Hanson W. Baldwin

Hanson Weightman Baldwin (March 22, 1903 – November 13, 1991) was the long-time military editor of The New York Times. He won a Pulitzer Prize "for his coverage of the early days of World War II". He wrote or edited numerous books on military topics.[1]

Hanson Weightman Baldwin
Born(1903-03-22)March 22, 1903
Baltimore, Maryland
DiedNovember 13, 1991(1991-11-13) (aged 88)
Roxbury, Connecticut

Early life

Hanson Baldwin was the son of Oliver Perry and Caroline (Sutton) Baldwin. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland on March 22, 1903.

He attended the Boys' Latin School of Maryland in Baltimore and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1924. After three years of naval service he began his newspaper career in 1927 as a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He joined The New York Times in 1929 and wrote for them for the next forty years. In 1937 he became the paper's military analyst. That year, he spent four months in Europe reporting on the military preparedness for what was viewed as the coming war. One of his first major stories in 1938 was of the interception of the ocean liner Rex by U.S. B-17 Flying Fortresses, in which he personally participated.

Career

During World War II he wrote from the South Pacific, North Africa and Europe.[2] His dispatches from Guadalcanal and the Western Pacific won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1943. His coverage of the Korean War for The New York Times has been criticized for its inaccuracy[3] and its racism.[4] In 1959 he broke the news of high-altitude atomic bomb test by the United States, known as Project Argus. Besides working for The Times, he lectured and wrote regularly for magazines, scholarly quarterlies and for professional military publications. His papers were given as "The Hanson W. Baldwin Collection" to the George C. Marshall Foundation.[5] After his retirement he continued to write articles on military affairs for the news columns and Op-Ed page of the New York Times.

He authored scores of books on military and defense topics. His books published are: Men and Ships of Steel (1935), We Saw It Happen (1938), The Caissons Roll (1938), Admiral Dealth (1939), What the Citizen Should Know About the Navy (1941), United We Stand (1941), Strategy for Victory (1942), The Navy at War (1943), The Price of Power (1947), Great Mistakes of the War (1949), Sea fights and Shipwrecks (1955), The Great Arms Race (1958), World War I: An Outline History (1962), The New Navy (1964), Battles Lost and Won: Great Campaigns of World War II (1966), Strategy for Tomorrow (1970), The Crucial Years, 1939-1941 (1976), and Tiger Jack (1979).

Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson honored war correspondents, including Baldwin, at an event in Washington, on November 23, 1946.[6]

In 1962, Baldwin was secretly wiretapped in a precursor to Project Mockingbird.[7] President Kennedy was mystified by how Baldwin was able to obtain his information on the Cuba missile crises and he would not reveal his sources.[8]

Besides the Pulitzer Prize, he received many awards and prizes, including the Distinguished Service Medal from Syracuse University in 1944 and the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1969.[9] He also received honorary degrees from Drake University and the Clarkson Institute of Technology.[10]

Personal life

In 1931 he married Helen Bruce Baldwin (1907–1994) of Urbana, Ohio.[11] She wrote poetry and articles on culinary subjects for various magazines. They had two children; Barbara Potter and Elizabeth Crabtree. The Baldwins lived in Chappaqua, New York. In 1947, Rabbi Michael Dov Weissmandl bought the Brewster estate in nearby Mount Kisco and moved the Nitra Yeshiva there to create a self-sustaining agricultural community known as the "Yeshiva Farm Settlement". At first this settlement wasn't welcomed by its neighbors, but in a town hall meeting, Mrs. Baldwin, impressed by Rabbi Weissmandl, defended its establishment and wrote a letter-to-the-editor to the New York Times regarding it. She eventually was instrumental in even getting its neighbors to donate to the Yeshiva. In this settlement which is now called the Nitra Community, she is fondly remembered for her valor and kindheartedness.

Baldwin died in Roxbury, Connecticut on November 13, 1991.

References
  1. McFadden, Robert D. (1991-11-14). "Hanson Baldwin, Military Writer, Dies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-23.
  2. Hanson W. Baldwin Dies; N.Y. Times Military Editor | Article from The Washington Post | HighBeam Research
  3. Cumings, Bruce (2010). The Korean War - A History. Modern Library. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-679-64357-9. Chinese Communists were reported to have joined the fighting, he erred in saying... [in his 14 July 1950 article for The New York Times]
  4. Cumings, Bruce (2010). The Korean War - A History. Modern Library. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-679-64357-9. Misjudgements also grew out of the ubiquitous racism of whites coming from a segregated American society [...] Consider the judgment of the respected military editor of The New York Times, Hanson Baldwin [...]: "We are facing an army of barbarians in Korea [...] as relentless, as reckless of life [...] as the hordes of Genghis Khan [...] some of the most primitive of peoples.
  5. "Hanson W. Baldwin Papers Archives - Library". www.marshallfoundation.org. Retrieved 2019-12-23.
  6. "TASK OF OCCUPATION DECLARED IN PERIL; Patterson at Dinner Honoring War Correspondents Says More Appropriations Are Needed". The New York Times. Washington DC. 1946-11-23. p. 28. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  7. Mitchell, Greg (October 18, 2016). "Before Nixon: When JFK tapped the phone of a New York Times reporter". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  8. Weiner, Tim (2007-07-01). "J.F.K. Turns to the C.I.A. to Plug a Leak". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-23.
  9. "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  10. "Clarkson University Honorary Degrees Past Recipients". Clarkson University.
  11. "Helen B. Baldwin, Writer, 87". The New York Times. 1994-06-01. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-23.

Further reading
  • Robert B. Davies. Baldwin of the Times: Hanson W. Baldwin, a Military Journalist's Life, 1903–1991 (Naval Institute Press; 2012), 399 pages
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