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W. Thomas Smith, Jr.

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W. Thomas Smith Jr. on the FOX NEWS Channel
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W. Thomas Smith Jr. on the FOX NEWS Channel

W. Thomas Smith, Jr. (born April 30, 1959) is an American author, editor, and journalist. He has written five books and his articles appear in many of the world's leading newspapers and magazines. Smith is executive editor of World Defense Review, a columnist with Townhall.com, and a frequent contributor to National Review Online.

Contents

Education and Military Service

Smith graduated from the University of South Carolina (USC) in 1982 with a BA degree in history. He then served in the U.S. Marine Corps as an infantry leader, parachutist, and shipboard special weapons security and counterterrorism instructor. Following his hitch in the Corps in 1987, he served on a para-military SWAT team in the nuclear industry. Soon thereafter, he began his career as a journalist.
W. Thomas Smith Jr., U.S. Marines, 1983 (photograph courtesy of Alpha Books, N.Y.)
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W. Thomas Smith Jr., U.S. Marines, 1983 (photograph courtesy of Alpha Books, N.Y.)

Career

Smith has written for numerous publications, including USA TODAY, U.S. News & World Report, BusinessWeek, The New York Post, and the UK's The Guardian. In 1998, he co-authored a George magazine feature with John F. Kennedy Jr. (Smith interviewed Gen. William C. Westmoreland in Charleston, S.C. - Kennedy interviewed Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap in Vietnam). The interviews were published together as a single piece on the Vietnam War in the November 1998 issue of George.

As a war correspondent, Smith reported from battlefields in both the Balkans in 1995 and in the Middle East in 1997, and he covered the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks from ground zero in New York. Also during the 1990's, he worked as a business magazine editor, a contract media relations director, a publicist for NBA basketball player Vince Carter and other professional athletes, and was the sole columnist for head football coach Lou Holtz's official website during Holtz's inaugural season at USC.

Smith's first book, Encyclopedia of the Central Intelligence Agency, was published in 2003. He has since written three other books, all military titles (see bibliography).

Smith has been a guest commentator on the FOX NEWS Channel. He has also been interviewed by numerous national publications (including Woman's Day, Writer's Digest, The Writer, and others); NBC, CBS, and ABC television affiliates; and he is a frequent guest on nationally syndicated radio programs, National Public Radio (NPR), and international radio, including the BBC. USA TODAY calls him a "military expert," and his articles have been included numerous times in radio-host Rush Limbaugh's daily "stack of stuff."

Smith is a contributing writer for A Nation Changed, a book commemorating the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks (published by U.S. News & World Report). He is the technical editor and foreword writer for the second edition of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Iraq by Joseph Tragert, and he is the technical editor and "special afterword" writer for Contract Warriors by Fred Rosen.

Smith teaches "breaking into national print" at the Buckley School of Written Expression. He serves as adjunct professor at USC's College of Journalism and Mass Communications (where he has taught "magazine writing," "national print writing," and "public opinion and propaganda."), and he has lectured groups and conferences from Fortune 500 companies to the U.S. Armed Forces.

A former correspondent for 'Agencia EFE' (the world's largest Spanish-language news wire), Smith currently writes a column, 'Beyond the DropZone', for - and is executive editor of - 'World Defense Review'. He is a columnist for 'townhall.com', a contributing editor for NavySEALs.com, and a frequent contributor to 'National Review Online' (NRO). Some of his stories have been picked up by the 'Scripps Howard News' wire. At least one of his pieces was re-published by the [U.S. House Armed Services Committee]. Others have been re-published by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Smith's work has directly impacted U.S. defense policy. In one instance, a series of articles he had written about a new Marine Corps special operations team over a period of several months led to the official establishment of the unit after one of his articles in NRO concluded, "The only thing keeping the Marine SOCOM Detachment from being formally stood up is the signature of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld." Rumsfeld then called a meeting of the involved commanders, and less than 48 hours after publication of the article, the unit was signed into existence.

A member of the American Society of Journalists & Authors and the National Press Club, Smith serves on the advisory board of the Southern Literature Council of Charleston.

Books

BY W. THOMAS SMITH, JR.

Magazines and Newspapers

Smith has contributed to the following magazines, newspapers, and wire services:

Facts

for sources, see references

Quotations

External links and references

External links References

 

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