Joseph E. Persico is an author. From 1974 to 1977 he was primary speechwriter to
Vice PresidentThe Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Nelson RockefellerNelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
. He now lives in
Guilderland, New YorkGuilderland is a town in Albany County, New York, United States. In the 2010 census, the town had a population of 35,303. The town is named for the Gelderland province in the Netherlands....
.
His book
Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial tells the story of the
Nuremberg TrialsThe Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....
; it was adapted for television as the docudrama
NurembergNuremberg is a 2000 Canadian/United States television docudrama, based on the book Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial by Joseph E. Persico, that tells the story of the Nuremberg Trials.-Part one:...
.
Early life
In 1952 He received a BA in English and Political Science from the New York State College for Teachers (now the University at Albany). Following graduation he joined the U.S. Navy where he served as a Lieutenant Junior Grade aboard a minesweeper and also worked at
NATO Headquarters
NaplesNaples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Political writer
After three years he left the Navy and joined Governor
W. Averell HarrimanWilliam Averell Harriman was an American Democratic Party politician, businessman, and diplomat. He was the son of railroad baron E. H. Harriman. He served as Secretary of Commerce under President Harry S. Truman and later as the 48th Governor of New York...
as a writer and researcher. In 1960 Persico joined the
United States Information AgencyThe United States Information Agency , which existed from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to "public diplomacy". In 1999, USIA's broadcasting functions were moved to the newly created Broadcasting Board of Governors, and its exchange and non-broadcasting information functions were...
working in Argentina, Brazil, and Washington as a Foreign Service Officer.
From 1963 until 1966, he served as Executive Assistant to the New York State Health Commissioner and in 1966 became the chief speechwriter for then
Governor of New YorkThe Governor of the State of New York is the chief executive of the State of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military and naval forces. The officeholder is afforded the courtesy title of His/Her...
Nelson A. Rockefeller. He remained Rockefeller's primary speechwriter throughout the latter's Vice Presidency.
Author
In 1977, following the end of Rockefeller's tenure, Persico published
My Enemy My Brother: Men and Days of Gettysburg, an historical work of non fiction covering the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
In 1979 he published a novel,
The Spiderweb, and a further nonfiction study,
Piercing the Reich: The Penetration of Nazi Germany by American Secret Agents During World War II.
Three years later he produced,
The Imperial Rockefeller, a biography of his former employer. This was followed by a Biography of
Edward R. MurrowEdward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...
. In 1995 He co-wrote Colin L. Powell's autobiography.
Throughout the 1990s, Persico continued to produce historical books (
Casey: From the OSS to the CIA and
Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial) as well as numerous articles on American history.
In November 2001 he published
Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage and in 2004,
Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918, World War I and Its Violent Climax.
External links