Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-10-14
HEADLINE PERSONALITY
& Hickerson's New Post
I Is HoIf-WorId Away

Tennis courts in Manila will
be q little more crowded when
6f-year-old Ambassador John
Dewey (Jack) Hickerson takes
over the American Embassy
there. Both he and his wife
still visit the courts, a great
deal.
During the bleak war years
when Mr.. Hickerson worked
long hours in the State Depart
ments' European Division and
there was the aching worry
about their Marine son Jack,
Mrs Hickerson taught tennis to
youngsters on Washington play
grounds.
Their son was 10 and study
ing at Duke University on Pearl
Harbor day. He enlisted in the
Marine Corps without his par
ents' knowledge and went
through the Pacific island CAM
paigns on Tinian, Saipan, and
Two Jima.
Son in Two Jima Drive
Late in the war, his father,
as the State Departments
deputy director for European
affairs, worked closely with the
Joint Chiefs of Staff in the
Pentagon. He knew his son was
on Two Jima before the news
came through censorship that
the Japanese island fortress had
been invaded by the Marines.
But Mr.. HickerSon never
mentioned it. not even to the
boys mother. His associates
said the only outward sign of
strain was that he worked
harder.
Mr.. HickerSon's tense times
did not end with World War II,
however. In 1949 he had be-
come Assistant Secretary of
State for the United Nations
Affairs-just in time for the
1850 invasion of South Korea
by the Communists.
He went with Secretary OF /
State Dean Acheson to the
White House on the fateful day |
President Truman decided the
United States should urge U. N.
intervention against the North
Koreans. Mr.. Hickerson stayed
in this key post through the
difficult times of Communist
China's intervention and Gen.
Douglas MacArthur'S removal
from command.
Those years brought him into
close contact with postwar de-
velopments and diplomats in
the Orient and will now serve
him well in his Manila post.
A native of Texas and grad
uate of the University of Texas,
he served in the American
Army during World War I. and
later became a vice consul in
Tamipco, Mexico. in 1920.
With Joint Defense Board
He served in several Latin
American posts until 1925 when
he moved to Ottawa. From
1880 to 1910 he was in the
State Department here special
izing in Western European af-
fairs. When the war clouds
gathered he was assigned to
the American section of the
Permanent Joint Defense
Board for the United States
and Canada where he served
1IUIn 104U W 109O.
On that board also was New
York's fiery mayor, Fiorello La
Guardia, with whom Mr.. Hick-
erson had a warm association.
During the war and postwar
years Mr.. HickerSon learned to
know most of the leaders in
American Government. HeI
worked closely with the man
he is to succeed in Manila,
Charles E. (Chip) Bohlen, who
has been recalled to become
special adviser to Secretary of
State Herter on Soviet Affairs.
In his last assignment as
Ambassador to Finland, a post
he held since october 4. 1855,
both he and his wife undertook
a study of the Finnish Ian
guage. Mrs. Hickerson recently
complained that so many Firms
speak English that they had
to learn the language from
rented recordings rather than
from day-to-day practice.
Friend of Firms
Helsinki is key window into
the Soviet Union as we'll as the
scene of frequent Kremlin pres
sures against the pro-Western
Firms.
Mr.. Hickerson's delicate job,
which his associates say he
performed in the style of an
"old pro-" was to display
Americas great feeling of