The Chairman
Page 110
77. Sherrill, Oil Follies, p. 195; Sampson, Seven Sisters, p. 300.
78. As the chairman of Standard Oil of California said in 1974, “Who owns certain assets is not the important thing. The international companies still have a role to play in the Persian Gulf. The important things were access to oil and the incentive given us to go on producing it and developing new fields.” (Engler, Brotherhood of Oil, pp. 123,121.)
79. McCloy to Chief Judge William B. Jones, 9/24/75, Joint Collection, University of Missouri Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Columbia and State Historical Society of Missouri Manuscripts, provided to the author by Steven Weinberg; see also Weinberg, Armand Hammer, The Untold Story, pp. 3–10, 285.
80. NYT, Dec. 31, 1976.
81. Washington Star, Dec. 31, 1975; NYT, Jan. 4, 1976; Jack Sunderland interview, Sept. 26, 1985.
82. Philadelphia Inquirer, April 6, 1976.
83. Elliot Richardson, The Creative Balance (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976), pp. 4–5; George Higgins, The Friends of Richard Nixon (New York: Ballantine, 1975), pp. 251–52; Theodore H. White, Breach of Faith: The Fall of Richard Nixon (New York: Atheneum, 1975), p. 220.
84. Harriman, “Notes for Files,” 5/21/73, AH.
85. White, Breach of Faith, p. 21; Fawn M. Brodie, Richard Nixon: The Shaping of His Character (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981), p. 19.
86. McCloy to Douglas, 6/15/73, LD.
87. Ibid.
88. Robert Paul Browder and Thomas G. Smith, Independent: A Biography of Lewis W. Douglas, p. 399.
89. McCloy to Douglas, 6/29/73, LD.
90. Nixon would have felt his paranoia vindicated had he known, for instance, that someone like Lew Douglas was lunching with Alger Hiss, the very same Harvard-trained, East Coast lawyer whose perjury conviction had jump-started Nixon’s political career.
91. Richardson, Creative Balance, p. 5.
92. Christopher Paine interview, Oct. 9, 1986.
TWENTY-EIGHT: McCLOY AND THE IRAN-HOSTAGE CRISIS
1. James A. Bill, The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iranian Relations (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1988), p. 334.
2. Mark Hulbert, Interlock (New York: Richardson & Snyder, 1982), p. 85; Robert D. McFadden, Joseph B. Treaster, and Maurice Carroll, No Hiding Place: New York Times Inside Report on the Hostage Crisis (New York: Times Books, 1981), p. 153. Chase also owned 35 percent of the International Bank of Iran. (“Recent History of Chase and Iran,” memo, n.d., box SH 1, folder 1, JJM.)
3. McCloy interview, Dec. 3, 1985.
4. This information comes from a friend of John J. McCloy II.
5. Bill, Eagle and Lion, p. 508. However, William Sullivan reports that Bowie left Iran with the impression that the shah “was not a man who was prepared to take vigorous action to defend his position.” (William H. Sullivan, Mission to Iran (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981), p. 198.) David Rockefeller himself had visited the shah in Iran on March 1, 1978, soon after the first demonstrations in Qum erupted.
6. Gary Sick, All Fall Down: America’s Tragic Encounter with Iran (New York: Random House, 1985), p. 105.
7. Sullivan, Mission to Iran, p. 199.
8. Bill, Eagle and Lion, p. 436.
9. Bill, Eagle and Lion, p. 251; Zbigniew Brzezinski, Power and Principle: Memoirs of the National Security Adviser 1977–1981, (New York, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1983), p. 363.
10. William Sullivan, Mission to Iran, pp. 203–4.
11. Bill, Eagle and Lion, p. 259.
12. McFadden et al., No Hiding Place, p. 152, 154.
13. Memo for the record re: Professor Lenczowski, 12/10/79, box SH 1, folder 2, JJM. The book was apparently never published.
14. Joseph V. Reed memo to “Volunteer Team on the Project Eagle,’ ” 10/23/79; McCloy memo to Mr. Reilly, 5/7/80, box SH 1, folder 2, JJM. In the spring of 1980, Reed informed members of Project Alpha that he had just discovered that his phone lines at One Chase Plaza were being wiretapped. There is no indication in McCloy’s papers whether they determined who was responsible.
15. Brzezinski, Power and Principle, p. 473.
16. Overheard by James E. Akins, whom Kissinger had fired as ambassador to Saudi Arabia in 1975, the conversation was reported to Brzezinski the very next day. (Akins to Brzezinski, 12/6/78, Mandatory review 5/4/89, JC.)
17. James E. Akins to Brzezinski, 12/6/78, JC.
18. Brzezinski, Power and Principle, p. 473; William Shawcross, The Shah’s Last Ride: The Fate of an Ally (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), p. 153.
19. Shawcross, Shah’s Last Ride, p. 154; Jimmy Carter, Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President (New York: Bantam, 1982), p. 452.
20. Hamilton Jordan, Crisis: The Last Year of the Carter Presidency (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1982), p. 29.
21. Bill, Eagle and Lion, p. 335; Shawcross, Shah’s Last Ride, p. 13.
22. Jimmy Carter says “the question was brought to me at least weekly from some source.” (Carter, Keeping Faith, p. 453.)
23. Rosalynn Carter, First Lady from Plains (New York: Ballantine, 1984), p. 292
24. Donald F. McHenry interview, March 12, 1982.
25. McCloy “personal and confidential” memo to Warren Christopher, 4/16/79, declassified 3/16/88, JC.
26. Warren Christopher to McCloy, 4/18/79, declassified 3/16/88, JC.
27. McCloy to Christopher, 4/20/79, declassified 3/16/88, JC.
28. McFadden et al., No Hiding Place, p. 159; Bill, Eagle and Lion, p. 335. On May 31, 1979, McCloy again wrote Christopher a memo, warning him of a “rather sordid denouement to this whole affair” if the government didn’t act. “I cannot predict its form, but it could be tragic.” (McCloy to Christopher, 5/31/79, box SH 1, folder 12, JJM.)
29. Cyrus Vance interview, Oct. 10, 1985.
30. McCloy interview, Dec. 3, 1985.
31. David Newsom interview, Feb. 15, 1984.
32. McCloy interview, Dec. 3, 1985.
33. Donald F. McHenry interview, March 12, 1982.
34. Gary Sick interview, Aug. 5, 1985. George Ball had urged McCloy to see Sick as early as Jan. 1979. (Memo re: meeting with George Ball, 1/28/79, box SH 1, folder 9, JJM.)
35. McFadden et al., No Hiding Place, p. 159; Shawcross, Shah’s Last Ride, pp. 240–41.
36. Brzezinski, Power and Principle, p. 474.
37. McCloy to Cyrus Vance, 10/23/78, State Department FOIA.
38. McCloy to Senator Edward Zorinsky, 2/27/78, AH; “Notables Unite in Endorsing Canal Treaties,” WP, Oct. 16, 1977. One senator, Charles Mathias of Maryland, thought McCloy’s testimony “made the difference.” (McCloy to Harriman, 5/10/78, AH.) See also letter from Carter thanking McCloy for his assistance in passage of Panama Canal Treaty, 3/27/78, WHCF, Name File, McCloy I-P, JC.
39. Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made, p. 733.
40. Carter daily diary, 6/12/79, and photos of lunch, JC.
41. Hamilton Jordan observed, “SALT was the background for all our discussions in those days.” (McFadden et al., No Hiding Places, p. 157.)
42. Brzezinski, Power and Principle, p. 474.
43. “Notes from Admiral Gayler,” Harriman memo, Sept. 1979, AH. Gayler told Harriman, “The Brigade probably has been in Cuba for many years, and there has been no change and there is no danger to the United States.” See also censored Defense Intelligence Agency “Intelligence Appraisal / Cuba: Soviet Brigade(U) 8 December 1979, DIAIAPPR 224–79,” DIA FOIA. At the height of the Cuban missile crisis, the Soviets had some twenty thousand troops in Cuba. {NYT, Sept. 30, 1979.)
44. Robert Perito and John McCloy memorandum of conversation, Sept. 24, 1979, Metropolitan Club, Washington, D.C., State Department FOIA, declassified Feb. 22, 1985; NYT, Sept. 30, 1979; Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 28, 1979.
45. Carter daily diary, 9/29/79, JC.
46. Confusion arose later over the shah’s medical condition. Carter said he was informed that the shah was near death and that
the only treatment possible existed in New York. Rockefeller’s physician, Dr. Benjamin Kean, in fact only said that the shah should be treated in a matter of weeks and listed a number of hospitals outside the United States that could handle the case. (Hulbert, Interlock, p. 145; Shawcross, Shah’s Last Ride, p. 250.)
47. Jordan, Crisis, p. 31. Carter’s annoyance may have been stimulated by an angry message he received indirectly from the shah. In Sept. 1979, the shah told two Rockefeller-McCloy associates in Mexico, “I ask President Carter directly why I am not welcome in the United States. . . . I cannot accept this insult. . . . I cannot ignore the fact that I have been mistreated by President Carter.” (Memo for the record, 9/9/79, box SH 1, folder 2, JJM.)
48. Jordan, Crisis, p. 32.
49. Reed memo to “Volunteer Team on the ‘Project Eagle,’ 10/23/79, box SH 1, folder 2, JJM.
50. Bill, Eagle and Lion, p. 335.
51. Ibid.
52. Hulbert, Interlock, p. 143.
53. Memo of conversation, 11/12/79, box SH 1, folder 12, JJM.
54. David Newsom interview, Feb. 15, 1984.
55. Chase Bank was not the only one of McCloy’s legal clients threatened by developments in revolutionary Iran. By the summer of 1979, Iranian oil production had climbed back to four million barrels per day, and most of this oil was being marketed independently of the major oil companies. This threatened the companies’ and OPEC’s control over price and production quotas globally. (See Kai Bird, “The Workers’ Committees Are Pumping Iran,” The Nation, April 21, 1979; Hulbert, Interlock, p. 144.)
56. Bill, Eagle and Lion, pp. 342–48; Hulbert, Interlock, p. 144.
57. Hulbert, Interlock, pp. 156, 171–72, 174.
58. David Newsom interview, Feb. 15, 1984.
59. James B. Stewart, The Partners: Inside America’s Most Powerful Law Firms, pp. 36, 344.
60. Paul Hoffman, Lions of the Eighties (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1982), p. 313.
TWILIGHT YEARS
1. William Casey memo to “All members of the interim Foreign Policy Advisory Board,” 12/23/80; “A Strategy for Foreign Policy and National Security,” n.d., box Ci, folder RT 1, JJM.
2. William Casey conversation with author, Eisenhower Conference, Hofstra University, March 29–31, 1984.
3. Interview with anonymous member of Council on Foreign Relations, Aug. 1982.
4. McCloy to Cyrus Vance, April 25, 1977, DOS FOIA.
5. McCloy to Al Haig, 2/10/81, DOS FOIA.
6. Richard Burt memo to the secretary, 6/16/82, State Department FOIA.
7. McCloy interview, March 19, 1986.
8. McCloy interviews, Sept. 14, 1984, March 19, 1986; John Newhouse, War and Peace in the Nuclear Age, p. 375. Newhouse dates the McCloy letter to Reagan as late 1984 or early 1985. In an interview with the author, McCloy referred to the possibility of writing such a letter to Reagan in March 1986.
9. WP, April 3, 1985; author’s notes.
10. The author was present at the ceremony. See also Isaacson and Thomas, Wise Men, p. 734; WP, April 3, 1985.
11. Isaacson and Thomas, Wise Men, p. 734.
12. NYT, Nov. 4, 1981.
13. Dan Charles, memorandum of conversation, June 21, 1984.
14. Mrs. Mary Paulsen interview, Aug. 7, 1985.
15. Author’s interview with a member of the McCloy household who prefers to remain anonymous.
16. WP, March 12, 1989. The details of McCloy’s death are taken from “Certificate of Death, State of Connecticut, Dept. of Health Services, No. 212, Stamford Town Clerk’s Office.”
PICTURE CREDITS
Amherst College Archives 2
AP / Wide World 3, 5, 12, 20, 22, 23, 24, 27
UPI / Bettmann 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 25, 26, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38
Bettmann Archive 15
Courtesy of the Chase Manhattan Archives 29, 30, 40
Lyndon Johnson Library 37
Jimmy Carter Library 39
Ronald Reagan Library 43
ARCHIVAL SOURCES
Cadwalder, Wickersham & Taft Archives, Brooklyn, N.Y. (CWT)
Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta, Ga. (JC)
Chase Manhattan Bank Archives, N.Y., N.Y. (CMB)
Council on Foreign Relations Archives, N.Y., N.Y. (CFR)
Lewis W. Douglas Papers, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. (LD)
Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kan. (DDE)
Ford Foundation Archives, N.Y., N.Y. (FF)
Gerald Ford Presidential Library, Grand Rapids, Mich. (GF)
Averell Harriman Papers, Washington, D.C. (AH)
Amzi Hoffman Papers
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, West Branch, Iowa (HH)
Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, Austin, Tex. (LBJ)
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston, Mass. (JFK)
Library of Congress Manuscript Collection, Washington, D.C. (LOC)
George C. Marshall Library, Lexington, Va. (GCM)
Papers of John J. McCloy, Amherst College Manuscript Collection (JJM)
National Archives, Washington, D.C., and Suitland, Md. (NA)
Vice-Presidential Papers of Richard Nixon, Calif. (RN)
Peddie School Archives, Hightstown, N.J. (PS)
Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co. Archives, Philadelphia, Pa. (PML)
Princeton University Manuscript Library, Princeton, N.J. (PU)
Public Records Office, London (PRO)
Rockefeller Family Archives, Pocantico, N.Y. (RF)
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, N.Y. (FDR)
Harry S Truman Presidential Library, Independence, Mo. (HST)
U.S. Military Archives, Carlyle Barracks, Pa. (CB)
World Bank Archives, Washington, D.C. (WB)
In addition, hundreds of government documents were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Treasury Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Security Agency, the National Security Council, and the Defense Department.
INTERVIEWS
Alice Acheson, 6/15/84
James Akins, 3/9/83
Herve Alphand, 12/22/83*
Egon Bahr, 12/13/83*
George Ball, 12/4-5/85
Richard J. Barnet, 12/1/89
Lucius Battle, 3/9/83
Doug Bazata, 10/9/84
Karl R. Bendetsen, 11/10/83
Armand Berard, 12/20/83*
Donald C. Bergus, phone interview, 6/15/83
Kurt Birrenbach, 2/14/84*
Eugene Black, 7/24/84
Herbert Blankenhorn*
Jack Blum, 2/16/83
Judge Dudley Bonsal, 12/6/85
Robert Bowie, 8/29/84
John Bross, 7/16/84
Irving Brown, 4/2/84
Herbert Brownell, 3/17/86
Jack W. Buford, 1/17-18/85, 2/1/85*
Michael Burke, 9/23/85
Axel von dem Bussche, 4/5/84
Benjamin Buttenwieser, 4/29/82, 7/15/82, 11/11/82
Helen Buttenwieser, 3/17/83
Henry Byroade, 4/11/84
William Casey, 3/30/84
George Champion, 2/20/85
Ramsey Clark, phone interview, 7/22/83
Eugene “Pete” Collado, 8/18/82
Lucien Conein, 10/9/84
Don Cook, 12/19/83*
William Crago, phone interview, 10/3/83
Richard N. Crockett, 6/17/83
Ernest Cuneo, 8/1/85
John Paton Davies, 6/2/84
Dorothy “Dot” Davison, 11/5/86
Gates Davison, 11/5/86
Eli Debevoise, 7/15/82
Francis Dickman, 9/12/82
Grafin Donhoff, 11/28/83*
Eleanor Lansing Dulles, 4/7/82
John F. Dulles, Jr., 5/1/85*
Harry Dunn, 2/7/85*
John Eichler, 6/22/83
Milton Eisenhower, 8/5/82
John Eliff, phone interview, 5/19/83
Edward J. Ennis, 10/23/81, 9/20/84, 8/4/85
Erhard Eppler, 3/5/84*
Wilbur Crane Eveland, 7/25/82
Richard Falk, 3/28/85
Benjamin B. Ferencz, 9/15/84
Alexander Forger, 12/6/85
Michael Forrestal, 10/10/85
William C. Foster, 8/5/82
Lloyd Garrison, 1/31/84
Mrs. Colonel Al Gerhardt, 7/10/84
Leo Gottlieb, 6/22/83
Wilhelm Grewe, 2/9/84*
Morton Halperin, 7/22/85
Averell Harriman, 3/25/82
Ambassador Parker T. Hart, 7/31/84
Sir William Hayter, 1/29/84*
Mohamed Heikel, 12/82
Struve Hensel, 1/26/84
Aiko and John Herzig, 2/2/83
Alger Hiss, 1/12/82
Amzi Hoffman, 12/6/82*
Jean Holke, 3/14/83
William Horhi, 8/17/82*
Stefan Heym, 11/7/83*
Joseph Iseman, 6/22/83
Senator Jacob Javits, 11/9/82
Otto John, 2/20/84*
Joseph E. Johnson, 6/21/83
Jan Karski, phone interview 4/21/87, speech 3/29/87
Henry Kellerman, 10/3/84*
Robert Kempner, 11/24-25/83*
Bernard Knox, 10/9/84
Otto Kranzbuhler, 2/21/84*
Betty Goetz Lall, 2/20/85, 2/23/85
William John Lamont, phone interview, 2/9/83
Fran Lapinski, 8/9/84
Melvin Lasky, phone interview, 1/2/87
Jerome Levinson, 12/11/80
Walter J. Levy, 12/5/85
Robert Lochner, 2/28/84*
John Loftus, phone interview, 5/18/83
Angus Macbeth, 7/9/84
Harry Magdoff, 2/27/82
Edwin M. Martin, 7/10/84
John J. McCloy, 5/26/83, 6/23/83, 6/25/83, 9/5/84, 9/14/84, 10/9/85, 12/3/85, 3/19/86, 7/10/86