Departures of note

In October 1962, John A. Scali, then a correspondent for ABC News, was contacted by Aleksandr Fomin, a Soviet embassy official who was actually KGB Station Chief Alexander Feklisov. Fomin proposed a settlement to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Scali relayed the message to U.S. officials. Acting without government direction, Scali responded to new Soviet conditions with a warning that a U.S. invasion was only hours away, a statement that helped prompt the Soviets to settle the crisis quickly. His role became public in 1964.

Scali was born on April 27, 1918, in Canton, Ohio, and earned a bachelor's degree from Boston University. He joined ABC News in 1961 after a long career in journalism. In 1971, he left ABC to serve as a foreign affairs adviser to President Richard Nixon, and in 1973 he was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, serving until 1975. He then returned to ABC, where he worked until retiring in 1993.

Scali died on October 9, 1995, in Washington, D.C., at the age of 77.