Richard M. Blystone, a veteran Associated Press writer who reported from Vietnam and became one of the first correspondents at CNN, has died in London at 81.

His sister, Louise Reilly, said her brother died Tuesday of cardiac failure after a stroke.

Blystone began his AP career in Atlanta in 1965 and later worked at the news cooperative's New York headquarters before moving to the AP's Saigon bureau in 1970 at the height of the Vietnam War. In 1973, he became AP's Chief of Bureau in Bangkok, Thailand.

In 1977 and 1978, he was an Edward R. Murrow Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, and then moved to the AP's London bureau until he joined CNN in June 1980. He covered many wars and conflicts for CNN, rising to become Senior Correspondent for Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

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Claude Erbsen, a former AP vice president and director of world services, reported from New York.