Marvin Kalb: A Personal History

This course is a six-part interview of journalist and author Marvin Kalb by his daughter, Deborah Kalb, also a journalist and an author. Class begins with Marvin's adventures in the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s, during some of the darkest days of the Cold War, when Marvin, as CBS News Bureau Chief, covered Nikita Khrushchev's famous "secret speech," the Berlin Wall, and the Cuban missile crisis. Part two explores when Marvin, named CBS's first Diplomatic Correspondent, covered the Vietnam War, which dragged the United States into a losing war costing 58,000 American lives and led to Lyndon Johnson's abdication and the Watergate scandal. Part three focuses on Henry Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East, where Marvin met Israel's Golda Meir, Egypt's Anwar Sadat and many other fascinating characters.

Part four focuses on triangular diplomacy, including Brezhnev in Hollywood and Nixon in China and Marvin making headlines on an "enemies list." Part five is the fascinating story of the terrorist attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II, including parts of an NBC documentary Marvin did on the subject. Finally, in part six, Marvin leaves journalism to become a Harvard scholar and open a new research center on the interrelationship of journalism and politics.

Through all six meetings, via Zoom, Marvin will be happy to link his personal history with the Trump era of American history, as appropriate, while offering his judgment of both as a journalist, a writer and a citizen.