Yes, that’s me and my latest absurd disguise, in a Viet Cong uniform I picked up in Vietnam after the war. I’m celebrating the jokester next to me, Robert Carl Cohen, who is celebrating his 96th birthday this year.
Bob is the legendary history making documentarian, the first and I believe the only American TV reporter allowed to interview Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, and first to film Fidel Castro. He directed the berserker acid doc, Mondo Hollywood, and was a foundational creator of the modern exposé documentary, among other feats — as in the take-down of the House Un-American Activities Committee.
The Chinese were thrilled to have Bob film their premiers because they assumed he was a top CIA agent and they wanted to signal information to the US with whom they had zero diplomatic contact. (Indeed, the US let Bob break the law barring Americans from even traveling to China.)
When I asked Bob, who still hits the dance clubs, how he stays so damn happy every time I see him he said, “Some people are happy. Some people are unhappy. I chose to be happy,” firing up a bowl of sativa. Then he put the still-smoldering weed into his pocket.
Happy Birthday #96, Robert Carl Cohen! May the next 96 be just as joyous.
Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits and the book and documentary, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
His latest film is All Washed Away: The Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans and Texas. Palast is currently working on a new documentary Long Knife, exposing the Koch Brothers' theft of Osage oil, to be released in 2025.
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