Schecter, Jerrold L. 1932–

PERSONAL: Born November 27, 1932, in New York, NY; son of Edward and Miriam (Goshen) Schecter; married Leona Protas (a literary agent and writer), June 12, 1954; children: Evelind, Steven, Kate, Doveen, Barnett. Education: University of Wisconsin, B.S., 1954; attended Oxford University, 1954; Harvard University, graduate study, 1963–64. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES: Home and office—3748 Huntington St. NW, Washington, DC 20015. Agent—Leona Schecter, 3748 Huntington St. NW, Washington, DC 20015. E-mail—jerroldsch@msn.com.

CAREER: Wall Street Journal, New York, NY, staff correspondent, 1957–58; Time, New York, NY, contributing editor, 1958–60; Time News Service, staff correspondent for China-Southeast Asia Bureau, Hong Kong, 1960–63; Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, Nieman fellow, 1963–64; Time-Life, bureau chief in Tokyo, Japan, 1964–68, bureau chief in Moscow, U.S. S.R. (now Russia), 1968–70; Time, White House correspondent in Washington, DC, 1970–73, diplomatic editor, 1973–77; associate White House press secretary and spokesman for the National Security Council, Washington, DC, 1977–80; Occidental Petroleum Co., vice president for public affairs, 1980–82; Esquire, Washington editor and foreign affairs columnist, 1982–84; Schecter Communications Corp., Washington, DC, chair, 1983–. We/Mbl (independent Russian-American weekly newspaper), editor at large, 1990–94; Izvestia, editor, 1990–94. Military service: U.S. Naval Reserve, active duty, 1953–57; served in Japan and Korea; became lieutenant.

AWARDS, HONORS: Citation among best books of the year, New York Times, 1987, for The Palace File: The Remarkable Story of the Secret Letters from Nixon and Ford to the President of South Vietnam and the American Promises that Were Never Kept.

WRITINGS:

The New Face of Buddha: Buddhism and Political Power in Southeast Asia, Coward McCann (New York, NY), 1967.

(With wife, Leona Schecter, and children) An American Family in Moscow, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1975.

(With Nguyen Tien Hung) The Palace File: The Remarkable Story of the Secret Letters from Nixon and Ford to the President of South Vietnam and the American Promises that Were Never Kept, Harper (New York, NY), 1986.

(With Leona Schecter, and children) Back in the U.S.S.R.: An American Family Returns to Moscow, Scribner (New York, NY), 1988.

Back in the U.S.S.R. (documentary television special), Public Broadcasting System, 1988.

(Editor and translator) Khrushchev Remembers the Glasnost Tapes, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1990.

(With Peter Deriabin) The Spy Who Saved the World: How a Soviet Colonel Changed the Course of the Cold War, Scribner (New York, NY), 1992.

(With Pavel A. Sudoplatov, Anatoli Sudoplatov and Leona Schecter) Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness—A Soviet Spymaster, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1994.

Russian Negotiating Behavior: Continuity and Transition, U.S. Institute of Peace Press (Washington, DC), 1998.

(With Leona Schecter) Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History, Brassey's (Washington, DC), 2002.

Contributor to books, including introduction, Khrushchev Remembers: The Last Testament, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1974. Contributor to periodicals, including Connoisseur, New York Times Magazine, and Washington Post.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

New York Times Book Review, May 21, 1967.

Time, June 16, 1967.

Virginia Quarterly Review, autumn, 1967.