Bernard Kalb, a veteran correspondent for CBS, NBC and The New York Times, died on Sunday at his home in North Bethesda, Md. The man was 100 years old.
His death was confirmed by his daughter.
Millions of viewers were familiar with Mr. Kalb's voice, thick eyebrows and command of detail. The end of the Cold War was preceded by diplomatic breakthrough.
He joined his brother, Marvin, on the diplomatic beat and became NBC's State Department correspondent in 1980. He spent two years in the Reagan administration's State Department.
Mr. Kalb was a correspondent for CBS in 1972 when relations between China and the US were normalized. He made a lot of overseas trips with other secretaries of state.
Mr. Kalb said that he had a sense of being part of the evolutions and eruptions of the decades since World War II. The State Department's spokesman was a journalist.
Mr. Kalb resigned in October 1986 because he did not agree with the administration's actions against the Libyan leader.
The Washington Post reported that there was a plan to plant false reports in the press about internal opposition to Colonel Qaddafi. Mr. Reagan said that no one on their side had lied to anyone.
Mr. Kalb said that his resignation didn't give him carte blanche to act on what can be classified or not. He said, "You face a choice, as an American, as a spokesman, as a journalist, whether to allow yourself to be absorbed in the ranks of silence, whether to disappear into meek acquiescence or to enter a modest dissent."
The parents of Bernard Kalb were immigrants from Poland and Ukraine. Bernard's family moved to Washington Heights. His mother ran a dry cleaner in Washington Heights that his father used to work at.
Mr. Kalb spent two years in the Army after graduating from the City College of New York. The author of the detective novels "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man" was the editor of his son.
Mr. Kalb joined the newspaper. The radio station WQXR was owned by the company. He was sent to Southeast Asia as a correspondent after covering the United Nations as a reporter.
He was assigned to go on a mission with Adm. Richard E. Byrd. He used to think that his most difficult task was to come up with variations on the word ice.
It was difficult to cover the rule of the Indonesian president. Mr. Kalb was briefly held after he revealed that Soviet-built aircraft had been delivered to the Indonesian military. He was released after a protest from Western correspondents.
Mr. Kalb worked for CBS in Hong Kong. He was the network's on-scene reporter for an hourlong documentary in 1964 that warned that the war was unlikely to end soon. He won an award four years later for a documentary.
Mr. Kalb was an anchor for the CBS Morning News. After joining his brother on the diplomatic beat, they both moved to NBC. Kalb was the State Department's spokesman.
Mr. Kalb is survived by his brother, his wife, three daughters, and four step-children.
Mr. Kalb was the host of the weekly CNN program "Reliable Sources" for six years. He lectured on journalism and foreign affairs into his 90s and was an occasional panelist on "The Kalb Report."
A young boy selling Mr. Kalb a set of Soviet-era binoculars for $16 on a street in Romania in 2004. Mr Kalb and his wife stayed in a hotel in Athens. The Parthenon was far away. With little time left, the Kalbs peered through those binoculars to see that symbol of democracy.
Mr. Kalb wrote that the Cold War produced a scrap of redeeming value. R.I.P. is related to the cold war. Couldn't have accomplished it without you.
Dennis Hevesi wrote obituaries for The Times. Alex was a contributor.
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