On May 7, 1945, Associated Press reporter Ed Kennedy became the
most famous -- or infamous -- American correspondent of World War
II. On that day in France, General Alfred Jodl signed the official
documents as the Germans surrendered to the Allies. Army officials
allowed a select number of reporters, including Kennedy, to witness
this historic moment -- but then instructed the journalists that
the story was under military embargo. In a courageous but costly
move, Kennedy defied the military embargo and broke the news of the
Allied victory. His scoop generated instant controversy. Rival news
organizations angrily protested, and the AP fired him several
months after the war ended.
In this absorbing and previously unpublished personal account,
Kennedy recounts his career as a newspaperman from his early days
as a stringer in Paris to the aftermath of his dismissal from the
AP. During his time as a foreign correspondent, he covered the
Spanish Civil War, the rise of Mussolini in Italy, unrest in
Greece, and ethnic feuding in the Balkans. During World War II, he
reported from Greece, Italy, North Africa, and the Middle East
before heading back to France to cover its liberation and the
German surrender negotiations. His decision to break the news of
V-E Day made him front-page headlines in the New York Times. In his
narrative, Kennedy emerges both as a reporter with an eye for a
good story and an unwavering foe of censorship.
This edition includes an introduction by Tom Curley and John
Maxwell Hamilton, as well as a prologue and epilogue by Kennedy's
daughter, Julia Kennedy Cochran. Their work draws upon newly
available records held in the Associated Press Corporate
Archives.
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