Columnist and author Victor Lasky died Thursday of cancer at Georgetown University Hospital. He was 72. Lasky, who began his journalism career as a copy boy at The New York Journal American, covered World War II in Europe for Stars & Stripes, the soldiers' newspaper. After the war, he joined The New York World-Telegram and helped write a Pulitzer-Prize-winning series on Communist infiltration of American institutions. He covered the trial of former State Department official Alger Hiss and co-authored a book about the case, ``Seeds of Treason.'' He wrote several biographies, including ``J.F.K: The Man and the Myth,'' ``Robert F. Kennedy: The Man and the Myth'' and books about Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, actor George Murphy, Jimmy Carter and Henry Ford II. In 1952, a documentary he wrote for MGM, ``The Hoaxters,'' was nominated for an Academy Award. Lasky, who was born in Liberty, N.Y., was graduated from Brooklyn College in 1940. In his later years, he was critical of journalistic misconduct and wrote for Accuracy in Media, a watchdog organization. He is survived by his wife, Patricia, of Washington and two sisters.
