Robert Smith (journalist, born 1940)

Smith grew up in Boston.{{Cite web |last=Quach |first=Jack |date=2021-09-08 |title=Sunset Author Publishes Book About His Work as a New York Times Correspondent |url=https://sfrichmondreview.com/2021/09/08/sunset-author-publishes-book-about-his-work-as-a-new-york-times-correspondent/ |access-date=2022-04-15 |website=Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon |language=en}} He earned a BA at Harvard College, and was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Tübingen, Germany.{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Robert M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KdEZEAAAQBAJ&dq=robert+m+smith+fulbright+scholar+at+tubingen&pg=PA17 |title=Suppressed: Confessions of a Former New York Times Washington Correspondent |date=2021-05-14 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4930-5772-6 |pages=17 |language=en}} He graduated from Columbia University{{Cite web |date=20 February 2021 |title=Suppressed: Confessions of a New York Times Washington Correspondent |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/robert-m-smith/suppressed-smith/ |access-date=15 April 2022 |website=Kirkus Reviews}} with an MA in International Affairs and an MS in Journalism.{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Robert M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KdEZEAAAQBAJ&q=Columbia |title=Suppressed: Confessions of a Former New York Times Washington Correspondent |date=2021-05-14 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4930-5772-6 |pages=142, 163 |language=english}} He served as a First Lieutenant and Infantry platoon leader in the US Army Reserve from 1965 through 1971.{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Robert M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KdEZEAAAQBAJ&q=Infantry+Platoon |title=Suppressed: Confessions of a Former New York Times Washington Correspondent |date=2021-05-14 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4930-5772-6 |pages=63 |language=English}} In 1972, Smith left the Times to attend Yale Law School.

File:Robert M. Smith Press Badge.jpg

Smith began his full-time journalism career in 1965 as a correspondent for Time magazine.{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Robert M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KdEZEAAAQBAJ&q=Time+magazine |title=Suppressed: Confessions of a Former New York Times Washington Correspondent |date=2021-05-14 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4930-5772-6 |pages=24 |language=English}} He became a rewrite man at The New York Times before becoming a correspondent in the Washington Bureau.{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Robert M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KdEZEAAAQBAJ&q=Rewrite |title=Suppressed: Confessions of a Former New York Times Washington Correspondent |date=2021-05-14 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4930-5772-6 |pages=43 |language=English}}

While working at the Times, notable events Smith covered, in addition to Watergate, include the My Lai massacre,{{Cite news |last=Times |first=Robert M. Smith Special to The New York |date=1971-03-11 |title=Misconduct by Vietnam G. I.'s Charged |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/11/archives/misconduct-by-vietnam-gis-charged.html |access-date=2022-04-13 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |title=G.I. Says He Saw Vietnam Massacre; G.I. Says He Witnessed a Massacre in South Vietnam Village |work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/11/20/79437240.html |access-date=2022-04-13 |language=en}} the shooting of students at Kent State University,{{Cite news |date=1970-05-11 |title=The View From Kent State: 11 Speak Out |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/05/11/archives/the-view-from-kent-state-11-speak-out-the-view-from-kent-state-a.html |access-date=2022-04-13 |issn=0362-4331}} and the cutting of liaison between the CIA and the FBI.{{Cite news |last=Times |first=Robert M. Smith Special to The New York |date=1971-10-10 |title=F.B.I. Is Said to Have Cut Direct Liaison With C.I.A. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/10/10/archives/fbi-is-said-to-have-cut-direct-liaison-with-cia-hoover-move-in.html |access-date=2022-04-13 |issn=0362-4331}}

Despite the risk of prosecution, Smith signed an affidavit in support of the Times in the Pentagon Papers case in federal court. The affidavit said Smith regularly received classified information from United States government sources.{{Cite book |last=Goodale |first=James C. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/780101624 |title=The New York Times Company v. United States: a documentary history, the Pentagon papers litigation |publisher=Arno Press |year=1971 |location=New York |pages=420 |language=English |oclc=780101624}}

In the Watergate context, on his last day at the Times before leaving for Yale, Smith had lunch with the Acting FBI Director, L. Patrick Gray. Gray disclosed to Smith that John N. Mitchell, the former US Attorney General, was involved in the break-in at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters at the Watergate Office Building. Gray suggested that the White House was also involved.{{Cite book |last=Miraldi |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mcDTAAAAQBAJ |title=Seymour Hersh Scoop Artist |date=2013-10-01 |publisher=Potomac Books Incorporated |isbn=978-1-61234-475-1 |pages=144–145 |language=english}}

Smith gave the story to the News Editor of the Times Washington Bureau, Robert Phelps. Smith recorded his briefing of Phelps and gave Phelps the tape for his use, but the story never appeared. In his memoir, Phelps admitted that he had failed to assign the story to another reporter and said he was unable to explain why he had, in fact, done nothing at all with Smith’s information.

File:Affidavit signed by Robert Smith in the Pentagon Papers Case.jpg

“For a short time, we had our own leak in the FBI, but my dereliction, and long-laid plans by Robert M. Smith, our Justice Department reporter, to attend law school held us back from printing anything,” Phelps wrote in his memoir.{{Cite book |last=Phelps |first=Robert H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vxuxjrefynAC&q=Smith |title=God and the Editor: My Search for Meaning at the New York Times |date=2009-07-08 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=978-0-8156-0914-8 |pages=176–178 |language=English}} “…I should have circulated Smith’s debriefing to all our Watergate reporters. It would have never been lost with all those ears hearing it.”

After leaving the Times, Smith worked as an attorney with Heller, Ehrman, White, & McAuliffe in San Francisco from 1976 to 1978.{{Cite web |title=Robert Smith - Contributing Author {{!}} TDM Journal |url=https://www.transnational-dispute-management.com/about-author-a-z-profile.asp?key=326 |access-date=2022-04-15 |website=www.transnational-dispute-management.com}} He returned to Washington to serve as Special Assistant to Attorney General Benjamin R. Civiletti under President Jimmy Carter.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PZVNAQAAMAAJ&q=Robert+m+smith |title=The Department of State Bulletin |date=1980 |publisher=Office of Public Communication, Bureau of Public Affairs |pages=40 |language=en}} He was Chief Spokesperson for the US Department of Justice.{{Cite news |title=New Chief Spokesman Named at Justice Dept. | work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1979/11/03/111114119.html?pdf_redirect=true&site=false |access-date=2022-04-13 |language=en}}

Smith was a member of the US Delegation to the International Court of Justice in The Hague in US vs. Iran, the case in which the United States sought to obtain the release of American hostages seized by Iran. Smith was given the responsibility of rewriting the final version of the brief the United States presented to the World Court.{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Robert M. |title=Suppressed: Confessions of a Former New York Times Washington Correspondent |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2021 |isbn=9781493057726 |pages=198–205 |language=English}}

After his service in the Carter Administration, Smith returned to San Francisco, where he managed overseas litigation for the Bank of America{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Robert M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KdEZEAAAQBAJ&q=Bank+of+America |title=Suppressed: Confessions of a Former New York Times Washington Correspondent |date=2021-05-14 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4930-5772-6 |pages=209 |language=english}} and started his own practice as a trial lawyer.

In 2002, Smith became a barrister of the Inner Temple in London. He served as Director of Mediation at the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution. He taught a seminar on mediation theory and practice at the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford. Smith currently lives in San Francisco, where he continues to mediate domestic and international disputes, and continues his writing.

●    Alternative Dispute Resolution for Financial Institutions, West Group, 1995.

●    Suppressed: Confessions of a New York Times Washington Correspondent, Rowman & Littlefield, 2021

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Category:20th-century American lawyers

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Category:United States Army reservists

Category:Yale Law School alumni

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:Journalists from Boston

Category:20th-century American journalists

Category:American male journalists

Category:Watergate scandal

Category:The New York Times journalists

Category:1940 births

Category:Living people