Bill Donovan loved both of his children, but he found Patricia the more congenial. As David grew older, he was anything but athletic, and this dismayed his father. A schoolmate at the Faye School, Northampton, Mass., which he attended as a boy, remembered him as “rotund, diffident and laboring under the burden of having a great father. Donovan’s macho image didn’t help him a bit.” Interview with Welles.
Page 159, lines 9–15: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
Page 159, lines 16–19: Donovan telegram to William Howard Taft, Aug. 17, 1927, and Taft to Donovan, Aug. 18, 1927. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
Bill Donovan was a great party favorite in Georgetown. He could play the piano and sing Schubert or Brahms lieder. But not all his neighbors approved of him. Mabel Willebrandt, who was an assistant attorney general, remarked that he “uses gate-crasher tactics but makes himself so pleasant people are rather glad he crashed in.” Willebrandt to Hoover, Hoover Library.
Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s Donovan, together with Kermit and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., Suydom Cutting, and Roy Chapman Andrews, the explorer, was a member of an informal club called the Room. The room in question was a hotel room in New York City kept expressly for meetings of the club. “All we needed to do,” explained Dr. Andrews, “was to call the others and say, ‘Meet me at the Room,’ and we’d all rendezvous at such and such a time. We discussed everything from international affairs to personal problems with absolute confidentiality. Sometimes Somerset Maugham was allowed to meet with us. Donovan had a sincerity and honesty that nobody could corrupt.” Interview with Andrews.
Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., reported that Lincoln Ellsworth and Adm. Richard Byrd were also members of the Room. Kermit Roosevelt to author, July 17, 1981.
Chapter 14. The Parade Passes By
Page 160, lines 4–5: Frank Kellogg telegram to American Embassy, Paris, March 8, 1928, Diplomatic Section, National Archives.
Page 160, lines 7–12: Charles Dewey to Donovan, April 10, 1928, Chicago Historical Society Library.
Page 160, line 20: Paul Leverkuehn, a young German, visited Donovan often and told him about affairs in his homeland. During World War II Admiral Canaris stationed Leverkuehn in Istanbul, where he continued to give his principal loyalty to Donovan. Colvin, Chief of Intelligence, 181.
Page 160, line 24: One of Donovan’s associates was Henry L. Stimson, who was appointed in 1927 by President Coolidge to arbitrate a dispute over the Nicaraguan presidency. Upon Stimson’s successful return Donovan congratulated him on his “splendid service in Nicaragua.” “To an ordinary citizen like myself,” he said, “your mission seemed not only a difficult one but a discouraging one. Your report is not only creditable to you but reassuring to the country. Anyone who has followed the situation will know that you have done a fine job.” Donovan to Stimson, June 2, 1927, Yale University Library.
Stimson replied, “It is very kind of you to send me such a cordial note of congratulation, and I appreciate it very greatly, particularly coming as it does from one who is in a position to know the character of the mission in Nicaragua.” Stimson to Donovan, June 8, 1927, Yale University Library.
Page 160, lines 34–35: Hoover to Donovan, July 27, 1927, Hoover Library.
Page 161, line 4: Buffalo Courier-Express, Dec. 27, 1927.
Page 161, lines 12–17: Courtesy of Kirchhofer.
Page 161, line 35: In May there was a boomlet for Bill Donovan for vice-president. Buffalo Truth, May 5, 1928.
Page 162, line 3: Carol Green Wilson, 172.
Page 162, lines 6–9: Wilbur, 396.
Page 162, line 11: Baltimore Sun, Feb. 28, 1929.
Page 162, lines 20–26: Roper, 237.
Page 162, lines 27–37: New York Times, Oct. 23, 1928. After the campaign was over some of Donovan’s detractors claimed that he had avoided any public speeches for Hoover so as not to offend Catholic supporters of Al Smith. Actually Donovan was listed by the Speakers Commission of the New York State Republican League under the chairmanship of his old Fighting 69th noncom friend, Sgt. Richard W. O’Neill, and he gave several speeches in New York State. Press release of Sept. 15, 1928, Hoover-Curtis Campaign Committee, Hoover Library.
Hoover’s friend James H. MacLafferty later wrote, “Personally I give Donovan credit for being friendly to Hoover’s candidacy, but I also know, from my own knowledge, and not from Hoover, that Hoover wanted Donovan to go out speaking in the last campaign and that Donovan continually side-stepped it.” MacLafferty diary, March 1, 1929, Hoover Library.
Page 163, lines 18–19: Buffalo Courier-Express, Nov. 14, 1928.
Page 163, line 31: C. McCall to Hoover, Dec. 3, 1928, Hoover Library. An article in the Wichita Falls (Texas) Daily Times, Dec. 2, 1928, details the Klan’s opposition to Donovan.
Page 163, line 36: Many Prohibitionists advocated the transfer of the Bureau of Prohibition from the Treasury Department to the Department of Justice. When Hoover asked Donovan if he supported this, Donovan replied, “American tradition had followed the Anglo-Saxon practice of separating the office of sheriff from the office of prosecuting attorney. If the District Attorney were to be liquor administrator, no self-respecting lawyer would take the office.” Robinson and Bornet.
Page 163, line 37: Even as Hoover was listening to Donovan’s critics, he was soliciting Donovan’s views on who might fill various cabinet positions together with the reactions of various members of Congress and the public to them. Donovan memo to Hoover, Jan. 3, 1929, Hoover Library.
“There is a very pronounced opposition from our friends in the Southern border states to the naming of Colonel Donovan to a position in the Cabinet,” California Congressman W. E. Evans wrote to Hoover. “The opposition is based on two points. First, that he is not in sympathy with the theory and principles of the Prohibition Act. . . . The other objection is on account of his religion, and which I am constrained to say does not appeal to me personally as a valid reason why any man should not be appointed to a public position. . . . It is said that if he is named, the Southern States, which gave you their support, will be disappointed at the very beginning of your administration.” W. E. Evans to Hoover, Jan. 22, 1929, Hoover Library.
Page 163, line 44: The Reverend I. M. Haldeman to Hoover, Nov. 14, 1928, Hoover Library.
Page 164, line 2: Myers to Hoover, Nov. 15, 1928, Hoover Library. The Hollywood, California, Protestant ran the headline “Rome Demands Donovan in Cabinet” on its front page. The editor sent a copy of his journal to Mrs. Hoover and noted, “Please call your husband’s attention to this and oblige.” Hoover Library.
Page 164, line 11: At this time newspapers carried articles stating with absolute certainty that Donovan was to be the new attorney general or secretary of war. Buffalo Courier-Express, Jan. 8, 1929.
Page 164, line 28: Courtesy of Kirchhofer.
Page 164, line 38: Hoover Library.
Page 165, line 10: Coded Message No. 51 to Hoover from George Akerson states, “Borah came to see me and of his own initiative said he does not favor Donovan.” Hoover Library.
On February 11, 1929, Mark Sullivan also wrote to Hoover, “Sunday night Borah came to see me. His coming was of his own initiative and everything he said was of his own initiative. He said first his judgment is strongly against your appointing Donovan. He says the Democrats will oppose Donovan’s confirmation and he, Borah, as your friend in the Senate, would be embarrassed to defend the appointment.” Ibid.
Page 165, lines 11–45; Page 166, lines 1–17: Oral History Archives, Columbia University Libraries.
Page 166, line 37: Ickes, 88.
Page 167, line 11: Donovan gave James L. Wright a verbatim account of his conversation with Hoover. Wright to Kirchhofer, Feb. 28, 1929, courtesy of Kirchhofer.
Page 167, line 31: President Coolidge appointed Donovan to the Rio Grande Commission. Buffalo Courier-Express, Feb. 8, 1929.
Page 167, line 29: On Feb. 21, 1929, Sen. William Borah dined with Hoover to discuss can
didates for attorney general. He opposed Donovan because he said Donovan favored repealing the 18th Amendment. He supported the New York lawyer William D. Mitchell. Hoover was reluctant to throw over Donovan, an old friend, and name Mitchell, who was a Democrat.
“A few people may grunt and groan about it,” said Borah concerning Mitchell’s appointment, “but not very loud and it will not cause one vote against confirmation.” McKenna, 261.
Page 167, line 42: Later O’Brian remarked that Donovan had taken most of his antitrust division staff with him into private practice. Oral History Archives, Columbia University Libraries.
Page 168, line 29: Some Donovan supporters urged him to take the post of governor general of the Philippines. They pointed out that William Howard Taft had stepped from that job to the presidency, and Leonard Wood had almost done so. Donovan simply replied that he did not seek a political career. Baltimore Sun, Feb. 28, 1929.
Hoover also expressed his surprise that Donovan did not accept the governor generalship. “Hoover marveled at this refusal,” wrote MacLafferty in his diary, “because he said he regarded it as a great office and a great stepping-stone for future service. He felt that in making this offer he had fulfilled every or any obligation he had to Donovan. That Hoover regards the governor generalship of the Philippines as an office of high distinction is proven by the fact that John Tilson told me that Hoover had told him that he would have left the secretaryship of commerce to take it, had it been offered to him. I could see that Hoover was ill at ease over the Donovan episode, and he felt that some people would accuse him of being a bigot because he did not appoint Donovan attorney general.” Hoover Library.
Page 168, line 38: David Lawrence, in commenting upon the falling-out between Hoover and Donovan, remarked that “Democrats say it is a big political blunder, that Donovan could have been spared the humiliation by being told last November that he wouldn’t be chosen and that the omission will be interpreted by Catholics as an emphasis of the coming controversies and a victory for the Klan. . . .
“Anyway if by 1932 there are adverse political developments for Mr. Hoover, the antagonism awakened by the Donovan incident may have some weight. If he has a successful administration and the country is prosperous, Herbert Hoover’s opportunities for re-election are as good as any of his predecessors.” Buffalo Evening News, March 4, 1929.
Pollster Daniel C. Roper also speculated on what Hoover’s break with Donovan meant to the Hoover presidency. Roper felt that having Donovan in Hoover’s cabinet probably would have prevented the Bonus March, which did so much to damage Hoover’s prestige. Roper, 240.
Page 168, lines 38–42: Cutler, 116.
Chapter 15. Politics and Foreign Affairs
Page 170, lines 1–6: Donovan to Coolidge, Feb. 15, 1929, National Archives.
Page 170, lines 7–32: Interview with James Murphy.
Page 171, line 14: Chicago Tribune, Oct. 9, 1929.
Page 171, line 22: Buffalo Times, Oct. 9, 1929.
Page 172, lines 19–31: “Donovan took a fortune home, at least $250,000 a year throughout the Depression,” stated Richard Greenlee, “but he never had money.” Interview with Greenlee.
Page 172, line 34: “Bill was wildly, deliberately extravagant,” said Guy Martin. “The best cuisine, the best accommodations everywhere he went, a barber who came to shave him, a private masseur.” Interview with Martin.
Page 173, lines 5–14: Interview with O’Brian, Oral History Archives, Columbia University Libraries.
Page 173, line 18: Donovan to Milton Handley, Manuscript Collection, Columbia University Libraries.
Page 173, line 28: Young William O. Douglas went to New York for a couple of days a week to work for Donovan in the bankruptcies investigation. Douglas, 175.
Page 173, line 32: Most New York lawyers were delighted that a man of Donovan’s stature would undertake the task, but Louis Brandeis was critical. “How a well-meaning Bar Committee could entrust the Bankruptcy Cleansing job to Donovan is beyond comprehension,” he wrote to Felix Frankfurter on April 21, 1929. Brandeis, 380.
Page 174, line 6: In late summer 1930, Donovan flirted with the idea of joining Senator Wadsworth to oppose Hoover within the ranks of the Republican Party, but he backed off from the alliance when his friend Edward T. Clark, who was former President Coolidge’s private secretary, wrote, “So far as the President is concerned, it would perhaps create a definite break and completely remove from favor a man who has always been potentially able to come back into power as an advisor or into public life as a candidate. Perhaps certain people would like to see you take a licking so that the country might see that the myth of Donovan’s power was exploded.” Clark to Donovan, Sept. 9, 1930, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
Donovan did challenge Hoover in an attack on the 18th Amendment. In a speech before the New York Young Republican Club at the Lawyers Club, he urged the GOP to face up to the issue that Prohibition simply was not working. U.S. Attorney Charles H. Tuttle, favored to be the Republican candidate for governor of New York in 1930, was present, and he was given a smattering of applause. When Donovan’s name was mentioned for the governorship, the audience gave him an ovation. Donovan accepted the demonstration with a jaunty wave of his hand, and Tuttle scowled. Donovan made no effort to obtain the nomination to run against the popular Democratic Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who easily defeated Tuttle to win a second term.
Page 174, line 18: Sometimes Donovan weekended at Arthur Brisbane’s Lakewood, New Jersey, estate. On one occasion a fellow guest was Will Rogers, who remarked that “Bill Donovan, the fellow we all thought was going to be attorney general, was there. Nice fellow.” Donovan, Rogers, and Brisbane went riding. “You don’t suppose I went clear down there just for the horseback ride, do you?” asked Rogers. “I got horses at home, but I can’t learn anything riding ’em.” Tulsa World, April 27, 1931.
Page 174, lines 35–44: Interviews with Putzell.
Page 175, line 4: Interview with Halsey.
Page 175, line 29: After Ruth Donovan stopped coming to Washington except on rare occasions, Donovan charged law partner Richard Maher, who lived next door, with seeing to it that all the household and office bills were paid. Interview with James Murphy.
Page 175, line 30: In July 1929, Ruth was taken seriously ill at Nonquit. A worried Donovan hurried to the summer home and brought her to Buffalo. He interrupted bankruptcy hearings in New York to look after his ailing wife. Buffalo Courier-Express, July 21, 1929.
Page 175, line 37: Donovan encouraged his son to sail on the Yankee. “David had poor grades at college and jumped at the chance to go,” reported Francis S. Kinney, a school friend of David’s, who later in life was to win fame as a yachtsman and author on yachting subjects. Interview with Kinney.
Page 176, lines 14–28: Interviews with Mahoney, a close Donovan friend, and Impelliteri.
Page 177, line 2: New York Times, June 4, 1931.
Page 177, line 13: Interview with Raichle. Raichle recalled that Donovan “probably traveled to Manchuria over the Trans-Siberian Railroad.”
Page 178, line 3: Buffalo Courier-Express, Feb. 23, 1932.
Page 178, lines 11–20: Observation Post, August 1932. Sculptor Charles Keck created the figure of Father Duffy holding a prayer book against a Celtic cross. The statue in Times Square was dedicated on June 26, 1936. Flick, 169.
Page 178, line 32: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
Page 179, lines 2–10: New York Times, July 10, 1932.
Page 179, lines 27–40: Ibid., July 30, 1932.
Page 180, lines 11–35: Bernays, 648.
Page 181, line 2: Win with Donovan and Davison Committee papers, Columbiana Collection, Columbia University Libraries.
Page 181, lines 2–6: New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 5, 1932.
Page 181, lines 6–26: Buffalo Courier-Express, Oct. 6, 1932.
Page 181, line 41: Interview with Lehman, Oral History Archives, Columbia University Libraries. Journalis
t William Hard presented a picture of candidate Donovan in his article “Dock Yards to Fame”: “He is fortunate, to begin with, in having an arresting physical character. When he enters a room, one is instantly, acutely conscious of his presence, for a reason not at all subtle but altogether obvious. He sends out rays of health, happy health, and more. There is discharged from him a sort of electricity of elation. He is not only healthy, and happily healthy, but his nerves seem to be seeking an outlet toward some sort of joyous expression in adventures beyond ordinary chance.”
Page 182, lines 1–7: New York Times, Oct. 6, 1932.
Page 182, line 14: New York Post, Nov. 4, 1932.
Walter Mahoney, who toured New York in 1932 to organize Young Republican clubs in support of Donovan’s candidacy, said that Donovan’s opponents would tell Catholics that he had left the church. When they talked to Protestants, they claimed he was a rabid Catholic. Interview with Mahoney.
Page 182, line 20: From a leaflet published by the Win with Donovan and Davison Committee.
Page 182, line 26: New York Post, Nov. 4, 1932.
Page 182, lines 29–43; Page 183, lines 1–10: Win with Donovan and Davison Committee papers.
Page 183, line 12: Donovan also lost a wager on the election. Arthur Brisbane had bet Mrs. Ned McLean, wife of the Washington Post’s owner, and Donovan that FDR would carry all but eight states. When only six states voted Republican, Will Rogers remarked about the bet, “I thought Brisbane was crazy, and he was by two states.” Franklin Roosevelt, FDR: His Personal Letters, 575.
Page 183, line 14: Lehman also remarked to DeWitt Clinton Poole, later chief of the Foreign Nationalities branch of OSS, that Donovan had conducted “the decentest and most clean-cut campaign” he had ever experienced. Conyers Read manuscript, 3, Pforzheimer Collection.
Page 183, line 19: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
Page 183, line 21: Ibid.
Page 183, line 29: Yale University Library.
Page 183, line 40: Ironically, Donovan spoke on nationwide radio in March 1934 to mark the 16th anniversary of the U.S. infantry’s entry into the front lines in World War I. Observation Post, March 1934.
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