The Late Marguerite Higgins |
By Do Je-hae
Staff Reporter
The Korean-language version of a book on the 1950-53 Korean War by U.S. journalist Marguerite Higgins (1920-1966) has recently been published for the first time, raising domestic awareness of this unique example of women's participation in the war.
Her 1951 memoir ``War in Korea" contains eyewitness front-line accounts of the war, including the major assaults at Incheon and Daejeon. She earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1951 and the Overseas Press Club Memorial Award for the reports.
``She risked red gunfire, bucked the red tape to bring you the true inside story of the Korean War,'' a U.S. magazine wrote upon the publication of the book.
Higgins covered World War II, the Korean War and also the Vietnam War, demonstrating that women could be just as courageous and professional as men at a time when a woman's place in society everywhere, even in the United States, was very much limited.
A Legend of War Correspondents
Despite her pioneering status as the first female winner of the Pulitzer Prize and her background in covering the Korean War, people here have little knowledge of the distinguished war correspondent.
The book was translated into Korean by Lee Hyeon-pyo of the culture ministry who formerly worked as the public relations officer with Korean embassies in the United States and Germany.
He embarked on the translation while he was seconded to the Korean Embassy in the United States from the Government Information Agency, with the aim of informing Koreans about this ``true friend of Korea'' during and after the war. She toured around her country to share her story of the war with the American public after leaving Korea.
Constant Front-line Presence
When the 29-year-old first landed in Korea, she was writing for the New York Herald Tribune. She had been working as its Tokyo bureau chief when she first heard of the invasion by communist North Korean troops into South Korea on June 25, 1950, and immediately jumped on a military plane to Seoul with three other male colleagues.
Upon her arrival, Lt. General Walton H. Walker, the first commander of the U.S. Eighth Army during the war, told her to leave the country, saying ``women did not belong on the war front.''
Nevertheless, she vigorously undertook her journalistic responsibilities, remaining a constant presence alongside the U.S troops on the frontlines from June to December 1950.
Enlisted men and fellow male journalists generally admired her for her vigorous pursuit of news under the most difficult of circumstances. A male reporter said, ``The girl certainly is brave. Or, maybe she is foolish. It's either one or the other. The other reporters trying to keep up with her daring are all having a terrible time of it.''
War Accounts Written on Site
What sets ``War in Korea'' apart from other books written on the subject is that it is one of the earliest accounts of the war ― it was written from the site of the attacks and skirmishes as they were happening and was published during the conflict, in 1951. The book became a best seller in the United States.
It contains interviews with the officers of all ranks of the U.S. troops as well as with then President Syngman Rhee, Korean journalists and soldiers of both the South and the North.
In particular, she was noted for engaging in exclusive interviews with Gen. Douglas MacArthur, leader of the United Nations Command forces from 1950 to 1951. He was a staunch supporter of Higgins' work, telling the Herald Tribune: ``Marguerite Higgins is held in (the) highest professional esteem by everyone.''
During the early days of the war, the general gave her a scoop when he informed her on a plane ride to Tokyo that he was thinking about asking U.S. President Truman ``to dispatch American ground forces to Korea'' in addition to the air and marine forces to successfully defend Korea.
The book also contains the newswoman's keen perceptions of various issues of peace, democracy, alliance of nations and patriotism, among others.
The 1951 book on War in Korea by U.S. combat correspondent Marguerite Higgins was a bestseller in the United States around the time of its publication. |
Commitment to War Coverage
After leaving Korea, Higgins continued her focus on international affairs, founding the Tribune's Moscow bureau, covering the Vietnam War and publishing another war memoir entitled ``Our Vietnam Nightmare.''
She also toured around the United States with her book ``War in Korea" and urged Americans to help South Koreans.
While on assignment in Laos, she contracted a tropical disease, which eventually led to her death at the age of 45 in 1966. She is buried in the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C.
Higgins was a devoted war correspondent until the very last days of her life. ``I wouldn't be here if there were no trouble. Trouble is news, and the gathering of news is my job,'' she once told a U.S. colonel who advised her to flee the battlefield from a Suwon airfield in Gyeonggi Province.
jhdo@koreatimes.co.kr
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