Donald Oberdorfer Jr. (May 28, 1931 – July 23, 2015) was an American professor at the

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of th ...

(SAIS) at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

with a specialty in

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

, and was a journalist for 38 years, 25 of them with ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. He is the author of five books and several academic papers. His book on

Mike Mansfield Michael Joseph Mansfield (March 16, 1903 – October 5, 2001) was an American politician and diplomat. A Democrat, he served as a U.S. representative (1943–1953) and a U.S. senator (1953–1977) from Montana. He was the longest-serving Sen ...

, ''Senator Mansfield: The Extraordinary Life of a Great American Statesman and Diplomat'', won the D.B. Hardeman Prize in 2003.

Career

Oberdorfer graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

and went to

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

as a U.S. Army lieutenant after the signing of the

armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the ...

that ended the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. In 1955 he joined ''

The Charlotte Observer ''The Charlotte Observer'' is an American English-language newspaper serving Charlotte, North Carolina, and its metro area. The Observer was founded in 1886. As of 2020, it has the second-largest circulation of any newspaper in the Carolinas. I ...

'', and eventually found a job with ''The Washington Post''. During the next 25 years, he worked for ''The Post'', serving as

White House correspondent The White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) is an organization of journalists who cover the White House and the president of the United States. The WHCA was founded on February 25, 1914, by journalists in response to an unfounded rumor t ...

, Northeast Asia correspondent, and diplomatic correspondent. He retired from the paper in 1993. At the Nitze school, beyond his teaching position, Oberdorfer served as chairman of the U.S.-Korea Institute from its inauguration in 2006. and was named chairman emeritus in 2013.

Personal

Oberdorfer was married to the former Laura Klein. He had two children, Daniel and Karen Oberdorfer, and a brother, Eugene.

Bibliography

*''Tet!'', (Doubleday, 1971) . Finalist for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

. *''The Turn: From the Cold War to the New Era'', Poseidon Press, October 1, 1991, . :Published in an updated edition as ''From the Cold War to the New Era: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1983-1991'', The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998, . *''Princeton University: The First 250 Years'', Princeton University Press, October 30, 1995, . *''The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History'', Perseus Books, October 1, 1997, . :Published in a revised and updated edition, Basic Books, February 5, 2002, . :Published in a revised and updated third edition, Basic Books, December 10, 2013, . Co-authored with

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

br>Carlin
''The Two Koreas''
Amazon.com, Retrieved 2015-07-28. *''Senator Mansfield: The Extraordinary Life of a Great American Statesman and Diplomat'', Smithsonian Books, October 1, 2003, .

Selected articles and papers

*Don Oberderfer and Donald Gregg

Washington Post, June 22, 2005 *Don Oberdorfer
"The United States and South Korea: Can This Alliance Last?"
Policy Forum Online, November 17, 2005. *Don Oberdorfer and Hajime Izumi

*Don Oberdorfer, "Hue Red Report Found", Milwaukee Sentinel, December 6, 1969
Sentinel

References

External links

The Don Oberdorfer Papers: 1983-1990
The Korea Times, November 3, 2005. *Multimedia: Keynote Address for the Foreign Policy Research Institut
Don Oberdorfer Papers at Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University
*
Muskie Oral Histories Interview of Don Oberdorfer by Don Nicoll, audio and text, June 19, 2001.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oberdorfer American male journalists Writers from Atlanta Princeton University alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty 1931 births 2015 deaths The Washington Post people