Edward Kennedy (journalist)
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Edward L. Kennedy (June 26, 1905 – November 29, 1963) was an American journalist best known for being the first Allied newsman to report the German surrender at the
end of World War II End of World War II can refer to: * End of World War II in Europe * End of World War II in Asia World War II officially ended in Asia on September 2, 1945, with the surrender of Japan on the . Before that, the United States dropped two atomic ...
, getting the word to the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
in London before the surrender had been officially announced by Supreme Allied Headquarters. This angered Allied commanders who had imposed a 36-hour
news embargo In journalism and public relations, a news embargo or press embargo is a request or requirement by a source that the information or news provided by that source not be published until a certain date or certain conditions have been met. They are of ...
before their official surrender announcement. After being forced stateside, Kennedy was fired by the AP for his actions. In 2012, the Associated Press apologized for this, saying "It was handled in the worst possible way."


Breaking the news

The documents for Germany's surrender in World War II were signed on May 7, 1945, at 2:41 a.m. local time at General
Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
's
headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...
in
Reims, France Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded by t ...
. The surrender was subject to a time delay to ensure compliance across the entire theater, and was to take effect at 23.01 on May 8. Edward Kennedy, as the AP's Paris bureau chief, had been among a group of reporters hastily assembled aboard a
C-47 The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (Royal Air Force, RAF, Royal Australian Air Force, RAAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, RCAF, Royal New Zealand Air Force, RNZAF, and South African Air Force, SAAF designation) is a airlift, military transport ai ...
aircraft, and told only when aloft that they were to cover the official signing. All of the journalists on the plane were asked to pledge that they would embargo the story until SHAEF had issued its own official announcement of the event; Kennedy complied. After the ceremony, however, the public relations officers told the reporters that instead of a few hours of embargo, they were being asked by Eisenhower to hold the news for 36 more hours until after a second surrender ceremony, this one to take place in Berlin, the German capital. The military officials explained that it was deemed important that the surrender be made by the heads of the German Armed Forces, not merely their representatives, and that the Germans formally surrender to the Soviets, as well as the Western Allies, something the Nazis were trying to avoid. After a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
radio station in Allied-controlled
Flensburg Flensburg (; Danish, Low Saxon: ''Flensborg''; North Frisian: ''Flansborj''; South Jutlandic: ''Flensborre'') is an independent town (''kreisfreie Stadt'') in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the ...
broadcast the news, however, Kennedy believed that military censors must have allowed it. Evading wartime censorship, he phoned the AP bureau in London and reported the surrender. The story moved on the AP wire at 9:36 a.m. EST, mid-afternoon in France. The official announcements of the surrender varied from German foreign minister
Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk Johann Ludwig "Lutz" Graf Schwerin von Krosigk (Born Johann Ludwig von Krosigk; 22 August 18874 March 1977) was a German senior government official who served as the minister of Finance of Germany from 1932 to 1945 and ''de facto'' chancellor ...
early May 7, to
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
on May 8, and
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
on May 9 (accounting for the Soviet Victory Day). The formal cessation of hostilities was at 23:01 hours on May 8.


Aftermath

Kennedy would later write that he had respected previous embargoes because they were related to military security, but that the embargo of the surrender news was simply political. Kennedy himself had witnessed Soviet General
Ivan Susloparov Ivan Alexeyevich Susloparov (russian: Иван Алексеевич Суслопа́ров; the surname is often transcribed in the French manner, Sousloparov) (19 October 1897 – 16 December 1974) was a Soviet general who served in World War II ...
sign the instruments of surrender in Reims. He concluded, correctly, that the Soviets were insisting on a formal signing ceremony in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
for what amounted to propaganda reasons, and the Allies had agreed to wait until that took place to appease Stalin. (It would later emerge that Susloparov had asked Moscow for instructions about signing, but did not receive a response before the first ceremony; when the Soviet command did reply, Susloparov was ordered not to sign.) But the final straw for Kennedy was that SHAEF had permitted the captive German military command to publicly broadcast their notice of surrender to their own forces the day before; at that point, Kennedy decided, SHAEF had in effect announced the surrender. He wrote: "since Supreme Headquarters had released the news through the Germans, I felt under no further obligation to observe the gag." Opinion on Kennedy's action was divided; some of his own colleagues, at least partly because they had been scooped, insisted that he be deaccredited. Supporters pointed to the
freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic News media, media, especially publication, published materials, should be conside ...
, but the AP eventually apologized. SHAEF disaccredited Kennedy and the AP returned him to New York. Initially Kennedy was kept on the payroll but given no work to do, eventually being fired in November. The following summer, the military acknowledged that SHAEF had not simply permitted the German broadcast, but ordered it, and that it had been made almost two hours before Kennedy's dispatch. Kennedy's story was accurate, but he had violated the military's strict embargo. Both the military and other reporters were angry with him. Two days after ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' ran his story as the lead item, the ''Times'' wrote an editorial saying Kennedy had committed a "grave disservice to the newspaper profession." According to ''
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'', the incident gave the press a black eye and "strengthened the censor's hand". In 1948, in the August issue of ''
The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', Kennedy published a personal essay about the embargo event explaining his side of the story. The essay was titled, "I'd Do It Again". In it he wrote: "The mass of Americans took the view that once the war in Europe was over they had a right to know it. They had perception enough to see through the accusations of correspondents beaten on a story, and sense enough to know that lives are not endangered by announcing the end of hostilities; they may be lost by withholding the announcement."


Later life

After the war Kennedy became the managing editor of the ''
Santa Barbara News-Press The ''Santa Barbara News-Press'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Santa Barbara, California. History The oldest predecessor (the weekly Santa Barbara ''Post'') of the ''News-Press'' started publishing on May 30, 1868. The Santa Barbara ''Pos ...
'', and three years later in 1949 he was hired by '' The Monterey Peninsula Herald'' as the associate editor, eventually serving as editor and associate publisher. Kennedy was struck by a car on November 24, 1963, and died five days later at the age of 58. A monument to Kennedy stands in Laguna Grande Park in Seaside, California, with an inscription referring to his famous scoop: "He gave the world an extra day of happiness." During his later years, Kennedy composed a memoir of his years as a World War II correspondent but was not able to locate a publishing company. His accounts were eventually published in 2012 by his daughter, Julia Kennedy Cochran, under the title ''Ed Kennedy's War: V-E Day, Censorship & The Associated Press'', which chronicled his early days as a stringer in Paris to his firing from the Associated Press.


Memoir and AP's apology

In 2012,
Louisiana State University Press The Louisiana State University Press (LSU Press) is a university press at Louisiana State University. Founded in 1935, it publishes works of scholarship as well as general interest books. LSU Press is a member of the Association of American Univer ...
published Kennedy's memoir, ''Ed Kennedy's War: V-E Day, Censorship, and the Associated Press''. Associated Press President Tom Curley co-wrote an introduction to the book and apologized for the way the company treated Kennedy, telling an AP reporter, "It was a terrible day for the AP. It was handled in the worst possible way." Kennedy, Curley wrote, "did everything just right." According to his daughter, Julia Kennedy Cochran of
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, Kennedy had long sought such public vindication from his old employer. "The AP, after 67 years, is finally apologizing for firing my father", Cochran said. "He was really a hero and should have got a lot more credit." In 2015, the film ''Le grand secret'', directed by Christophe Remy, about Kennedy and his story, was released in France.


See also

*
Victory in Europe Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easter ...
*
German Instrument of Surrender The German Instrument of Surrender (german: Bedingungslose Kapitulation der Wehrmacht, lit=Unconditional Capitulation of the "Wehrmacht"; russian: Акт о капитуляции Германии, Akt o kapitulyatsii Germanii, lit=Act of capit ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Edward 1905 births 1963 deaths American people of World War II Road incident deaths in California Associated Press reporters 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American journalists American male journalists Journalists from California