The First 78 Years

About the Book

This is a memoir of 78 years spent in journalism and government. It describes Donald M. Wilson’s early career as a foreign correspondent for LIFE magazine, covering the Korean War and the French-Vietminh War in Indochina. Wilson then takes over the LIFE Washington Bureau until president John F. Kennedy appoints him deputy director to Edward R. Murrow at the US Information Agency. His career reaches its apex when he is appointed to Excom – the committee of 18 top officials who worked with JFK to successfully resolve the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Wilson leaves government and is made a corporate vice president at Time Inc. His story takes us through 25 turbulent years as Time Inc. tries to remain independent but fails and then on into his very active “retirement.”

About the Author

Donald M. Wilson grew up in Montclair, New Jersey. During World War II, he flew missions over Germany as a navigator. He graduated from Yale in 1948 and was then hired by LIFE magazine. Following four years in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, he returned to LIFE at Time Inc. Wilson retired in 1989 and became co-founder of the Independent Journalism Foundation, which established training centers in Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, Bratislava and Phnom Penh for journalists who had spent most of their lives under Communist rule.