Tom Lambert; Veteran Foreign Correspondent

Tom Lambert, veteran foreign correspondent who was described by a frustrated Nikita Khruschev as “the garbage collector” for his ability to find and publish suppressed facts despite censorship in the former Soviet Union, has died. He was 83.

Lambert, who wrote for The Times for 13 years, died Sunday in his home in Fairfax, Va., of cancer, his daughter, Mikel Lambert Rowe, said Tuesday.

He joined The Times as diplomatic correspondent in its Washington bureau in 1963, and later served as bureau chief in Tel Aviv, London and Johannesburg before retiring in 1976.

Lambert then joined the Carter Administration in Washington as assistant deputy secretary in public affairs for the Defense Department. After Carter’s defeat, Lambert stayed on at Defense, retiring permanently in 1985.

Born in Spokane, Wash., Lambert earned a degree in philosophy at Gonzaga University, where he befriended another well-known alumnus, Bing Crosby. Lambert began his journalism career on the Spokane Daily Chronicle and the Wallace (Idaho) Press-Times.

He earned the Purple Heart when he served as a Navy public relations officer in the Pacific during World War II.

After the war, Lambert joined the Associated Press’ Tokyo bureau, covering China’s civil war and the Korean War.

In 1951, he moved to Time magazine and soon went to Bonn, covering occupied Germany. Later he transferred to Time’s Washington bureau.

He joined the New York Herald-Tribune in 1956, covering the Pentagon and later the diplomatic corps in its Washington bureau. He was assigned to Moscow in 1958, writing about the Krushchev regime in the last group of correspondents kept under strict censorship by the communist government. During his tenure there, he covered the downing of America’s U-2 spy plane and the imprisonment of its pilot, Francis Gary Powers.

Among his many journalistic awards was the prestigious Raymond J. Clapper Memorial Award presented to him at the White House in 1969 for his coverage of diplomatic stories for The Times.

In addition to his daughter, of Fairfax, Va., Lambert is survived by two grandsons, Patrick and Timothy Rowe, also of Fairfax. His wife, Helen Grigware Lambert, died two years ago.

The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to the Hospice of Northern Virginia, 6400 Arlington Blvd., Suite 1000, Falls Church, Va. 22042.