Title: Paul A. Shinkman Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1924-1969

Creator:

• Shinkman, Paul A.

Call Number: U.S. Mss 188AF

Quantity: 2.0 c.f. (5 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of a journalist and Washington, D.C, radio broadcaster stationed in Europe during World War II; including diaries, interviews, broadcast scripts, and reports from his station with the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service from 1943-1944. The radio broadcast typescripts contain analyses of significant world leaders such as Charles de Gaulle, King Hussein of Jordan, Richard M. Nixon, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson and John F. Kennedy, as well as coverage of world events. The diaries discuss Adolf Hitler, Joseph P. McCarthy, and world developments also. The papers include interviews with Lady Astor, Henri Bonnet, United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, Dingle Foot while British Parliamentary Secretary of Economic Warfare, and Premier Jose Giral of the Spanish Republican Government.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0188af

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Paul Alfred Shinkman, newspaper and radio journalist, was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on October 8, 1897, the son of Joseph and Emeline (Boxheimer) Shinkman. He studied at the University of Michigan, graduating with an A.B. in 1920. He would later take special courses at Columbia University, the Sorbonne, and Georgetown University, with emphasis on political science.

After graduation from college he became a cub reporter for the Grand Rapids Press, advancing to reporter for the Paris edition of the Chicago Tribune in 1924. By 1927, he was the Paris correspondent for the Italian Mail (for which the “Paris Rambles” column was written), as well as for the Chicago Tribune. This was the year of his first important exclusive story, which concerned Charles Lindbergh's reaction to his reception in Paris after his historic flight. In this same time period, continuing until his return to the United States in 1929, Shinkman was also the Chicago Tribune's correspondent in London. From 1929 to 1938, he was a member of the editorial staff of King Features Syndicate, New York City. He spent two seasons as a correspondent for the Central Press Association, and as a radio commentator for “The Story Behind the News.”

In 1935, Shinkman married Elizabeth Benn, the daughter of Sir Ernest and Lady Benn. In 1938, he spent the summer as a roving correspondent in Central Europe for the International News Service, writing his first interview with Lord Runciman in Prague, and gaining exclusive interviews with Premier Hodza of Czechoslovakia and Jan Masaryk, Czech Ambassador to London. Following this, he again returned to the United States and lectured throughout America on European problems leading to World War II.

From 1942 to 1944 Shinkman served as chief of the German section of the Daily Report, a publication of the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service of the Federal Communications Commission of the United States. He worked two more years for the Office of War Information. In 1950, he was sent by the State Department as a consultant on mission to Berlin, taking time off from his job as radio news commentator for Station WBCC in Washington, D.C.

Shinkman spent 1951-1953 in Vienna, Austria, as foreign service officer, returning to Washington, D.C., to do a “Weekly News Commentary” for Stations WDON and WASH, a position which lasted, with some breaks in time and the renaming of the program, until his death. He became an editor of the N.E.A. News in 1957 and served in that capacity until 1963. Shinkman died in Washington, D.C. on December 19, 1975.

The papers are composed primarily of Shinkman's reports as head of the German section of the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service, 1943-1944, and typescripts for the 15-minute news commentaries he broadcast for most of the later part of his life, ca. 1938-1968. His diaries are an important part of this collection, and have been divided into sections on Europe and Washington, D.C. Also included in this collection are typescripts of his most popular lectures, interviews, writings as a journalist, and an outline and one chapter for a book which he intended to publish on his experiences in Czechoslovakia.

The DIARIES, 1938-1965, are separated into “European” and “Washington” headings. They illustrate his constant fascination with both national and international politics, and contain his reflections on matters such as growing world tensions before World War II, Adolf Hitler, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, Italian fascism, White House conferences, Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, and weekly events of importance.

Shinkman's LECTURES span a time period of over 25 years, and include such topics as “People and Places in the News” (1938), “In Europe They Told Me” (1940), “Behind the Iron Curtain” (1948), “The Washington News Hill” (1956), and “The Crack in the Iron Curtain” (1964).

His INTERVIEWS consist of typescripts and articles concerning exclusive interviews with such people as Lady Astor, 1946; Henri Bonnet, first post-war French Ambassador to the United States; United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, 1945-1947; General Charles DeGaulle, 1946; Dingle Foot, Parliamentary Secretary of the British Ministry of Economic Warfare, 1944; and Premier Jose Giral of the Spanish Republican Government in exile. Also filed here is Shinkman's 1938 profile of a commander of a French Line passenger ship, Commandant Pierre (?) Blanquie. Correspondence concerning these interviews is included in this section.

The WRITINGS span Shinkman's working life, beginning in 1924 with his journalism in Paris. These works have been divided according to country. Many of these articles have been published, although this is not noted on the typed articles themselves. Included in this section are Shinkman's impressions of different countries and cultural phenomena, such as Josephine Baker and the Folies Bergeres.

MISCELLANEOUS BROADCASTS are those which fall before ca. 1950. They are somewhat apart from his later regularly contracted work.

The FOREIGN BROADCAST INTELLIGENCE SERVICE OF THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION papers span 1943 and 1944. They consist of Special Reports, of events such as important speeches of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini; Southern European Analysis, documenting important broadcasting messages and themes in Italy, Spain and Portugal; Eastern European Analysis and Radio Report on the Far East, deciphering broadcasts from the U.S.S.R. and Nazi-occupied territory in Eastern Europe and the Far East; Western European Analysisand Central European Analysis, serving the respective interests of such countries as France, Spain, and the Netherlands; Morning Preview of Foreign Broadcasts, summarizing the daily broadcasts specifically covered in the Daily Report of Foreign Broadcasts, a publication dealing with propaganda themes and news information gleaned from foreign radio broadcasts and newspapers; supplemented by Special Releases, and again summarized in the Weekly Review of Foreign Broadcasts. The great bulk of these publications has been transferred to the Government Documents Section of the Society Library. Several duplicate copies remain with the Shinkman papers. Included with these copies is a detailed list of publication dates for titles transferred to the Library.

The RADIO BROADCAST TYPESCRIPTS document important issues in American and international politics, internal dissension in American politics, and the McCarthy hearings. These were part of a long series of radio shows, 15 minutes each in duration, given weekly by Paul Shinkman. They are interesting as an indicator of events happening in the United States, and speak of and analyze such people as Charles DeGaulle, Andre Gromyko, King Hussein, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, Vice President Richard M. Nixon, and Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and John F. Kennedy. Events such as the Vietnam War, the signing of North Atlantic Treaty Organization treaties, and incidents in the Arab-Israeli War are also discussed.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Elizabeth Benn Shinkman, Washington, D.C., 1978. Accession Number: MCHC78-092

Processing Information

Processed by P. Krysan Geschwent and Joanne Hohler, August 1979.

	Series: Diaries
Box   1 Folder   1	European, 1938, June-September; 1948, June-August; 1950, May-June, September-October; 1963, March-July; 1965, May.
Box   1 Folder   2-3	Washington, D.C., 1942, May-1946, October; 1947, October-1948, March; 1949, January-1950, May; 1950, November-1951, February; 1954, April-May (McCarthy hearings).
Box   1 Folder   4	Series: Lectures, 1938-1963	⇧
Box   1 Folder   5	Series: Interviews, 1938-1946 Scope and Content Note: With such people as Lady Astor, Commandant Blanquie, Henri Bonnet, Charles DeGaulle, Dingle Foot, Premier Jose Giral (Spanish Republic), including letters re: interviews.	⇧
	Series: Writings	⇧
Box   1 Folder   6	Paris, 1924-1927 Scope and Content Note: Notes and vignettes, e.g., “Rambles in Paris,” “Bicycle Trip in Turin,” letters, short articles.
Box   1 Folder   7	London, 1927-1929 Scope and Content Note: Articles on Charles A. Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Thomas Hardy's funeral, George Bernard Shaw, Canterbury visit.
Box   1 Folder   8	Czechoslovakia, 1938-1948 Scope and Content Note: Interviews with Lord Runciman, Premier Milan Hozda, and Jan Masaryk; articles such as “Twilight in Prague” and “Sudeten Crisis.”
Box   1 Folder   9-10	“Men Who Have to Fight” Scope and Content Note: Outline and opening chapter for book based on experiences in Czechoslovakia in 1938.
Box   1 Folder   11-12	Central Press Articles
Box   2 Folder   1	Unclassified articles and speeches.
	Series: Miscellaneous Broadcasts	⇧
Box   2 Folder   2	Berlin Crisis, WBCC, 1950.
Box   2 Folder   2	Salute to the Berlin Airlift, WBCC, 1948.
Box   2 Folder   2	BBC broadcasts for Britain, 1948.
Box   2 Folder   2	Prague broadcasts.
	Series: Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service of the Federal Communication Commission, 1943-1944	⇧
Box   2 Folder   3	“Morning Preview”, 1943, June-October; 1944, January-February.
Box   2 Folder   4-5	“Daily Report”, 1944, April.
Box   2 Folder   6	“Special Release”, 1943, September; “On the Beam”, , 1943, November.
	Series: Typescripts of Radio Broadcasts, 1933-1968	⇧
	“The Story Behind the News”, WINS.
Box   2 Folder   7	1933, November 2-1934, February 1.
Box   2 Folder   8-9	1934, February 22-December 5.
Box   2 Folder   10	1934, December 16-1935, October 11.
Box   2 Folder   11	“Headline Flashbacks” and “The Story Behind the News”, undated scripts.
	“Weekly News Commentary”, WDON, WASH
Box   3 Folder   1	1953, April 16-December 27.
Box   3 Folder   2-4	1954, January 3-December 26.
Box   3 Folder   5-7	1955, January 2-December 18.
Box   3 Folder   8-9	1956, January 8-October 26.
Box   4 Folder   1	1956, November 4-December 30.
	“Turn of the Week”, WDON, WASH
Box   4 Folder   2-3	1957, January 6-November 10.
	“Perspective”, WDON, WASH
Box   4 Folder   4	1963, September 22-December 29.
Box   4 Folder   5-6	1964, January 5-December 27.
Box   4 Folder   7-8	1965, January 3-December 19.
Box   4 Folder   9	1966, January 2-June 26
Box   5 Folder   1	1966, July 3-December 18.
Box   5 Folder   2-3	1967, January 1-December 31
Box   5 Folder   4	1968, January 7-July 28.