Military service During
World War II, Freeman saw active service in the Middle East, North Africa, Italy and North West Europe. He enlisted in the
Coldstream Guards, was commissioned in the
Rifle Brigade in 1940 He was appointed
MBE in 1943.
Political career After Freeman's return to Britain, he was selected as Labour candidate for
Watford and was elected as a Member of Parliament in the
1945 election. In September 1947, Freeman was appointed Vice-President of the
Army Council, the supreme administering body of the
British Army. Freeman was originally on the
Bevanite left wing of the party, although also supported by
Hugh Dalton, who liked to go 'talent-spotting' among young MPs. He rose quickly through the ministerial ranks, but resigned along with Aneurin Bevan and
Harold Wilson in 1951 over
National Health Service charges. He stood down as an
MP at the
1955 general election.
Journalism and public career Freeman became a presenter of
Panorama and was editor of the
New Statesman from 1961 to 1965. He also presented the
BBC Television interview programme
Face to Face. In 1962, Freeman described
Richard Nixon, then bidding to become
Governor of California, as “a man of no principle whatsoever except a willingness to sacrifice everything in the cause of Dick Nixon”. Later in the pages of the
New Statesman he portrayed Nixon as "a discredited and outmoded purveyor of the irrational and inactive" whose 1964 defeat would be a "victory for decency."Following this, the two became friends and Freeman "was the only Ambassador invited to the White House for social occasions during his first term". Kissinger said he "became one of my closest friends; that friendship has survived both our terms in office." During Freeman's time in Washington, he also became a staunch fan of the
Washington Redskins. Freeman became Chairman of
London Weekend Television Ltd in 1971, serving until his retirement in 1984. During this period, he wrote an article in 1981 which criticised what he saw as the heavy-handed, interventionist broadcasting policy of the British government, expressed in the ethos of the
Independent Broadcasting Authority, and expressed views that would soon come to be closely associated with
Margaret Thatcher and the deregulatory, laissez-faire new school of
Conservative Party politics. He was director of several other companies in this period and President of
ITN (1976–1981). From 1985 to 1990, Freeman was Visiting Professor of
International Relations at the
University of California, Davis. Freeman was elected an honorary fellow of
Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1968. ==Later life==