The Life of Groundbreaking Journalist Maggie Higgins

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Life of Groundbreaking Journalist Maggie Higgins

Podcast: All Of It (WNYC)
Episode Date: March 22, 2024
Host: Kusha Navadar (in for Alison Stewart)
Guest: Jeanette Conant (biographer, author of Fierce: The Life and Legend of War Correspondent Maggie Higgins)
Producer: Jordan Loff

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Episode Overview

This episode highlights the life and legacy of trailblazing war correspondent Maggie Higgins. Through a conversation with Maggie's biographer, Jeanette Conant, listeners explore Higgins’ remarkable path from outsider to pioneering journalist, her dogged determination to report alongside men in some of the 20th century’s most significant conflicts, and the challenges and triumphs that defined her career. The discussion situates Higgins’ experiences within the contexts of gender, competition, generational shifts in journalism, and the costs of a relentless drive for excellence.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Roots of Maggie Higgins’ Drive and Distinct Perspective

[02:13–03:48]

• Background: Born in 1920, raised in multiple cultures (Hong Kong, California), Maggie faced early isolation and language challenges.
  • Quote (Jeanette Conant, 02:45): “She spoke a couple of languages and she had a great facility for language. So she started out as bilingual. She studied German, French from an early age...”
• Outsider Perspective: Her "Irish French, Hong Kong heritage" and modest upbringing led to a “chip on her shoulder,” fueling her need to overachieve.
• Education Barrier: Gained entry to Columbia Journalism School due to a last-minute spot, highlighting early barriers for women.

2. Fierce Competitiveness—Asset and Flaw

[03:48–05:03]

• Drive to Prove Herself: Focused on outperforming male colleagues rather than aligning with women of her generation.
• Risks and Relationships: Tirelessness and recklessness helped her get exclusive stories but sometimes made her prickly and isolated from peers.
  • Quote (Jeanette Conant, 03:59): “She was absolutely tireless. And she was reckless in the sense that she would take risks that they wouldn’t to get stories to beat them.”

3. Breaking into Journalism During WWII

[05:03–06:21]

• Chance and Audacity: Arrived in NYC with $7, chose the Herald Tribune by happenstance, and refused to let setbacks stop her.
  • Quote (Jeanette Conant, 05:08): “She went straight out of college... with $7 in her pocket and her fierce ambition. She went straight to the New York Herald Tribune... and she asked for a job.”
• Persistence: Used school connections to become campus correspondent, leveraging every opportunity.

4. The Dachau Scoop: Defining a Journalist’s MO

[06:21–07:14]

• Epic Risk-Taking: Defied orders to cover Dachau’s liberation, convincing a fellow reporter to cross enemy lines for the scoop.
  • Quote (Jeanette Conant, 06:30): “...showing how she was told that she couldn’t go there... So she promptly went off and found a young Stars and Stripes correspondent... and so they dashed across occupied territory ahead of the American forces because she wanted to get there first.”
• Emerging Pattern: “Always in search of a fearless male correspondent, a jeep and a way to travel ahead of the forces.”

5. Learning from War: WWII to Korea

[07:14–08:36]

• Signature Style: From Europe’s liberation to Korea, she sought exclusives by following (and sometimes exceeding) the men’s front-line risks.
• Pulitzer-Worthy Coverage: Her firsthand reporting after physically grueling experiences, including a 14-mile walk from Seoul, established her reputation.
  • Quote (Jeanette Conant, 08:36): “...Failure to reach the front would undermine all my arguments that I was entitled to the same breaks as any man.”

6. Barriers as a Woman and Turning Them into Advantages

[09:10–12:49]

• Institutional Obstacles: Despite proven capability, was thrown out of Korea for “no facilities for ladies”—only to be reinstated after appealing to Gen. MacArthur.
  • Quote (Jeanette Conant, 09:10): “...even after she was one of the first four correspondents into Korea... she was thrown out of Korea by a general who said it was no place for a woman.”
• Tough Rivalries: Notably with Homer Biggert, with both using each other's presence as motivation to report harder and better—as well as media coverage that highlighted gender.
  • Quote (Jeanette Conant, 10:28): “There was tremendous animosity. He, Halbert Biggert, was more than a decade older... and he ordered her home and he was going to take over and she wouldn't leave...”

7. Gender Dynamics in Reporting and Risk

[12:10–12:49]

• Leveraging Gender When Needed: While Higgins disliked her gender being the story, she pragmatically accepted attention if it helped keep her at the front.
  • Quote (Jeanette Conant, 12:15): “I don't think Maggie Higgins wanted coverage for being a woman, but she would take it if it meant she could stay, wouldn't turn it down…”

8. The Generational Shift: Vietnam Coverage

[12:49–15:18]

• Ideological Divide: Covered Vietnam with a Cold War anti-communist lens; clashed with younger, less dogmatic reporters (“The Rover Boys”—in particular, David Halberstam).
  • Quote (Jeanette Conant, 12:59): “She started covering Vietnam in 54 as an extension, really, of the Korean War. And she carried that Cold War mentality forward. But by the early 60s, a new generation was coming in…”
  • Quote (Jeanette Conant, 14:47): “The Rover Boys, as she condescendingly dubbed this younger generation of male reporters...”

9. Final Years and Tragic Early Death

[15:18–16:24]

• Unyielding Commitment: Contracted a fatal illness in Vietnam, refused to seek medical help until it was too late due to dedication to her work.
  • Quote (Jeanette Conant, 15:28): “She probably could have lived had she not been so stubborn, but she had been incredibly resilient in the past…”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On breaking barriers at the Herald Tribune:
  • “...with $7 in her pocket and her fierce ambition. She went straight to the New York Herald Tribune... and she asked for a job.” (Jeanette Conant, 05:08)
• On the riskiness that defined her reporting:
  • “She promptly went off and found a young Stars and Stripes correspondent who had his own jeep and convinced him to take her [to Dachau].” (Jeanette Conant, 06:30)
• On using gender pragmatically:
  • “If being a woman is going to be a problem, I'm going to take it when it's an advantage.” (Interviewer, paraphrasing, 12:10–12:15)
• On her rivalry with men in the field:
  • “It became a joke that she was going to get Homer Biggert and all the men killed because she kept going to the front with the troops to get exclusives while they were back in the bureau.” (Jeanette Conant, 12:15)
• On her “genius for bad publicity”:
  • “...if people tried to congratulate her or sort be kind to her, she could just be too tough, too mean, too unrelenting, because she just felt she had to constantly, constantly prove herself.” (Jeanette Conant, 03:59)
• On her final days:
  • “...she wouldn't go to the hospital. She went home and she kept filing. She was so determined to keep up her three times a week column.” (Jeanette Conant, 15:28)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction & Context: [00:41–01:02]
• Overview of Maggie Higgins’ Life: [01:02–02:13]
• Early Life & Outsider Status: [02:13–03:48]
• Competitiveness in the Field: [03:48–05:03]
• Breaking into the Herald Tribune: [05:03–06:21]
• Dachau Liberation Coverage: [06:21–07:14]
• Legacy of WWII Reporting: [07:14–08:36]
• Early Korea War Experience & Gender Barriers: [08:36–12:10]
• Rivalry with Homer Biggert: [10:12–12:49]
• Adapting to (and confronting) Gender Dynamics: [12:10–12:49]
• Vietnam Coverage & Generational Shift: [12:49–15:18]
• Higgins’ Final Weeks and Death: [15:18–16:24]

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Conclusion

The episode paints a vivid portrait of Maggie Higgins as a relentless, pioneering journalist who battled institutional sexism, professional rivalries, and the dangers of war zones with equal tenacity. Her life story is both an inspiration and a lens through which to examine the evolving roles of women in journalism and the cost of blazing new trails. Jeanette Conant’s reflections bring both nuance and reverence to Higgins’ legacy, illuminating a figure whose impact is still deeply felt—even if her story isn’t yet a household one.

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For anyone interested in women’s history, journalism, or the untold stories of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, this episode offers an insightful, engaging narrative of determination and legacy.

Transcript

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[Alison Stewart]

You're listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Kusha Navadar in for Alison Stewart. To round out this first hour of Women's History Month, Producer Picks, producer Jordan Loff is going to tell us a little bit more about this conversation she produced with biographer Jeannette Conant. Jeanette's latest book focuses on the life of trailblazing female war correspondent Maggie Higgins. Here's Jordan to tell us more.

[Jordan Loff]

I had never heard of Maggie Higgins before producing this conversation. And after reading the biography, I couldn't believe that her life hadn't been turned into a movie. Then after I met Jeanette Conant, she told me that Nora Ephron had been trying to do just that for years. Too bad it never happened. Maggie Higgins was a woman who fought tooth and nail to report right alongside the men in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. She was part of the first group of reporters to see the concentration camp at Dachau. And she was the first woman ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for foreign correspondence for her work in Korea. She was also, it must be said, very beautiful. Sometimes she was able to use that beauty to her advantage to help her get a scoop to play off sources who underestimated her. But it also convinced some of her male colleagues that she was, quote, advancing on her back. And I think you can catch what they meant by that. Maggie's exciting life and her tragic early death are all recounted in the new biography from Jeanette Conant, Fierce the Life and Legend of war correspondent Maggie Higgins. Here's Alison's conversation with Jeanette.

[Interviewer / Host]

She was born in 1920. The family spent a few early years in Hong Kong before moving back to California. She ended up spending some time living with relatives and friends and being educated there before coming back to the States. And it led her to not feeling fully comfortable with speaking or writing English for many years. She wrote. Maggie was conscious, you wrote. Maggie was conscious of her bizarre background, what she took to calling her Irish French, Hong Kong heritage. How did this affect her career going forward? How did it affect her journalism if she wasn't necessarily the strongest writer?

[Jeanette Conant]

Well, she spoke a couple of languages and she had a great facility for language. So she started out as bilingual. She studied German, French from an early age because she wanted to be a war correspondent. She could pick up languages, Russian, very quickly. So she knew that was an advantage. And she kept that up knowing that that was an advantage. And that is how she got sent abroad at a very young age to cover World War II at the age of 23. She also. She was an outsider. And that chip on her shoulder of being an outsider. She came from a poor background. She was a scholarship kid all through high school and college. She was a gifted athlete. That kept her there. She was a gifted student. But that sense that she had to work harder, go the extra mile, that nothing would be given to her, was just a fundamental part of her personality and also, I think, an underlying insecurity. The sense that she had to constantly prove herself, prove herself worthy.

[Interviewer / Host]

That is what drove her in terms of her competitiveness. What was an instance when her competitiveness worked to her advantage, and what's an instance when it probably hurt her?

[Jeanette Conant]

Well, her competitiveness helped her in the sense that, in that women weren't allowed. She was so competitive that she completely ignored the women of her generation, set her sights on the men and the best of the male journalists, and she wanted to go toe to toe with them. And because she was so competitive, she was willing to work harder, long. She was absolutely tireless. And she was reckless in the sense that she would take risks that they wouldn't to get stories to beat them. But she carried everything in her life a little bit too far. And the extreme of her competitiveness, a certain lack of generosity, I think, with her colleagues. In the end, a colleague said she had a genius for bad publicity. If people tried to congratulate her or sort be kind to her, she could just be too tough, too mean, too unrelenting, because she just felt she had to constantly, constantly prove herself.

[Interviewer / Host]

How did she manage to get hired at the New York Herald Tribune in the first place?

[Jeanette Conant]

Well, she went straight out of college. She arrived in New York, as the story goes, with $7 in her pocket and her fierce ambition. She went straight to the New York Herald Tribune because when she got out of Penn Station, she asked for the nearest newspaper and the paper directed her to the building up the block. So it was pure luck that she walked into that building first and she walked into the city Room, and she asked for a job. And she was pretty much laughed out of there, except the city editor sort of complained under his breath that with the draft taking so many of the men from the paper, he might be forced to eventually hire a woman on that sort of slender reed of hope. She was determined to stay in the city, and she got herself into the Columbia Journalism School, which in those days had a quota on the number of women allowed, and that was 11. But at the last minute, one woman canceled, didn't make it, and Maggie squeezed in literally five days before school started. And while she was there, she managed to get herself hired as the campus correspondent for the Herald tribute. And then once she had her foot in the door, she would not be dislodged.

[Interviewer / Host]

Jeanette, you begin the book with a description of Maggie's experience covering the liberation of Dachau concentration camp. Why did you want to begin the book this way?

[Jeanette Conant]

Because it was an incredible scoop. It was one of the most famous dispatches in the annals of World War II. And she was incredibly young, and so opening the book, showing how she was told that she couldn't go there. It was across enemy lines. She asked for permission for the army to take her in a small spotter plane. The general told her it was a good way to get killed. So she promptly went off and found a young Stars and Stripes correspondent who had his own jeep and convinced him to take her. And so they dashed across occupied territory ahead of the American forces because she wanted to get there first. And that pretty much encapsulates Maggie Higgins entire mo.

[Interviewer / Host]

What did she learn from her experience covering World War II and the aftermath in Berlin that she took forward with her to covering Korea, which was really a violent, violent war. I think sometimes people forget that.

[Jeanette Conant]

Well, Peter Fursch, the young journalist that she teamed up with to cover Dachau, they did indeed get there first. And they opened the gates of Dachau, and they had a liberation story that was just momentous and moving, and it made her a star overnight. And then over the weeks that followed, and as Europe just fell and they saw all kinds of atrocities and more concentration camps and the arrest of all of the Nazi leaders, she Furst, took chance after chance. They broke the rules. They raced ahead of the American forces. They went with expeditionary teams, and they got all kinds of exclusives, and she made headlines, and that would just inaugurate her style, and she would carry that forward. And so she would always be in search of a fearless male correspondent, a jeep and a way to travel Ahead of the forces. And that's what she did in Korea. And it won her a Pulitzer. And the guy that she traveled with, a fabulous Chicago Daily News reporter named Kai's Beach.

[Interviewer / Host]

There's a quote from one of her own recollections of her time going to Korea in your book. And she writes. For me, getting to Korea is more than just a story. It was a personal crusade. I felt that my position as a correspondent was at stake here. Represented one of the world's most noted newspapers as its correspondent in the area. I could not let the fact that I was a woman jeopardize my newspaper's coverage of the war. Failure to reach the front would undermine all my arguments that I was entitled to the same breaks as any man. They wanted to keep her off the front line.

[Jeanette Conant]

Not only did they want to keep her off the front lines, but even after she was one of the first four correspondents into Korea and covered the fall of Seoul and walked 14 miles back alone through rice paddies and mountain paths to. To file her story, which was a huge exclusive for the Herald Tribune, which was then picked up by the Washington Post. And she would file for both papers throughout the war. Even after all of that, she was thrown out of Korea by a general who said it was no place for a woman. And his reason was that there were no facilities for ladies, which, you know, absolutely infuriated Maggie because, you know, the nearest facility was the nearest bush. And the idea that they would throw her out for that reason. And she appealed to, to General MacArthur and he had her reinstated. And the headline which was his cable saying we hold Marguerite Higgins in the highest esteem and she was reinstated to the battlefront really made her probably one of the most famous war correspondents of her day.

[Interviewer / Host]

The Tribune sent another reporter to cover the war alongside her, a veteran correspondent, Homer Biggert. And they ended up winning this Pulitzer together for the coverage of the war. They seemed to pretty much hate each other. What was the source of the animosity? I don't know if hate's too strong a word, but certainly there was animosity.

[Jeanette Conant]

There was tremendous animosity. He, Halbert Biggert, was more than a decade older. He was a very seasoned World War II correspondent who'd flown umpteen combat missions and already won a Pulitzer for that. And then they brought him into Korea, but she was already there and he was a bachelor, unmarried, as I said, you know, really a hard bitten news correspondent. And he ordered her home and he was going to take over and she wouldn't leave she felt that she had earned the right to be there. She had covered, as I said, the fall of Seoul and all of the early battles, which were not only incredibly bloody but incredibly depressing because the South Korean army and the few support troops that were there that were American were very undermanned and under trained and overwhelmed. And it was retreat after retreat with all kinds of young soldiers dying because of inexperience and lack of equipment. And she had done a very good job of covering that. And she wouldn't leave. So they fought terribly. And then all of a sudden that started being covered in all the magazines. Time and Newsweek started covering this intrepid young female correspondent that wouldn't leave the front and was so brave. And that drove Homer Biggert crazy that she got coverage for being a woman. I don't think Maggie Higgins wanted coverage for being a woman, but she would take it if it meant she could stay, wouldn't turn it down, and so she stayed. And they just covered oppos ends of the war. And the Herald Tribune quickly realized that having two star correspondence gave them the best coverage, and it did. And they won all of the prizes for the Korean War because the two of them were determined to outdo each other.

[Interviewer / Host]

So I guess the idea was, if being a woman is going to be a problem, I'm going to take it when it's an advantage.

[Jeanette Conant]

And it actually got scarier than that because in her determination to beat Homer Biggert, who was a legendary war correspondent and idolized by all the male correspondents, she took incredible. And you know, it became a joke that she was going to get Homer Biggert and all the men killed because she kept going to the front with the troops to get exclusives while they were back in the bureau. And while the newspaper loved it because it made headlines, I think the competition did drive her to take very, very dangerous risks.

[Interviewer / Host]

What changed about the perception of Maggie Higgins during the Vietnam War, when she wasn't the upstart, when she wasn't the young gal reporter, there was a huge.

[Jeanette Conant]

Gener shift at Vietnam. You have to understand that Maggie started covering Vietnam after the fall of Europe. She had seen the Russians march into Poland and Czechoslovakia, take over those fledgling democratic governments, kill the leaders, oppress the young democratic movements in those countries, arrest and brutalize essentially the population there. So she had an absolutely passionate, abiding hatred of communism, of totalitarianism, and she carried that forward into her coverage of the Korean War. And she hated the communists that were funded by the North Koreans, which were supplied by the Russians. And the Chinese. And so she hated the Communists there. And then she started covering Vietnam in 54 as an extension, really, of the Korean War. And she carried that Cold War mentality forward. But by the early 60s, a new generation was coming in, and they didn't view the battle against communism with the same abiding hatred that she did. So she wanted to wipe out the communist insurgents in North Vietnam, and she wanted to protect this little fledgling South Vietnamese government. As corrupt and terrible as the Diem regime was, she felt that we had promised to protect it as America and that it was the only outpost of democracy there, but it was a very corrupt regime. She rightly predicted that what followed would be worse. But it was a big generational change. And the younger reporters, and I will say that David Halverson sort of led the pack.

[Interviewer / Host]

The Rover Boys.

[Jeanette Conant]

The Rover Boys, as she condescendingly dubbed this younger generation of male reporters. He felt that the war was doomed and had a very different look. And it was a real generational switch. It was also, oddly enough, yet another massive feud with another male New York Times reporter. He replaced Homer Biggert for the New York Times. So it was an extension of Maggie's battle of the sexes.

[Interviewer / Host]

She died young, 45, in 1966, of a disease she contracted during her time in Vietnam. What do we know about her final days, her final weeks?

[Jeanette Conant]

Well, she probably could have lived had she not been so stubborn, but she had been incredibly resilient in the past. She'd contracted every known disease, you know, from all the different war fronts and the Congo and India, and she'd always managed to bounce back. But she had a raging fever and she looked near death when a colleague called her boss at the then Newsday and said, you've got to order her home. And by the time she reached Washington, she had a fever of 105, and she wouldn't go to the hospital. She went home and she kept filing. She was so determined to keep up her three times a week column, and she wanted to complete all of the series of articles she'd done on Vietnam. So by the time they got her in Walter Reed Hospital, she lost one kidney and her organs began to fail. And even then, they. I think nobody could believe that someone so young would die, but they couldn't save her.

[Alison Stewart]

That was Alison Stewart's conversation with biographer Jeanette Conant about her new book, Fierce the Life and Legend of War correspondent Maggie Higgins. And that is it for our first hour of producer picks. Thanks to Jordan Loft for those selections. And coming up next, an hour of musical women introduced by Simon Close. That's all coming up right after the news. So stay with us.

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Welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order, miss?

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I've been hitting up McDonald's for years. Now it's back. We need snack racks. What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snack wrap is back.

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It's not rocket science. Grayscale has been educating investors on crypto for over a decade. Grayscale. Invest in your share of the future. Investing involves risk and possible loss of principle. Visit grayscale.com for more information.