Noted Historian Misled Students That He Was Vietnam Veteran

By ANA MARIE COX

A Pulitzer Prize-winning history professor at Mount Holyoke College apologized last week after The Boston Globe reported that he had lied to his colleagues and students for years about being a Vietnam veteran. College officials later said that Joseph J. Ellis, who also won a National Book Award in 1997, would no longer teach the course on the Vietnam War in which he told many of his tales.

The news that Mr. Ellis would not teach his class on the Vietnam War came after Mount Holyoke's president, Joanne V. Creighton, released a statement saying that Mr. Ellis had admitted his false claims to her personally and that he had offered "his deepest apologies." Ms. Creighton avoided specifying what further actions Mount Holyoke might take in the matter. Rather, she lamented "the effect of his misrepresentation," a sentiment that echoed the statement that Mr. Ellis released after the Globe article appeared.

The Globe reported that in interviews and in his course on Vietnam and American culture, the highly regarded scholar of colonial history enlivened his discussions with what he presented as recollections of his own experience as a platoon leader and a paratrooper with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. Mr. Ellis did serve in the Army during the time of the Vietnam War. But according to his military records, obtained by the newspaper, he spent most of his active duty, from 1969 to 1972, as a history instructor at West Point, save for a two-month training stint at Fort Gordon, Ga.

In an interview with the Globe last year, Mr. Ellis also claimed to have been moved by what he had seen in Vietnam to participate in the antiwar movement upon returning. He also said he had participated in the civil-rights movement. But none of Mr. Ellis's colleagues from that period remember his being involved in any antiwar activity. And while he did go to the South to recruit students for a Yale University program, no evidence exists to support his statement to a Globe reporter that he had spent a summer doing civil-rights work in Mississippi, where he said police officers pounded on his door at night and followed his car.

As a historian of colonial America, Mr. Ellis became equally at home in scholarly and popular circles. His 1997 book, American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, was a best seller and won a National Book Award. He won the Pulitzer in April for Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation.

In recent years, Mr. Ellis established himself as a quotable expert. He provided news organizations with historical perspectives on subjects as varied as President Clinton's dalliance with Monica Lewinsky and the 2000 election deadlock in Florida. Just two weeks ago, the political pundit Bill Press cited Mr. Ellis's biography of John Adams, Passionate Sage, in a column about the need to honor Adams equally with such presidents as Washington and Lincoln.

Mr. Ellis did not talk to the Globe for its article, but he released a statement after it was published. He said that "even in the best of lives, mistakes are made," and he apologized specifically for encouraging "the assumption" that he had served in Vietnam. He did not bring up his claims of participation in the civil-rights and antiwar movements, but did add, "For this and any other distortions about my personal life, I want to apologize to my family, friends, colleagues and students."

Before Mr. Ellis admitted that he had lied, Ms. Creighton made a statement praising Mr. Ellis as "one of the most respected scholars, writers, and teachers in the nation."

The statement did not discuss details of the newspaper's article, but questioned "what public interest the Globe is trying to serve through a story of this nature."

After Mr. Ellis's public statement, however, Ms. Creighton alluded obliquely to possible repercussions for the college and Mr. Ellis, saying in her second statement that "'Professor Ellis and I will talk further and begin to repair the damage."

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