He graduated from the University of Utah in 1942, and served as a Japanese interpreter-translator on Saipan, Tinian, and Okinawa,[2] with a commission in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II.

"[5] In 1992, as part of the peace settlement established by the Chapultepec Peace Accords, the United Nations-sanctioned Truth Commission for El Salvador investigating human rights abuses committed during the war supervised the exhumations of the El Mozote remains by an Argentinian team of forensic specialists.

The Commission stated in its final report: "There is full proof that on 11 December 1981, in the village of El Mozote, units of the Atlácatl Battalion deliberately and systematically killed a group of more than 200 men, women and children, constituting the entire civilian population that they had found there the previous day and had since been holding prisoner" and "More than 500 identified victims perished at El Mozote and in the other villages.

"[6] Bonner's reporting suggested the total might be higher, citing the Human Rights Commission of El Salvador, but it noted that it was "not possible for an observer who was not present at the time of the massacre to determine independently how many people died or who killed them.

[9] According to Michael T. Kaufman, Irvine's "Accuracy in Media" "paved the way for the tide of conservative talk shows, Web sites and news programming that would follow decades later.