Whitney, Craig R. 1943–

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Whitney, Craig R. 1943–

(Craig Richard Whitney)

PERSONAL: Born October 12, 1943, in Milford, MA; son of A. Gordon and Carol Alma (Kennison) Whitney; married Heidi Witt, May 11, 1974; children: Alexandra Kennison, Stefan Robert. Education: Harvard University, A.B. (magna cum laude), 1965.

ADDRESSES: Office—New York Times, 229 W. 43rd St., New York, NY 10036-3959. E-mail—whitney@nytimes.com.

CAREER: Worcester Telegram, Worcester, MA, reporter, 1963–65; New York Times, New York, NY, reporter in Washington, DC, 1965–66, New York, 1969–70, Saigon, Vietnam, 1971–72, Bonn, West Germany, 1973–77, and Moscow, U.S.S.R., 1977–80, deputy foreign editor, 1980–82, foreign editor, 1982–83, assistant managing editor, 1983–86, Washington bureau chief, 1986–88, London bureau chief, 1988–92, European diplomatic correspondent, 1992–2000, Paris bureau chief, 1995–2000, assistant managing editor, 2000–. Military service: U.S. Navy, Office of the Secretary of the Navy, public affairs officer in Washington, DC, and with the Seventh Fleet in Saigon, Vietnam, 1966–69.

MEMBER: Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard Club of New York City.

AWARDS, HONORS: President's Award, American Guild of Organists, 2004.

WRITINGS:

Spy Trader: Germany's Devil's Advocate and the Darkest Secrets of the Cold War, Times Books (New York, NY), 1993.

All the Stops: The Glorious Pipe Organ and Its American Masters, PublicAffairs (New York, NY), 2003.

(Editor) The WMD Mirage: Iraq's Decade of Deception and America's False Premise for War: Featuring the Report to the President from the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, PublicAffairs (New York, NY), 2005.

Author of introduction, The 9/11 Investigations: Staff Reports of the 9/11 Commission: Excerpts from the House-Senate Joint Inquiry Report on 9/11: Testimony from Fourteen Key Witnesses, Including Richard Clarke, George Tenet, and Condoleezza Rice, edited by Steven Strasser, PublicAffairs (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Craig R. Whitney, who got his start as a journalist in Worcester, Massachusetts, soon became affiliated with the New York Times, beginning as a reporter. After serving as a public affairs officer with the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam conflict, he returned to the Times to become editor of several foreign bureaus, as well as bureau chief in locations that included Washington, DC, London, and Paris. At two points in his career, Whitney served as assistant managing editor, in the 1980s and again beginning in 2000.

Spy Trader: Germany's Devil's Advocate and the Darkest Secrets of the Cold War, Whitney's first book, is a profile of lawyer Wolfgang Vogel, whose brokering of political prisoners and spies led to the release of approximately 200,000, making him one of the few wealthy Communists. Vogel arranged the swap of American U-2 pilot Gary Powers for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in 1962, but his career began in the 1950s. Foreign Affairs reviewer Fritz Stern called the volume "at once a thriller, a piece of contemporary history, and a judicious sensitive guide through the morally complex world of the Cold War."

Whitney, who plays the pipe organ, wrote a history of that instrument titled All the Stops: The Glorious Pipe Organ and Its American Masters, and his efforts on behalf of promoting the organ were rewarded by the American Guild of Organists in 2004 with the President's Award. Whitney studies the history of the organ in the twentieth century, beginning with organ builder Ernest Skinner, who first electrified the organ, and describes the instrument's various parts and capabilities. He describes the personalities and techniques of popular modern organists, including Virgil Fox and E. Power Biggs. A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that Whitney "weaves a tale of opposing ideas and colorful personalities."

Whitney, who provided the introduction for The 9/11 Investigations: Staff Reports of the 9/11 Commission: Excerpts from the House-Senate Joint Inquiry Report on 9/11: Testimony from Fourteen Key Witnesses, Including Richard Clarke, George Tenet, and Condoleezza Rice, is editor of The WMD Mirage: Iraq's Decade of Deception and America's False Premise for War: Featuring the Report to the President from the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction. The volume is a collection of speeches, addresses, and documents that reflect the George W. Bush administration's case for war as it was presented to Americans and the international community. Whitney contributes the introduction, which provides a historical context.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Foreign Affairs, November-December, 1993, Fritz Stern, review of Spy Trader: Germany's Devil's Advocate and the Darkest Secrets of the Cold War, p. 167.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2003, review of All the Stops: The Glorious Pipe Organ and Its American Masters, pp. 293-294.

Library Journal, March 15, 2003, Timothy J. McGhee, review of All the Stops, p. 87.

Publishers Weekly, May 10, 1993, review of Spy Trader, p. 66; March 17, 2003, review of All the Stops, p. 64.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2005, review of The WMD Mirage: Iraq's Decade of Deception and America's False Premise for War: Featuring the Report to the President from the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, p. 285.