Reese Erlich
Reese Erlich, a prolific writer who brought a unique sensibility to the coverage of politics in the United States and throughout the world, including many years of contributions to The Progressive, died April 6 after a six-month battle with cancer. He was seventy-three.
“Like so much in his life, Reese battled to the end,” said his son Jason in a message today to his father’s many friends and fans.
Reese Erlich speaking at a benefit for The Progressive in San Francisco, October 2018. (Left to Right: Christopher Cook, Reese Erlich, Stephen Zunes, and Kiki Monifa. In the studios of the San Francisco Mime Troupe.)
On March 26, The Progressive published what sadly proved to be Erlich’s last “Foreign Correspondent” column, to which we gave the optimistically equivocal headline, “My Last Column?” In this column, he described his grim prognosis due to Stage 4 prostate cancer and reflected on a career that spanned seven decades.
“I hope I’ve helped explain some complicated world issues you might not otherwise have understood,” he wrote. “I hope the activism earlier in my life and my writing and speeches later have helped bring about progressive change.”
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Erlich became involved as a student in the protests against the Vietnam War. In 1967, he and others organized a Stop the Draft Week, for which they were arrested, becoming known as the “Oakland Seven,” and ultimately acquitted of all charges.
The following year, Erlich visited Cuba for the first time, beginning a lifelong association that would culminate with the 2009 publication of his book Dateline Havana.
In the late 1960s, Erlich became a staff writer and research editor for the renowned left investigative magazine Ramparts, published in San Francisco. His magazine articles have also appeared in Vanity Fair, San Francisco Magazine, California Monthly, Mother Jones, The Nation, and, of course, The Progressive.
Erlich was the author of several books. In addition to Dateline Havana, these included The Iran Agenda: the Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis (2007), Inside Syria: the Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect (2014), and The Iran Agenda Today: the Real Story from Inside Iran and What's Wrong with U.S. Policy (2018). He worked with Walter Cronkite on four public radio documentaries, including “The Russia Project,” and won numerous journalism awards including a Peabody.
Beginning in 1995 and continuing until recently, Erlich produced a program called “Jazz Perspectives” for public radio stations and online through Jazz Corner, showcasing the work of jazz, blues, and Latin musicians.
What follows are some of the many pieces that Erlich wrote in recent years for The Progressive, both in the magazine and on our website, Progressive.org. We trust that this will give some sense of his humanity and greatness, and the enormity of our collective loss.
“Biden’s Bombing of Syria Is a Dangerous Step Backward”
“What Trump and the Myanmar Coup Have in Common”
“U.S. Capitol Insurrection as Seen from Abroad”
“U.S. Hypocrisy on Cuba Continues”
“The Rest of the World Sees Uprisings, Not Riots”
“Ukraine Elections, Putin, and Trump”
“What Trump’s Missteps on Iran Have Wrought”
“Biden vs. Bernie—a Foreign Policy Faceoff”
“What Folks Up Here Can Learn from Folks Down There on Gun Control”
“On the Ground with Syrian Rebels”
Jason Erlich says the family plans a Zoom get-together in the next week or two. Those interested in attending can add their names and email addresses here.
Reese Erlich conducting an interview.