During over 38 years of reporting for the Associated Press, Relman “Pat” Morin earned a reputation as one of the best newsmen of his era. This reputation was based in large part on two Pulitzer Prizes: one for his coverage of the Korean War in 1951 and the second for his eyewitness reporting of the integration riots in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1958.
Morin was born in Freeport, Illinois, on September 11, 1907, but he grew up in Los Angeles. His interest in journalism became manifest when he began work while still a high school student for the Los Angeles Times. He continued working as a stringer for the paper while studying at Pomona College. After graduation in 1929 he travelled to China, and during 1930 and 1931 he worked for the Shanghai Evening Post. Later that year he returned to Los Angeles and a position as general assignment reporter on the Los Angeles Record. In 1934 he switched to the Associated Press, and three years later the wire service assigned him to its Tokyo office as bureau chief. In December 1940 he organized a roving assignment to cover the Japanese advance in Southeast Asia; the task eventually took him to China, the Dutch East Indies, Indo-China, Thailand, and Singapore. He was in Saigon at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor and was arrested and examined by the Japanese on espionage charges. After six months of internment, Morin was exchanged with other Americans. Circuit of Conquest, his first book, which was published in 1943, was largely based upon his experiences during the pre-war years.
Early in 1943 Morin volunteered for foreign service and as a result the Associated Press assigned him to cover combat in the European theatre. With the termination of hostilities, Morin was assigned to the Paris Bureau as chief, then from 1947 to 1949 he headed the Washington, D.C. office. A promotion to general executive then took him to the New York home offices. Apparently most content as an active reporter, Morin was among the first of the AP's newsmen to volunteer as a combat correspondent during Korea. After his return to the United States in 1951, the wire service gave him a special assignment and for the remainder of his career, he devoted most of his time to covering special events of national and international importance, presidential elections, and analyses of various national problems. Despite the mobile nature of his work, he found time to write four more books: East Wind Rising (1960); Churchill: Portrait of Greatness (1965); Assassination: The Death of President Kennedy (1968); and Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Gauge of Greatness (1969). Morin retired in 1972 and died July 16, 1973.
