Early Life
Oltmans was born into a wealthy family with roots in the Dutch East Indies. During the Second World War he was a member of the Dutch Resistance. "We blew up a German train," Oltmans told the Dutch daily Reformatorisch Dagblad in 2003 "Hitler called me a terrorist, but I saw myself as a freedom fighter."
He studied at the prestigious Nyenrode Business University (1946) and Yale University (1948), without graduating. Originally intend on a career with the diplomatic corps of the foreign service, he ended up working in press offices in the Netherlands (1953–1955). He married in 1955 and worked as a free lance reporter in Rome in 1956. There he befriended Indonesian president Sukarno, which started his remarkable career as a controversial journalist.
Convinced that a well connected and informed individual could play a decisive role in the international political arena, he assumed a pro-active part in global political developments, becoming both a news reporter and news maker.
Read more about this topic: Willem Oltmans
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