Arthur Krock

Arthur Krock's former residence in Washington, DC

Arthur Krock was born in Glasgow, Kentucky in 1887.[1] He was the son of German-Jewish bookkeeper Joseph Krock and Caroline Morris, who was half-Jewish.[2] His mother became blind subsequent to his birth and Krock was raised by his grandparents, Emmanuel and Henrietta Morris until he was six years old. When his mother regained her sight, he joined his parents in Chicago, graduating from high school there in 1904.

Krock went on to Princeton University but dropped out in his first year owing to financial problems. He returned home, and in 1906 graduated with an associate degree from the Lewis Institute in Chicago.

Krock, fourth from the left in this image, accepts the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Richard Nixon on April 22, 1970.

Krock began his career in journalism with the Louisville Herald, then went to Washington as a correspondent for the Louisville Times and Louisville Courier-Journal. In 1927, he joined The New York Times and soon became its Washington correspondent and bureau chief. His column, "In the Nation", was noted for its opinions on public policy.

For example, amid the Hiss–Chambers and Coplon spy cases and the investigation of David E. Lilienthal's management of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Krock observed:

The persons whose names have entered the trials and investigations, fairly and unfairly, include none who was affiliated with the Republican party ... The ideal solution from the standpoint of these strategists [President Truman's] would be: (1) the acquittal of Hiss ... (2) a find by the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy that Lilienthal has been a good manager ... (3) repudiation by public opinion of the more sensational testimony before the third Un-American Committee; (4) at least one substantial trial victory for the Department of Justice. This is a large order. But the deep-thinking Democratic politicos think there is a good chance for it.[3]

Despite his stature, according to historian David Nasaw, from the earliest days of their friendship in Washington beginning in the mid-1930s, Krock became so staunch an advocate of Joseph P. Kennedy and his ambitions that he seemed to be all but in the pocket of the powerful millionaire (with one son who would later be U.S. president and two others who would contend for that office). Citing the correspondence between the two men in his authorized, yet highly researched and critically acclaimed, 2012 biography of Joe Kennedy, Professor Nasaw chronicles how it "reveals something quite disturbing, if not corrupt, about Krock's willingness to do Kennedy's bidding, to advise him or write a speech for him, then praise it in his column ..." [2]

Less than two months before the assassination of Joe Kennedy's son, President John F. Kennedy, in his October 3, 1963 New York Times column titled "The Intra-Administration War in Vietnam", Krock quoted a high-ranking official in the government as saying:

The CIA's growth was 'likened to a malignancy' which the 'very high official was not even sure the White House could control ... any longer.' 'If the United States ever experiences [an attempted coup to overthrow the Government] it will come from the CIA and not the Pentagon. The agency 'represents a tremendous power and total unaccountability to anyone.'[4]