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

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and the first regular ''

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after

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Biography

Salisbury was born in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

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. He graduated from

Minneapolis North High School North Community High School, or simply North, is a four-year public comprehensive high school located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school has existed for over 120 years in several buildings all located on the city's northside. Minneapolis Nort ...

in 1925 and the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

in 1930. He spent nearly 20 years with

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(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 and won the

Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting This Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitz ...

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 awar ...

for Foreign Reporting. In the 1960s, he covered the growing civil rights movement in the

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

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in 1963. In 1970, he served as the first editor of The Times' Op-Ed page, which was created by

John B. Oakes John Bertram Oakes (April 23, 1913 – April 5, 2001) was an iconoclastic and influential U.S. journalist known for his early commitment to the environment, civil rights, and opposition to the Vietnam War. Background John Bertram Oakes was born ...

, and was assistant managing editor from 1964–1972, associate editor from 1972–1973. He retired from The Times in 1973. Salisbury obtained permission in 1966, both from the government of

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; ; VNDCCH), was a country in Southeast Asia from 1945 to 1976, with sovereignty fully recognized in 1954 Geneva Conference, 1954. A member of the communist Eastern Bloc, it o ...

and from the US State Department, to visit North Vietnam. He arrived in

Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

in late December, and his reports began appearing in the ''New York Times'' on December 25. This was the first time a mainstream American journalist had ever reported on a war from the capital of the hostile government. The fact that the United States had not actually declared war may have been crucial in making this possible. Salisbury reported that American bombing of North Vietnam had been less effective in weakening North Vietnam's transportation system than the US government had been claiming, while hitting North Vietnamese civilians more than US spokesmen had been admitting. This aroused a storm of controversy. His reports were the first published by a major American media outlet that genuinely questioned the American air war. He was interviewed in the

anti-Vietnam War Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War began in 1965 with demonstrations against the escalating role of the United States in the Vietnam War, United States in the war. Over the next several years, these demonstrations grew ...

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 contr ...

''. 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 () is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen ("''Gate of Heavenly Peace''") located to its north, which separates it from the Forbidden City. The square contains th ...

. He wrote 29 books, including
American in Russia
' (1955) and ''Behind the Lines—Hanoi'' (1967). His other books include ''The Shook-Up Generation'' (1958), ''To Moscow - and Beyond: A Reporter's Narrative'' (1960), ''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), ''The Unknown War'' (1978) bout WW2 ''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

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Sergio Leone Sergio Leone ( ; ; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian filmmaker, credited as the pioneer of the spaghetti Western genre. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema. Leone's film-making style ...

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 (The Academy) 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 other ...

and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. In 1990, he received the Ischia International Journalism Award. He died in

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at age 84.

References

External links

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

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

*
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 Journalists from Minneapolis Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting winners The New York Times journalists 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