What a life Terence Smith has lived! This is an adventure story of a reporter’s career, well lived, well told, big hearted and chock full of great stories.

Dan Rather

Terence Smith followed his famous sportswriter father, Red, into newspapering’s heyday. “You’re writing a letter home,” an editor advised the fledgling foreign correspondent heading out into the world. Four Wars, Five Presidents is just that – a remarkable recounting of Terry’s fifty adventurous years in print and television reporting and editing, a rumination on the transformation of news gathering and the world, and a loving letter home to the illustrious parent who set the high bar that his son has now cleared.

Joseph Lelyveld, Former Executive editor, The New York Times

Terence Smith’s Four Wars, Five Presidents is an intimate, sweeping, engrossing memoir of a New York Times reporter covering the world during the romantic era of foreign correspondents. Smith seemed to have been in every international hot spot in the late 20th century from Israel to Vietnam to Cyprus. Knowing him, I’d say he’s not a dare devil, and yet he came under fire from the Egyptians and was held hostage by the Turks. Smith’s account reads like a historical novel about life as a journalist in exotic places – including when he jumped ship and joined CBS News and covered the White House.

Lesley Stahl, journalist, CBS News and 60 Minutes

Terry Smith’s candid, personal story of one reporter’s life of adventure intersects with some of the biggest news events of the past 50 years, including wars in Vietnam and the Middle East, Henry Kissinger in the Nixon White House, fateful U.S. moves to help the Shah of Iran and tumultuous domestic politics. An up-close look at American journalism on its best days, at the legendary New York Times, CBS News and PBS’s NewsHour, by someone whose love for his work comes through on every page.

Judy Woodruff, The PBS NewsHour

Exceptionally informative, impressively organized and presented, Four Wars, Five Presidents provides an "insider" view to the life and work of a professional journalist. A combination of personal memoir and the history of journalism over the past few decades Four Wars, Five Presidents is highly recommended for community, college, and university library Contemporary Journalism and Contemporary American Biography collections.

Midwest Book Review

As a veteran television news reporter, Smith won Emmys in the late 1980s for his stories about nuclear power and Hurricane Hugo. His memoir covers his globetrotting, five-decade career reporting on major news events and reflects on changes in journalism that he experienced firsthand. The longtime foreign and political correspondent, son of legendary sports writer Red Smith ’27, worked for The New York Times, CBS and PBS, witnessing the shift from an era of print dominance to the heyday of broadcast networks to the digital revolution.

Notre Dame Magazine