William M . Beecher William M . Beecher ( born May 27 , 1933 ) is a Pulitzer Prize winning former Washington correspondent for the Boston Globe , the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times . He also served as Washington bureau chief for the Minneapolis Star Tribune . He spent two years as a senior official of the Defense Department and ten years as a top official of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission . He has authored four novels . In retirement , he is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland . Early life and family . Beecher was born in Framingham , Massachusetts , United States , where he attended public school and was editor of the high school paper . He married Eileen Brick , an elementary school teacher in St . Louis , and they have four daughters and ten grandchildren . Education . Beecher earned a B . A . from Harvard University , where he was an editor of the Harvard Crimson , and an Master from Columbia University . During his college career has worked as campus correspondent for the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald Traveler . Career . Reporter . Beecher started his career as a general assignment reporter for the St . Louis Globe Democrat . During a lengthy newspaper strike in St . Louis , which started while he was reporting in Panama , he decided to move to Washington , DC , where he first worked as the Supreme Court reporter for Fairchild Publications . He moved to the Washington bureau of the Wall Street Journal , where he first covered the Supreme Court and the Justice Department , and later the Department of Defense . He was hired away by the New York Times to cover the Defense Department . He was subsequently hired by the Boston Globe to cover national security and foreign policy from Washington . During his years with the Wall Street Journal , the New York Times and the Boston Globe , he also went on extensive news assignments abroad — in the Soviet Union , Eastern and Western Europe , the Middle East , and the Far East , including five trips to Vietnam during that war . In 1969 , on page one of the New York Times , he broke the story of the secret bombing of Cambodia , one of the closest held secrets of the Nixon Administration during the Vietnam War . It was so closely held that Secretary of State William Rogers was denied detailed information on the operation at the instigation of Henry Kissinger , as National Security Adviser to the President . In addition to his other work , Beecher wrote a weekly column for the Boston Globe and later for the Minneapolis Star Tribune . During his years as a Washington correspondent , he made many appearances on Washington Week in Review , Meet the Press , Face the Nation and The News Hour with Jim Lehrer . Government Service . After graduating from Columbia University , he served a short tour as a second lieutenant in the field artillery , rising to the rank of captain in the Army Reserves before retiring . Defense Secretary Elliot Richardson persuaded him to leave journalism in 1973 and come into The Pentagon to help restore the government ’ s credibility , tarnished during the Vietnam War . He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary , Principal Deputy and Assistant Secretary of Defense ( Acting ) for Public Affairs . In 1993 he joined the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as Director of the Office of Public Affairs , serving until 2003 . Organizations . He served on the board of editors of the Foreign Service Journal , and was a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies , the Council on Foreign Relations , and the Gridiron Club of Washington , DC . He was past president of the State Department Correspondents Association , the Overseas Writers Club and the Aviation / Space Writers Association . He is written up in “ Who ’ s Who in America ” and “ Who ’ s Who in the World . ” Novelist . Beecher authored the following novels : Mayday Man ( 1990 ) , Submerged Rage : The Hidden Grievance ( 2005 ) , The Acorn Dossier ( 2009 ) , and Nuclear Revenge ( 2010 ) .