Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Cooley, John K., 1927-2008
- Abstract:
- Papers contain memoirs, other writings, notes, correspondence, memoranda, printed matter, and photographs, relating to the Middle East in international affairs; international terrorism, especially in relation to Libya; the Algerian war for independence; the Organisation Armée secrète; and international counterfeiting. Papers document in part the career of Cooley, an American journalist; Christian Science Monitor Middle East correspondent, 1965-1978; and ABC News Middle East correspondent, 1981-1999.
- Extent:
- 15 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box (6.3 Linear Feet)
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], John K. Cooley papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The John K. Cooley papers at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives began as a collection of miscellaneous documents created and acquired by Cooley while reporting as a journalist from Algeria during that country's war for independence in the early 1960s. This material was donated by Cooley to the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1963, and includes propaganda leaflets, interview transcripts, transcripts of Cooley's news dispatches and radio broadcasts, and other printed matter, especially material relating to the French military revolt led by the Organisation Armée Secrète in Algiers in 1961.
The remaining papers in this collection were donated by Cooley's family shortly after his death in 2008, and chiefly document his activities as a journalist and author from the 1970s onward, while he worked for the Christian Science Monitoras well as ABC News, based alternately in Lebanon, Cyprus, and Greece. Although Cooley had maintained an extensive personal archive throughout his career as a journalist in North Africa and the Middle East, much of it was lost in 1975, when he was forced to flee his home in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War.
The papers in his extant collection are divided in series by writings and speeches, research projects for ABC News, photographs, personal papers, and collected miscellany. The writings contain material related to some of his earlier books, but the bulk consists of typescript drafts and background materials for his last two books, An Alliance against Babylon (2005) and Currency Wars(2008). In addition, reprints of published articles and newspaper stories, as well as drafts of stories, texts of speeches and conference papers, and proposed projects are also included. Many of the speeches and unpublished conference papers contain autobiographical material about Cooley and his career as a journalist, and chapter drafts of his unfinished memoirs are also included in this series. A separate series is provided for research material related to stories he was assigned with ABC News. Of note in this series is the research he conducted while working on an Emmy Award-winning ABC News Primetime television special on the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. In addition to his work on the ABC project, Cooley also planned to write a book about the bombing, and material on that can be found in the series on proposed projects. Rounding out the collection are assorted photographs Cooley took or collected while on assignment in Algeria, Yemen, Western Sahara, Morocco, and Lebanon; as well as reporters' notebooks containing notes from interviews and for stories he planned to write.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Date Event 1927, November 25 Born, New York CityUndated Graduated, Dartmouth College1946-1947, 1951-1953 Military and U.S. government service, Vienna1954 Editorial writer, New York Herald Tribune1957-1964 Free lance journalist in North Africa1965 Published Baal, Christ and Muhammed: Religion and Revolution in Africa(New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston)1965-1978 Middle East staff correspondent, Christian Science Monitor1966 Published East Wind Over Africa(New York: Walker and Co.)1973 Published, Green March, Black September: The Story of Palestinian Arabs(London: Frank Cass)1978-1981 Pentagon correspondent, Christian Science Monitor1981-1998 Staff correspondent, London and the Middle East, ABC News1981 Published, Libyan Sandstorm: The Story of Qaddafi's Revolution (New York: New Republic Books)1992 Published, Payback: America's Long War in the Middle East (Brassey's)1995 Received George Polk Memorial Career Award for Distinguished Reporting, Long Island University1999 Published, Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America, and International Terrorism(London: Pluto Press, updated editions in 2001, 2002)2002 Published, An Alliance Against Babylon: America, Israel and Iraq2008 Published,Currency Wars2008, August 6 Died, Athens, Greece - Acquisition information:
- Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 1963.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is organized into 8 series, by format of material and then chronologically within the series and subseries.
- Physical location:
- Hoover Institution Library & Archives
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
- Terms of access:
-
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], John K. Cooley papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
- Location of this collection:
-
Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford UniversityStanford, CA 94305-6003, US
- Contact:
- (650) 723-3563