Tom Wicker

Thomas Grey Wicker(June 18, 1926 – November 25, 2011) was an Americanjournalist.He was a political reporter and columnist forThe New York Times.

Tom Wicker
Born	Thomas Grey Wicker (1926-06-18)June 18, 1926 Hamlet, North Carolina,U.S.
Died	November 25, 2011(2011-11-25)(aged 85) Rochester, Vermont,U.S.
Occupation	Journalist

Background and education

Wicker was born on June 18, 1926, inHamlet, North Carolina,to Delancey David, a railroad freight conductor, and Esta Cameron Wicker. He served in the Navy in World War II. Wicker was a 1948 graduate of theUniversity of North Carolina.He won aNieman FellowshipatHarvard Universityin 1957. In 1993, he returned to Harvard, where he was a fellow atHarvard Kennedy School.

Career

TheNew York Times

Wicker began working in professional journalism in 1949, as editor of the small-townSandhill CitizeninAberdeen, North Carolina.He eventually worked for other newspapers, includingThe Winston-Salem JournalandThe Nashville Tennessean.By the early 1960s, he had joined theNew York Times.At theTimes,he became well known as a political reporter; among other accomplishments, he wrote the paper's November 23, 1963, lead story of theassassination of President Kennedy,having ridden in a press bus in theDallasmotorcade that accompanied Kennedy. Wicker was a shrewd observer of theWashington, D.C.scene. In that capacity, his influential "In The Nation" column ran in theTimesfrom 1966 through his retirement in 1991. In an exit-interview Q & A with fellowTimesreporterR. W. Apple,he reflected on one primary lesson of his years in the capital. Apple asked whether Wicker had "any heroes" in political life.

I think it tends to work the other way. Which doesn't mean that I look at all those people with contempt—quite the opposite. But the journalist's perspective makes you see the feet of clay and the warts, and that's a good thing. I found them in many cases to be truly engaging human beings and admirable persons but not really, in the long run, impeccable heroes, or even just heroes without the "impeccable." We should try to see people as clearly as we can. Then if a hero does come into view, why, we can give him his due.

Books

External videos
Booknotesinterview with Wicker onOne of Us: Richard Nixon and the American Dream,April 7, 1991,C-SPAN

Wicker wrote many different books throughout his life. He is the author of several books about U.S. presidents including:

• Kennedy Without Tears: The Man Beneath the Myth(1964)
• JFK & LBJ: The Influence of Personality Upon Politics(1966)
• One of Us: Richard Nixon and the American Dream(1991)
• Dwight D. Eisenhower(2002)
• George Herbert Walker Bush(2004)

Other works Wicker penned include:

• The Kingpin(1953), a novel about politics
• The Devil Must(1957), a novel
• The Judgment(1961), a novel
• Facing the Lions(1973), a novel about a presidential campaign involving a candidate modeled on Sen.Estes Kefauver
• A Time to Die: TheAttica Prison Revolt(1975), this book recounted theeventsat theAttica Correctional FacilityinAttica, New York,during September 1971; it received anEdgar Awardfrom theMystery Writers of Americafor Best Fact Crime book and inspired a1980 made-for-TV movie
• On Press: A Top Reporters Life In, And Reflection On, American Journalism(1978)
• Unto This Hour(1984), a novel of theAmerican Civil War,during theSecond Battle of Bull Run(1862)
• Donovan's Wife(1992), a novel about the sleazy side of politics
• Prison Writing in 20th-Century America(1992)
• Tragic Failure: Racial Integration in America(1996)
• Easter Lilly: A Novel of the South Today(1998), a novel about a murder in the South
• On the Record: An Insider’s Guide to Journalism(2001)
• Shooting Star: The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy(2006)

In addition, Wicker penned three standalone detective novels under the pseudonym “Paul Connolly”:

• Get Out of Town(1951),
• Tears Are for Angels(1952)
• So Far, So Evil(1955)

Politics

Wicker's work earned him a place on themaster list of Nixon political opponents.He wrote the essay onRichard Nixonfor the bookCharacter Above All: Ten Presidents from FDR to George Bush(1995). Wicker was mentioned in a60 Minutesreport from the 1970s which detailed how, along with other journalists and members of Congress who supporteddesegregation busing,Wicker and the others nevertheless sent their children to DC private schools.

NSA monitoring of Wicker's communications

In a secret operation code-named "Project MINARET,"theNational Security Agency(NSA) monitored the communications of leading Americans, including Wicker and other prominent U.S. journalists, SenatorsFrank ChurchandHoward Baker,such civil rights leaders asMartin Luther King Jr.,and prominent U.S. athletes who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam.A review by NSA of the NSA's Minaret program concluded that Minaret was "disreputable if not outright illegal."

Death

Wicker died from an apparent heart attack, on November 25, 2011, at the age of 85.

External links

• Ubben Lecture at DePauw University; March 12, 1993
• Tom Wicker biographyvia PBS.
• AppearancesonC-SPAN
• Tom Wicker papers,Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.