Mazo, Earl 1919-2007

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born July 7, 1919, in Warsaw, Poland; died of complications following a fall, February 17, 2007, in Bethesda, MD. Journalist and author. Mazo was a political correspondent best known for his biographies of President Richard Nixon. Brought to America when he was a child, he grew up in South Carolina and was a 1940 graduate of Clemson University. He served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, afterwards reporting for the Camden Courier. From 1949 until 1963, he was a political correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune. After being assigned to report from Washington, DC, in 1956, he came to know Nixon during his term as vice president. This included covering the infamous incident when Nixon was almost pulled out of his car by protestors during a diplomatic visit to Venezuela. Mazo drew some controversy in 1960, when he published a series of investigative reports alleging Democratic Party presidential election fraud that resulted in Nixon losing to John F. Kennedy. Mazo said he found evidence that fraudulent votes were cast for Kennedy. After the first reports of the twelve-part series were released, Nixon contacted the Herald Tribune to have them stopped for fear the potential scandal would divide the country. Mazo's editors eventually agreed to stop running the series, much to the reporter's chagrin. Leaving the Herald Tribune in 1963, Mazo worked for the New York Times for two years and then joined the Reader's Digest as a roving correspondent. He retired in 1970. Critically acclaimed for his Richard Nixon: A Political and Personal Portrait (1959), Mazo also wrote Nixon: A Political Portrait (1968), with Stephen Hess, as well as The Great Debates (1961).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, February 20, 2007, p. B11.

Washington Post, February 18, 2007, p. C7.