Ben Bradlee was born in 1921 in Boston and graduated from Harvard University before joining the Navy during World War II. After the war, he attended Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Bradlee worked for the CIA's propaganda unit in the 1950s before becoming the executive editor of the Washington Post in 1968. As editor, he oversaw Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's reporting on the Watergate scandal. Bradlee challenged the government over the Pentagon Papers and helped transform the Post into a nationally influential newspaper. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 and retired from the Post in 1991.