Charles Waldo Bailey II (1929 – 2012) was an American journalist, newspaper editor and novelist.

He is best known for his co-penning of the political thriller "Seven Days in May" (1962), which became a 1964 motion picture adaptation starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. Born Charles Waldo Bailey, II, the native of New England was born into a diversely talented family, his father was a university administrator, his mother a musician. He followed his father's career path into journalism and after graduation from Harvard University, he landed a position with The Minneapolis Tribune, eventually becoming a Washington correspondent and editor of the paper. Bailey initiated a fruitful collaboration with Fletcher Knebel, which yielded the works No High Ground (1960), the cold-war inspired bestseller Seven Days in May and Convention (1964). He went onto serve as Washington editor for National Public Radio (1984 to 1987).