Richard Gott

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For the astrophysicist, see J. Richard Gott

Richard Willoughby Gott (born 28 October 1938 Aston Tirrold, England) is a British journalist and historian, who has written extensively on Latin America. A former Latin America correspondent and features editor for the British newspaper The Guardian, he is currently an honorary research fellow at the Institute for the Study of the Americas at the University of London.

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[edit] Early career

He studied history at Oxford University and worked at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. In the 1960s he worked at the University of Chile, where he wrote Guerrilla Movements in Latin America, "the enduring bible" on that topic. [1] In January 1966, Gott was a candidate in a by-election in Kingston upon Hull North for the 'Radical Alliance', running on a platform which stressed opposition to the Vietnam War; he polled only 253 votes. [2]

In 1967 he was in Bolivia as a freelance journalist for The Guardian to witness the events surrounding the capture and murder of Ernesto Che Guevara, and played a role in confirming that the 4-5 hour-old body in question was actually Che's, because he had met him in Havana in 1963. [3]

In 1981 the BBC sought to appoint Gott to the position of editor at its cultural magazine The Listener, but his hard left politics (he was well known for having a portrait of Stalin prominently displayed at his home) led to him failing to obtain security clearance and the post went instead to Russell Twisk.

[edit] Embarrassing The Guardian

He resigned as literary editor of the Guardian in 1994 after allegations were made in The Spectator that he had been an "agent of influence" for the KGB, claims which he rejected, arguing that "Like many other journalists, diplomats and politicians, I lunched with Russians during the cold war." He asserted that his resignation was "a debt of honour to my paper, not an admission of guilt", because his failure to inform his editor of three trips abroad to meet with KGB officials at their expense had caused embarrassment to the paper during its investigation of Jonathan Aitken.[4] In his resignation letter Gott admitted "I took red gold, even if it was only in the form of expenses for myself and my partner. That, in the circumstances, was culpable stupidity, though at the time it seemed more like an enjoyable joke". The source of the allegation that he was an agent, KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky, subsequently accused former Labour Party leader Michael Foot of the same thing, which resulted in a successful libel action by Foot against the Sunday Times.[5].

[edit] Books

  • Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution (2005), Verso. ISBN 1-84467-533-5
  • Cuba: A New History (2004) Yale University Press, New Haven. ISBN 0-300-10411-1
  • In the Shadow of the Liberator: The Impact of Hugo Chávez on Venezuela and Latin America (2001), Verso. ISBN 1-85984-365-4
  • The Appeasers (2000, with Martin Gilbert) Phoenix Press. ISBN 1-84212-050-6
  • Guerrilla movements in Latin America (1970), Thomas Nelson
  • A Future for the United Nations? CND Pamphlet. Not dated, circa 1968

[edit] References

  1. ^ New Yorker
  2. ^ David McKie, "By-elections of the Wilson Government" in Chris Cook and John Ramsden (eds.), "By-elections in British Politics" (Macmillan, 1973), p. 228.
  3. ^ How the World Heard of Che Guevara's Murder
  4. ^ Richard Gott, letter to the Sunday Times, September 24, 2000.
  5. ^ Exploiting a Tragedy, or Le Rouge en Noir

[edit] External links