Journalist John M. Hightower
John M. Hightower, the widely heralded journalist who forecast the truce negotiations in the Korean War and predicted the firing of Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur in a row with President Harry S. Truman over that conflict, has died.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning special correspondent for the Associated Press was 77 and died of cancer Monday in St. Vincent Hospital here.
Secretary of State Dean Rusk called Hightower “the most capable and best informed reporter I have ever seen.”
Hightower swept three top journalism awards in 1952, when he received the Pulitzer Prize for his 1951 reporting of diplomatic affairs, the Raymond Clapper Memorial Award for exceptionally meritorious work in reporting international affairs and the Sigma Delta Chi award for distinguished Washington correspondence.
His care and precision in reporting were illustrated by an anecdote told by colleagues: Covering an important international conference, Hightower obtained an inside story directly from the secretary of state. He reported it, however, only after verifying it with two other sources.
He retired from the AP in 1971 to teach journalism at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and to write a column for the New Mexican newspaper in Santa Fe, where he lived.
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