Michael R. Gordon has been a
national security correspondent for ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' since October 2017. Previously, he was a military and diplomacy correspondent for ''
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 d ...
'' for 32 years. During the first phase of the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror
, image ...
, he was the only newspaper reporter
embedded with the allied land command under General
Tommy Franks
Tommy Ray Franks (born 17 June 1945) is a retired general in the United States Army. His last army post was as the Commander of the United States Central Command, overseeing United States military operations in a 25-country region, including t ...
, a position that "granted him unique access to cover the invasion strategy and its enactment".
["Engdame: Interviews"]
WGBH Public Broadcasting, Boston
11 January 2007. He and General
Bernard E. Trainor have written three books together, including the best-selling ''
Cobra II
''Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq'' is a 2006 book written by Michael Gordon (journalist), Michael R. Gordon, chief military correspondent for ''The New York Times'', and Bernard E. Trainor, a retired United State ...
''. As journalists for ''The New York Times'', Gordon and
Judith Miller
Judith Miller (born January 2, 1948) is an American journalist and commentator known for her coverage of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) program both before and after the 2003 invasion, which was later discovered to have been based on ...
were the first to report
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...
's alleged nuclear weapons program in September 2002 with the article "U.S. Says Hussein Intensifies Quest for A-Bomb Parts."
As an author
Gordon has written or co-written (with
Bernard Trainor) four books: ''The Generals' War'', which covers the 1991
Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...
; ''
Cobra II
''Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq'' is a 2006 book written by Michael Gordon (journalist), Michael R. Gordon, chief military correspondent for ''The New York Times'', and Bernard E. Trainor, a retired United State ...
'', which covers the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror
, image ...
begun in 2003;
[Roger Spiller](_blank)
"Military History: Wishful War," ''American Heritage'', Nov./Dec. 2006. ''The Endgame'', which details the U.S. struggle for Iraq from the aftermath of the invasion and the decision to "Surge" under the Bush administration, to the withdrawal of American troops under President Obama; and ''Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State, from Barack Obama to Donald Trump''.
''The General's War'' won high praise from several critics and decisionmakers, with then
Defense Secretary
The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high ranking member of the federal cabinet. DoDD 5100.1: Enclosure 2: a The ...
Dick Cheney describing it as "a fascinating account of the war" that he would "recommend" "as something that gives them a different element of some of the key decisions that were made."
Jim Lehrer
James Charles Lehrer (; May 19, 1934 – January 23, 2020) was an American journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright. Lehrer was the executive editor and a news anchor for the ''PBS NewsHour'' on PBS and was known for his role as a de ...
described it as "A superb account and analysis of what went right and what went wrong in the Gulf War"; and
Eliot Cohen
Eliot Asher Cohen (born April 3, 1956 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American political scientist. He was a counselor in the United States Department of State under Condoleezza Rice from 2007 to 2009. In 2019, Cohen was named the 9th Dean of t ...
, writing in ''
Foreign Affairs'', called it "the best single volume on the Gulf War."
["Cobra II", at th]
Pantheon Books website
''
Cobra II
''Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq'' is a 2006 book written by Michael Gordon (journalist), Michael R. Gordon, chief military correspondent for ''The New York Times'', and Bernard E. Trainor, a retired United State ...
'', which "focuses on the rushed and haphazard preparations for war and the appalling relations between the major players," won praise from
Lawrence Freedman
Sir Lawrence David Freedman, (born 7 December 1948) is a British academic, historian and author with specialising in foreign policy, international relations and strategy. He has been described as the "dean of British strategic studies" and wa ...
in ''
Foreign Affairs'', who wrote that "the research is meticulous and properly sourced, the narrative authoritative, the human aspects of conflict never forgotten." Gordon's paper, ''
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 d ...
'', called it "a work of prodigious research", adding that it "will likely become the benchmark by which other histories of the Iraq invasion are measured." ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
'', while calling the book "splendid", wrote that "Gordon and Trainor remain imprisoned in an almost exclusively military analysis of what went wrong ... (which) ... unintentionally underplays the essential problem in Iraq--the problem of politics."
Rabta articles
From
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
on New Years Day in 1989, Gordon, together with Steven Engelberg broke the news that Imhausen-Chemie, a West German chemical company, had been serving as the "prime contractor" for an alleged
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...
n
chemical weapons
A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as a ...
production plant at
Rabta since April 1980. The article was based a leak to Gordon "by U.S. administration officials of data that the United States previously had asked West Germany to keep secret".
["W. Germany Assails U.S. on Libyan Plant", by Robert McCartney]
''Washington Post''
7 January 1989 The German government initially denied the allegations, but following further reports on the Rabta plants and pressure from the US administration, a total of three Imhausen employees, including the director, were convicted of illegally supplying CW materials to Libya in October 1991 and a fourth German national was convicted in 1996 for "facilitating Libya's acquisition of computer technology and other equipment to enhance chemical weapons development".
Gordon and Engelberg won a
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 awar ...
for international reporting following their series of articles.
Bibliography
* ''The Generals' War: The Inside Story Of The Conflict In The Gulf'' (with
Bernard E. Trainor, 1996)
* ''Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq'' (with
Bernard E. Trainor, 2006)
* ''The Endgame: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Iraq, from George W. Bush to Barack Obama'' (with
Bernard E. Trainor, 2013)
* ''Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State, from Barack Obama to Donald Trump'' (2022)
[Michael R. Gordon (2022)]
''Degrade and Destroy''
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
References
External links
*
Video Interview of Michael Gordon and General Bernard Trainorby
Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement, Morocco's occupation ...
on ''
Democracy Now!
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...
''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Michael
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
The New York Times writers
George Polk Award recipients
American male journalists
Place of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American politicians