John Callan O'Laughlin

Who was John Callan O'Laughlin?

John Callan O'Laughlin was a journalist and longtime publisher of the Army and Navy Journal. He began his career as a journalist writing for the Washington bureau of the New York Herald from 1893 to 1902. After a short stint on the AP European staff, O'Laughlin worked for the Chicago Tribune and later the Chicago Herald until the outbreak of World War I. In January 1918 he was commissioned a major in the United States Army, serving as aide to Major General George Washington Goethals. During these years, O'Laughlin wrote his first book, From the Jungle through Europe with Roosevelt. In 1925, O'Laughlin bought and became editor of the Army and Navy Journal, a weekly covering the American military and world affairs.

O'Laughlin's political connections extended from Theodore Roosevelt to Harry S. Truman and covered the philosophical spectrum from Herbert Hoover to Eleanor Roosevelt. He served as United States Assistant Secretary of State in the beginning of 1909, was a delegate at Roosevelt's Bull Moose convention in 1912 and later served on the Republican National Committee. After World War II, Hoover hoped to influence the European Recovery Program using O'Laughlin as his agent.