William J. Jorden, Reporter and Envoy, Dies at 85

By MARGALIT FOX NY Times February 28, 2009

William J. Jorden, a former diplomatic correspondent of The New York Times who became a diplomat himself, serving as the United States ambassador to Panama and writing a highly regarded memoir of his involvement in the Panama Canal treaty negotiations of the 1970s, died on Feb. 20 in New Bedford, Mass. He was 85 and had recently lived in North Dartmouth, Mass.

The cause was lung cancer, said his son, Temple Jorden.

As ambassador to Panama from 1974 to 1978, Mr. Jorden played a prominent role in negotiating the Panama Canal treaties, which ceded eventual control of the canal to Panama. Signed in Washington in 1977, the two new treaties superseded the hastily negotiated treaty of 1903, which gave the United States exclusive control of the canal, a coveted link between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

The treaties, and their salutary effect on United States relations with Panama, were considered a major diplomatic victory for the administration of President Jimmy Carter. But they became a rallying point for conservatives who regarded the handover as a significant blow to American territorial rights.

In a previous State Department post, Mr. Jorden was involved in early United States policy toward Vietnam, urging moderation. He was later part of the United States delegation to the Paris peace talks of the late 1960s, which led to a halt in the bombing of North Vietnam.

“Panama Odyssey,” Mr. Jorden’s book about the delicate treaty negotiations, was published in 1984 by the University of Texas Press. While some critics balked at its comprehensiveness (it was 746 pages long), nearly all went on to praise the book, which was part history, part memoir. Reviewing “Panama Odyssey,” Foreign Affairs called it “a classic,” saying that it “should be required reading for every diplomat or student of diplomacy.”

William John Jorden was born on May 3, 1923, in Bridger, Mont. His undergraduate studies at Yale were interrupted by Army service in World War II; during the war, he studied Japanese at Yale and the University of Michigan. After the war, he earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Yale in 1947 and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia the next year.

Mr. Jorden worked as a reporter for The New York Herald Tribune and later for The Associated Press, covering the Far East. He joined The Times in 1952, reporting from Korea and Japan, and was later the paper’s Moscow bureau chief. He was a member of the team that received the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 1958.

In January 1959, Mr. Jorden joined the Washington bureau of The Times, reporting on the State Department. He left the paper in 1961 to join the State Department’s Policy Planning Council, which advises the secretary of state on foreign policy. He later became a special assistant to W. Averell Harriman, then under secretary of state for political affairs.

In the 1965, Mr. Jorden was named a deputy assistant secretary of state for public affairs, handling Vietnam-related matters. He had taken part in Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor’s fact-finding mission to South Vietnam in 1961, which recommended that the United States deploy combat troops there.

Mr. Jorden appeared to have been an early advocate of a more cautious approach. As reported in the internal Defense Department history of the United States’ failure in Vietnam that became known as the Pentagon Papers, he, along with Sterling J. Cottrell of the State Department, had noted that the South Vietnamese had “lost confidence in President Diem and his leadership” and cautioned against identifying United States policy “with a man or a regime.”

In 1966, Mr. Jorden became an assistant to Walt W. Rostow, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s national security adviser. In 1968 and early 1969, he was a member of, and the chief spokesman for, the United States delegation to the Paris talks. He left in 1969 to assist former President Johnson with his memoir, “The Vantage Point” (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971).

Mr. Jorden rejoined the National Security Council in 1972 as a Latin America expert. In the late 1970s and afterward, he was a scholar in residence at the Lyndon B. Johnson library in Austin, Tex.

Mr. Jorden’s first marriage, to Eleanor Harz, a professor of Japanese at Cornell University and elsewhere, ended in divorce. He is survived by his second wife, Mildred Xiarhos Jorden, whom he married in 1972; three children from his first marriage, his son, Temple, and two daughters, Eleanor Haller-Jorden and Telva Jorden; and six grandchildren.

Reporter, Diplomat William Jorden Dies

Jorden participated in early U.S. policy toward Vietnam

by OfficialWire NewsDesk

NEW BEDFORD, MA -- (OfficialWire) -- 02/28/09 -- His family says William J. Jorden, a New York Times correspondent who became a U.S. diplomat, has died in New Bedford, Mass. He was 85.

Jorden died Feb. 20 of lung cancer, his son, Temple Jorden, told The New York Times  in a story published Saturday.

Jorden, a former diplomatic correspondent for the Times, served as U.S. ambassador to Panama from 1974 to 1978, playing a key role in the treaty which ceded control of the Panama Canal to Panama, the Times reported.

Jorden also participated in early U.S. policy toward Vietnam and later was part of the U.S. delegation to the Paris peace talks to end bombing of North Vietnam.

Jorden, born in Bridger, Mont., graduated from Yale with a degree in international relations and obtained a master's degree in journalism from Columbia.

He worked for The New York Herald Tribune and The Associated Press before joining the Times in 1952. He reported on Asia, was the paper's Moscow bureau chief and won a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 1958.

He is survived by his wife, Mildred, three children and six grandchildren.

William Jorden, 1923-2009: Former journalist later served as U.S. ambassador to Panama

He wrote a definitive account of the 1978 Panama Canal treaty negotiations

By Lauren Wiseman

The Washington Post

February 27, 2009

 WASHINGTON — William Jorden, a former New York Times reporter who later served as U.S. ambassador to Panama and who wrote a definitive account of the 1978 Panama Canal treaty negotiations, has died. He was 85.

Mr. Jorden died Feb. 20 at a nursing-care facility in New Bedford, Mass. He had lung cancer.

He joined The New York Times in 1952 and reported from Japan and Korea. While chief of its Moscow bureau, he was part of the Times team that won the 1958 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.

He was the paper's Washington-based diplomatic correspondent before joining the State Department's Policy Planning Council in 1961, hoping to contribute to U.S. policies rather than reporting on them, his family said. Mr. Jorden soon became special assistant to W. Averell Harriman, then undersecretary of state for political affairs.

In the late 1960s Mr. Jorden was a member of the National Security Council.

He briefly left the NSC to help former President Lyndon Johnson write "The Vantage Point," memoirs of the foreign and domestic crises of his White House years. In 1972, National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger invited Mr. Jorden to rejoin the National Security Council as its Latin American expert. Mr. Jorden then served as U.S. ambassador to Panama from 1974 to 1978.

From Wikipedia

William John Jorden (May 3, 1923 – February 20, 2009) was a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times, United States Ambassador to Panama, and author.[1]

Jorden studied at Yale University, receiving a bachelor's degree in international relations in 1947. His university studies were punctuated by a stint in the Army during World War II, during which he learned Japanese at Yale and the University of Michigan. He received a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1948.

On completion of his studies, he worked for the New York Herald Tribune, the Associated Press, and, from 1952, The New York Times. He covered the Far East for the early part of his journalism career, including assignments in Japan and Korea. Later, he was Moscow bureau chief for The Times. His marriage to linguist Eleanor Harz ended in divorce.

He was a member of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 1958.[2]

In 1961, two years after returning to Washington, he left The Times to join the State Department. By the mid-1960s, he was involved in the State Department's Vietnam policy.

After a series of diplomatic and national security positions (as well as taking time from government to assist president Lyndon B. Johnson with his memoirs), he was appointed by president Jimmy Carter to the position of ambassador to Panama in 1974, where he played an instrumental role in negotiating the Torrijos-Carter Treaties that returned ownership of the Panama Canal to Panama. As outgoing ambassador in 1978, he was sent to garner regional support for mediation regarding the Nicaraguan political crisis of the Somoza regime,[3] successfully convincing Somoza to accept mediation.[4][5]

After government service, Jorden served as scholar in residence at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library. In 1984, he published "Panama Odyssey", a comprehensive study of the Panama Canal Treaty negotiations, to wide critical acclaim. He was consulted as an expert commentator by several news organizations prior to and following the United States invasion of Panama.[6][7][8]

Jorden died at age 85 in 2009 of lung cancer in New Bedford, Massachusetts.