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Marguerite Higgins Hall (September 3, 1920January 3, 1966) was an American
reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
and war correspondent. Higgins covered World War II, the
Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...
, and the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietna ...
, and in the process advanced the cause of equal access for female war correspondents. She had a long career with the ''
New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
'' (1942–1963), and later, as a syndicated columnist for ''
Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...
'' (1963–1965). She was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Foreign Correspondence awarded in 1951 for her coverage of the Korean War.


Early life and education

Higgins was born on September 3, 1920, in
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
, where her father, Lawrence Higgins, was working at a shipping company. Her father, an Irish-American, met his future wife and Higgins' mother, Marguerite de Godard Higgins (who was of French aristocratic descent) in WWI Paris. Shortly afterward, they moved to Hong Kong, where their daughter was born. The family moved back to the United States three years later and settled in Oakland. Higgins' father lost his job during the 1929 stock market crash, which promoted anxiety for the family. In her autobiography, ''News is a Singular Thing'', Higgins wrote that it was the worst day of her childhood: "It was on that day that I began worrying about how I'd earn a living when I grew up. I was then eight years old. Like millions of others brought up in the thirties, I was haunted by the fear that there might be no place for me in our society." Regardless, the family managed to get by. Higgins' father eventually got a job at a bank and her mother was able to get Higgins a scholarship to the Anna Head School in Berkeley, in exchange for taking a position as a French teacher.


University of California, Berkeley

Higgins started at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
in the fall of 1937 where she was a member of the
Gamma Phi Beta Gamma Phi Beta (, also known as GPhi or Gamma Phi) is an international college sorority. It was founded in Syracuse University in 1874, and was the first of the Greek organizations to call itself a sorority. The main archive URL iThe Baird's Ma ...
sorority and wrote for ''The Daily Californian'', serving as an editor in 1940. After graduating from Berkeley in 1941 with a
B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
in French, she headed to New York with a single suitcase and seven dollars in her pocket with the intent of getting a newspaper job. She planned to give herself a year to find a job, and if that failed, she would return to California to be a French teacher. Having arrived in late summer, she applied to the master's program at the
Columbia University School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism s ...
.


Columbia University

She walked into the ''New York Herald Tribune'' city office after arriving in New York in August 1941. She met with the city editor at the time, L.L. "Engel" Engelking, and showed him her clippings. While he didn't offer her a job at the time, he told her to come back in a month and maybe he'd have a position for her. She decided to stay in New York and studied at Columbia. While at Columbia, she had to fight her way in. Having tried to get in just days before the program began, the university said that all the slots allotted to women were filled. After multiple pleadings and meetings, the university said they would consider her if she was able to get all her transcripts and five letters of recommendations from her previous professors. Instantly, she got on the phone to call her father to arrange for all the materials from Berkeley to be sent to Columbia. A student dropped out of the program right before the first day and Higgins was in. Upset that the coveted campus correspondent for the ''New York Herald Tribune'' had been filled by her classmate Murray Morgan, she did her best to outdo her classmates, most of them men. According to one of her professors, John Tebbel, her beauty matched her brains, being one of the best of her class: "Even in a class full of stars, she stood out. Maggie was positively dazzling, with a blonde beauty that hardly concealed her equally dazzling intelligence. She was all hard-edged ambition. In those days women had to be tougher to succeed in journalism, a male-dominated and essentially chauvinistic business, and Maggie carried toughness to the outer edge, propelled by driving ambition, which was soon apparent to us all." In 1942, Higgins replaced her classmate as the campus correspondent for the Tribune, which led to a full-time reporting position.


Career


Europe: WWII

Eager to become a war correspondent, Higgins persuaded the management of the ''
New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
'' to send her to Europe in 1944, after working for the paper for two years. After being stationed in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
and
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, she was reassigned to Germany in March 1945. She witnessed the liberation of the
Dachau concentration camp , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...
in April 1945 and received a
U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...
campaign ribbon for her assistance during the surrender by its S.S. guards. She later covered the Nuremberg war trials and the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
's blockade of Berlin. In 1947, she became the Chief of the '' Tribune's'' bureau in Berlin.Jones, Michele Kathleen. “Bias and Objectivity in the Cold War Reporting of Marguerite Higgins.” University of Florida, 2003.


Korea

In 1950, Higgins was named chief of the ''Tribune''s Tokyo bureau, and she received a cold welcome by her colleagues in Tokyo. She later learned that a recently published novel by her colleague in Berlin had created a hostile impression. The novel, ''Shriek With Pleasure'', depicted a female reporter in Berlin who stole stories and slept with sources. The gossip at the time speculated that the novelist, Toni Howard, based the main character on Higgins, raising suspicion and hostility among Tokyo staffers. Shortly after her arrival in
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, war broke out in
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and Sout ...
, she came to the country as one of the first reporters on the spot. On 28 June, Higgins and three of her colleagues witnessed the Hangang Bridge bombing, and were trapped on the north bank of Han River as a result. After crossing the river by raft and coming to the U.S. military HQ in
Suwon Suwon (, ) is the capital and largest city of Gyeonggi-do, South Korea's most populous province which surrounds Seoul, the national capital. Suwon lies about south of Seoul. It is traditionally known as "The City of Filial Piety". With a populati ...
on the next day, she was quickly ordered out of the country by General Walton Walker, who argued that women did not belong at the front and the military had no time to worry about making separate accommodations for them. Higgins made a personal appeal to Walker's superior officer, General
Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was ...
, who subsequently sent a telegram to the ''Tribune'' stating: "Ban on women correspondents in Korea has been lifted. Marguerite Higgins is held in highest professional esteem by everyone." This was a major breakthrough for all female war correspondents. Her initial banishment from Korea and MacArthur's subsequent reversal allowing Higgins to remain at the front made headlines in the United States and made her into a bit of a celebrity. While in Korea, the ''Tribune'' sent over
Homer Bigart Homer William Bigart (October 25, 1907 – April 16, 1991) was an American reporter who worked for the ''New York Herald Tribune'' from 1929 to 1955 (later known as the ''International Herald Tribune'') and for ''The New York Times'' from 1955 to ...
, to cover the war in Korea, and he told Higgins to go back to Tokyo. She refused and the Tribune allowed her to stay, which would lead to a competitive feud between the two that would result in both receiving the 1951
Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on international affairs, including United Nations correspondence. In its first six years (1942–1947), it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic R ...
. They shared the honor with four other male war correspondents.


Covering World Affairs

As a result of her reporting from Korea, Higgins received the 1950 George Polk Memorial Award from the
Overseas Press Club The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member, as was the war correspondent Peggy Hull. The club seeks to maintain ...
. She contributed along with other major journalistic and political figures to the ''
Collier's ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Collie ...
'' magazine collaborative special issue '' Preview of the War We Do Not Want'', with an article entitled "Women of Russia". Higgins continued to cover foreign affairs throughout the rest of her life, interviewing world leaders such as
Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from ...
,
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev ...
, and
Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 2 ...
. In 1955, she established and became chief of the ''Tribune''s
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
bureau and was the first American correspondent allowed back into the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
after
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
's death.


Vietnam

In 1963, she joined ''
Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...
'' and was assigned to cover
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...
, where she "visited hundreds of villages", interviewed most of the major figures, and wrote a book entitled ''Our Vietnam Nightmare''. While in Vietnam, another feud developed between Higgins and
David Halberstam David Halberstam (April 10, 1934 April 23, 2007) was an American writer, journalist, and historian, known for his work on the Vietnam War, politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, Korean War, and later ...
, a ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' correspondent who was assigned to replace Bigart. Her battle was not for scoops or headlines this time. Instead, it was based on the ideological differences and ego between an experienced correspondent, Higgins, and a young Halberstam. As a war correspondent with two decades under her belt, Higgins' anti-Communist sentiments were well established. There were many Buddhist protests against the Diem regime, which she believed were set up by communists. This contradicted Halberstam's views and reporting, who thought of Higgins as a "past-her-prime sell-out whose anti-Communist views rose to the level of propaganda." Halberstam and many of the young correspondents in Vietnam at the time opposed the Diem regime and reported a negative view of the war. Higgins believed they did not have a real understanding of the war and oftentimes called them Rover Boys, who never ventured outside of Saigon to the countryside to see what was going on. The Higgins-Halberstam rivalry never seemed to end, as Halberstam would continue to criticize her after her death in 1966.


Criticism in the workplace

From a young age, Higgins was competitive, a habit that continued well into the newsroom and reporting abroad. One of her classmates at Columbia, Flora Lewis, recalled that Higgins was persistent. After receiving a class assignment for a story, Higgins made it to the library before her classmates and checked out all the relevant resources available. She remarked that, that was what female journalists at the time had to do: "I feel that people critical of Maggie and her so-called dirty tricks forget just how hard it was in those days to be a woman in a man's world. The odds were enormous. Even women were against you. They could be so cruel in such subtle ways... Ambition was a dirty word then. Careers were just something you fooled around with until the right man came along. Maggie didn't know that game. She was earnest and played for keeps." Faculty and peers who knew Higgins claimed that she would use her "sex appeal" to get difficult interviews or stories. Columbia faculty member John Tebbel said that she used her charms to get a police commissioner to give one of the few interviews he's ever given. Higgins was eager and willing to do what was necessary to get the story. Some of her male colleagues at the time also accused her of going so far as to sleep or perform sexual favors for interviews or information. There is no proof to substantiate these accusations, and other high-achieving female correspondents also experienced this sexism in the workplace. At the time, journalism was a male-dominated industry with double standards. Men's sexual behaviors and habits were deemed irrelevant to their work, nor were they criticized for sleeping around to get information or stories. Men saw the world of reporting as their own territory and were oftentimes not willing to share with women entering the field, according to Carl Mydans, a former photographer for ''
Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...
''. He said: "That a woman would invade the war area -- their most sacred domain -- and then turn out to be equally talented and sometimes more courageous was something that couldn't be accepted gracefully." Ambitious and high-achieving female journalists were often accused of sleeping around or using their sex appeal to get the best assignments, sources or to boost their career. This became prominent gossip with little regard to its truth. Higgins was well aware of what her male peers were saying to her, but she refused to pay it any attention and continued to do her job.


Personal life

While at Berkeley, she met her first husband, Stanley Moore, a teaching assistant in the philosophy department. They were reportedly attracted to each other, but no relationship formed while in Berkeley. When Higgins moved to New York, she became reacquainted with Moore, who was then a philosophy professor at
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher l ...
. They married In 1942. He was soon drafted into
WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, and their relationship fell apart, ending in a divorce finalized in 1947. In 1952, she married William Evens Hall, a U.S. Air Force major general, whom she met while bureau chief in Berlin. They were married in Reno and settled down for a bit in Marin County. Their first daughter, born in 1953, died five days after a premature birth. In 1958, she gave birth to a son, named Lawrence Higgins Hall and in 1959, a daughter, Linda Marguerite Hall. By 1963, Hall had retired from the air-force and went to work for an electronics firm, with a weekly commute to New York, returning to their home in Washington, D.C., by Friday.


Death and legacy

When Higgins was six months old, she came down with malaria. A doctor told the family to take her to a mountain resort in present-day
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...
to recover, which she did. Decades later, Higgins returned from assignment in South Vietnam in November 1965, where Higgins contracted
leishmaniasis Leishmaniasis is a wide array of clinical manifestations caused by parasites of the trypanosome genus ''Leishmania''. It is generally spread through the bite of phlebotomine sandflies, '' Phlebotomus'' and ''Lutzomyia'', and occurs most fr ...
, a disease that led to her death on January 3, 1966, aged 45, in Washington, D.C. She is interred at
Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...
with her husband.


In popular culture

Fictional character based on Marguerite Higgins. * On-screen:
Megan Fox Megan Denise Fox (born May 16, 1986) is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the family film '' Holiday in the Sun'' (2001), which was followed by numerous supporting roles in film and television, such as the teen musical comedy ...
in
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
n movie ''
The Battle of Jangsari ''The Battle of Jangsari'' () is a 2019 South Korean action-war film co-directed by Kwak Kyung-taek and Kim Tae-hoon, starring Kim Myung-min, Megan Fox, and Choi Min-ho in the lead roles. The second installment in a trilogy following ''Operatio ...
'' * In Phil Pisani's book "Maggie's Wars" the main character is based on the life of Marguerite Higgins. * In Nathan Hale's graphic novel "Cold War Correspondent" a fictionalized version of Marguerite Higgins appears as the narrator.


Honors

Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of th ...
Robert P. Patterson Robert Porter Patterson Sr. (February 12, 1891 – January 22, 1952) was an American judge who served as Under Secretary of War under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and U.S. Secretary of War under President Harry S. Truman. He was a US circu ...
honored war correspondents, including Higgins, at an event in Washington, on November 23, 1946. On September 2, 2010, South Korea posthumously awarded Order of Diplomatic Service Merit ( ko, 수교훈장), one of its highest honors, to Marguerite Higgins. In a ceremony in the capital, her daughter and grandson accepted the Heunginjang, a national medal. The award cites Higgins' bravery in publicizing South Korea's struggle for survival in the early 1950s. In 2016, South Korean Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs awarded
Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...
's
Heroine A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ''actor''), ''hero' ...
of May.Award Announcement - South Korean Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs
/ref>


Books

* * ''News is a Singular Thing'', 1955 * ''Red Plush and Black Bread'', 1955 * ''Cold War Correspondent (Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #11): A Korean War Tale'', 2021 *


References


External links



at ArlingtonCemetery.net, an unofficial website

at Syracuse University *
"War In Korea: The Report Of A Woman Combat Correspondent"
@
the Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

My God! There Are Still Some Left
New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 18, 1950 {{DEFAULTSORT:Higgins, Marguerite 1920 births 1966 deaths American people of the Korean War American women war correspondents American war correspondents of World War II War correspondents of the Korean War American war correspondents of the Vietnam War Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting winners Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Deaths from leishmaniasis Infectious disease deaths in Washington, D.C. American women journalists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American writers American women in the Vietnam War American women civilians in World War II Women in war in East Asia American expatriates in Hong Kong Writers from Oakland, California