said after hearing each man’s story, he realized he “had an obligation” to get the story out there. Despite working on other projects at the time, he said he knew he had to take this on. However, the publisher wanted to get the book out for the second anniversary of the attacks, which only gave Zuckoff 9 months to complete it.
“And so I got to work and the first problem with this deadline, this 9-month deadline for a full manuscript for what would be a 300-page book, was that I was going to be on ice for a month – I mean, literally on ice for a month – first,” he joked. “I had committed to spend August of 2013 on a glacier in Greenland, following up one of my previous books, Frozen in Time.”
He set off not to hash through the political controversies – he said he explicitly did not want to tell that story – but rather to write the story of the men on the ground that night in Libya.
“That’s what I hope people will find in this book and set aside some of the politics and set aside some of what you maybe thought you knew about Benghazi to meet six guys who were willing to do something that very few people on this planet would ever do,” he said.
When his agent told him the movie had been green-lit and that Michael Bay would direct it, Zuckoff joked his immediate response was, “He knows there were no robots, right?”
Author Mitch Zuckoff talks to BUDC student Taryn Sardina after speaking with BU alumni and students about his book 13 Hours.
Despite his initial reaction, Zuckoff said he had a “wonderful experience” working with the director and the process of translating the story from book to screen was a positive one.
“I think some critics came in with long knives looking to cut it, but what he put on the screen is a great tribute to these guys and what they did that night and the men who fell,” he said. “I’m proud of it and I’m glad I finally said yes.”
Toni Ann, a senior majoring in journalism and political science, is interning at the Daily Caller.
