Former AP correspondent Fred Zusy dies; once banned in Egypt, tangled with Truman

Former AP correspondent Fred Zusy dies

WASHINGTON — Fred Zusy, whose short-lived expulsion from Egypt by that country’s government while serving as Cairo bureau chief for The Associated Press raised questions about government censorship in the name of national security, has died. He was 96.

He also tangled with former President Harry Truman about the accuracy of a comment Truman supposedly made about “some squirrel-headed general” involved in the invasion of Italy during World War II.

While Zusy worked for the AP, Egypt attempted to expel him for “bad faith,” and Egyptian officials said they had warned him several times that his work was aimed at harming the interests of Egypt. When Egypt was warned the expulsion could harm relations with the U.S., it reversed course. The Egyptian ambassador in Washington said Zusy’s expulsion had nothing to do with his stories but with his helping smuggle film out of Egypt.

Zusy said later that he had been questioned about pictures of evacuations of the Suez Canal zone, but he had merely relayed instructions about the film to London on behalf of another correspondent.

Another development embroiled Zusy in international attention when Truman denied he made a comment attributed to him criticizing military leadership for troop landings south of Rome. During a tour of Italy in 1956, Truman was quoted as saying that the landings at Salerno and Anzio were unnecessary “and planned by some squirrel-headed general” and that there were a lot of easier places that could have been chosen for beachheads.

“I would make no comment like that,” the former president told reporters. But Zusy, who was covering Truman’s Italian tour for the AP, defended the accuracy of the quote, and a colleague from another news organization agreed.

The comment attributed to Truman quickly stirred protests in the United States and England. The armies of both countries suffered heavy casualties on those beachheads.

Zusy later worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, his family said.

“He was in the clandestine service of the CIA after he left the AP,” his wife, Mary Jane, said Friday. She would provide no details. The CIA declined to comment.

Zusy, who lived in Kensington, Md., died Sunday.

Zusy was born in Milwaukee and joined the AP in 1941, interrupting that work to serve as an officer in the Navy in World War II, and rejoining the news agency in 1946. He worked for the AP in Washington and New York, before moving to Cairo, as well as Istanbul and Rome.

A daughter, Anne Zusy, 58, of Ridgewood, N.J., who also worked for the AP, along with The New York Times, died Thursday.

In addition to his wife, Zusy is survived by six children: Jonathan Zusy of Durango, Colo.; Mark Zusy of Manhasset, N.Y.; Susan Zusy of Silver Spring, Md.; Catherine Zusy of Boston; David Zusy of Kensington; and Jean Marie Zusy of Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.; as well as nine grandchildren.