Charles J. Hanley

Hanley graduated from St. Bonaventure University in 1968 with a journalism degree. In 1969–1970, he served as a U.S. Army journalist, including in wartime Vietnam.{{cite news |last1=Kellogg |first1=Kathy |last2=Webster |first2=Terry |url=https://buffalonews.com/2000/04/13/st-bonaventure-boasts-fifth-pulitzer-prize-winner/ |title=St. Bonaventure Boasts Fifth Pulitzer Prize Winner |work=Buffalo News |date=April 13, 2000 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.25thaviation.org/id844.htm#august_70 |title=Army Reporter Articles 2 |work=25th Aviation Battalion |date=August 3, 1970 |quote=Editorial Staff ... Spec. 4 Charles Hanley }}

Hanley joined the AP's Albany, New York bureau in 1968, returning there in 1971 after military service.{{cite journal |title=New AP Employes |journal=AP World |year=1968 |volume=XXIV |issue=4 |page=38 |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=APOA&u=acd_apoa&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CBUJJPC984342198&asid=1596600000000~b84c0bd6 }}{{cite journal |title=New AP Employes |journal=AP World |date=Spring 1971 |page=61 |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=APOA&u=acd_apoa&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CGOLZSU847962908&asid=1596600000000~26fe9632 }} In 1976, he transferred to the AP's international news desk in New York{{cite journal |title=New Posts |journal=AP World |year=1976 |volume=33 |issue=2 |page=29 |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=APOA&u=acd_apoa&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CBTLCJV570788127&asid=1596600000000~3ac967ba }} where he eventually became a roving international correspondent, reporting on subjects ranging from wars{{cite news |last=Hanley |first=Charles J. |url=https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/U-S-Troops-Religion-a-Fiery-Mix-in-Iraq-7119830.php |title=U.S. Troops, Religion a Fiery Mix in Iraq |work=Midland (Michigan) Daily News |date=April 30, 2003 |access-date=May 25, 2020 }} and summit conferences{{cite news |last=Hanley |first=Charles J. |url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/analysis-obama-climate-accord-is-thin-toothless-but-may-prove-small-step-on-long-road-1.466250 |title=Analysis: Obama climate 'accord' is thin, toothless, but may prove small step on long road |work=CTV News |date=December 19, 2009 }} to climate change in the Arctic.{{cite news |last=Hanley |first=Charles J. |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/JustOneThing/story?id=8457650 |title=Climate trouble may be bubbling up in far north |work=ABC News |date=August 31, 2009 }} In 1987–1992, he served as AP assistant and deputy managing editor.{{cite news |title=Charles J. Hanley Named AP's Assistant Managing Editor |work=The Associated Press |location=New York |date=October 20, 1987 }}{{cite journal |title=New Posts: Charles J. Hanley to deputy managing editor |journal=The AP World |year=1988 |pages=12–13 |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/WdBM4 }}{{cite journal |title=New Posts |journal=AP World |year=1992 |page=14 |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=APOA&u=acd_apoa&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CCSOKFA096781460&asid=1596600000000~4607702e }}

In 1998, Hanley and reporters Choe Sang-hun and Martha Mendoza, assisted by researcher Randy Herschaft, confirmed that the U.S. military massacred South Korean refugees – an estimated 250-300, the South Korean government later concluded – near No Gun Ri, South Korea, in late July 1950. The AP team had located a dozen U.S. Army veterans, witnesses, who corroborated the account of Korean survivors. The reporters also uncovered declassified archival U.S. military documents ordering the shooting of civilians, out of fear of enemy infiltrators.{{cite news |last1=Choe |first1=Sang-hun |last2=Hanley |first2=Charles J. |last3=Mendoza |first3=Martha |url=https://nogunri.rit.albany.edu/APpackage2/nogunri/index.html |title=War's hidden chapter: Ex-GIs tell of killing Korean refugees |work=The Associated Press |date=September 29, 1999 |access-date=May 15, 2020 }}

The story was not published until September 1999, after a year-long struggle with an AP leadership reluctant to run such an explosive report.{{cite book | last1 = Port | first1 = J. Robert | title = Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press | chapter = The Story No One Wanted to Hear | editor = Kristina Borjesson | publisher = Prometheus Books | year = 2002 | location = Amherst, New York | pages = [https://archive.org/details/intobuzzsawleadi00br/page/201 201–13] | isbn = 978-1-57392-972-1 | chapter-url-access = registration | chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/intobuzzsawleadi00br | url = https://archive.org/details/intobuzzsawleadi00br/page/201 }} The AP team subsequently won 11 major journalism awards, including the Pulitzer{{cite web |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/sang-hun-choe-charles-j-hanley-and-martha-mendoza |title=The Pulitzer Prizes |date=2000 }} and a Polk Award.{{cite web |url=https://liu.edu/george-polk-awards/past-winners#2000 |title=Past Polk Winners/Long Island University |access-date=May 24, 2020 }}

In the years after the 9/11 terror attacks, Hanley reported extensively on the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Before the 2003 U.S. invasion, he reported from Iraq on the lack of evidence of weapons of mass destruction in that country, discrediting official U.S. claims.{{cite news |last=Hanley |first=Charles J. |url=https://apnews.com/d72cb596688193b82dde1b259428d8af |title=No vioations at Iraqi sites of concern |work=The Associated Press |location=Baghdad, Iraq |date=January 19, 2003 }}{{cite web |url=https://fair.org/extra/wrong-on-iraq-not-everyone/ |title=Wrong on Iraq? Not Everyone |last=Rendall |first=Steve |work=Extra! |publisher=Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting |date=April 1, 2006 }} He was the first journalist to report on the prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib and other U.S. prisons in Iraq, months before photos emerging from Abu Ghraib drew international attention to the story.{{cite web |url=http://legacy.utsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20031101-0936-iraq-thecamps.html |title=AP Enterprise: Former Iraqi detainees tell of riots, punishment in the sun, good Americans and pitiless ones |last1=Hanley |first1=Charles J. |date=November 1, 2003 |website=utsandiego.com |publisher=San Diego Union Tribune |access-date=April 22, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140503221406/http://legacy.utsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20031101-0936-iraq-thecamps.html |archive-date=May 3, 2014 }}{{cite news |last=Hanley |first=Charles J. |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1893&dat=20040509&id=Bn1FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1531,1346886 |title=Early accounts of extensive Iraq abuse met U.S. silence |work=The Southeast Missourian |date=May 9, 2004 |access-date=July 30, 2020 }}{{cite news |url=https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/aps-hanley-reported-on-iraqi-prisoner-abuse-last-fall,107627? |title=AP's Hanley Reported on Iraqi Prisoner Abuse Last Fall |work=Editor & Publisher |date=May 10, 2004 }}{{cite book |last1=Mitchell |first1=Greg |title=So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits – and the President – Failed on Iraq |location=New York City |publisher=Union Square Press |year=2008 |pages=74–77 |isbn=978-1402774508 |quote=Charley Hanley at The Associated Press had actually `broken’ the Abu Ghraib story months before it came out via The New Yorker and other outlets. }}

In addition to the honors for the No Gun Ri reporting, Hanley’s other journalism won awards from the Overseas Press Club, the Associated Press Managing Editors association, Brown University’s Feinstein media awards program, the Korn Ferry awards for reporting on the United Nations, and the Society of Environmental Journalists.{{cite web |url=https://www.sbu.edu/SBUCustom/InsideBonas/IB_Aug23/Aug23_Page_2.htm#Bookmarkseven |title=SBU grad and Pulitzer winner to speak on 9/11 about AP coverage of war |work=Inside Bona's |publisher=St. Bonaventure University |date=August 23, 2007 }}{{cite web |url=https://www.sej.org/initiatives/winners-sej-9th-annual-awards |title=Winners: SEJ 9th Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment |date=August 5, 2010 |publisher=Society of Environmental Journalists |access-date=May 14, 2020 }}

In 2001, Henry Holt and Company published The Bridge at No Gun Ri, a narrative recounting of the 1950 massacre and events before and after, written by Hanley with the reporting assistance of his AP partners.{{cite magazine | title = The Bridge at No Gun Ri: A Hidden Nightmare from the Korean War | magazine = The New Yorker | date = October 29, 2001 | url = http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2001/10/29/011029crbn_brieflynoted3 | access-date = September 12, 2012}}

In August 2020, PublicAffairs, an imprint of Perseus Books Group, published Hanley's Ghost Flames: Life and Death in a Hidden War, Korea 1950–1953, a narrative history of the entire Korean War, told through the experiences of 20 individuals who lived through it, civilians and soldiers of several nationalities involved. An underlying theme is the little-known "dark underside" of wartime atrocities.{{cite web |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/charles-j-hanley/ghost-flames/ |title=A top-notch addition to the literature on the Korean War. |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=March 15, 2020 }}{{cite journal |title=Ghost Flames |journal=Publishers Weekly |date=May 15, 2020 |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-5417-6817-8 |quote="An essential account of America’s 'forgotten war'."}}{{cite journal |title=Ghost Flames |journal=Library Journal |date=May 2020 |url=https://www.libraryjournal.com/?reviewDetail=ghost-flames-life-and-death-in-a-hidden-war-korea-19501953 |quote="An extraordinary kaleidoscope of human experiences in a catastrophic forgotten war." }}

Earlier in his career, Hanley co-authored World War II: A 50th Anniversary History (Henry Holt); 20th Century America (Grolier Educational), and FLASH! The Associated Press Covers the World (Abrams).

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last1=Hanley |first1=Charles J. |title=Truth and Reconciliation in South Korea: Between the Present and Future of the Korean Wars |chapter=No Gun Ri: Official Narrative and Inconvenient Truths |editor-last=Suh |editor-first=Jae-Jung |location=London and New York |publisher=Routledge |year=2012 |pages=68–94 |isbn=978-0415622417 }}
• {{cite journal |title=No Gun Ri: Official Narrative and Inconvenient Truths |journal=Critical Asian Studies |year=2010 |last=Hanley |first=Charles J. |volume=42 |pages=589–622 |doi=10.1080/14672715.2010.515389 |s2cid=146914282 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14672715.2010.515389 |access-date=August 19, 2020 }}
• {{cite journal |title=In the Face of American Amnesia, the Grim Truths of No Gun Ri Find a Home |journal=The Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Focus |date=March 9, 2015 |last=Hanley |first=Charles J. |volume=13 |issue=10 |url=https://apjjf.org/2015/13/9/Charles-J.-Hanley/4294.html |access-date=August 19, 2020 }}
• {{cite journal |title=The Bridge at No Gun Ri: Investigative Reporting, Hidden History and Pulitzer Prize |journal=The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics |date=Fall 2000 |last1=Hanley |first1=Charles J. |last2=Mendoza |first2=Martha |authorlink2=Martha Mendoza |volume=5 |issue=4 |doi=10.1177/1081180X00005004008 |s2cid=143599683 |issn=1081-180X }}
• {{cite news |last=Hanley |first=Charles J. |url=https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2005/09/03/piecing-together-the-tale-of-wmds-not-found/ |title=Piecing together the tale of WMDs not found |work=The East Bay Times |location=Walnut Creek, California |publisher=Bay Area News Group |date=September 3, 2005 |access-date=August 19, 2020 }}

• [http://www.c-span.org/video/?166484-1/book-discussion-bridge-gun-ri C-SPAN book discussion, The Bridge at No Gun Ri], Berkeley, CA, September 10, 2001.
• [http://www.c-span.org/video/?182961-1/debate-gun-ri "What Really Happened at No Gun Ri?"], a Pritzker Military Library discussion, broadcast on C-SPAN, July 20, 2004.
• [https://www.c-span.org/video/?473128-4/washington-journal "Charles Hanley on Korean War 70th Anniversary"], American History TV, C-SPAN, June 21, 2020.
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KzYL6e3sV0 Bill Moyers Journal: Buying the War], April 25, 2007, examination of American journalism in the lead-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion.

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Category:Associated Press reporters

Category:Living people

Category:1947 births

Category:Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting winners