Neil Sheehan
Cornelius Mahoney Sheehan (October 27, 1936 – January 7, 2021) was an American journalist. As a reporter for The New York Times in 1971, Sheehan obtained the classified Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg. His series of articles revealed a secret United States Department of Defense history of the Vietnam War and led to a U.S. Supreme Court case, New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971), which invalidated the United States government's use of a restraining order to halt publication.[1]
This article is about the journalist. For the record label owner, see StandBy Records.
Neil Sheehan
January 7, 2021 (aged 84)
He received a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for his 1988 book A Bright Shining Lie, about the life of Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann and the United States involvement in the Vietnam War.[2]
Early life[edit]
Sheehan was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts on October 27, 1936. His father, Cornelius Joseph Sheehan, worked as a dairy farmer; his mother, Mary (O'Shea), was a housewife. Both immigrated to the United States from Ireland.[3] He was raised on a dairy farm near Holyoke. Sheehan graduated from Mount Hermon School (later Northfield Mount Hermon) and Harvard University with a B.A. in history (cum laude) in 1958. He served in the U.S. Army from 1959 to 1962, when he was assigned to Korea and then transferred to Tokyo; there, he did work moonlighting in the Tokyo bureau of United Press International (UPI).[3]
Personal life[edit]
Sheehan was introduced to his wife, Susan Margulies, by fellow reporter Gay Talese.[14] She wrote for The New Yorker at the time,[14] and subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for Is There No Place on Earth for Me? in 1983.[19] They married in 1965,[14] and had two daughters (Catherine and Maria).[3]
Sheehan died on January 7, 2021, at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 84, and suffered from complications of Parkinson's disease in the time leading up to his death.[3]
In popular culture[edit]
Sheehan was portrayed by Jonas Chernick in The Pentagon Papers (2003),[26] and Justin Swain in The Post (2017).[27] He appears as himself in Ken Burns' 2017 documentary series, The Vietnam War.[28]