} 48 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1990 . OBITUARIES Victor Lasky, Author, journalist, Dies at 72 By J.Y. Smith Wasliaiton Post Staff Writer ter: The Man and the Myth" Stripes, the Army newspaper. In- (1979). But some said Mr. Lasky jured in a jeep accident after Ger- • Victor Lasky, 72, the author of •had shed useful light on aspects of. many's surrender, he returned to :highly critical books on such public Important people that previously the Sun, but worked in Chicago. .figures as John F. Kennedy and Jim- bad been shielded from press. In 1947, he joined the New York my Carter and a journalist whose In "It Didn't Start With Water- World Telegram and Sun in New views were associated by many gate," which was published in 1977, York. In 1951 and 1952, he worked with the Republican Party and con- Mr. Lasky, an unabashed admirer of for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Hol- servative organizations, died of can- Richard M. Nixon, argued that the lywood. He later worked for RKO ter yesterday at Georgetown Uni- press was following a double stan- General Teleradio and Radio Lib- versity Hospital. dard. He said earlier presidents, erty. From 1962 to 1980, he was a At different times in his career, including Kennedy and Franklin D. columnist for the North American Mr. Lasky was a newspaperman in Roosevelt, had authorized worse Newspaper Alliance. He lived in New York and Chicago, a Holly- abuses than any that occurred un- New York until moving to Washing- wood screenwriter, a lightning- der Nixon, and that the press sim- ton in 1970. quick writer of campaign biogra- ply ignored them. Mr. Lasky's first book was phies and a columnist for the North "*"._ In 1974, when Nelson A. Rock- "Seeds of Treason," an account of American Newspaper Alliance. But feller. was nominated to be vice the Alger Hiss espionage and per- he was best known for such books president, it was learned that Mr. jury case, which he wrote with as "J.F.K.: The Man and the Myth." Lasky's book on Arthur Goldberg Ralph de Toledano in 1950. The The book undertook debunking actually had been financed by Lau-. Hiss affair brought Nixon to nation- what Mr. Lasky regarded as the rence Rockefeller as part of Nelson al prominence for the first time, and myths surrounding the glamorous Rockefeller's campaign for reelec- • 'Mr. Lasky's friendship with the for- young president. It appeared short- tion as governor of New York in mer president dated from that pe- ly before Kennedy's death. Its iin- 1970. For a brief time, it appeared riod. pact was such that when the pres- that this might cause problems for His other books included "Say, ident fell to the assassin's bullets on Rockefeller's confirmation as vice ' Didn't You Use to be George Mur- Nov. 22, 1963, the publisher, the president. For his part, Mr. Lasky' phy?," a campaign biography he Macmillan Co., immediately with- said he had not known about the wrote with Murphy in 1970, and drew it. But distribution soon re- arrangement with Laurence Rocke- "Never. Complain, Never Explain: sumed, and it went on to spend sev- feller, but that he had benefited The Story of Henry Ford II," which eral weeks on the best-seller lists. from the publicity surrounding the appeared in 1981. Critics, some of them openly par- matter. tisan, derided it as a mere cut-and- Whatever critics said of his paste compilation of rumor, a scur- books, Mr. Lasky asserted that he -Nous effort devoid of any original was content to let his readeri be his reporting on pretense to objectiv- judge. "I can't get excited about ity. Kennedy supporters were in- political criticism," he said in an in- • Iuriated. Writing in The Washing- terview with "Contemporary Au- 'ton Post Book World, Nick Thim- thors" in 1982. "Let me put it this mesh said that then-Attorney Gen- way: I dish it out—I can take it." eral Robert F. Kennedy was so an- A native of Liberty, N.Y., Mr: gry that he had Mr. Lasky's tele- Lasky grew up in New York City, phone tapped. He graduated from Brooklyn Col-, Similar criticisms were leveled at lege. In 1941, he joined the Chicago Mr. Lasky's subsequent books, Sun as a New York correspondent. which included "Robert F. Kennedy: During World War II, he served in The Myth and the Man" (1968), the Army and went to Europe as a "Arthur J. Goldberg: The Old and correspondent for Stars and • - the New" (1970) and "Jimmy Car-. VICTOR LASKY If some critics foimd value in Mr. Laity's earlier efforts to demythol ogize figuret who seemed larger. than life, his later books, including the ones on Carter and Ford, were criticized for containing "nothing new." These, critics said, styles had changed and that the new journal- ism, by placing every aspect of the lives of public personages. Under a microscope, had left* Lasky with nothing to expose, , ; • In addition to his books and his column, Mr. Lasky was a frequent contributor to such magazines as Reader's Digest and The Saturday Evening Post, and he also appeared frequently on television. He cred- ited his. wife, the former Patricia.. Pratt, whom he married in 1952, with Playing an important role as a researcher, editor and typist in all •of his mirk. • In addition to Mrs. Lasky, of Washington, survivors include two sisters, Lee Frankel of Queens, - N.Y., and Mildred-Sayles of Brook- .