Robert Goralski Papers, 1950-1986

Container Title
Part 1 (U.S. Mss 85AF; PH U.S. Mss 85AF; PH 3238; Audio 433A): Original Collection, 1953-1975
Physical Description: 5.6 cubic feet (14 archives boxes), 0.3 cubic feet of photographs (1 archives box and 1 folder) and 1 tape recording 
Scope and Content Note

The Goralski Papers, which relate solely to his broadcasting career, divide into correspondence, writings, scripts, and miscellaneous material. Radio and television scripts written for NBC between 1961 and 1975 comprise the major portion of the collection.

The small section of CORRESPONDENCE spans the period 1953 to 1970. It is divided into NBC, Committee for Free Asia, and general sections. The NBC correspondence is comprised of letters and memoranda concerning internal network policy and several off-the-record interviews. The letters and memoranda relating to the Committee for Free Asia document the implementation of Goralski's proposal for a cultural exchange via radio. The slim general correspondence file includes exchanges with the University of Nebraska and Journalism Quarterly regarding the publication of two articles. Also to be found here is a reply to several students who criticized Goralski's coverage of Madame Nhu's lecture at Fordham University in October, 1963.

The WRITINGS, 1953-1968, include speeches, articles, and an unpublished book manuscript and generally reflect Goralski's expertise in Asian affairs. Thematically, the materials written between 1953 and 1961 concern Far Eastern radio broadcasting. Also included with the writings are graduate school papers written at Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies in 1960 and 1961. One of these papers is a lengthy manuscript which examines relations between Asia and Israel. Goralski's writings while at NBC include an unpublished manuscript detailing the logistics of weekend news coverage for President Kennedy, an article published by TV Guide concerning President Johnson's poise before television cameras, three articles on Viet Nam written for the 1966-1968 Encyclopedia Brittanica Yearbooks, and an outline and two chapters for an incomplete book on Viet Nam.

The SCRIPTS, 1959-1975, were written for NBC, the Voice of America, and the U.S. Navy and are subdivided into radio and television productions; individual series are arranged alphabetically by title. Within each series the scripts are arranged chronologically.

Profiles of various American universities, news analyses, and a series based on a world tensions conference can be found in the two folders of VOA radio scripts. There is also one script written by Goralski as a Navy combat correspondent which was aired over Time for Defense, a commercially broadcast Defense Department program.

The NBC radio scripts, 1961-1975, are the heart of the collection. News on the Hour, the five minute program broadcast many times each day, was Goralski's most frequent assignment, and his scripts for this program are the most extensive group of reports in the collection. Most of Goralski's accounts of the Viet Nam war which were written during his trips in 1965 and 1968 are filed in this section. News scripts for Monitor, NBC's weekend programming, document another important Goralski responsibility. There are also scripts pertaining to his stints as host of Today in Washington and World News Roundup, NBC's early morning report. The single Brinkley report folder contains the text of radio programs in which Goralski substituted for David Brinkley between 1968 and 1975.

Programs such as Weekend Report, News in Depth, World of Washington, The War Today, and News of the World, the program for which Morgan Beatty was editor and principal commentator, represented infrequent assignments; consequently only a few scripts from these programs are to be found in the collection. Three short scripts concerning Green Beret war crimes, Defense Secretary Melvin Laird's first news conference, and the 1968 Tet offensive comprise the Radio Hotline material. Goralski's personal observations are recorded in the scripts from Emphasis, a program designed to dispense with some strictures of conventional reporting. Also represented is his participation in two segments of Second Sunday, the award-winning documentary series. A diversity of topics ranging from Algeria to Viet Nam is contained in the folder of special reports. The miscellaneous radio scripts file contains items for which the program format could not be identified.

Many of the events touched on in the radio scripts may also be found with television scripts. The majority of these pertain to the Huntley-Brinkley Report, its successor Nightly News, and Today. There are also scripts from the Day Report and Afternoon Report, which Goralski occasionally anchored between 1962 and 1965, and Morning Report. Also available are the five-minute news updates broadcast at various times during the day. The material from Saturday Report, Sunday Report, Congressional Report, Washington Report, Eleventh Hour News, Frank McGee's Saturday and Sunday Reports, and Situation Reports represents only sporadic contributions, as do the infrequent syndicated reports. The collection contains two transcripts from Meet the Press programs on which Goralski was a panel member. Within the Huntley-Brinkley material, are some scripts entitled “Viet Nam, 1968,” which are of interest because of the notations on production, background, and editorial concerns. In correspondence with the Society, Goralski commented that although they were primarily prepared for Huntley-Brinkley, some were also broadcast on Today.

The Goralski papers include scripts from many special television news programs that he worked on during his years with NBC. Of primary interest is an NBC White Paper program, “United States Foreign Policy,” a report on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee inquiry into Communist China. A folder of assorted special reports includes scripts on such significant events as James Meredith's enrollment at the University of Mississippi in 1962, various national elections, Robert Kennedy's assassination, and Watergate. Only two television interrupts, one concerning President Nixon's final report on Cambodia and the other announcing Senate ratification of the Cooper-Church amendment, are available in the collection. The last folder of the television news reports contains unidentified television scripts. There is also one folder of scripts for which the media could not be identified.

The MISCELLANEOUS MATERIAL, 1971-1973, consists chiefly of reference material collected by Goralski during the course of his association with NBC. This material consists of such things as cables, press releases, network instructions, and various kinds of printed matter pertaining to subjects such as the 1967 Middle East war, the Pentagon Peace March, Lynda Johnson's White House wedding, the Eisenhower funeral, and the Pueblo affair. The majority of this section, however, consists of Radio-TV Defense Dialogs, which are summaries of media reports on military subjects prepared by the Department of Defense. Although many newscasters are covered, the collection only contains those dates on which Goralski was mentioned.

The PHOTOGRAPHS relate to the Korean and Vietnam wars, defense charts, and the United States space program.

The collection is supplemented by one TAPE, a Polish Voice of America broadcast, which includes biographical information and a discussion of the profession of journalism and freedom of the press in the United States.

U.S. Mss 85AF
Series: Correspondence
Box   1
Folder   1-3
NBC Memoranda and Interdepartmental Correspondence, 1960-1970
Committee for Free Asia Correspondence
Box   2
Folder   1
1953, February-August
Box   2
Folder   2
1953, September-1954, March
Box   2
Folder   3
General, 1959, December-1960, September
Series: Writings
Box   2
Folder   4
1953-1960
Box   2
Folder   5
1961, February
Box   2
Folder   6-7
1961-1968
Series: Scripts
Box   2
Folder   8
U.S. Navy, Time for Defense, 1952
Voice of America
Box   2
Folder   9
1959, March-December
Box   2
Folder   10
1960, January-June
NBC Radio
Box   3
Folder   1
David Brinkley's Comment on the News, 1968-1975
Box   3
Folder   2
Emphasis , 1961-1975
Box   3
Folder   3
Miscellaneous Radio Scripts, 1964-1975
Box   3
Folder   4-10
Monitor, 1961-1972
Box   3
Folder   11
News in Depth, 1962
Box   3
Folder   12
News of the World, 1962-1969
News on the Hour
Box   4
Folder   1-9
1962, May-1965, November
Box   5
Folder   1-9
1966-1969, April
Box   6
Folder   1-8
1969, May-1970, July
Box   7
Folder   1-8
1970, August-1972, March
Box   8
Folder   1-3
1972, April-September; 1974, April 16
Box   8
Folder   4
Radio Hotline,1968-1969
Box   8
Folder   5
Second Sunday, undated
Box   8
Folder   6
Special Reports, 1961-1971
Box   8
Folder   7-10
Today in Washington, 1961-1969
Box   8
Folder   11
The War Today, 1968
Box   8
Folder   12
Weekend Report, 1961-1968
World News Roundup
Box   8
Folder   13-14
1961-1963
Box   9
Folder   1-2
1964-1972
Box   9
Folder   3
World of Washington, 1970
NBC Television
Box   9
Folder   4
Afternoon Report, 1962-1969
Box   9
Folder   5
Congressional Report, 1969
Box   9
Folder   6
Day Report, 1963; 1967
Box   9
Folder   7
Eleventh Hour News, (WNBC), 1962-1972
Box   9
Folder   8
Frank McGee's Saturday/Sunday Reports, 1967-1968
Box   9
Folder   9-10
Huntley-Brinkley Report, 1963-1970
Box   9
Folder   11
Interrupts, 1970
Box   9
Folder   12
Meet the Press, 1967; 1969
Box   10
Folder   1
Miscellaneous TV Scripts, 1963-1975
Box   10
Folder   2
Morning Report, 1968; 1970
Box   10
Folder   3-6
Nightly News, 1970-1975
Box   10
Folder   7
Saturday Report, 1962-1970
Box   10
Folder   8
Situation Reports, 1962-1970
Special Reports
Box   10
Folder   9
1962-1965
Box   10
Folder   10
1966-1975
Box   11
Folder   1
NBC White Paper, “United States Foreign Policy,” 1965, September 7
Box   11
Folder   2
Projection '70, 1969
Sunday Report
Box   11
Folder   3
“The Personal Story of David Fellin,” 1963, September 1
Box   11
Folder   4
1965
Box   11
Folder   5
Syndication, 1963-1974
Box   11
Folder   6-8
Today, 1962-1975
Box   11
Folder   9
Washington Report, 1967-1969
Box   11
Folder   10
Miscellaneous Scripts, 1952-1968
Series: Miscellaneous Material
Background Information
Box   11
Folder   11
Middle East War, 1967
Box   11
Folder   12
Pentagon Peace March, 1967
Box   11
Folder   13
Miscellany, 1961-1973
Radio-TV Defense Dialogs
Box   12
Folder   1-7
1966, March-1968, July
Box   13
Folder   1-3
1968, November-1969, April
Box   14
Folder   1-4
1969, May-1970, March
Series: Photographs
PH U.S. Mss 85AF
Box   1
Folder   1
United States Prisoners of War (POW) in Vietnam
Box   1
Folder   2
U.S.S. Evans
Box   1
Folder   3
U.S.S. Scorpion, 1968 May
Box   1
Folder   4
Defense charts
PH 3238
Korean and Vietnam wars and the United States space program, 1950-1967
Series: Audio Recording
Audio 433A/1
Polish Voice of America Interview, undated