Jump to content

Joseph Alsop

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For his father, seeJoseph Wright Alsop IV.
Joseph Alsop
Alsop in 1974
Born
Joseph Wright Alsop V

(1910-10-10)October 10, 1910
Avon, Connecticut,U.S.
DiedAugust 28, 1989(1989-08-28)(aged 78)
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.,U.S.
Resting placeIndian Hill Cemetery
Alma materHarvard University(AB)
Occupations
Spouse
​
​
(m.1961;div.1978)​
Parent(s)Joseph Wright Alsop IV
Corinne Alsop Cole
Military career
AllegianceUnited States of America
Service/branchUnited States Navy
Battles/warsWorld War II

Joseph Wright Alsop V(October 10, 1910 – August 28, 1989) was an American journalist and syndicated newspaper columnist from the 1930s through the 1970s. He was an influential journalist and top insider in Washington from 1945 to the late 1960s, often in conjunction with his brotherStewart Alsop.

Early life

[edit]

Alsop was born on October 10, 1910, inAvon, Connecticut,toJoseph Wright Alsop IV(1876–1953) andCorinne Douglas Robinson(1886–1971).[1]Through his mother, he was related to PresidentsTheodore RooseveltandJames Monroe.Both of Alsop's parents were active inRepublicanpolitics. His father unsuccessfully sought thegovernorship of Connecticutseveral times, his mother founded the Connecticut League of Republican Women in 1917, and both served in theConnecticut General Assembly,as did his younger brotherJohn deKoven Alsop.[2]

Alsop graduated from theGroton School,a privateboarding schoolinGroton, Massachusetts,in 1928, and fromHarvard Universityin 1932.[3]He wrote forThe Harvard Crimsonduring his time atHarvard.[4]

Journalism career

[edit]

After college, Alsop became a reporter, then an unusual career for someone with anIvy Leaguediploma. He began his career with theNew York Herald Tribuneand fast established a substantial reputation as a journalist, particularly by his comprehensive reportage of theBruno Hauptmanntrial in 1934.[3]

Because of his family ties to the Roosevelts, Alsop soon became well-connected inFranklin Roosevelt's Washington. By 1936,The Saturday Evening Posthad awarded him a contract to write about politics with fellow journalistTurner Catledge.Two years later, theNorth American Newspaper Alliance(NANA) contracted Alsop andRobert E. Kintnerto write a nationally syndicated column on a daily basis. His first book,The 168 Days(1938), covering Roosevelt'sunsuccessful campaign to enlarge the Supreme Court,became a bestseller.[2] In 1940, Alsop and Kintner moved from NANA to theNew York Herald Tribune.

In 1941, after it had become clear that the United States would soon enterWorld War II,Alsop and Kintner suspended their column and volunteered for the armed forces. Alsop entered theUS Navyand used his political connections to be assigned as Staff Historian toClaire Lee Chennault'sAmerican Volunteer Group,later famous as theFlying Tigers,[5]while the group was training atToungoo,Burma.While on a supply mission for Chennault late in the fall of 1941, he found himself trapped in theBattle of Hong Kongon December 7. Unable to secure passage out of the city, Alsop was eventually taken into custody as an enemy alien and interned atHong Kongby theImperial Japanese Army.After six months, he was repatriated through a prisoner exchange as a journalist, but he had really been a combatant, a fact he managed to conceal by changing into civilian clothes and with the help of friends. He traveled back to the United States on the neutral linerGripsholm.He returned to China as a civilianLend-leaseadministrator in the fall of 1942, assigned to the wartime capital ofFree China,Chungking.He eventually rejoined Chennault inKunming, Chinaand served with him for the remaining months of the war.

After the war, Alsop resumed his journalism career, now working with his brotherStewartto produce a thrice-weekly piece, called "Matter of Fact", for theHerald Tribune.The use of the word "fact" reflected Alsop's pride in producing a column based on reporting, rather than the opinion pieces of many other columnists. The Alsop brothers operated on a fundamental rule that every column must always include at least one new piece of information.[6]Stewart remained headquartered in Washington to cover domestic politics, and Joseph traveled the world, covering foreign affairs. In late 1955, their column reached a readership of 25 million in two hundred newspapers across the country.[7]Alsop also helped theCIAin its intelligence-gathering activities, using his status as a foreign correspondent as cover. In 1953, Alsop covered thePhilippine general electionat the CIA's request.[8]

The partnership of the Alsop brothers lasted from 1945 until 1958. Joseph became the sole author of "Matter of Fact" and he moved toThe Washington Postuntil his retirement in 1974.[9]The Alsops once described themselves as "Republicans by inheritance and registration, and... conservatives by political conviction."[10]Despite his identity as aconservative Republican,however, Alsop was an early supporter of the presidential ambitions ofDemocratJohn F. Kennedy.Alsop attended theLos Angeles Democratic Convention in July 1960,where along withPhil Grahamhe convinced JFK to appointLyndon B. Johnsonas his running mate.[11]He became a close friend and influential adviser to Kennedy after his election, in November 1960. Additionally, "while Stewart was more liberal than Joseph, he[who?]nonetheless characterized both of them as 'New Deal liberals' ".[citation needed]

Joseph Alsop was a vocal supporter of America's involvement in theVietnam War,and in his column, he strongly advocated for escalation. His journalistic purpose has often been described as "not to enlighten but toeffect."[12]His insider access to the Washington elite granted him plenty of confidential information, revealed mostly at the dinner parties of the "Georgetown Set."[13]Alsop was particularly skilled at playing on Johnson's political vulnerabilities to push him to deepen US commitment in Indochina. He wanted to provoke the president into action as he warned about the impact a defeat would have on American credibility, attacked Johnson's manhood by accusing him of weakness and compared him to Kennedy.[14]Convinced Alsop's writing limited his manoeuvrability in Vietnam, Johnson came to resent Alsop's constant demands for war and critiques of his policy.[15]

In 1963, he became the first to make public the "Maneli affair", revealing in a column entitled "Very Ugly Stuff" thatMieczysław Maneli,the Polish Commissioner to theInternational Control Commissionhad twice metNgô Đình Nhu,the younger brother and right-hand man of President Ngô Đình Diệm ofSouth Vietnam.[16]Maneli had come bearing an offer for South Vietnam to be neutral in the Cold War and for a federation withNorth Vietnam.Alsop had visited Saigon, where Nhu leaked the meeting to him. Alsop wrote "the facts all too clearly point to a French intrigue...to defeat American policy [in South Vietnam]."[17]

Alsop's fixation on Vietnam resulted in his writing being out of touch with contemporaneous affairs. Joseph Alsop failed to report on theWomen's Liberation Movementand the proceedings of theCivil Rights movement,in particular theassassination of Martin Luther King Jr.in 1968.[18]By 1966, Alsop was isolated from the Washington press corps as the American public turned against the war. Even as the popularity of his column declined and he lost close friendships, Alsop's hawkish attitude remained unwavering until the end of theVietnam War.[19]

Personal life

[edit]

In 1961, he marriedSusan Mary Jay Patten,daughter of diplomatPeter Augustus Jay,a descendant ofJohn Jay,and the widow of William Patten,[20]an American diplomat who was one of Alsop's friends. By this marriage he had two stepchildren, William and Anne. The couple divorced in 1978.[2]

A noted art connoisseur and collector, Alsop delivered six lectures at theNational Gallery of Artin Washington onThe History of Art Collectingin the summer of 1978.[2]

He was at work on a memoir when he died at his home in theGeorgetownsection ofWashington, D.C.,on August 28, 1989.[2]He is buried atIndian Hill Cemetery,Middletown, Connecticut.[21]The memoir was published posthumously asI've Seen the Best of It.

Sexuality

[edit]

Alsop kept hishomosexualitya closely guarded secret all of his life.[22]Richard Helmscalled him "a scrupulously closeted homosexual."[23]During his service in World War II he informed Army Chief of StaffGeorge C. Marshallthat he had contractedsyphilisfrom his sexual encounters, but Marshall refused to pass the information to PresidentFranklin D. Rooseveltbecause of Alsop's relations to theRoosevelt family.[24]Nevertheless, SenatorJoseph McCarthyinsinuated that Alsop was homosexual in the course of a dispute withThe Saturday Evening Postabout its coverage of his campaign to remove homosexuals from government employment. When McCarthy implied that Alsop was not "healthy and normal," aPosteditor vouched for him: "I know Alsop well, and I know he is a man of high character, with great courage and integrity."[25]

Early in 1957, theKGBphotographed him in a hotel room inMoscowwhile he was having sex with another man, an agent of theSoviet Union.He rebuffed Soviet attempts atblackmail,instead writing "a detailed account of the incident and a relevant narrative history of his sex life." It has been described as "brimming with revelations about Alsop's sex life on several continents," including a report that one of his lovers wasArthur H. Vandenberg Jr.,who had resigned asDwight Eisenhower's appointments secretary in 1953.[26]His accounts, delivered to a friend in the CIA, quickly reached the FBI, allowingJ. Edgar Hooverto spread the information through the Eisenhower administration, many of whose members had fought sharp battles with Alsop.[27]

Hoover told PresidentLyndon B. Johnsonabout the Moscow incident in 1964,[28]and Johnson told Secretary of DefenseRobert S. McNamaraabout Alsop's FBI file.[29]In 1965, Alsop complained to friends that Johnson wastapping his phone,a claim that infuriated Johnson, who believed that he had protected Alsop from McCarthy's attacks. Alsop told White House Press SecretaryBill Moyersthat he believed the administration was tapping his phone and was spreading gossip about his personal life, all in an attempt to stop leaks. When Moyers reported the charges, Johnson ordered Attorney GeneralNicholas Katzenbachto be certain no such wiretap was in place and protested that he never ordered one: "I'm as innocent of it as I am of murdering your wife," he told Katzenbach.[30]

In the 1970s, the Soviets sent the aforementioned photos to several prominent American journalists without adverse consequences. Alsop considered making his homosexuality public to end the harassment but decided otherwise.[31]

Legacy

[edit]

InGore Vidal's novelWashington, D.C.(1967), the character of a gay journalist is loosely based on Alsop.[32]

Alsop's life was dramatized inDavid Auburn's playThe Columnist,which ran on Broadway from April 25 to July 8, 2012, and focused on the interplay of his politics, his journalism, and his sexuality. He was portrayed byJohn Lithgowin the original production.[33]

Publications

[edit]
Politics
  • Joseph Alsop; Turner Catledge (1938).The 168 Days.Doubleday, Doran & Co.
  • Joseph Alsop; Robert Kintner (1939).Men Around the President.Doubleday, Doran & Co.
  • Joseph Alsop; Robert Kintner (1940).American White Paper: The Story of American Diplomacy and the Second World War.Simon & Schuster.
  • Joseph Alsop; Stewart Alsop (1954).We Accuse! The Story of the Miscarriage of American Justice in the Case of J. Robert Oppenheimer.Simon and Schuster.
  • Joseph Alsop; Stewart Alsop (1958).The Reporter's Trade.Reynal and Co.
  • Joseph Alsop (1982).FDR, 1882–1945: A Centenary Remembrance.Thorndike Press.
Memoirs
Art
  • Joseph Alsop (1964).From the Silent Earth: A Report on the Greek Bronze Age.Harper & Row.
  • Joseph Alsop (1982).The Rare Art Traditions: The History of Art Collecting and Its Linked Phenomena Wherever These Have Appeared.Harper & Row.

References

[edit]
  1. ^Robert W. Merry(1997).Taking on the World: Joseph and Stewart Alsop, Guardians of the American Century.Penguin Group. p. 4.ISBN9780140149845.
  2. ^abcdeEric Pace (August 29, 1989)."Joseph Alsop Dies at Home at 78".The New York Times.RetrievedNovember 15,2010.
  3. ^abApplegate, Edd (2008).Muckrakers: A Biographical Dictionary of Writers and Editors.Scarecrow Press.ISBN978-0-8108-6108-4.RetrievedDecember 15,2011.
  4. ^Bethell, John T.; Hunt, Richard M.; Shenton, Robert (2004).Harvard A to Z.Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. p.183.ISBN0-674-01288-7.RetrievedJanuary 4,2018.david rockefeller harvard crimson editor.
  5. ^Rossi, J. R."Complete Roster of the American Volunteer Group, 1941–'42".The Flying Tigers – American Volunteer Group – Chinese Air Force.
  6. ^Herken, Gregg (2014).The Georgetown Set: Friends and Rival in Cold War Washington.New York. p. 33.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^Herken, Gregg (2014).The Georgetown Set: Friends and Rivals in Cold War Washington.New York. p. 237.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ^Bernstein, Carl (October 20, 1977)."The CIA and the media".Rolling Stone.
  9. ^"Joseph W. Alsop Jr., journalist".UPI.Retrieved2019-03-10.
  10. ^Alsop, Joseph; Stewart Alsop (1958).The Reporter's Trade.New York: Reynal & Company. p. Foreword.
  11. ^Ritchie, Donald (2005).Reporting from Washington: The History of the Washington Press Corps.Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 146.
  12. ^Halberstam, David (2001).The Best and The Brightest.New York: Modern Library. p. 567.
  13. ^Herken, Gregg (2014).The Georgetown Set: Friends and Rivals in Cold War Washington.New York. p. 31.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  14. ^VanDeMark, Brian (1995).Into the Quagmire: Lyndon Johnson and the Escalation of the Vietnam War.Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 48.
  15. ^Dean, Robert (2001).Imperial Brotherhood: Gender and the Making of Cold War Foreign Policy.Amherst. p. 215.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  16. ^Gnoinska 2005,p. 19.
  17. ^Gnoinska 2005,p. 20.
  18. ^Herken, Gregg (2014).The Georgetown Set: Friends and Rivals in Cold War Washington.New York. pp. 403–4.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  19. ^Herken, Gregg (2014).The Georgetown Set: Friends and Rivals in Cold War Washington.New York. pp. 364–370.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  20. ^"Susan Jay Fiancee of William Patten"(PDF).The New York Times.August 3, 1939.RetrievedAugust 29,2013.
  21. ^Wilson, Scott.Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons,3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 999). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
  22. ^Merry, Robert W. (1996).Taking on the World: Joseph and Stewart Alsop – Guardians of the American Century.New York: Viking. pp.360–365.ISBN978-0670838684.
  23. ^Richard Helms (2004).A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency.Presidio Press. p.150.ISBN978-0375500121.
  24. ^Roberts, Andrew (2009).Masters and Commanders: The Military Geniuses Who Led the West to Victory in World War II(1 ed.). London:Penguin Books.p. 30.ISBN978-0-141-02926-9– via Archive Foundation.
  25. ^Edwin R. Bayley (1981).Joe McCarthy and the Press.University of Wisconsin Press. p. 161ff.ISBN978-0299086206.;Robert W. Merry (1996).Taking on the World: Joseph and Stewart Alsop, Guardians of the American Century.New York: Viking. pp. 216–217. Merry calls this defense of Alsop "tepid.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  26. ^Michael Beschloss (2001).Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964–1965.New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 254n.ISBN978-0684804088.
  27. ^Edwin M. Yoder, Jr. (1995).Joe Alsop's Cold War: A Study of Journalistic Influence and Intrigue.Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 153–156.ISBN978-0807857175.
  28. ^Beschloss, p. 145.
  29. ^Beschloss, p. 150.
  30. ^Beschloss, pp. 251–254, 260.
  31. ^Yoder, pp. 157–158.
  32. ^David K. Johnson (2004).The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government.Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 111.
  33. ^The New York Times:Ben Brantley, "Revealing Naked Power Behind the Mask", April 25, 2012,accessed June 15, 2012

Further reading

[edit]
  • Herken, Gregg (2014).The Georgetown Set: Friends and Rivals in Cold War Washington.Knopf.ISBN978-0307271181.
  • Gnoinska, Margaret (March 2005). "Poland and Vietnam, 1963: New Evidence on Secret Communist Diplomacy and the" Maneli Affair ".Cold War International History Project.45.
  • Yoder, Jr., Edwin M. (1995).Joe Alsop's Cold War: A Study of Journalistic Influence and Intrigue.Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press.[ISBN missing]
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related toJoseph Alsop.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Alsop&oldid=1211096307"