Richard Cushing, 87; Associated Press War Correspondent in Asia
Richard Cushing, an Associated Press war correspondent in Asia during World War II and later the head of the Voice of America, died Friday. He was 87.
Cushing, who worked for AP in San Francisco for 15 years, was sent to the Pacific in the final year of World War II as a correspondent in the Philippines and Japan. He and two other correspondents were the first Americans to enter Tokyo after the war ended, his son said.
Cushing covered the Japanese surrender to Gen. Douglas MacArthur on the deck of the battleship Missouri and then flew to Shanghai, where he reopened the AP bureau.
Cushing was acting director of the Voice of America in 1968-69, and also served as a foreign service officer in Chile, Cuba, Kenya, Mexico and Venezuela.
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