Donovan
Page 72
Chapter 16. The Unfolding Crisis
Page 184, line 6: Hugh Wilson, 322.
Page 185, line 18: Later on in 1937, Mannie Marcus, a Washington lawyer and president of the Rainbow Division Association, gave a party in Chevy Chase, Maryland, to which both MacArthur and Donovan came. Ward McCabe, a young guest who later served in the OSS, recalled that “Bill Donovan arrived on time in civilian clothes and was relaxed and pleasant company. MacArthur made a late theatrical entrance in white jodhpurs, white boots, and white gloves.” Donovan asked McCabe what he was studying.
“Going into the foreign services,” replied McCabe.
“Whatever you do,” said Donovan, “remember we’re going to be in a war in four or five years, so study everything you can.” Interview with McCabe.
Page 186, line 25: Donovan diary in possession of author. The following account of Donovan’s trip is drawn from this diary unless otherwise indicated.
Page 188, line 33: Diplomatic Section, National Archives.
Page 188, lines 34–45; Page 189, lines 1–19: Hugh Wilson, 322, and Salvemini, 418.
Page 190, line 24: “The trip to Rome and Ethiopia was very important,” stated Edwin Putzell. “He [Donovan] talked of it and the lessons it held for him on many occasions, particularly as they bore on the influence of intelligence on the course of world events.” Putzell to author, Aug. 23, 1981.
Page 190, lines 40–41: Interview with Jaeckle, New York State Republican leader.
Page 191, line 25: Interview with Guy Martin.
Page 191, lines 37–40; Page 192, lines 1–10: Time, Oct. 18, 1937.
Page 192, lines 27–38: Time, Jan. 31, 1938.
Page 192, line 40: On May 2, 1937, Donovan spoke at the unveiling of the statue of Father Duffy at Times Square, New York. “Father Duffy would have liked this occasion,” he said. “He would have liked this multitude of friends gathered here. He would have liked the flashing white sunlight of this day, his birthday. He would have liked the 69th Band swinging up Broadway playing the regimental march ‘Garry Owen.’ All of this in his honor he would have enjoyed simply and genuinely, because he was so human.”
Chapter 17. Contagion of War
Page 195, line 26: Donovan was crossing the Atlantic when the capitulation came. “On the way back on the steamer, we had as fellow passengers Justice McReynolds, former Justice and Mrs. Sutherland, Sir Gerald and Lady Campbell, the former Consul General, Martin Conboy, Col. William J. Donovan, Lord Wright of the Privy Council, and others. During the whole of the voyage we all clung to the radio without any intimation that there was going to be any surrender until the last day when news came in and it was a surprise, I think to everyone,” wrote Henry L. Stimson. Yale University Library. Donovan had little to say about his own trip.
Page 198, line 4: Roosevelt Library.
Page 198, lines 20–29: Ickes, 93.
Page 198, line 40: Roosevelt Library.
Page 199, line 3: Franklin Roosevelt, FDR: His Personal Letters.
Page 199, line 5: Interview with McGinnis.
Page 200, lines 1–9: Merian Cooper to Donovan, April 23, 1940, Hoover Library.
Page 200, line 10: Hoover and Donovan had first become friends while working during World War I for the relief of Poland. They became friends again in 1940, working together again for the relief of the Polish people. New York Herald Tribune, March 24, 1940.
Page 200, line 21: Donovan, “Should Men of 50 Fight Our Wars?”
Page 201, lines 14–23: Telephone interview with Mary Frances Merz, who was Pat Donovan’s sorority sister.
Page 201, lines 25–40: Notes from Elizabeth Heppner McIntosh. President Roosevelt telegraphed Donovan on April 9, 1940, “My heart goes out to you in the sorrow which has come to you with such sudden and tragic force. Please accept for yourself and for all who mourn with you an assurance of sincere sympathy and of my warm personal regard.”
Donovan replied, “Your warm and understanding message, I deeply appreciate.
“That you took the time from many and pressing duties makes me doubly grateful—as it will my wife who is still on a sailing vessel in the South Pacific. You are most thoughtful.” Donovan to Roosevelt, April 10, 1940. Both telegram and letter are in the Roosevelt Library.
Page 202, lines 9–16: Albion and Connery, 7.
Chapter 18. Confidential Mission to Britain
Page 203, line 19: When Donovan arrived at the convention, he found many of the delegates up in arms about Stimson and Knox, Republicans, serving in a Democratic president’s cabinet. He immediately telegraphed John D. M. Hamilton, chairman of the Republican National Committee, that the convention should approve the appointments. “As a Republican, but most of all as a citizen,” he said, “I was greatly disturbed at newspaper reports of delegate reaction yesterday to the Cabinet appointments of Colonel Knox and Colonel Stimson.
“I sincerely hope the convention will take different action. We should, I believe, approve the designations and commend the acceptance of these two distinguished and outstanding men.
“We as a party should recognize before the country our duty to support without imputation of motive, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and the Navy, who, under the Constitution, faces the duty of preparing our nation for defense. The immediacy of this problem is measured by days, cannot await the outcome of the election and transcends all other questions.” Chicago Tribune, June 22, 1940.
Page 205, line 17: Baker.
Page 206, line 26: Diplomatic Section, National Archives.
Page 206, lines 27–32: Welles memorandum to Roosevelt, July 12, 1940, Roosevelt Library.
Page 206, line 34: Roosevelt Library.
Page 207, line 24: “Memorandum for Mr. Stettinius, to outline the type of useful information which Colonel Donovan might obtain while in England,” July 13, 1940, University of Virginia Library.
Page 207, lines 25–35: Conyers Read manuscript, 6, in collection of the author.
Page 208, lines 4–11: Frank Knox to his wife, July 14, 1940, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
Page 208, line 25: Pforzheimer Collection.
Page 209, line 44: Report to the king, July 16, 1940, Pforzheimer Collection.
Page 210, line 12: Conyers Read manuscript, 6, author’s collection.
Page 210, line 29: Leutze. Other remarks by Lee are from this journal.
Page 211, line 8: Godfrey, 129, and Beesly, 176.
Page 211, line 22: Transcript of conversation between Mowrer and Allen Dulles, circa 1962, Princeton University Library. Other Mowrer material is from this source as well.
Page 213, line 3: Conyers Read manuscript, 7, author’s collection.
Page 213, line 24: William Stevenson, A Man Called Intrepid.
Page 217, line 13: Beesly.
Page 217, line 38: Pforzheimer Collection.
Page 218, lines 7–12: Telephone interview with Paul Bewshea, who in 1940 was in charge of Imperial Airways operations in New York and who met the plane carrying Donovan.
Chapter 19. Back Door to the White House
Page 219, line 23: Yale University Library. All other Stimson quotes in this chapter are from his diary.
Page 220, lines 8–24: Franklin Roosevelt, Complete Press Conferences, Press Conference No. 668, Aug. 8, 1940.
Page 220, lines 25–30: New York Times, Aug. 10, 1940.
Page 221, lines 1–10: Conyers Read manuscript, 8, Pforzheimer Collection.
Page 221, line 4: According to an aide of OSS days, William Langer, Donovan also reported that the dispersal and multiplication of British airfields would save the RAF from the Germans. Langer and Gleason, The Challenge to Isolation, 744.
Page 221, lines 10–12: Donovan to Admiral Godfrey, Aug. 27, 1940, and Donovan to Sir Cyril Newall, Aug. 27, 1940.
Page 221, lines 29–39: Franklin Roosevelt, Complete Press Conferences, Press
Conference No. 669, Aug. 10, 1940.
Page 222, line 19: Conyers Read manuscript, 9, Pforzheime
r Collection.
Page 222, line 25: Frederic Sondern, Jr., “Wild Bill Crusades Against Wars.”
Page 223, line 5: Butler, 297.
Page 223, line 14: Goodhart.
Page 224, line 3: Donovan estimated that the Nazis had spent some $50 million on the fifth column in France. Felstead, 106.
Page 224, line 38: In the spring of 1941 Spruille Braden, back from a diplomatic assignment in Colombia, breakfasted with Donovan from eight in the morning until noon. Donovan elaborated on Nazi fifth column activities and revealed that he had gotten some of his information from German officers he had met during and after World War I. Braden recognized the seeds of rebellion in Colombia and informed Roosevelt, who scoffed at the idea. Two days later a revolution broke out in Bogotá. Braden, 245.
Page 224, line 42: “I am looking forward to reviewing the material myself with great interest,” Stettinius wrote Donovan on Oct. 2, 1940, about the answers to his questions that Donovan had gathered in Britain, “and I shall personally bring it to the attention of the President. Your friends in the War Department and I feel that you have rendered an outstanding service in having made this information available.” University of Virginia Library. Donovan had already informed Roosevelt about this report.
Page 225, line 5: Chadwin, The Warhawks, 79.
Page 226, line 3: Manuscript of the radio address is in the Fight for Freedom Archives, Princeton University Library.
Page 226, line 22: April 29, 1941, ULPA.
Page 226, lines 23–45; Page 227, lines 1–25: Telephone interview with O’Keefe.
Page 227, line 4: April 29, 1941, ULPA.
Page 227, lines 22–26: Lecture, War Dept., Hoover Institution.
Page 227, lines 27–40: Marshall Foundation.
Page 228, line 19: Stimson had hopes of persuading Donovan to help train the draftees. “On my side I put up to Donovan my present plan for a renewal of the Training Camps in September and asked if he would cooperate as the head of one of those camps. He said he would not say no, but he thought that the plans ought to be laid out well in advance, so that people would have time to make their arrangements. He was determined to get into the war some way or other and was the same old Bill Donovan that we have all known and been so fond of.” Stimson diary, Aug. 6, 1940, Yale University Library.
Page 228, line 29: University of Virginia Library. Wood, leader of the America First movement, had written to Donovan that “I am going to be on the losing side, but that does not alter my convictions. . . . I want to ask one favor of you, which I want you to bear in mind if the time for action comes. If we go into this war and go into it in an active way, where land forces are engaged, I want to get into the fighting branch of the force. I do not care what the rank is, that is immaterial to me. I began my active career in the fighting end of the army and if war comes, I want to end my career that way. As I say, the question of rank is entirely immaterial. I think that you will be able to help me.” Wood to Donovan, Oct. 3, 1940, Hoover Library.
Page 228, line 40: Hoover Library.
Page 229, lines 22–31: Krock.
Chapter 20. Fifty-Trip Ticket on the Clippers
Page 230, line 9: Donovan himself said that Roosevelt “asked me if I would go and make a strategic appreciation from an economic, political and military standpoint of the Mediterranean area.” Speech, ULPA.
Page 230, line 15: Conyers Read manuscript, 11, Pforzheimer Collection.
Page 231, line 17: Stephenson cable to Churchill, and letter to Menzies, Pforzheimer Collection.
Page 232, lines 8–31: New York Times, Dec. 6, 1940. Business Week speculated that Donovan’s mission was tied to increased French resentment of the Nazis, and that he might be going to Vichy to promise France postwar aid in exchange for a little backbone now. “Mystery Mission—and Defense.”
Page 233, line 24: New York Times, Dec. 8, 1940.
Page 233, line 37: Troy, 37.
Page 233, line 42: New York Times, Dec. 15, 1940.
Page 234, line 2: Chicago Tribune, Dec. 17, 1940.
Page 239, line 2: New York Times, Dec. 19, 1940.
Page 239, line 34: Conyers Read manuscript, 12, Pforzheimer Collection.
Page 241, line 5: New York Times, Dec. 21, 1940.
Page 242, line 21: Sherwood, The White House Papers of Harry L. Hopkins, 231.
Page 242, lines 30–39: New York Times, Dec. 27, 1940.
Chapter 21. Playing for Time
Page 243, lines 1–8: Whiting.
Page 243, lines 14–15: De Launay, 441.
Page 243, line 31: Speech, April 29, 1941, ULPA.
Page 244, line 6: Admiral James Fife, interviewed by John T. Mason, Jr., Oral History Archives, Columbia University Libraries.
Page 244, line 16; Page 244, line 35; Page 245, line 4: Lecture, War Dept., Hoover Institution.
Page 245, line 29: Connell, 310.
Page 245, lines 37–39: Langer and Gleason, The Undeclared War, 376.
Page 246, line 6: New York Times, Jan. 12, 1941.
Page 247, line 21: Roosevelt Library.
Page 249, line 17: German agents kept a close eye on Donovan throughout his trip. Friedlander, 187.
Page 249, line 30–34: New York Times, Jan. 21, 1941.
Page 249, line 36: Earle dispatched preliminary cables and finally on January 23 a full report to Secretary of State Hull on the progress of Donovan’s mission in the Balkans. The Germans read the cables, but the report got through with full security. Diplomatic Section, National Archives.
Page 250, lines 8–10: New York Times, Jan. 22, 1941.
Page 251, line 31: Minister Earle reported to Hull on Jan. 23, 1941, “Donovan’s forceful declaration to the king and his ministers that America, exerting all her enormous force will ensure ultimate victory for England has had a tremendous effect.” Lane and Petrov.
Page 251, line 36: Donovan wrote to Knox on Jan. 24, 1941, that the king was “idealistic, honest and shy, although somewhat over-confident of his ability to maneuver in a difficult international situation.” Ibid.
Page 252, line 14: Twardovsky memorandum, Jan. 31, 1941, PAA.
Page 252, lines 15–34: Lane and Petrov.
Page 252, line 44: “I am sending you a selection of German references over the radio,” Fleming wrote Donovan on March 8, 1941. “I dare say there have been others, but the BBC does not monitor all wave lengths infallibly.
“I am very disappointed in Dykes for having led you into such bad company!
“Please don’t forget my remedy for all our ills—namely that the man in the street should learn the names of our Dominions and Colonial Secretaries, and forget the name of our Foreign Minister. For the last twenty years the opposite has been the case.
“Don’t spend too long in America.” Philip Strong papers, Princeton University Library.
Page 253, line 39: New York Times, Jan. 23, 1941.
Page 255, line 15: Donovan himself said, “The British felt that at least as a result of these efforts the Bulgarian action was held up for two or three weeks, which gave them a little time.” Conyers Read manuscript, 13, Pforzheimer Collection.
Chapter 22. Mediterranean Intrigue
Page 256, line 9: When U.S. embassies abroad and foreign embassies in Washington asked about Donovan’s mission, Hull ordered that they be told that Donovan was solely Knox’s agent. By sending Donovan on his mission, Roosevelt had circumvented Hull without making a public issue of his differences with his secretary of state, which considering the strength of isolationist critics might have been politically difficult. Lane and Petrov.
Page 256, line 12: Bendiner, 208, and Lane and Petrov, 136.
Page 256, line 18: Lane and Petrov, 136.
Page 257, lines 10–24: New York Times, Jan. 24, 1941.
Page 257, lines 25–30: New York Herald Tribune, April 2, 1941.
Page 257, line 40: Address, April 29, 1941, ULPA.
Page 258, line 26: On February 14, Cvetković and Cinkar-Marković went to Berl
in, where Cvetković told Von Ribbentrop that Donovan “had told him that America would help all countries which resisted the Axis. He had replied that not only the Atlantic Ocean but also a wide strip of European continent separated Yugoslavia from America and her assistance. Yugoslavia felt herself in no way threatened, but maintained cordial relations with Germany and therefore needed no help.” Fried-lander, 190. Other reports in the PAA detail his visits to Sofia and to Egypt.
Page 260, line 38: When in April Stimson told Donovan that American officers in Washington were saying that “the decision of the British to send troops to Greece was the worst instance of the political element of the government interfering with the military strategy that has happened since General Halleck,” Donovan told Stimson that the decision to send British troops to Greece had not been made by the cabinet of Churchill at all but by Wavell himself and that he had been present when it was made. Stimson diary, April 17, 1941, Yale University Library.
Page 262, line 13: Lincoln MacVeagh wrote to the State Department that Donovan had “said he believed that Germany would refrain from making any attack on the Balkans if she were convinced of united opposition on the part of Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Turkey, and that despite the forces tending to keep their nations apart, their common desire for American moral support and material assistance might well be sufficient to bring them together should a move in that direction be made by the President.” Lane and Petrov.
Page 262, line 27: While Donovan was arriving in Turkey, Frank Knox was defending him before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Clark of Missouri demanded to know what his status was.
“He is a private individual, traveling at his own expense,” answered Knox. “And he is a darn good observer. He has no official status. He has an itching foot and a love of adventure.” New York Times, Feb. 2, 1941, and Lane and Petrov.
Page 262, line 32: New York Times, Feb. 3, 1941. Lord Halifax wrote to Frank Knox on February 11, “I have a telegram from the FO saying that the British representatives at Sofia, Belgrade, and Ankara have all reported that Colonel Donovan’s recent visits to those capitals and his frank statements to the leading personalities about the attitude of the United States toward the war have made a deep impression on all concerned. All three British representatives have expressed the view that in paying these visits at the present moment and in using the language which he did, Colonel Donovan has rendered a most valuable service to the Allied cause.”