Title: Howard K. Smith Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1941-1963

Creator:

• Smith, Howard K. (Howard Kingsbury), 1914-2002

Call Number: US Mss 56AF; Audio 422A; PH 6618; DC 648-DC 698

Quantity: 21.6 cubic feet (54 archives boxes), 60 audio recordings (1/4-inch reel), 2 audio recordings (disc), 2 photographs (1 folder), and 51 reels of film (16 mm)
Repository:

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

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

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

Abstract:

Papers of Howard K. Smith, an award-winning news analyst and foreign correspondent, consisting of material on his career with both the ABC and CBS networks. CBS radio scripts pertain to his work as a World War II correspondent and to his post-war commentaries. CBS television scripts consist of Smith's brief analyses of news events for Douglas Edwards and the News (1957-1961). After switching to ABC, Smith had his own television program, Howard K. Smith—News and Comment. For this show the collection includes film interview transcripts with notable political and cultural individuals. The office files contain transcripts of these interviews as aired, together with research material, notes, and memoranda. Of particular interest are interviews, scripts, clippings, and fan mail related to the controversial program, "The Political Obituary of Richard Nixon."

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0056af

Howard K. Smith was born in Ferriday, Louisiana, on May 12, 1914. He received his B.A. degree from Tulane University in 1936, the same year he studied Nazism first-hand in Berlin.

Smith was a Rhodes scholar at Merton College, Oxford, England, 1937. He revisited Germany, Russia, Holland, and Austria, and in 1939 became a foreign correspondent for the United Press in London. In 1941, he became Berlin correspondent for CBS based in Switzerland. In 1944, Smith was a war correspondent in France, Holland, and Germany with the Ninth Army. After the end of the war, he covered the Nuremberg Trials in Germany.

From 1946 to 1957, Smith served as chief European correspondent for CBS and European director of CBS, based in London. He returned to America in 1957 and served as a correspondent in the CBS Washington bureau until 1961 when he became that bureau's chief correspondent and general manager. Smith moved to ABC as a news analyst in 1962.

He is the holder of many awards; among them are: Overseas Press Club Award for best radio reporting from abroad, 1951-1954; Du Pont Award, 1955; Sigma Delta Chi Award for radio journalism, 1957; Sylvania Award, 1959; George Polk Memorial Award for the documentary, The Population Explosion, 1960; co-recipient, George Peabody Award, 1960; Emmy, Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1960; American Jewish Congress Award, 1962; Radio-TV Daily Award as commentator of the year, 1960; Overseas Press Club Award, best radio interpretation of foreign affairs, 1961; Radio-TV News Directors Association Paul White Memorial Award, 1962; and the Du Pont Award, 1963. He also holds a number of honorary degrees.

Smith is the author of Last Train From Berlin, 1942; and The State of Europe, 1949.

Howard K. Smith died February 15, 2002 in Bethesda, Maryland.

The Howard K. Smith Papers were received and organized by the Historical Society in two parts. Part 1 dates 1941-1961 and consists of correspondence, cables and dispatches, and scripts for radio and television reports. Part 2 dates 1962-1963 and entirely concerns Smith's ABC television series, News and Comment.

The correspondence in Part 1 of the Howard K. Smith Papers consists of exchanges of letters between him and his listeners. Most of the mail is from the period 1957 to 1961, after he had returned to the United States.

Concerning the cables to the London Daily Herald and to Time and Life, Smith says:

By agreement with CBS, I sent these cables to the London Daily Herald in 1942. All English papers were sharply restricted in size by war needs, so the reports were made as compact as possible. Frequently they were for the background information of the editor rather than for publication. All telegrams were censored by the Swiss, and that had to be kept in mind in writing them. Information was gathered mainly in Berne, the diplomatic center of Switzerland, but also in Zurich (a rather better source of information on Germany) and Lugano (for Italy) and Geneva and Lausanne (for France).

When the Swiss, concerned for their neutrality, banned broadcasting, CBS and Time reached an agreement to let me work for Time. The Swiss agreed to relax censorship provided the information in the cables for Time appeared with no indication that it came from Switzerland. Unknown to me, Time let a British newspaper use some of the dispatches (The Evening Standard) over my name. The Swiss became very angry and threatened to re-introduce strong censorship of my dispatches, until I persuaded Time not to let the information appear any longer over my name.

This information is rather better than that in other dispatches (to the Daily Herald and to CBS) because the Swiss let anything go as long as it was not published that it came from Switzerland.

Much of the material here is unique. For example, this file contains, I believe, the first revelations about the existence of Tito and his partisans (at a time when the western world believed Mihailovic was leader of these partisans and had heard nothing of Tito). I got the information, and the identity of Tito from emissaries sent to Switzerland by Tito. I refused to use the information until documents and photos were provided indicating the information was serious.

Also there is an eyewitness account—the first one I believe—of life among the French partisans in the “Macquis”. I went there in 1944 before the Americans arrived.

Smith says of the World War II radio scripts:

At first broadcasting was forbidden. The Swiss being surrounded and dependent on supplies that traveled through German occupied territory went to great lengths not to arouse German hostility. However, they permitted us to send cables.

Later when the tide turned in the war, the Swiss engaged in the modest hypocrisy of permitting telephone calls though not broadcasts. So we telephoned our broadcasts which were put on the air, as we spoke. The quality was metallic, but they were audible. The “comment” that appears pencilled at the bottom of the broadcast means the quality of the sound reception and not the quality of the journalistic or literary effort. After each broadcast I waited breathless to hear that comment which became more important in those primitive and difficult circumstances than the quality of the material broadcast.

In order to get past censors, much of the information is affirmed by quoting Swiss newspapers.

Among the cables to CBS are some (like several on the Yugoslav partisans) CBS requested not for use on CBS but for publication in newspapers. Others were used in frameworks for broadcast dramas—for example, one on Berlin during an air raid.

Many of these were literally broadcast from bed—the electronic journalists' dream. However that was because the phone happened to be at the bedside. Certainly there is no implication of relaxation. Trying to get through to CBS and writing in a manner so that no word would be missed by this unsatisfactory way of broadcasting by telephone was most un-relaxing.

I made my way from Switzerland to Paris, flying over a part of France still occupied in September, 1944. In Paris I was accredited as a war correspondent with the Ninth U.S. Army. I worked there and at First Army all that winter, covering the Battle of the Bulge and the Ninth Army's advance over the Roer River, then across the Rhine. It was expected that this army would go on to Berlin. But it was halted at Magdeburg due to agreement with the Russians, and withdrew from there.

However, by lot I was chosen the only American radio broadcaster to go to Berlin while it was still burning and attend the signing of the surrender in Zhukov's headquarters. Broadcasts about that occasion, done for all the networks, are included in this. All these were censored by army censors.

Some of the World War II scripts were not dated by Smith, but, because all those scripts which were dated were in correct order, Smith's arrangement of the undated scripts has been retained. At the beginning, they are numbered consecutively in the upper right hand corner. Thereafter, when “runs” of undated scripts occur they are indicated by their relation to the last dated script, that is: “l after 1942, April 14; 2 after 1942, April 14,” etc. When the scripts are dated only with numbers, keep in mind that the European system is used, that is, the first number is the day, and the second is the month. Some 1945 scripts are written on the backs of U.S. Army press releases, of interest in themselves.

Of the analysis scripts for Douglas Edwards and the News, Smith says:

This series of broadcasts was designed to meet what remains a major problem of Television News. TV News Programs tend to be rather short and shallow bulletins. CBS decided to try to deepen its coverage by having an analyst try to write a daily commentary to last only 90 seconds. I was selected, and was brought from London to Washington to do it.

I think, and the producer and Edwards and indeed almost everyone who has commented on the innovation, thought that it worked. It required considerable effort to say something both easily understood and meaningful in the space of little more than a sonnet, but the feature became a favored part of CBS' main daily TV News program.

However, as CBS' policy altered and the commentaries—already difficult due to their brevity—became many times more difficult for having to suit several timid editors and executives, I finally gave notice that I could not continue unless given freer scope. The scope was refused, so the series ended.

During the period when this feature was applied, the Douglas Edwards News Program became the news outlet with the widest audience in the world—some fourteen or fifteen million viewers a day, an audience no newspaper or magazine or radio or TV program achieved.

There is a complete file of Smith's Sunday Broadcast Commentaries in the collection. An inventory of these scripts has been filed at the end of the Douglas Edwards scripts.

Of the Sunday Commentary scripts, Smith says:

As Vice-President of CBS, Ed Murrow assigned me to assume, after an interval, a Sunday broadcast he had been doing throughout the war. I did the broadcast for eleven years from London and other places abroad, then for four years from Washington and other places in America.

The broadcast was done from a remarkable variety of locations—from most capitals in Europe on both sides of the Iron Curtain, from Mid-Atlantic on board one of the Queen's Liners, from the jungle in Africa, and from the desert in Jordan. The early efforts were a little crude, but I would like to think that they improved as a stride was hit. There were occasional arguments about them with CBS, but not, I think, more arguments than other commentators have had with editors.

However, in America the arguments increased in number and in intensity—especially concerning a broadcast I did on Birmingham at the time of planned violence against so-called Freedom Riders there. My relations never recovered from that argument, and eventually the program was withdrawn from me a week or so before we broke relations. In the year before the break, each Sunday script was go8212;especially concerning a broadcast I did on Birmingham at the time of planned violence against so-called Freedom Riders there. My relations never recovered from that argument, and eventually the program was withdrawn from me a week or so before we broke relations. In the year before the break, each Sunday script was gone over by an editor in212;especially concerning a broadcast I did on Birmingham at the time of planned violence against so-called Freedom Riders there. My relations never recovered from that argument, and eventually the program was withdrawn from me a week or so before we broke relations. In the year before the break, each Sunday script was gone over by an editor in Washington, who then read the script to the Washington Bureau Manager, Mr. Koop, who was told to be free to call the news director, Mr. Day, who was told to keep a Vice-President, Mr. Salant, informed. Then copies of the script had to be sent to Mr. Salant.

There are several observations that ought to be made about the series. The program, in its occasional self-conscious moments, makes them itself. This is probably the longest continuous broadcast series by an individual that has ever been made.

Part 2 of the Smith Papers, concerning his ABC television series News and Comment, include listeners' mail, scripts, interviews, New York office files, clippings, tape recordings, and films.

Listeners' mail for this series has been arranged according to the program to which it pertains and is followed by an analysis of the responses. Scripts are mostly the final on-the-air scripts actually used by Mr. Smith. A small number of the programs had no scripts as such, because they were discussion programs or interviews. There are also scripts in the New York office files.

Interview transcripts are arranged alphabetically by interviewee. Much of the interview material never was used on the air; often, only two or three minutes of an interview was actually broadcast. There are a number of other interviews in the New York office files, arranged according to the program on which they were used. Interview transcripts include: Paul H. Douglas, Samuel J. Ervin Jr., James A. Farley, Gerald R. Ford, Orville E. Freeman, Lillian Gish, Harry Golden, Albert A. Gore Sr., Sheilah Graham, Ernest Gruening, Leonard W. Hall, Philip A. Hart, James R. Hoffa, Hubert H. Humphrey, Jacob K. Javits, C. Estes Kefauver, Joseph E. Levine, John V. Lindsay, Eugene J. McCarthy, Robert S. McNamara, Malcolm X, Mike Mansfield, Clark R. Mollenhoff, Wayne L. Morse, Hans Morgenthau, Edward R. Murrow, Adam Clayton Powell, Walter W. Rostow, Dean Rusk, Hugh D. Scott Jr., Merriman Smith, Theodore C. Sorenson, Cyrus L. Sulzberger, Gloria Swanson, J. Strom Thurmond, and Rexford G. Tugwell, among others.

The New York office files cover only February 14 through October 28, 1962, and are arranged by program. They contain scripts, interviews, research materials, notes, and memoranda. These files are followed by papers concerning the original suggestion for the series, an award, early Nielsen ratings, and publicity.

Clippings for News and Comment are divided into two sections: those pertaining to the whole series, excluding the November 11, 1962 program, “The Political Obituary of Richard Nixon;” and those pertaining to the Nixon program.

Howard K. Smith Papers in Special Collections and University Archives, University Libraries, University of Maryland. (Collection 0568-MM)

Acquisition Information

Presented by Howard K. Smith, Washington, D.C., December 29, 1962 and December 31, 1964.

Processing Information

Processed by Janice O'Connell, 1966.

U.S. Mss 56AF	Part 1 (U.S. Mss 56AF): Original Collection, 1941-1961 Physical Description: 8.8 cubic feet (22 archives boxes)
	Series: Correspondence
Box   1	1944 February 29-1948 November
Box   1	1957 August 30-December 31
Box   2-9	1958 January 1-1961 November 25
	Series: Cables and dispatches	⇧
Box   10	To the London Daily Herald, 1942
Box   10	To Time and Life, 1942-1944
	Subseries: Scripts	⇧
	Radio
Box   10	1941-1945 March 10
Box   11	1945 March 11-June 26
	Analysis scripts for Douglas Edwards and the News
Box   11	1957 September 30-1959 May 29
Box   12	1959 June 2-1961 July 19
Box   13-22	Sunday News Analysis scripts, 1945 October 24-1961 October 8
U.S. Mss 56AF	Part 2 (U.S. Mss 56AF, Audio 422A, PH 6618, DC 648-DC698): Additions, 1962-1963 Physical Description: 12.8 cubic feet (32 archives boxes), 60 audio recordings (1/4-inch reel), 2 audio recordings (disc), 2 photographs (1 folder), and 51 reels of film (16 mm)  Scope and Content Note: Regarding News and Comment.	⇧
	Listeners' mail
Box   23-35	Shows of (except 1962 November 11), 1962 February 14-1963 June 16
Box   36-42	Show of, 1962 November 11
Box   43	Evaluations of listeners' mail
	Scripts
Box   43	1962 February 14-December 30
Box   44	1963 January 6-June 16
	Interviews
Box   44	Agree-Campbell
Box   45-46	Caplin-Randolph
Box   47	Rankin-Zagaria
Box   47	Interview with Jerry Voorhis, used on 1962 November 11
	New York office files
Box   48-50	1962 February 14-October 14
Box   51	1962 October 21-28
Box   51	Plans for News and Comment series
Box   51	Paul White Memorial Award Citation
Box   51	News and Comment Nielsen ratings
Box   51	Publicity
	Clippings
Box   51	General
Box   52-54	1962 November 11
	Tape recordings of News and Comment programs
Audio   422A/1	Urban Affairs, 1962 February 21
Audio   422A/2	Sino-Soviet Relations, 1962 March 7
Audio   422A/3	A "Do-Nothing" Congress or a "Don't Push" President, 1962 March 21
Audio   422A/4	A Shake-up of the House of Un-Representatives (reapportionment), 1962 March 28
Audio   422A/5	What Has Baseball Got that the Others Haven't, 1962 April 11
Audio   422A/6	Does Congress Represent Public Opinion, 1962 April 18
Audio   422A/7	Is the Western Alliance Falling Apart, 1962 April 25
Audio   422A/8	Is the Kennedy Administration Spending Enough, 1962 May 2
Audio   422A/9	The Integrated City (D.C.), 1962 May 9
Audio   422A/10	The Short, Hectic Life on TV 1962 May 16
Audio   422A/11	Guerilla Warfare: The Challenge in Southeast Asia, 1962 May 23
Audio   422A/12	Billie Sol Estes and Mao-Tse-Tung (America's farm problem), 1962 May 30
Audio   422A/13	Kennedy and the Capitalist Conflict, 1962 June 6
Audio   422A/14	Is Congress Out of Date, 1962 June 13
Audio   422A/15	Rusk in Europe: The Challenge of U.S. Leadership, 1962 June 20
Audio   422A/16	Franco and the Thirty Years' War in Spain, 1962 June 27
Audio   422A/17	From Concord to the Congo: America's Continuing Revolution, 1962 July 4
Audio   422A/18	The Cold War (½ of network), 1962 July 11
Audio   422A/18a	The Telstar Story (½ of network), 1962 July 11
Audio   422A/19	America the Lazy, 1962 July 18
Audio   422A/20	Kennedy and His Critics, 1962 July 25
Audio   422A/21	The Tax Battle, 1962 August 1
Audio   422A/22	Visit the U.S.A., 1962 August 8
Audio   422A/23	Is the Alliance for Progress Progressing, 1962 August 15
Audio   422A/24	Is the FDA Protecting America, 1962 August 22
Audio   422A/25	Robert Kennedy (interview), 1962 September 5
Audio   422A/26	Admiral Rickover (interview), 1962 September 12
Audio   422A/27	What Should We Do About Cuba, 1962 September 30
Audio   422A/28	Why Race Hate, 1962 October 7
Audio   422A/29	The High Cost of Campaigning, 1962 October 14
Audio   422A/30	The American Car: Necessity or Luxury, 1962 October 21
Audio   422A/31	Foreign Policy of JFK, 1962 October 28
Audio   422A/32	Crucial Election for Kennedy, 1962 November 4
Audio   422A/33	Political Obituary of Richard M. Nixon, 1962 November 11
Audio   422A/34	American Fighting Men, 1962 November 18
Audio   422A/35	New Frontier of Charles DeGaulle, 1962 November 25
Audio   422A/36	Russian-Chinese Split, 1962 December 2
Audio   422A/37	Should Government Subsidize the Arts, 1962 December 9
Audio   422A/38	Murrow-Kaltenborn-Swing-Pt. I, 1962 December 16
Audio   422A/39	Murrow-Kaltenborn-Swing-Pt. II, 1962 December 23
Audio   422A/40	Kennedy and the Congressional Rules Fight, 1963 January 6
Audio   422A/41	Senator Tower (interview), 1963 January 13
Audio   422A/42	Life on the New Frontier, 1963 January 20
Audio   422A/43	Continuing Crisis in Cuba, 1963 February 3
Audio   422A/44	What Is Really Wrong with the American Economy (poverty), 1963 February 17
Audio   422A/45	Crime Marches On, 1963 February 24
Audio   422A/46	Managed News, 1963 March 10
Audio   422A/47	The Irish in America, 1963 March 17
Audio   422A/48	Mort Sahl (interview), 1963 March 24
Audio   422A/49	Hollywood Pt. I, 1963 March 31
Audio   422A/50	Hollywood Pt. II, 1963 April 7
Audio   422A/51	The World and Mr. Passman (foreign aid), 1963 April 14
Audio   422A/52	Illinois Birth Control Controversy, 1963 April 21
Audio   422A/53	Ethics of Congress, 1963 April 28
Audio   422A/54	Foreign Students View the U.S., 1963 May 5
Audio   422A/55	The Art of the Cartoon, 1963 May 12
Audio   422A/56	Unemployment, U.S.A. 1963 June 2
Audio   422A/57	Food for Peace, 1963 June 9
Audio   422A/58	JFK and the Presidency, 1963 June 16
Audio   422A/59	Pre-program, undated
Audio   422A/60-61	[unlabeled] Physical Description: Audio on “flexi disc.”
PH 6618	Photographs
Folder   1   Item   1	Howard K. Smith, Arlene Francis and others during a television broadcast in support of Radio Free Europe 1960
Folder   1   Item   2	Howard K. Smith
	Films
DC 648	The World Argument With the Communists Scope and Content Note ABC News Director: Jack Sameth Producer: William Weston (February 14, 1962-April 11, 1962) Producer: Bill Kobin (April 18, 1962-June 1963)
DC 698	The Cold War, 1962 February 21
DC 649	Russian-Chinese Split in Communism, 1962 March 7
DC 650	Why Disarmament Talks Don't Succeed, 1962 March 14
DC 651	Do-Nothing Congress or a Don't Push Presidency?, 1962 March 21
DC 652	A Shake-Up of the House of Representatives, 1962 March 28
DC 653	Is the UN Worth the Money?, 1962 April 4
DC 654	What Has Baseball Got That the Others Haven't?, 1962 April 11
DC 655	Does the Congress Represent Public Opinion?, 1962 April 18
DC 656	Is the Western Alliance Falling Apart?, 1962 April 25
DC 657	Is the Kennedy Administration Spending Enough?, 1962 May 1
DC 658	The Integrated City, 1962 May 9
DC 659	The Short, Hectic Life of Television 1962 May 16
DC 660	Guerilla Warfare: The Challenge of Southeast Asia, 1962 May 23
DC 661	Kennedy and the Capitalistic Conflict, 1962 June 6
DC 662	Is Congress Out Of Date?, 1962 June 13
DC 663	Rusk In Europe: The Challenge of US Leadership, 1962 June 20
DC 664	Franco and the Thirty Years War in Spain, 1962 June 27
DC 665	From Concord to the Congo: America's Continuing Revolution, 1962 July 4
DC 666	The Telstar Story, 1962 July 11
DC 667	America the Lazy, 1962 July 18
DC 668	Kennedy and His Critics, 1962 July 25
DC 669	The Tax Battle, 1962 August 1
DC 670	Visit the USA, 1962 August 8
DC 671	Is the Alliance for Progress Progressing?, 1962 August 15
DC 672	Is the FDA Protecting America?, 1962 August 22
DC 673	Is America Ugly?, 1962 August 29
DC 674	Is Kennedy a Weak President?, 1962 September 23
DC 675	What Should We Do About Cuba?, 1962 September 30
DC 676	Why Race Hate?, 1962 October 7
DC 677	High Cost of Campaigning, 1962 October 14
DC 678	The American Car: Necessity or Luxury?, 1962 October 21
DC 679	The Political Obituary of Richard M. Nixon, 1962 November 11
DC 680	American Fighting Man, 1962 November 18
DC 681	New Frontier of Charles De Gaulle, 1962 November 25
DC 682	Russian-Chinese Split, 1962 December 2
DC 683	Should Government Subsidize the Arts?, 1962 December 9
DC 684	Senator John Tower (Interview), 1963 January 13
DC 685	Life on the New Frontier, 1963 January 20
DC 686	Is Labor Abusing the Right to Strike?, 1963 January 27
DC 687	Continuing Crisis in Cuba, 1963 February 3
DC 688	Should America Leave NATO?, 1963 February 10
DC 689	Is Congress Moving Fast Enough?, 1963 March 3
DC 690	Managed News, 1963 March 10
DC 691	Mort Sahl (Interview), 1963 March 24
DC 692	The World and Mr. Passman, 1963 April 14
DC 693	Illinois Birth Control Controversy, 1963 April 21
DC 694	Ethics of Congress, 1963 April 28
DC 695	The Art of the Cartoon, 1963 May 12
DC 696	Unemployment USA, 1963 June 2
DC 697	Food For Peace, 1963 June 9