Timothy Naftali (born January 31, 1962) is a Canadian American historian who is clinical associate professor of public service at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
. He has written four books, two of them co-authored with Alexander Fursenko on the
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...
and
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
.
He is a regular
CNN
Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
contributor as a CNN presidential historian.
Early life and education
Naftali was born in Montreal and at one point worked as an aide to
Robert Bourassa
Robert Bourassa (; July 14, 1933 – October 2, 1996) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd premier of Quebec from 1970 to 1976 and from 1985 to 1994. A member of the Liberal Party of Quebec, he served a total of just ...
. In 2007, he told the ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division.
...
'' that he left Canada for the US in response to
Quebec's language laws:
It seemed to me that the deck was stacked against civil liberties and I preferred to be in a country where I didn't have to worry about what language I spoke.
He earned his undergraduate degree from Yale, and later obtained graduate degrees from Johns Hopkins and Harvard.
Career
Naftali's area of focus was the history of
counterterrorism
Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and Intelligence agency, intelligence ...
and the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
.
Before becoming director of the Nixon Library in 2007, Naftali had been an associate professor at the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...
, where he directed the
Miller Center of Public Affairs' Presidential Recordings Program. In the 1990s, he taught at the University of Hawaii and Yale University.
He served as a consultant to the
9/11 Commission, which commissioned him to write an unclassified history of American counterterrorism policy. This was later expanded into his 2005 book ''Blind Spot: The Secret History of American Counterterrorism''.
From 2007 to 2011, he directed the
Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. He was appointed when control of the Library was transferred from the
Richard Nixon Foundation
The Richard Nixon Foundation is a not-for-profit organization based at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California. It was founded on January 24, 1983 by Richard Nixon, 37th president of the United States, and ser ...
to the
National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...
.
His biggest task at the library was to present a more objective and unbiased picture of the Watergate scandal—a task completed in March 2011, when the Library's new Watergate gallery opened and received extensive news coverage.
Naftali left the Nixon Library later that year.
Personal life
Naftali is gay. He has said that he has faced discrimination for his sexual orientation in the past.
Selected publications
*1997: ''One Hell of a Gamble: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958–1964'' (with Aleksandr Fursenko):
*2001: ''John F. Kennedy: The Great Crises'' (edited with
Philip D. Zelikow and
Ernest R. May):
*2005: ''Blind Spot: The Secret History of American Counterterrorism'':
*2006: ''Khrushchev's Cold War: The Inside Story of an American Adversary'' (with Aleksandr Fursenko), which won the
Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature:
*2007: ''George H. W. Bush'':
*2018: ''
Impeachment: An American History''
References
External links
Los Angeles Times interviewArticles by Naftaliat ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
''
Blog posts by Naftaliat ''
The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...
''
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naftali, Timothy
1962 births
Living people
Academics from Montreal
Johns Hopkins University alumni
Harvard University alumni
Yale University alumni
Cold War historians
Writers from Montreal
American LGBTQ historians
20th-century Canadian historians
Canadian male non-fiction writers
Canadian gay writers
Gay academics
21st-century Canadian historians
21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people
20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people
Canadian LGBTQ academics