Roberta Wohlstetter (1912-2007)
The Wall Street Journal's editorial page honors Roberta Mary Morgan Wohlstetter, the Medal of Freedom-winning strategist and Bancroft Prize-winning historian who died on January 6, 2007, in New York City. She was 94.
Last month, when I visited NYC, I got to spend a little time with this grande dame of grand strategy. Although Roberta was in her mid-nineties, she nevertheless lived a rather active life up until the end. To take but one example, Roberta's daughter told me about how her mother and her mother's assistant went to Rockefellar Plaza's most recent Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, and finagled front-row seats. (I'm personally convinced the she could have charmed the folks running the lighting ceremony into letting her throw the switch, had she wanted to do so.)
I'll close with a link to some interesting anecdotes which Roberta's brother, Edmund S. Morgan, made about his sister when he accepted the Massachusetts Historical Society's Kennedy Medal on October 23, 2003.
Coda:
- January 2007 also marks the tenth-year anniversary of the death of Roberta's husband, Medal of Freedom-winning strategist Albert Wohlstetter.
Update: Additional Tributes/Obituaries
- Editorial, "Roberta Wohlstetter, Codebreaker," Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2007.
- Press Release, "Obituary: Roberta Wohlstetter: Pioneering RAND Policy Analyst and Historian of Military Intelligence," RAND Corporation, January 9, 2007.
- Richard Pyle, "Intelligence Expert who Analyzed Pearl Harbor Dies in NYC at 94," Associated Press (via Newsday), January 9, 2007
- Stephen Miller, "Roberta Wohlstetter, 94, Defense Analyst," The New York Sun, January 10, 2007
- Patricia Sullivan, "Roberta M. Wohlstetter; Military Intelligence Expert," Washington Post, January 10, 2007
- Elaine Woo, "Roberta Wohlstetter, 94; Wrote Pearl Harbor Study," Los Angeles Times, January 11, 2007
- Dennis Hevesi, "Roberta Wohlstetter, 94, Military Policy Analyst Dies," The New York Times, January 11, 2007
- Robert Zarate, "First Lady of Intelligence: Roberta Wohlstetter, 1912-2007," The Weekly Standard, forthcoming January 22, 2007, issue
- ABC News, "In Memoriam: Lives of Note 01.14.07," This Week with George Stephanopoulos, January 14, 2007.
Posted by Robert at January 9, 2007 10:26 AM
