Barry Zorthian
Encyclopedia
Barry Zorthian was an American diplomat, most notably press officer for years during the Vietnam war
, media executive and lobbyist. "By his own reckoning, Zorthian was the last surviving member of the original cadre of U.S. diplomats and military leaders whose policy decisions shaped events in Vietnam."
, Turkey
, the child of Armenian parents. "His father, a writer, was imprisoned in Turkey but escaped. His mother, refusing to divulge her husband’s whereabouts, was herself sent to jail, along with their son. [The family] eventually migrated to New Haven, Connecticut, the father working in a dry cleaners. Barry went to Yale
, where he edited the student newspaper and joined the secretive Skull and Bones
society."
in the Pacific during World War II. After working for a Vermont
newspaper [the Caledonian Record], he joined CBS
Radio and then the Voice of America
(VOA). He earned a law degree by attending New York University
at night. After 13 years at the Voice of America, he became a diplomat in India." In 1948 he covered the Korean war
as one of VOA’s first overseas correspondents. Later, he was a co-author of the VOA Charter, which persists to this day, and served as program director. In the last role, he launched several programming initiatives which were still on the air more than a half century later.
from 1964-68. "His daily afternoon briefings for press correspondents ... were dubbed “Five O’Clock Follies” by reporters frustrated by the lack of complete transparency. ... New York Times Correspondent, Gloria Emerson
, declared him 'a determined and brilliant liar' at a 1981 conference on the Vietnam War. Despite the criticism, many still trusted him as an honest public official. 'He had a conscience. He believed in informing the American public,' Neil Sheehan
, a Pulitzer prize
-winning author and a former New York Times reporter in Saigon, told the Washington Post. 'His problem was that he was trying to sell a bad war.'" He was "Murrow
's last recommendation before retiring from USIA
, [an appointment] so sensitive that it required President Lyndon Johnson and the secretaries of state and defence, Dean Rusk
and Robert McNamara
, to sign off on it." He oversaw the 500-person Joint United States Public Affairs Office under Carl T. Rowan after Murrow retired. Other journalists he faced were members "of a tough school in American journalism covering the war [including] Richard Pyle, ... Halberstam
, Apple, Arnett
, Kalb
, Karnow
– several of whom made their reputations in Vietnam."
One obituary described his job in Saigon as trying to "defuse an increasingly acrimonious relationship between American officials and news correspondents covering the war[. He] used a mixture of charm, sly wit and uncommonly straight talk in trying to establish credibility for the U.S. effort.... [H]e refused to be intimidated by either officials or the news media. 'He talked back,' said George McArthur, who covered the Vietnam war for The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times [and later was AP Cairo bureau chief].... 'Barry's door was always open and although he never shared a classified thought, he left you feeling that he had,' said former New York Times and CBS reporter Bernard Kalb. 'Even when he told you nothing, he was always persuasive.' 'In postwar years, Barry Zorthian remained steadfast to his conviction about the significant role the media must play in a democratic society,' said Peter Arnett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning war reporter for the AP in Vietnam and later a CNN foreign correspondent. ... Arnett recalled that when he [Arnett] complained about an American military policeman threatening to shoot him during a 1965 Buddhist street demonstration in Saigon, `Zorthian shook his head in mock concern, and said `D--- it, Peter, you threatened him and he was just responding.' 'What?' I replied. 'Yes,' Barry said, `you were aiming your pencil at him and that's more dangerous around here than a .45.'"
Zorthian was press media advisor to three successive U.S. ambassadors to South Vietnam — Henry Cabot Lodge
, Maxwell D. Taylor
and Ellsworth Bunker
— and to Gen. William C. Westmoreland, the U.S. military commander there. "Zorthian remained proud of his most controversial achievement ... [the] Follies.... [T]he briefings lasted a decade, the only regular forum in which U.S. and South Vietnamese officials spoke entirely on the record and were often challenged or contradicted by reporters, sometimes to their embarrassment ... [i]n the first U.S. war without formal censorship
."
"After The New York Times and other newspapers in 1971 published a history of the Vietnam War that came to be known as the Pentagon Papers
, Mr. Zorthian wrote an Op-Ed column in The Times asserting that the Vietnam war had been 'the most open war in history.' He said that almost all the important disclosures in the documents had already been known to journalists. In a letter to the editor in response, Elliot Bernstein, the ABC News Saigon bureau chief in the mid-1960s, countered that the press had been kept in the dark about the extent of American bombing of Laos beginning in 1964, as well as the fact that bases in Thailand were being used to conduct air raids on North Vietnam."
Zorthian retired from the Marine Corps Reserve as a Colonel in 1973.
From 1990 to 1994, he was a member of the oversight body for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Board for International Broadcasting. In the late 90s, he became president of the Public Diplomacy
Foundation (predecessor of the Public Diplomacy Council) and served four years in that role before occupying a seat on the Council’s Board much of the last decade. He testified in August, 2010, before the recently reformed Broadcasting Board of Governors
on public diplomacy and VOA issues.
In 2009, Zorthian was a communications consultant with Alcalde and Fay
. At that time he participated in a panel discussion on the history of the Smith-Mundt Act
and the relationship between public diplomacy and the media.
, who was himself to die a few weeks later and who earned his diplomatic spurs in Vietnam."
Zorthian's wife of 62 years, Margaret Aylaian Zorthian, died in July, 2010. They are survived by two sons, Greg and Steve, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, media executive and lobbyist. "By his own reckoning, Zorthian was the last surviving member of the original cadre of U.S. diplomats and military leaders whose policy decisions shaped events in Vietnam."
Early life and education
Baryoor Zorthian was born on October 8, 1920, in KatahyaKütahya
Kütahya is a city in western Turkey with 212,444 inhabitants , lying on the Porsuk river, at 969 metres above sea level. It is the capital of Kütahya Province, inhabited by some 517 804 people...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, the child of Armenian parents. "His father, a writer, was imprisoned in Turkey but escaped. His mother, refusing to divulge her husband’s whereabouts, was herself sent to jail, along with their son. [The family] eventually migrated to New Haven, Connecticut, the father working in a dry cleaners. Barry went to Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, where he edited the student newspaper and joined the secretive Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....
society."
Military service and early career
Zorthian "was a MarineUnited States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
in the Pacific during World War II. After working for a Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
newspaper [the Caledonian Record], he joined CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
Radio and then the Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
(VOA). He earned a law degree by attending New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
at night. After 13 years at the Voice of America, he became a diplomat in India." In 1948 he covered the Korean war
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
as one of VOA’s first overseas correspondents. Later, he was a co-author of the VOA Charter, which persists to this day, and served as program director. In the last role, he launched several programming initiatives which were still on the air more than a half century later.
Service in Vietnam
Zorthian was best known for his four years as chief spokesperson for the U. S. government in Saigon, VietnamVietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
from 1964-68. "His daily afternoon briefings for press correspondents ... were dubbed “Five O’Clock Follies” by reporters frustrated by the lack of complete transparency. ... New York Times Correspondent, Gloria Emerson
Gloria Emerson
Gloria Emerson was an American author, journalist and New York Times war correspondent, who won a National Book Award for her book about the Vietnam War, Winners and Losers....
, declared him 'a determined and brilliant liar' at a 1981 conference on the Vietnam War. Despite the criticism, many still trusted him as an honest public official. 'He had a conscience. He believed in informing the American public,' Neil Sheehan
Neil Sheehan
Cornelius Mahoney "Neil" Sheehan is an American journalist. As a reporter for The New York Times in 1971, Sheehan obtained the classified Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg. His series in the Times revealed a secret U.S. Department of Defense history of the Vietnam War and resulted in government...
, a Pulitzer prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning author and a former New York Times reporter in Saigon, told the Washington Post. 'His problem was that he was trying to sell a bad war.'" He was "Murrow
Edward R. Murrow
Edward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...
's last recommendation before retiring from USIA
United States Information Agency
The United States Information Agency , which existed from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to "public diplomacy". In 1999, USIA's broadcasting functions were moved to the newly created Broadcasting Board of Governors, and its exchange and non-broadcasting information functions were...
, [an appointment] so sensitive that it required President Lyndon Johnson and the secretaries of state and defence, Dean Rusk
Dean Rusk
David Dean Rusk was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Rusk is the second-longest serving U.S...
and Robert McNamara
Robert McNamara
Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, during which time he played a large role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War...
, to sign off on it." He oversaw the 500-person Joint United States Public Affairs Office under Carl T. Rowan after Murrow retired. Other journalists he faced were members "of a tough school in American journalism covering the war [including] Richard Pyle, ... Halberstam
David Halberstam
David Halberstam was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and historian, known for his early work on the Vietnam War, his work on politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, and his later sports journalism.-Early life and education:Halberstam...
, Apple, Arnett
Peter Arnett
Peter Gregg Arnett, ONZM is a New Zealand-American journalist.Arnett worked for National Geographic magazine, and later for various television networks, most notably CNN. He is well known for his coverage of war, including the Vietnam War and the Gulf War...
, Kalb
Bernard Kalb
Bernard Kalb is a journalist, media critic and author.Born in New York City, he covered international affairs for more than three decades at CBS News, NBC News and The New York Times. Nearly half that time he was based abroad in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Paris and Saigon.Near the end of his tenure at...
, Karnow
Stanley Karnow
Stanley Karnow is an American journalist and historian.After serving with the United States Army Air Forces in Asia during World War II, he graduated from Harvard with a bachelor's degree in 1947; in 1947 and 1948 he attended the Sorbonne, and from 1948 to 1949 the Institut d'Études Politiques de...
– several of whom made their reputations in Vietnam."
One obituary described his job in Saigon as trying to "defuse an increasingly acrimonious relationship between American officials and news correspondents covering the war[. He] used a mixture of charm, sly wit and uncommonly straight talk in trying to establish credibility for the U.S. effort.... [H]e refused to be intimidated by either officials or the news media. 'He talked back,' said George McArthur, who covered the Vietnam war for The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times [and later was AP Cairo bureau chief].... 'Barry's door was always open and although he never shared a classified thought, he left you feeling that he had,' said former New York Times and CBS reporter Bernard Kalb. 'Even when he told you nothing, he was always persuasive.' 'In postwar years, Barry Zorthian remained steadfast to his conviction about the significant role the media must play in a democratic society,' said Peter Arnett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning war reporter for the AP in Vietnam and later a CNN foreign correspondent. ... Arnett recalled that when he [Arnett] complained about an American military policeman threatening to shoot him during a 1965 Buddhist street demonstration in Saigon, `Zorthian shook his head in mock concern, and said `D--- it, Peter, you threatened him and he was just responding.' 'What?' I replied. 'Yes,' Barry said, `you were aiming your pencil at him and that's more dangerous around here than a .45.'"
Zorthian was press media advisor to three successive U.S. ambassadors to South Vietnam — Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot "Slim" Lodge was an American Republican Senator and historian from Massachusetts. He had the role of Senate Majority leader. He is best known for his positions on Meek policy, especially his battle with President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 over the Treaty of Versailles...
, Maxwell D. Taylor
Maxwell D. Taylor
General Maxwell Davenport "Max" Taylor was an United States Army four star general and diplomat of the mid-20th century, who served as the fifth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after having been appointed by the President of the United States John F...
and Ellsworth Bunker
Ellsworth Bunker
Ellsworth F. Bunker was an American businessman and diplomat...
— and to Gen. William C. Westmoreland, the U.S. military commander there. "Zorthian remained proud of his most controversial achievement ... [the] Follies.... [T]he briefings lasted a decade, the only regular forum in which U.S. and South Vietnamese officials spoke entirely on the record and were often challenged or contradicted by reporters, sometimes to their embarrassment ... [i]n the first U.S. war without formal censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
."
Career after Vietnam
"After leaving Saigon in 1968, Mr. Zorthian was an executive at Time Inc. and a lobbyist on communications issues.""After The New York Times and other newspapers in 1971 published a history of the Vietnam War that came to be known as the Pentagon Papers
Pentagon Papers
The Pentagon Papers, officially titled United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political-military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967...
, Mr. Zorthian wrote an Op-Ed column in The Times asserting that the Vietnam war had been 'the most open war in history.' He said that almost all the important disclosures in the documents had already been known to journalists. In a letter to the editor in response, Elliot Bernstein, the ABC News Saigon bureau chief in the mid-1960s, countered that the press had been kept in the dark about the extent of American bombing of Laos beginning in 1964, as well as the fact that bases in Thailand were being used to conduct air raids on North Vietnam."
Zorthian retired from the Marine Corps Reserve as a Colonel in 1973.
From 1990 to 1994, he was a member of the oversight body for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Board for International Broadcasting. In the late 90s, he became president of the Public Diplomacy
Public diplomacy
In international relations, public diplomacy or people's diplomacy, broadly speaking, is the communication with foreign publics to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence. There is no one definition of Public Diplomacy, and may be easier described than easily defined as definitions...
Foundation (predecessor of the Public Diplomacy Council) and served four years in that role before occupying a seat on the Council’s Board much of the last decade. He testified in August, 2010, before the recently reformed Broadcasting Board of Governors
Broadcasting Board of Governors
The Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for all non-military, international broadcasting sponsored by the U.S government. It was previously a department within the United States Information Agency until 1999.-Origins:Starting in...
on public diplomacy and VOA issues.
In 2009, Zorthian was a communications consultant with Alcalde and Fay
Alcalde and Fay
Alcalde & Fay is a lobbying firm based in Arlington, Virginia. The firm consists of over 35 former politicians, public relations specialists, lawyers, journalists, and corporate executives. A team of Alcalde & Fay associates and a senior partner handles clients...
. At that time he participated in a panel discussion on the history of the Smith-Mundt Act
Smith-Mundt Act
The US Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 , popularly referred to as the Smith–Mundt Act, specifies the terms in which the United States government can engage global audiences, also known as public diplomacy....
and the relationship between public diplomacy and the media.
Personal
Zorthian was given a "90th birthday 'roast and toast' [which included] Richard HolbrookeRichard Holbrooke
Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke was an American diplomat, magazine editor, author, professor, Peace Corps official, and investment banker....
, who was himself to die a few weeks later and who earned his diplomatic spurs in Vietnam."
Zorthian's wife of 62 years, Margaret Aylaian Zorthian, died in July, 2010. They are survived by two sons, Greg and Steve, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.
External links
- "The Quality of reporting: to Tet", fourth of 14 panels held February, 1983, at USC School of Journalism in "Vietnam reconsidered: lessons from a war" symposium; 120-m. videocassette of panel with Phillip KnightleyPhillip KnightleyPhillip Knightley is a journalist, critic, and non-fiction author, visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Lincoln, England, and media commentator on the intelligence services and propaganda.-Biography:...
(moderator), Safer, Robert ScheerRobert ScheerRobert Scheer is an American journalist who writes a column for Truthdig which is nationally syndicated by Creators Syndicate in publications such as The Huffington Post and The Nation...
, Garrick UtleyGarrick UtleyGarrick Utley is an American TV journalist. He established his career reporting about the Vietnam War and has the distinction of being the first full-time television correspondent covering the war on-site.-Early life:...
, and Zorthian covers reporting of war up to Tet Offensive, 1968; with introduction/epilog by Harrison SalisburyHarrison SalisburyHarrison Evans Salisbury , an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist , was the first regular New York Times correspondent in Moscow after World War II. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota...
; worldcat.org link locates copies of Vietnam reconsidered book by Salisbury at libraries; book also at Amazon; "The Quality of reporting: to Tet" (tape) is listed here in the "War Culture and Propaganda" collection at Rutgers UniversityRutgers UniversityRutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
; other videotape availability unclear; no digitized availability located thusfar anywhere. - "Head of USIA's Joint US Public Affairs Office Barry Zorthian (C) in his office with staff.", Life magazineLife (magazine)Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
photo w/caption, Sep 01, 1966.