He studied history at Rutgers University. In 1951, he was a Fulbright scholar in France. He returned and attended Harvard University and Columbia University, where he graduated in 1956 in journalism. From 1956 to 1993, Viorst often contributed in various ways to publications such as The New Yorker, Foreign Affairs, Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. In 1968, he signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. His writing landed him on the master list of Nixon political opponents. Milton Viorst won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship in 1979 to research and write about Zionist and Islamic ideas and the mideast crisis. In the early 1980s, he grew interested in Middle Eastern policy and became a specialist in this field. He is the author of six books on the subject, including In the Shadow of The Prophet. On October 5, 1988, Viorst wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post erroneously dispersing doubt over whether the regime of Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons in a genocide of Iraq's Kurdish population. Despite confirmation from Secretary of StateGeorge Schultz, a month earlier, that poison gas had been employed to kill thousands of civilians, including children, Viorst maintained that it "may never have taken place" and argued for Congress not pass the Prevention of Genocide Act, which later failed. The campaign of extermination against the Kurds made for up to 100,000 casualties. Viorst is criticized for his misleading article in A Problem from Hell. He is married to the children's authorJudith Viorst, known for Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. They have three grown sons: Anthony Jacob Viorst, an attorney practicing in the Denver, Colorado area; Nicholas Nathan "Nick" Viorst, an Assistant District Attorney for New York County, and Alexander Noah Viorst, who finances affordable apartment properties around the country. In April 2016, Viorst published Zionism: The Birth and Transformation of an Ideal with St. Martin's Press.
