Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Richard J. Whalen papers
- Dates:
- 1930-2010
- Creators:
- Whalen, Richard J., 1935-
- Abstract:
- Correspondence, writings, notes, interview transcripts, printed matter, and sound and video recordings, relating to twentieth-century American politics, Joseph P. Kennedy and the Kennedy family, the Republican Party, and the presidential administrations of Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Includes research materials for books by R. J. Whalen.
- Extent:
- 60 manuscript boxes, 8 oversized boxes (31.4 Linear Feet)
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Richard J. Whalen papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Correspondence, writings, notes, interview transcripts, printed matter, and sound and video recordings, relating to twentieth-century American politics, Joseph P. Kennedy and the Kennedy family, the Republican Party, and the presidential administrations of Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Includes research materials for books by R. J. Whalen.
The 2015 incremental materials consist primarily of personal records and the beginnings of an informational news service written by Richard Whalen. The Hideshi Maki and the News Service Reports series includes founding documentation and copies of the news service, originally unnamed, called WIRES in 1981, renamed The Whalen Report in 1996 and The Big Picture in 2002. Hideshi Maki was a former foreign service officer who started an informal information service in Japan, which circulated privately among private corporate clients such as Toyota, Toshiba, Mitsui Mitsubishi and several major banks. Richard Whalen began writing twice-weekly analysis of political and economic relations and how they relate to Japanese business concerns.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Richard J. Whalen, born in New York City in 1935, graduated with honors in English and Political Science from Queens College in 1957. He joined the Richmond (VA) News Leader and rose from the rewrite desk to the associate editorship under James Jackson Kilpatrick in two years. In 1960, Whalen returned to New York as a contributing editor on Time magazine, writing national affairs, then did a brief stint at the Wall Street Journal as an editorial writer. In 1963, he returned to Time, Inc., becoming a senior writer and member of the board of editors on Fortune magazine.
During his tenure at Fortune, Whalen wrote The Founding Father: The Story of Joseph P. Kennedy. His critically acclaimed book was on the New York Times' bestseller list for more than a year and was the runner-up for both the 1964 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Still in print (fourth edition 1993), it is the foundation of two generations of Kennedy scholarship. In 1965, he authored another award-winning book on New York's endangered architectural heritage, A City Destroying Itself: An Angry View of New York.
In 1967-69, Whalen was writer-in-residence at Georgetown University's Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. and also served as a special assistant in Richard M. Nixon's successful 1968 presidential campaign. That same year, he became a member of the prestigious Cosmos Club. He served as senior consultant to Secretary of State William Rogers in 1969-71, and then left government to launch his own political and economic intelligence and consulting firm, WIRES, Ltd., which he ran successfully for more than two decades. In 1972, Whalen wrote a prophetic study of the Nixon presidency, Catch the Falling Flag: A Republican's Challenge to His Party, published a month before the Watergate break-in. In 1975, he wrote a book of collected political essays, Taking Sides: A Personal View of America from Kennedy to Nixon to Kennedy.
A senior policy adviser to Ronald Reagan from 1975 through the 1980 presidential campaign, Whalen was an informal adviser thereafter. He served as a senior staff aide to George H. W. Bush during his 1970 Senate race in Texas, and advised him as vice president and in his 1988 presidential campaign. He has edited the reports of three presidential commissions: The Commission on an All-Volunteer Armed Force (1970), The Commission on Financial Structure and Regulation (1971) and The Commission on Federal Statistics (1971).
An effective television personality, Whalen has been a frequent guest on CNN's Crossfire. He has also been featured in the concluding segment of PBS's three-part documentary The Irish in America (1999) and the History channel's two-hour special Nixon: The Arrogance of Power (2000).
Whalen is a member of New York's Century Association and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is married to the former Joan Marie Giuffre, director of Joan Whalen Fine Art, New York. He has three grown children and four grandchildren.
- Acquisition information:
- Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 2011.
- Physical location:
- Hoover Institution Library & Archives
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-08-02 15:15:58.743537
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Users must sign use agreement. The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
- Terms of access:
-
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Richard J. Whalen papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
- Location of this collection:
-
Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford UniversityStanford, CA 94305-6003, US
- Contact:
- (650) 723-3563