Early Life and Education
Joseph C. Wilson, IV, was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1949 to Joseph Charles Wilson, III, and Phyllis (Finnell) Wilson; he grew up in California and Europe (Wilson, The Politics of Truth 32–33). He was raised in a "proud Republican family" in which "there a long tradition of politics and service to the farm" and for which "olitics was a staple around the table" (Wilson, The Politics of Truth 31). His mother's uncle, James "Sunny Jim" Rolph, was mayor of San Francisco, California, from 1912 to 1931 and served as California's governor until his 1934 death in office (The Politics of Truth 31). Wilson's mother's brothers jokingly referred to noted conservative Barry Goldwater as "a bit liberal" (31). Military service was also a strong part of his family history. Both of Wilson's grandfathers served in the two world wars, his paternal grandfather receiving both the British Distinguished Flying Cross and the French Croix de Guerre for his service in World War I (32). Wilson's father Joe was a Marine pilot in World War II and narrowly escaped death by taking off immediately before the bombing of the aircraft carrier Franklin, in which 700 other American servicemen died (31).
In 1968, Wilson matriculated at the University of California, Santa Barbara, majoring, he once joked, in "history, volleyball, and surfing" and maintaining a "C" average (The Politics of Truth 32). He worked as a carpenter for five years after his 1971 graduation. Later, he became more serious about his education, winning a graduate fellowship and studying public administration. The Vietnam War protests of the late 1960s galvanized Wilson along with much of his generation and "pitted parents against kids in family just as it did in many households around the country" (The Politics of Truth 32).
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