Name Tad Szulc | Role Author | |
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Died May 21, 2001, Washington, D.C., United States Books Fidel a Critical Portrait, Chopin In Paris, Pope John Paul II: The Biography, The Secret Alliance: The Extra, To kill the Pope | ||
Tadeusz Witold Szulc (July 25, 1926 – May 21, 2001) was an author and foreign correspondent for The New York Times from 1953 to 1972. Szulc is credited with breaking the story of the Bay of Pigs invasion.
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Life
Szulc was born in Warsaw, Poland, the son of Seweryn and Janina Baruch Szulc. He attended Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland. In 1940 he emigrated from Poland to join his family (who had left Poland in the mid-1930s) in Brazil. There he studied at the University of Brazil, but in 1945 he abandoned his studies to work as a reporter for the Associated Press in Rio de Janeiro. In 1968 he was a reporter in Czechoslovakia during the Soviet invasion to quell the Prague Spring.
In 1947 he moved from Brazil to New York City, and in 1954 he became an American citizen. His emigration to the United States was sponsored by United States Ambassador John Cooper Wiley who was married to his aunt.
In 2001, Szulc died of cancer at his home in Washington, D.C.. He was survived by his wife and his two children.
Career
From 1953 to 1972 Szulc was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times.
On April 6, 1961, nine days before the CIA-supported Bay of Pigs invasion, Szulc wrote a Times article stating that an invasion of Cuba was "imminent." Before its publication, President Kennedy became aware of the article and personally telephoned the Times' publisher. The Times yielded to the President's demand that the story be reduced in prominence and detail. His interest in Cuba continued over time, with the publication of an in-depth biography of Fidel Castro.
Awards
Szulc was a Knight of the French Légion d'honneur.