Joseph Kraft

Kraft began his career in journalism at the age of 14 where he worked as a stringer covering high school sports for the New York World-Telegram. Kraft worked for the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Syndicate after July 1980 where he covered foreign affairs and national security.{{cite web|title=Columnist Joseph Kraft, 61 - Chicago Tribune|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1986/01/11/columnist-joseph-kraft-61-2/|website=Chicago Tribune|date=11 January 1986 |access-date=4 May 2013}} After working at The Washington Post and The New York Times in the 1950s, he became a speechwriter for 1960 Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy. His work landed him on the master list of Nixon political opponents. He served as one of three panelists for the third and final debate, held at Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall at the College of William & Mary, in the 1976 presidential election. Kraft was viewed as one of America's foremost analysts of domestic and international affairs.{{cite web|last=Shaw|first=Gaylord|title=Political Analyst Joseph Kraft Dies at 61|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-01-11-mn-26762-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times|date=11 January 1986 |access-date=4 May 2013}} His syndicated column ran in over 200 papers.

Kraft was a graduate of Columbia University. He also attended the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and the Sorbonne.

Kraft died on January 10, 1986, by heart failure at the age of 61.{{Cite news|date=1986-01-12|title=JOSEPH KRAFT, THE JOURNALIST, DIES; CAPITAL COLUMNS WIDELY PRINTED|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/12/obituaries/joseph-kraft-the-journalist-dies-capital-columns-widely-printed.html|access-date=2022-01-18|issn=0362-4331}} His brother, Gilman Kraft, was a publisher who was the owner of Playbill.{{Cite news|date=1999-07-05|title=Gilman Kraft, 73, Performing Arts Publisher|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/05/arts/gilman-kraft-73-performing-arts-publisher.html|access-date=2022-01-18|issn=0362-4331}}

Kraft was the author of four books:

• The Struggle for Algeria (1961)
• The Grand Design (1962)
• Profiles in Power (1966)
• The Chinese Difference (1973)

He also wrote an extraordinary journalistic account of the explosion of Mexico's debt crisis in 1982:

• [http://group30.org/images/uploads/publications/G30_MexicanRescue.pdf The Mexican Rescue] (1984)

{{reflist}}

• McFadden, Robert D. (January 11, 1986). Joseph Kraft, Capital Columnist Whose Work Ran in 200 Papers. The New York Times
• Rosenblatt, Roger (Jan. 27, 1986). The Death of a Columnist. Time magazine
• Staff report (February 3, 1986). Joseph Kraft, 1924–1986. (obituary). The New Republic

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Category:1924 births

Category:1986 deaths

Category:American male journalists

Category:Journalists from New York City

Category:Columbia College (New York) alumni

Category:Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni

Category:20th-century American writers

Category:20th-century American journalists

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:American expatriates in France

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