Biographical Note
Cornelius Mahoney “Neil” Sheehan (1936- ) is a journalist best known for his reporting on the Pentagon Papers, a secret Department of Defense study of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Sheehan, when working as a reporter for The New York Times in 1971, obtained the classified documents from Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst employed by the RAND Corporation. The papers revealed that the U.S. had secretly enlarged the scale of the Vietnam War with the bombings of nearby Cambodia and Laos, and coastal raids on North Vietnam, none of which were reported in the mainstream media. The government attempted to prosecute Ellsberg but the charges were later dropped. In 2011, the Pentagon Papers were declassified and publicly released.
Sheehan published other articles and books on the Vietnam War, including the 1988 book, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam. It won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and the National Book Award for Nonfiction.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1936 | Born in Holyhoke, Mass. |
| 1958 | B.A., Harvard University. |
| 1961-1962 | Night editor, Asian bureau, United Press International, Tokyo, Japan. |
| 1962-1964 | Saigon bureau chief, United Press International, Saigon, South Vietnam. |
| 1964-1965 | Metropolitan desk and general assignment reporter, New York Times. |
| 1965 | Indonesia correspondent, New York Times, Djakarta, Indonesia. |
| 1965-1966 | Vietnam correspondent, New York Times , Saigon, South Vietnam. |
| 1966-1968 | Defense Department correspondent, New York Times , Washington, D.C., bureau. |
| 1968 | White House correspondent, New York Times , Washington, D.C., bureau. |
| 1969 | National security affairs correspondent, New York Times , Washington, D.C., bureau. |
| 1971 | Bantam Books published Sheehan's investigative work the Pentagon Papers; it was reissued as The Pentagon Papers as Published in the New York Times (New York: Quadrangle Books. 810 pp.). |
| 1972 | Published The Arnheiter Affair (New York: Random House). Began leave of absence from the New York Times to write a biography of John Paul Vann. |
| 1975 | Resigned from the New York Times. |
| 1988 | Published A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam (New York: Random House) Received National Book Award. |
| 1989 | Awarded Pulitzer Prize. |
| 1992 | Published After the War Was Over: Hanoi and Saigon (New York: Random House). |