Vietnam War journalist Morrissy Merick dies

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — Anne Morrissy Merick, who successfully fought for equal treatment of female reporters during the Vietnam War, has died. She was 83.

Morrissy Merick died May 2 of complications from dementia in Naples, Florida, said her daughter Katherine Anne Engleke.

ABC had assigned Morrissy Merick to cover the war in 1967 when U.S. commander Gen. William Westmoreland ordered that female reporters could not spend the night in the field with the troops. That made it impossible for the female reporters to go on most combat missions as there would be no way for them to return to the base at night.