Irving R. Levine

Irving Raskin Levine (August 26, 1922 – March 27, 2009) was an American journalist and longtime correspondent for NBC News. During his 45-year career, Levine reported from more than two dozen countries. He was the first American television correspondent to be accredited in the Soviet Union. He wrote three non-fiction books on life in the USSR, each of which became a bestseller.

Born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Levine graduated from Brown University.

Levine went into journalism, starting at the Providence Journal as an obituary writer. During World War II, he served with the Army Signal Corps.

After completing graduate school at the Columbia University School of Journalism, Levine started working for the International News Service. He covered the outbreak of war in Korea in 1950 and began freelancing for NBC News. He joined them in 1950 as a correspondent. During his career, he reported from more than two dozen countries. These included the USSR, where in 1955, he became the first American television correspondent to receive accreditation. He had accompanied some American farming experts there, and stayed for four years to report on the country. He later recounted that during 1955, he was approached to be a Soviet spy but he refused and, despite threats and being followed, managed to continue reporting.

He was named bureau chief of Rome, where he served for nearly 12 years, also being stationed in Vienna and Tokyo. His reporting on Europe included accounts of the 1961 construction of the Berlin Wall by East Germany; the Vatican III Ecumenical Council, which opened in 1962; and the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by the USSR.

...
Wikipedia