SOURCE: "Breaking the Ice: An In-Depth Look at Oriana Fallaci's Interview Techniques," in Journalism Quarterly, Vol. 63, No. 3, Autumn 1986, pp. 587-93.

In the following essay, Arico examines the techniques that he believes make Fallaci an effective and engaging interviewer.

Although Oriana Fallaci is recognized as an accomplished author of three novels and five works of nonfiction, she is best known today as a political interviewer. Using her skills, she has not only exposed some of the world's most powerful and intransigent political leaders but has also made history with them. She confronts her interviewees with no inhibitions but as their intellectual peer and social equal. She boldly interrogated Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Thieu about the corruption in South Vietnam's regime during the Vietnam war and lured former Secretary of State Kissinger into describing himself as a lone gunslinger on a horse as he traveled around the world on diplomatic...