James Reston Jr.

James Reston Jr. was a historian, journalist, and novelist who authored 19 books and four plays across a wide variety of subjects. His historical writing includes titles such as Galileo: A Life, The Last Apocalypse, Warriors of God, Dogs of God, and Defenders of the Faith, and The Conviction of Richard Nixon: The Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews, while his fiction and memoir writing includes titles like Fragile Innocence, To Defend, To Destroy, and The Knock at Midnight. His most recent work is The Nineteenth Hijacker: a novel of 9/11, a fictional account of the September 11 terrorist plane hijackings.

The son of New York Times editor James "Scotty" Reston, he was an assistant to Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall before serving in the US Army from 1965 to 1968. In 1976-77, he was David Frost's Watergate advisor for the famous Nixon interviews, the most watched public affairs television program in American history.

In 1983, Reston won the Prix Italia and Dupont-Columbus Award for his NPR radio documentary, Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown. He has been a fellow at the American Academy in Rome, the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, and his articles have appeared in the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Time, Smithsonian, and National Geographic, among other places.

Articles by this Author

Trivializing the Medal of Freedom?, Summer 2022 | Vol. 67, No. 3

Have Biden and other recent Presidents demeaned the award meant for “especially meritorious contributions to the security and national interests of the United States”?

Remembering Flight 93: “Okay. Let’s Roll!”, September/October 2021 | Vol. 66, No. 6

On that fateful flight, American heroes and the accidents of history combined to save the US Capitol from likely total destruction.

"To Heal a Nation": Creating the Vietnam Wall, June 2021 | Vol. 66, No. 4

Jan Scruggs fought on multiple fronts to build the Vietnam Memorial, which was once derided as a “black gash” and “Orwellian glop.” His work inspired a nation and helped bring Americans together.

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