Brian Crozier facts for kids

Journalist and strategist Brian Crozier meeting President Reagan in 1985

Brian Rossiter Crozier (born August 4, 1918, in Shire of Cloncurry, Queensland – died August 4, 2012) was a writer, journalist, and historian. He was also involved with a special department of the UK Foreign Office called the Information Research Department (IRD), which helped share his work.

Early Life

Brian Crozier was born in a small village in Australia. His father worked there as a mining engineer. In 1923, his family moved to France. Then, in 1930, they moved to England. There, he won a scholarship to study piano and music at the Trinity College of Music in London. When he was young, he believed in communism. This was because of big events like the Great Depression and the rise of Adolf Hitler. However, he later changed his mind and worked against communism.

Career Highlights

Crozier became very interested in journalism. He worked as a foreign reporter for Reuters. He also wrote columns for The Economist magazine. He was a reporter for the BBC. For a short time, he returned to Australia and wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

Leading News Organizations

In 1966, Crozier became the director of Forum World Features. This was a news organization that had connections to the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He stated that the organization had ended its ties with the CIA when he took over.

In 1970, Crozier started the Institute for the Study of Conflict in London. This institute studied rebellions and terrorism. He led the institute for most of the 1970s. It was one of the first private groups to study terrorism. The institute focused on how the Soviet Union operated during peacetime. Their studies were used in military colleges in Western countries.

Writing and Interviews

For many years, Crozier wrote a regular column called "The Protracted Conflict" in the National Review magazine. He was also known for interviewing many world leaders. In 1988, he was even listed in the Guinness Book of World Records. He had interviewed 58 heads of state or government, which was a record!

Crozier also gave advice to the British Secret Intelligence Service. He advised the Information Research Department (IRD) of the British Foreign Office, and the CIA. He helped start a group called The 61. This group aimed to counter communist ideas from the Soviet Union.

In 1993, HarperCollins published Crozier's autobiography. It was called Free Agent: The Unseen War 1941–1991. He was also a special visiting researcher at the Hoover Institution. He was a member of the advisory council for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. In 1985, he signed a petition to support a group in Nicaragua called the Contras.

Personal Life

Brian Crozier was married two times. He had three daughters named Kathryn-Anne, Isobel, and Caroline. He also had a son named Michael.

He passed away on August 4, 2012, after a long illness. He was 94 years old.

Selected Works

Books

• The Rebels: A Study of Postwar Insurrections. Boston: Beacon Press (1960). ISBN: 978-1258501716.
• The Morning After: A Study of Independence. London: Methuen (1963). ISBN: 978-1135351274.
• South East Asia in Turmoil. London: Penguin (1965). ISBN: 978-0684129969.
• The Struggle for the Third World. Chester Springs, Penn.: Dufour Editions (1966). ISBN: 978-0802310354.
• Franco: A Biographical History. Boston: Little, Brown (1967). ISBN: 978-0413267702.
• Masters of Power. Boston: Little, Brown (1969). .
• Since Stalin: An Assessment of Communist Power. New York: Coward-McCann (1970). .
• De Gaulle. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1973). ISBN: 978-0684129969.
• A Theory of Conflict. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1974). ISBN: 978-0241024584.
• The Man Who Lost China: The First Full Biography of Chiang Kai-shek. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1976). ISBN: 978-0684146867.
• Strategy of Survival. London: Temple Smith (1978). ISBN: 978-0851171432.
• This War Called Peace, with Drew Middleton and Jeremy Murray-Brown. Universe Books (1985). ISBN: 978-0876634639.
• The Gorbachev Phenomenon: Peace and the Secret War. Great Britain: Claridge Press (1990). ISBN: 978-1870626217.
• Free Agent: The Unseen War, 1941-1991. London: HarperCollins (1993). ISBN: 978-0060171179.
• The KGB Lawsuits. Great Britain: Claridge Press (1995). ISBN: 978-1870626026.
• The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire. Rocklin, Calif.: Forum, with National Review (1999). ISBN: 978-0761520573.
• The Other Brian Croziers. Great Britain: Claridge Press (2002). ISBN: 978-1870626644.
• Political Victory: The Elusive Prize of Military Wars. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers (2005). ISBN: 978-0765802903.

Book Contributions

• "South-East Asia" (Chapter 6). In: The Cold War: A Reappraisal, by Evan Luard. New York: Praeger (1964). .
• "Der Spiegel: Confirmation from the East." In: Counter Culture, vol. 2, by Sir James Goldsmith (1993), pp. 99–105.

Articles

• "The Diem Regime in Southern Vietnam." Far Eastern Survey, vol. 24, no. 4 (Apr. 1955), pp. 49–56. .
• "The International Situation in Indochina." Pacific Affairs, vol. 29, no. 4 (Dec. 1956), pp. 309–323. JSTOR 3035143.
• "France and Algeria," with Gerard Mansell. International Affairs, bol. 36, no. 3 (July 1960), pp. 310–321. . A discussion at Chatham House, March 8, 1960.
• "Peking and the Laotian Crisis: An Interim Appraisal." China Quarterly, no. 7 (Jul./Sep. 1961), pp. 128–137. JSTOR 763326.
• "Indonesia: Retrospect and Prospect." World Today, vol. 18, no. 7 (July 1962), pp. 295–304. JSTOR 40393419.
• "Peking and the Laotian Crisis: A Further Appraisal." China Quarterly, no. 11 (Jul./Sep. 1962), pp. 116–123. JSTOR 651454.
• "The Communist Struggle for Power in Burma." World Today, vol. 20, no. 3 (Mar. 1964), pp. 105–112. JSTOR 40393589.
• "The Struggle for the Third World." International Affairs, vol. 40, no. 3 (Jul. 1964), pp. 440–452. .
• "Latin America." Encounter (Feb. 1965).
• "The Study of Conflict." Institute for the Study of Conflict (1967).
• "The Conflict of Information: 'Detente', Freedom & Constraint," with Leonid Vladimirov. Conflict Studies (1975). Institute for the Study of Conflict. ISBN: 978-0903366274. ISSN 0069-8792.
• "Russia's Revolutionary Base." New Lugano Review, vol. 2, no. 8-12 (1976).
• "My Pilgrimage to Kent (Connecticut)." New Lugano Review, vol. 2, no. 11-12 (1976). pp. 8–24.
• "Pour une bribe d'empire." Revue des Deux Mondes (Apr. 1989), pp. 249–253. JSTOR 44185802.
• "Creating 'A Lot on Her Hands,'" with Helen Gregory. Labour History, no. 85 (Nov. 2003), pp. 89–101. .

Reports

• The Ulster Debate: Report of a Study Group of the Institute for the Study of Conflict (1972), with James Camlin Beckett and Robert Moss. London: The Bodley Head for the Institute for the Study of Conflict. ISBN: 978-0370103891.

Book Reviews

• Review of La Fin d'une guerre: Indochine 1954, by Jean Lacouture & Philippe Devillers. International Affairs, vol. 37, no. 2 (Apr. 1961), pp. 264–265. .
• Review of Indonesia: A Profile, by Jeane S. Mintz. Pacific Affairs, vol. 35, no. 2 (Summer 1962), pp. 184–185. .
• Review of The Story of Indonesia, by Louis Fischer; The Beginnings of the Indonesian-Dutch Negotiations and the Hoge Veluwe Talks, by Idrus Nasir Djajadiningrat. Pacific Affairs, vol. 35, no. 2 (Summer 1962), pp. 185–186. .

In the Media

Brian Crozier was interviewed for a 1999 film by Peter Graves. This film was part of A&E Network's Biography series. The episode was called Chiang Kai-shek: The Battle for China. Other people like John Stewart Service also contributed to it.

He also appeared in The Mayfair Set. This was a 1999 four-part documentary series. It was about how businesses grew and political power changed. Adam Curtis wrote and directed it for the BBC. Crozier was in episode three, "Destroy the Technostructure." This episode told the story of Sir James Goldsmith. It showed how he became very rich through business deals.