Harrison Evans Salisbury (November 14, 1908 – July 5, 1993), was an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and the first regular ''

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Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

after

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Biography

Salisbury was born in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. He graduated from Minneapolis North High School in 1925 and the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in 1930. He spent nearly 20 years with

United Press United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th c ...

(UP), much of it overseas, and was UP's foreign editor during the last two years of World War II. Additionally, he was ''The New York Times Moscow bureau chief from 1949–1954. Salisbury constantly battled

Soviet censorship Censorship in the Soviet Union was pervasive and strictly enforced. Censorship was performed in two main directions: * State secrets were handled by the General Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press (also known as Glavli ...

and won the

Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on international affairs, including United Nations correspondence. In its first six years (1942–1947), it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic R ...

in 1955. He twice (in 1957 and 1966) received the

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the award ...

for Foreign Reporting. In the 1960s, he covered the growing

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in the

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. From there, he directed The Times' coverage of President

John F. Kennedy's assassination John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle with ...

in 1963. In 1970, he served as the first editor of The Times' Op-Ed page, which was created by John B. Oakes, and was assistant managing editor from 1964–1972, associate editor from 1972–1973. He retired from The Times in 1973. Salisbury was among the earliest mainstream journalists to oppose the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

after reporting from

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

in 1966. He took much heat from the Johnson Administration and the

political Right Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, auth ...

, but his previous standards of objectivity helped him to take the lead in journalistic opinion against the war. He is interviewed in the

anti-Vietnam War Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War (before) or anti-Vietnam War movement (present) began with demonstrations in 1965 against the escalating role of the United States in the Vietnam War and grew into a broad social move ...

documentary film ''

In the Year of the Pig ''In the Year of the Pig'' is an American documentary film directed by Emile de Antonio about American involvement in the Vietnam War. It was released in 1968 while the U.S. was in the middle of its military engagement, and was politically contro ...

''. He was the first American journalist to report on the Vietnam War from North Vietnam after having been invited there by the North Vietnamese government in late 1966. His report was the first that genuinely questioned the American air war. Salisbury also toured America for ''

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'', for which the Xerox company paid him $55,000. Salisbury reported extensively from Communist China, where, in 1989, he witnessed the bloody government crackdown on the student demonstration in

Tiananmen Square Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square (; 天安门广场; Pinyin: ''Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng''; Wade–Giles: ''Tʻien1-an1-mên2 Kuang3-chʻang3'') is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the eponymous Tiananmen (" ...

. He wrote 29 books, including
American in Russia
' (1955) and ''Behind the Lines—Hanoi'' (1967). His other books include ''The Shook-Up Generation'' (1958), ''Orbit of China'' (1967), ''War Between Russia and China'' (1969), ''The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad'' (1969), ''To Peking and Beyond: A Report on the New Asia'' (1973), ''The Gates of Hell'' (1975), ''Black Night, White Snow: Russia's Revolutions 1905-1917'' (1978), ''Without Fear or Favor: The New York Times and Its Times'' (1980), ''Journey For Our Times'' (autobiographical, 1983), ''China: 100 Years of Revolution'', (1983), ''The Long March: The Untold Story'' (1985), ''Tiananmen Diary: Thirteen Days in June'' (1989), ''The New Emperors: China in the Era of Mao and Deng'' (1992) and his last, ''Heroes of My Time'' (1993). ''The 900 Days'' was in the process of being adapted into a feature film by famous

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Sergio Leone Sergio Leone (; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter credited as the pioneer of the Spaghetti Western genre and widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cin ...

at the time of Leone's death in 1989. In 1964, he married Charlotte Y. Salisbury, who accompanied him on numerous trips to Asia. She wrote seven books about their experiences. Salisbury was an

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and a recipient of the

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from the

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. He was a member of both the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. In 1990, he received the

Ischia International Journalism Award The Ischia International Journalism Award is one of the most important Italian journalism awards. It is organized under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, the Regione Campania, the Province of Naples, the National Fe ...

. He died in

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

at age 84.

References

External links

Harrison E. Salisbury, 84, Author and Reporter, DiesHarrison Salisbury papers
at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

*
The NYPR Audio Archive Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salisbury, Harrison 1908 births 1993 deaths American male journalists 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American memoirists George Polk Award recipients Writers from Minneapolis Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting winners The New York Times writers University of Minnesota alumni American expatriates in the Soviet Union 20th-century American male writers North Community High School alumni Recipients of Ischia International Journalism Award Members of the American Philosophical Society Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters