Headlines From the Frontline

About the Book

   A generation of journalists have come along who never experienced any of the systems of censorship and control of journalistic endeavor that were common in wars prior to the one in Southeast Asia.

   In such a situation, there is a premium on the need for understanding.  If journalist and soldier are forever to be facing each other across from their respective barricades, at best observing uneasy truces, there needs to be a constant flow of communication designed to keep the aims clear and the issues current.

   When a military person succeeds well in doing that, we journalists naturally will be eager to say thanks.

   Such a one is Col. (Ret.) David R. Kiernan, who is Vice President of Strategic Communications at MPRI in Alexandria, Virginia.

   Through study and career-oriented academic research, Kiernan may be the best informed person today on the past, present, and future of the First Amendment and the military.

   He is among a new breed of Army Public affairs professionals. A graduate of Virginia Military Institute, he received a master’s degree in mass communication from the University of South Carolina, was editor of the prestigious Infantry Journal at Fort Benning, Georgia and Pentagon Chief of Media Relations for the US Army during the Gulf War.

   This book will whet the Reader’s appetite for several areas of study, especially about the censorship programs of World War I and II and the Korean War.

   The conclusion is thus inevitable and correct:  censorship could not have changed the outcome of the Vietnam War, but press coverage of the war obviously did have an impact on public attitudes and support of the conflict.  On this issue and many others, Kiernan has put together an excellent assessment and guide to understanding the military-media relationship.  This work will assuredly become the handbook for both journalist and soldier, alike.

About the Author

Colonel (Retired) Rick Kiernan attended The Virginia Military Institute where he received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and a Commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army. Kiernan served twenty-six years as an Infantry officer, retiring as a full Colonel in 1993. During his military career he served in Germany, Vietnam, Alaska, Hawaii and Saudi Arabia. In 1991, he led the last military delegation to the former Soviet Union to assist that nation in its Public Affairs and Media Relations programs.  Colonel Kiernan is a Paratrooper who received two Bronze Stars in combat, three awards of the Legion of Merit for achievement and numerous commendations for service from the U.S. government as well as the Republic of South Vietnam, Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

As a Public Affairs Officer, he has been the Managing Editor of three Newspapers, host of a Public Television show, Editor-in-Chief of a monthly Magazine and Chief Pentagon Spokesman for the U. S. Army during Operation Just Cause in Panama and the Gulf War. He served on General Schwarzkopf’s staff as the Director of the Joint Information Bureau in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield.

Upon his retirement in 1993, Col. Kiernan was selected to be the Director of Press Operations for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. He was responsible for establishing the Main Press Center for 5,000 journalists from 197 countries and speaking 44 languages. Since 1996, he has continued his work in Mass Communications. In June 2000, Kiernan organized an International Media Symposium for fifty Attendees representing twenty-two countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He currently serves as the Vice President for Strategic Communications for MPRI, a global training corporation. In this role he is responsible for Corporate Communications and the Public Affairs programs in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Mr. Kiernan received a Masters Degree in Mass Communications from the University of South Carolina and has completed Post Graduate study at The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.