Bernard Kalb

Who is Bernard Kalb?

Bernard Kalb is a journalist, media critic and author.

Born in New York City, he covered international affairs for more than three decades at CBS News, NBC News and The New York Times. Nearly half that time he was based abroad in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Paris and Saigon.

Near the end of his tenure at the Times, Mr. Kalb received a fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations - awarded annually to a foreign correspondent - and took a leave from the newspaper for a year. He also won an Overseas Press Club Award for a 1968 documentary on the Vietcong.

He and his younger brother, journalist Marvin Kalb, traveled extensively with Henry Kissinger on diplomatic missions and later wrote a biography together entitled Kissinger. The two brothers also co-authored The Last Ambassador, a novel about the collapse of Saigon in 1975.

In 1984 Kalb was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and spokesman for the State Department. It was the first time that a journalist who covered the State Department has been named as its spokesman.

Kalb quit this post two years later to protest what he called "the reported disinformation program" conducted by the Reagan Administration against the Libyan leader Col. Muammar al-Gaddafi.