Barrie Dunsmore
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Barrie Dunsmore (1939 – 26 August 2018) was a Canadian journalist who covered foreign affairs for
ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...
, the American television network, for 30 years. Dunsmore was born in 1939 in Regina,
Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...
, Canada. From 1965 to 1995, Dunsmore reported from Washington and more than one hundred countries on virtually every major international event: from wars, to summits, to the policies of seven U.S. presidents from Johnson to Clinton. From the height of 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 ...
until its end, Dunsmore was regularly present when American presidents and Soviet leaders met. He was with Israeli troops when they captured the Suez Canal from Egypt in 1967 and when General
Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon ( ; also known by his diminutive Arik, ; 26 February 192811 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the prime minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. Born in Kfar Malal in Mandatory Palestin ...
put the city of Suez under siege in 1973. He was on Henry Kissinger's Middle East Shuttles in the aftermath of the 1973 war and was with President Jimmy Carter in the Middle East six years later when he finally cemented the historic Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. Dunsmore covered the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, conducted the first American television interview with Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until Assassination of Anwar Sadat, his assassination by fundame ...
, and was with three former presidents (Nixon, Ford and Carter) who attended Sadat's funeral. He watched SCUD missiles fall on Saudi Arabia during the 1991 Gulf War. He had a worldwide scoop on the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by are ...
in 1979, and he did the first American television report on the destruction of the Amazon rainforests in 1988. As ABC's senior foreign correspondent from 1984 to 1991, Dunsmore focused on events in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union as the
Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were countries connected to the So ...
began to disintegrate. Throughout 1989, he witnessed dramatic moments in the collapse of communism and reported live for ABC News Nightline from the
Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...
the night it began to fall. After retirement in 1995, Dunsmore became a Fellow at the
Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is a Harvard Kennedy School research center that explores the intersection and impact of media, politics and public policy in theory and practice. Among other activities, the center or ...
at the
John F. Kennedy School of Government The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...
at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. He received the School of Foreign Service at
Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...
's Edward Weintal Prize in 1995. Barrie Dunsmore was the author of "There and Back: Commentary by a Former Foreign Correspondent," published in 2011 by Wind Ridge Publishing, Inc. Former Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 56th United States secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 and the 7th National Security Advisor (United States), natio ...
said of Dunsmore's book, "This compilation of essays dating from the weeks when he accompanied me on the Mideast shuttles in the early 1970's, to his commentaries on the
Arab Spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...
will mark Dunsmore firmly as one of the significant journalists of our era." Dunsmore moved to
Charlotte, Vermont Charlotte is a New England town, town in Chittenden County, Vermont, Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. The town was named for Queen Charlotte, though unlike Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlottesville, Virginia, and other cities and towns ...
, after retirement, and wrote a Sunday column for the ''
Rutland Herald The ''Rutland Herald'', previously called the ''Rutland Daily Herald'', is the second largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Vermont (after ''The Burlington Free Press''). It is published in Rutland with its source of news geared towards ...
''. He died on Sunday, August 26, 2018, at the age of 79.


References

1939 births 2018 deaths American television journalists Canadian emigrants to the United States Harvard Kennedy School staff Journalists from Saskatchewan People from Regina, Saskatchewan {{US-journalist-1930s-stub