30 Facts About Joseph Alsop

Joseph Wright Alsop V was an American journalist and syndicated newspaper columnist from the 1930s through the 1970s.

Joseph Alsop was an influential journalist and top insider in Washington from 1945 to the late 1960s, often in conjunction with his brother Stewart Alsop.

Joseph Alsop worked as a covert operative of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Joseph Alsop wrote for The Harvard Crimson during his time at Harvard.

Joseph Alsop began his career with the New York Herald Tribune and fast established a substantial reputation as a journalist, particularly by his comprehensive reportage of the Bruno Hauptmann trial in 1934.

Joseph Alsop entered the US Navy and used his political connections to be assigned as Staff Historian to Claire Lee Chennault's American Volunteer Group, later famous as the Flying Tigers, while the group was training at Toungoo, Burma.

Unable to secure passage out of the city, Joseph Alsop was eventually taken into custody as an enemy alien and interned at Hong Kong by the Imperial Japanese Army.

Joseph Alsop traveled back to the United States on the neutral liner Gripsholm.

Joseph Alsop returned to China as a civilian Lend-lease administrator in the fall of 1942, assigned to the wartime capital of Free China, Chongqing.

Joseph Alsop eventually rejoined Chennault in Kunming, China and served with him for the remaining months of the war.

The Joseph Alsop brothers operated on a fundamental rule that every column must always include at least one new piece of information.

Stewart remained headquartered in Washington to cover domestic politics, and Joseph Alsop traveled the world, covering foreign affairs.

Joseph Alsop helped the Central Intelligence Agency in its intelligence-gathering activities, using his status as a foreign correspondent as cover.

In 1953, Joseph Alsop covered the Philippine general election at the CIA's request.

The partnership of the Joseph Alsop brothers lasted from 1945 until 1958.

Joseph Alsop became the sole author of "Matter of Fact" and he moved to The Washington Post until his retirement in 1974.

Joseph Alsop became a close friend and influential adviser to Kennedy after his election, in November 1960.

Joseph Alsop was a vocal supporter of America's involvement in the Vietnam War, and in his column, he strongly advocated for escalation.

Joseph Alsop wanted to provoke the president into action as he warned about the impact a defeat would have on American credibility, attacked Johnson's manhood by accusing him of weakness and compared him to Kennedy.

Joseph Alsop had visited Saigon, where Nhu leaked the meeting to him.

Joseph Alsop failed to report on the Women's Liberation Movement and the proceedings of the Civil Rights movement, in particular the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Joseph Alsop was at work on a memoir when he died at his home in the Georgetown section of Washington, DC, on August 28,1989.

Joseph Alsop is buried at Indian Hill Cemetery, Middletown, Connecticut.

Joseph Alsop kept his homosexuality a closely guarded secret all of his life.

Nevertheless, Senator Joseph McCarthy insinuated that Alsop was homosexual in the course of a dispute with The Saturday Evening Post about its coverage of his campaign to remove homosexuals from government employment.

Joseph Alsop's accounts, delivered to a friend in the CIA, quickly reached the FBI, allowing J Edgar Hoover to spread the information through the Eisenhower administration, many of whose members had fought sharp battles with Alsop.

In 1965, Joseph Alsop complained to friends that Johnson was tapping his phone, a claim that infuriated Johnson, who believed that he had protected Joseph Alsop from McCarthy's attacks.

Joseph Alsop told White House Press Secretary Bill Moyers that he believed the administration was tapping his phone and was spreading gossip about his personal life, all in an attempt to stop leaks.

Joseph Alsop considered making his homosexuality public to end the harassment but decided otherwise.

Joseph Alsop was portrayed by John Lithgow in the original production.