Price of Fame
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31. Case, “Maggie’s Diary,” 85, SJMP.
32. “Top Secret Security Information: Chief of Mission Meeting, Luxembourg, Sept. 18–19, 1953,” CBLP-NA. Hereafter “Chief of Mission Meeting.”
33. Sulzberger, Candles, 1018.
34. CBL, “Eisenhower Administration,” 34.
35. Anthony Nutting, Europe Will Not Wait (London, 1960), 63.
36. Nelson Lankford, The Last American Aristocrat: The Biography of Ambassador David K. E. Bruce, 1898–1977 (Boston, 1996), 256–57.
37. Ibid., 262–63.
38. CBL memo of a conversation with De Gasperi, June 20, 1953; CBL memo, “Subject of Pella at Conference in Luxembourg,” Sept. 18, 1953, CBLP-NA.
39. Quoted by Case to CBL, Oct. 16, 1953, CBLP.
40. Sulzberger, Candles, 916. On Nov. 13, 1953, Sulzberger heard the story from Ambassador Chip Bohlen, who had been at the Sept. 18 dinner with CBL in Luxembourg.
41. “Chief of Mission Meeting,” CBLP-NA.
42. Ambassador’s Notes, and itinerary Sept. 17–22, 1953, CBLP-NA.
43. Croci, “Trieste Crisis,” 221, 224, 227.
44. Ibid., 228.
45. Ibid.
46. Claire Sterling, “The Mess in Trieste,” The Reporter, Nov. 10, 1953.
47. John Foster Dulles to CBL, 12:07 A.M., Oct. 10, 1953, CBLP-NA.
48. Case to CBL, quoting a CBS News broadcast, 8:00 A.M., Oct. 16, 1953, CBLP.
49. Croci, “Trieste Crisis,” 272.
50. The Reporter, Nov. 10, 1953.
51. Croci, “Trieste Crisis,” 278 and 281.
52. Ibid., 285.
53. Durbrow quoted in Hatch interviews, AHP.
54. Dorothy Farmer to Dorothea Philp, Oct. 19, 1953, CBLP.
55. Typed list of drug dosages, Oct. 23, 1953, CBLP.
56. CBL to John Foster Dulles, Oct 27, 1953; Dulles to CBL, Nov. 13, 1953, CBLP-NA.
57. Croci, “Trieste Crisis,” 293–95.
58. CBL to Eisenhower and Dulles, Nov. 3, 1953, CBLP-NA. CBL confirmed sending this document in a letter to Walter Bedell Smith, Mar. 13, 1954, CBLP.
59. CBL to Eisenhower, Nov. 3, 1953, CBLP-NA.
60. Eisenhower to CBL, Nov. 7, 1953, CBLP-NA.
61. CBL to State Department, Nov. 6, 1953, NASD.
62. Gerald Miller to SJM, Nov. 18, 1983, SJMP; Hatch, Ambassador, 228–29. The protest incident took place on Nov. 6, 1953, not Oct. 10 as Hatch has it.
63. Michael Stern, An American in Rome (New York, 1964), 221–22.
64. Stan Swinton, Rome correspondent of the AP, remarked that in the 1950s “riots would stop at noon and start again at 2 p.m. for the mutual convenience of demonstrators and police.” Stan Swinton interview, Apr. 12, 1982.
65. Eyewitness report of Michele Lanza, Nov. 7, 1953, copy in CBLP-NA.
66. U.S. Rome Embassy Despatch No. 1033, Nov. 10, 1953, CBLP-NA; Croci, “Trieste Crisis,” 297, 340.
67. U.S. Rome Embassy Despatch No. 1033, Nov. 10, 1953, CBLP-NA; Croci, “Trieste Crisis,” 299. Pella made his displeasure known to CBL, saying that Italian acceptance of the five-power conference was now impossible.
68. Ibid., 303.
69. Ibid., 307.
70. “Patience and courage.” Hatch, Ambassador, 233.
71. Croci, “Trieste Crisis,” 310–11.
36. EVIL EYE
1. According to Sulzberger, Candles, 973, Italian industrialists saw Fanfani as a “white Communist.”
2. Croci, “Trieste Crisis,” 356.
3. The New York Times, Jan. 3, 1954.
4. New York Herald Tribune, Jan., 24, 1954.
5. U.S. News & World Report, Feb. 19, 1954.
6. New York Herald Tribune, Mar. 28, 1954.
7. Time internal memo to Washington bureau, Mar. 28, 1954, transmitting a translation of an article in L’Europeo, same date.
8. AP report, Mar. 29, 1954.
9. Samuel Lubell to CBL, Jan. 9, 1954, CBLP.
10. John Billings diary, Jan. 7, 1954, JBP.
11. The New York Times, Jan. 12 and 13, 1954.
12. John Foster Dulles to CBL, Jan. 14, 1954, CBLP-NA.
13. CBL memo of conversation with Giuseppe Saragat, Jan. 16, 1954, CBLP-NA; Elbridge Durbrow interview, Dec. 12, 1983.
14. CBL memo of conversation with Giuseppe Saragat, Jan. 16, 1954, CBLP-NA.
15. CBL memo of conversation with Alfredo Covelli, Jan. 18, 1954, CBLP-NA.
16. CBL memo of conversation with Bruno Villabruna, Jan. 18, 1954, CBLP-NA.
17. CBL to Gerald Miller, Jan. 19, 1954, CBLP-NA.
18. CBL to Henry Luce III, Jan. 19, 1954, CBLP.
19. Croci, “Trieste Crisis,” 359–61, 382.
20. Time, Feb. 8, 1954. The correspondent Dorothy Thompson, in a column defending CBL, cited two acquaintances who had to leave Italy after the superstition of the evil eye was attached to them. Like CBL, both had blue eyes, which to dark Italians seemed hypnotic. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Feb. 22, 1943.
21. The New York Times, Jan. 30, 1954.
22. Time, Feb. 8, 1954.
23. Ginsborg, History of Contemporary Italy, 130, 148.
24. HRL to C. D. Jackson, Feb. 18, 1954 (partially copied to Billings), JBP.
25. Swanberg, Luce, 361.
26. CBL to State Department, Feb. 24, 1954; ibid., Feb. 26, 1954, CBLP-NA.
27. Ginsborg, History of Contemporary Italy, 192. See also CBL memorandum of a conversation with Valletta on Oct. 6, 1954, CBLP-NA.
28. Sulzberger, Candles, 964. Sulzberger decided to make his tour on Feb. 10, the same day Scelba became Prime Minister.
29. Ibid., 980.
30. Ibid., 981.
31. Ibid., 965.
32. Ibid., 967.
33. Ibid., 974.
34. Ibid., 975.
35. Ibid., 976.
36. Ibid., 977.
37. Ibid., 974.
38. CBL to Walter Bedell Smith, Mar. 13, 1954, CBLP-NA.
39. Gerald Miller to SJM, Nov. 18, 1983, SJMP.
40. The New Republic, Feb. 15, 1954. Gorrell extensively quoted similar opinion from Britain’s Manchester Guardian.
41. CBL to John Foster Dulles, Mar. 18, 1954, CBLP-NA.
42. The New York Times, Mar. 27, 1954.
43. Ibid.; Congressional Record, Senate, 5510, May 3, 1954.
44. CBL to HRL, Mar. 27, 1954, CBLP.
45. Time internal memo to Washington bureau, Mar. 28, 1954, transmitting a translation of an article in L’Europeo, same date.
46. CBL to HRL, Mar. 27, 1954, CBLP.
47. The New York Times, Apr. 1, 1954.
48. Homer S. Ferguson, in Congressional Record, Senate, 5510, May 3, 1954.
49. Baldrige, Roman Candles, 290.
50. CBL to Dulles, Apr. 5, 1954, CBLP-NA.
51. The Jewels and Objects of Vertu of The Honorable Clare Boothe Luce, Sotheby’s Auction Catalogue, Apr. 19, 1988; Dorothy Farmer to HRL, Mar. 17, 1954, CBLP. Mrs. Farmer told HRL that CBL wanted the emeralds to be able to compete with the Roman aristocrats that he admired. After CBL’s death, the necklace sold for $150,000 and a matching ring for $75,000.
52. Hatch, Ambassador, 235–36.
53. CBL to HRL, Apr. 10, 1954, CBLP. After discovering that HRL had paid $23,000 for Madonna of the Roses, CBL had it appraised by two New York experts. They informed her that the artist, Pier Francesco Fiorentino (1444–1497), was not of the first rank, and that the painting was worth between $3,500 and $12,000. “F.B.” to CBL, Apr. 22, 1945, CBLP. In 1969, two years after HRL’s death, CBL sold Madonna of the Roses for $40,000.
54. CBL’s prescription drug file shows an order for two hundred of each of these pills, Apr. 16, 1954, CBLP.
55. Dr. M. Rosenbluth to CBL, June 14, 1954, CBLP.
56. CBL to Joseph W. Martin, Apr. 15, 1954, CBLP-NA.
57. Shadegg, Clare Boothe Luce, 249.
58. CBL to John Foster Dulles, May 5, 1954, CBLP-NA.
59. Elbridge Durbrow to CBL, Apr. 22, 1954, CBLP.
; 60. William Attwood, Look, “Mrs. Ambassador,” May 18, 1954.
61. Congressional Record, Senate, 5510–12, May 3, 1954.
62. James B. Engle, memorandum of conversation between Dulles and Scelba, May 3, 1954, CBLP-NA. CBL attended the Geneva conference as an observer, and then accompanied Dulles to Milan. On May 1, the Italian Ambassador to Japan, Blasco Lanza d’Ajeta, privately told CBL that it was right for the United States to be “ruthlessly firm” until the Italian government, recovering from the “dope” of Marshall Plan aid, was scared into operating on its own Communist “cancer.” CBL to State Department, May 4, 1954, CBLP-NA.
63. Roosevelt and Hickok, Ladies of Courage, 237–38.
64. Croci, “Trieste Crisis,” 386–89.
65. Ibid., 389.
66. Ibid., 390. The Italian phase of the negotiations resumed on June 12.
67. Dorothy Farmer to Dorothea Philp, June 5, 1954, CBLP.
37. END OF THE DRAMA
1. CBL to HRL, June 11, 1954, CBLP.
2. CBL to Dorothy Farmer, June 10, 1954, CBLP.
3. The New York Times, July 10, 1954; Croci, “Trieste Crisis,” 395.
4. The New York Times, July 12, 1954.
5. CBL to Remigio Grillo, June 17, 1954, CBLP-NA.
6. Dorothy Farmer to Dorothea Philp, Sept. 21, 1954, CBLP.
7. Robert H. Ferrell, ed., The Diary of James C. Hagerty (Bloomington, Ind., 1983), 114.
8. Barzini, “Ambassador Luce.”
9. CBL to Eisenhower, Aug. 31, 1954, CBLP-NA. In his reply Eisenhower wrote, “Dear Clare: I have studied your secret letter of the 31st. The conclusions you present, as a result of your convictions and study, are not greatly different from my own instinctive feelings, based, however, on much flimsier foundations than are yours. I shall certainly do what I can.” Eisenhower to CBL, Sept. 6, 1954, CBLP-NA.
10. CBL, “Eisenhower Administration,” 39; Shadegg, Clare Boothe Luce, 250. CBL did not reveal Low’s identity to Shadegg, but did so in her Columbia University Oral History interview, which was to remain closed during her lifetime.
11. CBL, “Eisenhower Administration,” 38–39.
12. Ibid., 39–40. CBL, interviewed in 1968, stated that the figure discussed was $18 million. Her memory was accurate as to the amount eventually paid Italy as part of the final settlement, but it is unlikely that in 1954 she was so specific.
13. “Arsenic for the Ambassador,” Time, July 23, 1956.
14. Robert D. Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors (New York, 1964), 422; CBL, “Eisenhower Administration,” 40.
15. Ibid., 40–41.
16. Ibid., 40–41; Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors, 422.
17. Ibid., 423.
18. Ibid., 422 ff.; FRUS, vol. VIII, 531–32.
19. Croci, “Trieste Crisis,” 396–97.
20. Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors, 424.
21. Ibid., 423. The main reason for Piccioni’s resignation was the involvement of his son in a lurid Roman sex scandal known as “the Montesi case,” the inspiration for Federico Fellini’s 1960 movie, La Dolce Vita.
22. Croci, “Trieste Crisis,” 398.
23. In late September, CBL received a disturbing letter from a security officer in the State Department. He said he had read a report, “which I know is accurate,” that an Italian Ambassador to a Central American country had recently informed his U.S. counterpart that the Chigi Palace would “welcome Clare Luce’s recall.” The envoy stated further that other Italian missions “have similar instructions.” Scott McLeod to CBL, Sept. 23, 1954, CBLP-NA. Although this alleged effort never came to anything, a likely explanation might be that Italian officials, worried by the concessions being forced on Ambassador Brosio in the Trieste negotiations, suspected that CBL favored a pro-Yugoslav settlement.
24. Copy of “Memorandum of Understanding Between the Governments [etc.]” in CBLP-NA; Croci, “Trieste Crisis,” 399–400; Elbridge Durbrow to Letitia Baldrige, Nov. 9, 1967, CBLP.
25. Ibid.
26. CBL’s arrival and the announcement in the Senate chamber can be seen on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl1I_KUcWN4TK
27. Margaret Case to CBL, Oct. 6, 1954, SJMP.
28. Baldrige, A Lady, 110. An embassy staffer told Alden Hatch that during one weekend at the height of the Trieste crisis, forty-two “Top Secret” telegrams were decoded. Hatch interviews, AHP.
29. Hatch, Ambassador, 231–32.
30. Ibid.; Newsweek, Jan. 24, 1955. Still exulting over her Trieste triumph some eight months later, CBL invited the entire Sixth Fleet of the U.S. Navy to a Fourth of July party at the Villa Taverna, and made sure that they all knew they were there to celebrate Trieste. Baldrige, A Lady, 110.
31. Gianni Bartoli to Eisenhower, Oct. 21, 1953, NASD.
32. Bridgeport Post, Oct. 8, 1954.
33. Time, Oct. 28, 1954.
34. Dr. Milton Rosenbluth to CBL, Oct. 15, 1954, CBLP.
35. Dorothy Farmer to Rosenbluth, Oct. 27, 1954; Rosenbluth to CBL, Nov. 9, 1954, CBLP.
36. “Arsenic for the Ambassador,” Time.
37. CBL to Joseph W. Martin, Nov. 20, 1954, CBLP.
38. Hatch, Ambassador, 240–41. Also see AP Rome dispatch, Dec. 26, 1954, quoted in Congressional Record, Jan. 6, 1955. This was the first of many similar Communist union losses in northern Italian factories in the winter of 1954–1955. CBL quoted by Elbridge Durbrow, Hatch interviews, AHP.
39. Carlos Chávez to CBL, Nov. 25, 1954, CCP.
40. Ibid., and Jan. 25, 1955, CCP; CBL to Robert Irving, Oct. 23, 1954, CBLP. The symphony had been completed on June 26, 1954. “I am extremely happy with this music,” Chávez wrote CBL that day. Receipt of the score in Rome, while CBL was in the United States, had been acknowledged only by Letitia Baldrige, on Aug. 20, 1954, CCP.
41. Robert Irving to CBL, Oct. 25, 1954, CBLP.
42. Aaron Copland to Chávez, Dec. 9, 1954, CCPN; Parker, Carlos Chávez, 73.
43. Embassy Report to State Department, Dec. 17, 1954, CBLP-NA; Maura E. Hametz, Making Trieste Italian: 1918–1954 (Rochester, N.Y., 2005), 160.
44. Embassy Report to State Department, Dec. 17, 1954, CBLP-NA; Jan Morris, Destinations: Essays from Rolling Stone (New York, 1980), 205–06.
45. Embassy Report to State Department, Dec. 17, 1954, CBLP-NA.
46. HRL to John Billings, Dec. 16, 1954, JBP.
47. CBL address, Dec. 17, 1954, transcript in UTA. “Thank you, dearest Rector, for having invited me to visit this great and youthful university, whose name is already celebrated in the story of Italian culture.… And for the honor that you desired to bestow upon me, for what it means to me personally and to the country I represent, allow me to offer my genuine gratitude. Now that Trieste is entering a new phase in its history, this university will have an even greater opportunity to enrich the life of its community and the Italian nation.… I wish to express the most heartfelt and sincere wishes of the American people for the glorious future of this eminent center of study and culture.”
38. NO BED OF ROSES
1. The New York Times, Dec. 19, 1954. Divers attempted to retrieve bodies from Jamaica Bay, but were forced to stop when air pipes froze.
2. CBL to Livingston T. Merchant, Nov. 22, 1954, CBLP-NA. Il Progresso Italo-Americano contrasted CBL’s largesse with “the proper expressions of regret” that other Ambassadors were content with. Hatch, Ambassador, 242.
3. CBS, Longines Chronoscope, Jan. 23, 1955, National Archives Identifier 95940. The program can be seen online.
4. The New York Times, Jan. 6, 1955; Department of State Bulletin, Jan. 24, 1955, 132–36.
5. Newsweek, Jan. 24, 1955. Virginia Kelly, researcher for the article, collected some negative material on CBL, but said later that her editor, Frank Gibney, suppressed it, because he hoped one day to work for HRL. Virginia Kelly to Michael Teague, assistant to SJM, ca. 1995, SJMP.
6. CBL to Malcolm Muir, president of Newsweek, thanking him profusely for an “excellent piece of research�
�� and “tight writing,” Jan. 22, 1955, CBLP; Dorothea Philp to Boris Chaliapin, Jan. 31, 1955, CBLP. CBL bought the latter’s portrait of herself for $1,250. CBL interview, Jan. 4, 1982.
7. Literaturnaya Gazeta, Jan. 15, 1955, quoted in the Bridgeport Telegram, Jan. 16, 1955.
8. Elbridge Durbrow to CBL, Jan. 17, 1955, CBLP-NA; “Arsenic for the Ambassador,” Time.
9. The only encouraging result from Bethesda was a screen test for lead-infused porphyrins that proved negative. Durbrow to CBL, Jan. 17, 1955, CBLP-NA; Durbrow interview, Dec. 12, 1983.
10. Durbow to CBL, Jan. 17, 1955, CBLP-NA.
11. Gerald Miller to SJM, Nov. 18, 1983, SJMP; “Arsenic for the Ambassador,” Time.
12. Durbrow interview, Dec. 12, 1983; CBL interview, Jan. 5, 1982; Gerald Miller to SJM, Nov. 18, 1983, SJMP; “Arsenic for the Ambassador,” Time.
13. Ibid.; Durbrow interview, Dec. 12, 1983.
14. CBL to HRL, Feb. 2, 1955, CBLP. Letitia Baldrige, who also spent time working with CBL in that bedroom, wrote her on Aug. 6, 1956, “I had a bit more arsenic count in my system than you did.… But since I was a horse, exercised a lot (perspired a lot and got rid of it) I was never sickened.” CBLP.
15. CBL to HRL, “Wednesday” [Mar. 9, 1955], CBLP.
16. Baldrige, A Lady, 116.
17. In 1967, CBL was asked why there had never been any official corroboration of the arsenic story, even after it broke in Time on July 23, 1956. She said there had never been an official denial, either. “CIA policy is known to be total anonymity. It never explains, discusses, or affirms, any of its activities, all of which are classified as secret. DOS [Department of State] refrains from any statements that would destroy this essential anonymity. As for the Italian government, my own story at the time indicates that it was not informed on the matter … for obvious ‘reasons of state.’ ” CBL to Henry F. Graff, Aug. 10, 1967, SJMP.
18. Durbrow interview, Dec. 12, 1983. The breakfast tray tests appear to have been negative. Baldrige, A Lady, 117.
19. Letitia Baldrige to CBL, Mar. 28 and Apr. 6, 1955, CBLP.
20. Robert T. Elson, The World of Time Inc: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise, 1941–1960 (New York, 1973), 220.
21. The New York Times, Apr. 14, 1955.
22. Winston Churchill, Painting as a Pastime (New York, 1932, 1965), 7.
23. CBL to Eisenhower, May 2, 1955, CBLP. In his reply on May 10, Eisenhower wrote, “My ‘painting’ technique will never permit me, I am afraid, to have the audacity to attempt to give anyone a lesson.” He offered to show CBL a portrait of Churchill that he had done from a print. CBLP.