A Good American Family
Page 43
“Know your men, and you will not only solve a lot of problems”: EM letter to MM, Jan. 19, 1945.
By the time Horkan took command: Lee, The Employment of Negro Troops, 323–24; Horkan File, U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum, Archives. The installation changed its name from Camp Lee to Fort Lee after the war.
Orrin C. Evans . . . praised Horkan for his innovations: Lee, The Employment of Negro Troops, 76–77.
The men in Elliott’s company provided more than their share of talent: Camp Lee Traveler, Jan. 16, 17, 24, 1945.
One of the repeated themes in Elliott’s letters home: EM to MM, Jan. 20, 1945.
“Of course, the really bad characters”: EM to MM, Jan. 25, 1945.
At seven on the morning of February 5: EM letters to MM, Feb. 5–18, 1945; Camp Lee Traveler clippings; EM military personnel file. In his first letter from the field, EM described the middle-of-the-night orders to relocate: “I had been expecting that they would throw the book at us—and I guess they will, all right. ‘Shake-down’ move is what they call this business of packing up and moving the very first night that you hit a bivouac area. Well, we made it all right, with a lot of work and sweat and cold toes and noses.”
“I just feel that I am doomed”: Undated letter from Phil Cummins to his parents and family, Cummins Family Papers; DM, “Uncle Phil’s Brain,” Washington Post Magazine, Oct. 27, 2002.
Mary told Phil that she had just returned from Detroit: MM letter to Phil Cummins, Feb. 28, 1945.
Purdy and his younger brother: Account of Purdy brothers, Bob Cummins, and George Watt experiences in World War II drawn from Bob Cummins letter to Phil, Mar. 27, 1944, Cummins Family Papers; Honor States, honorstates.org; Fields of Honor database, https://www.fieldsofhonor-database.com/index.php/en/; Carroll, Odyssey, 250–64; Watt, The Comet Connection. In the prologue to his account of his daring rescue and escape, Watt wrote, “The volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, with whom I served in the Spanish Civil War from 1937 to 1939, are also part of this story. They were the first Americans to take up arms against Hitler and Mussolini, who were supporting Franco. That war was the opening battle against Hitlerism and a dress rehearsal for World War II. Instead of welcoming our combat experience, we were considered ‘premature anti-Fascists’ and initially kept from going overseas. But a change in War Department policy in the spring of 1943 permitted Lincoln Brigade veterans to go into combat, making it possible for me to join the Bramwell crew. This is the memoir of one American’s second chance at Hitler. The participants were many. I salute them all.”
Life became an anxious waiting game: EM letter to MM, Mar. 22, 1945. On that breezy spring night, EM wrote to MM that “two items in the news seem to warrant special comment. I read them in the paper the same day: first, confirmation of Eisenhower’s policy of using mixed companies of Negro and white volunteers in Europe. In fact, according to the story in the front page of Tuesday’s Detroit News, those mixed companies have already been used and proven in battle. Secondly, and most contradictorily in the same Army, the case of the 4 Negro WACs at Fort Devens, Mass. Purely a miscarriage of justice and outrageous treatment by a colonel who should be court-martialed and dishonorably discharged from the Army.” (The four black women were sentenced to a year’s hard labor and dishonorably discharged from the army for refusing orders, arguing that they were assigned menial tasks not assigned to white WACs.)
Back at Camp Lee, Elliott was effusive: EM letter to MM, Apr. 9, 1945.
The day after that, April 12: EM letter to MM, Apr. 12, 1945; Camp Lee Traveler, Apr. 18, 1945: “The bulletin board roster told me I was CQ Thursday evening, an all-night trick,” wrote S. Sgt. Jim Haughton. “I settled comfortably at the news desk, ready for a quiet night when suddenly the phone rang. The guttural voice on the other end was Henry Prohly, rotund and serious corporal in the I and E office. He spoke in an anguished and excited voice. ‘The President. He’s dead.’ ”
EM wrote a follow-up letter to MM the day after the announcement of Roosevelt’s death: “I spoke to the men at reveille announcing the period of mourning and tried to relieve some of the tension and strain. It’s funny, I can’t recall exactly what I said, because it was completely extemporaneous. But when I finished the men stood silently in ranks without rushing to the mess hall, they crowded around me, asking questions and making statements to me. So I spoke to them again informally, for about ten minutes. What they wanted to know from me was this: Will we win the war, and will we have peace, and what will happen to us after the war?”
Chapter 16: Why I Fight
Dear Jimmie: Letter from EM to his infant son, Apr. 14, 1945. EM variously spelled the name as Jimmie or Jimmy. MM used only Jimmy. My brother can be a romantic about our family and the places of our lives, but he winces at certain types of predictable sentimentality. To him, this letter fell into that category. “Dad’s letter to me is kind of painful to read,” he wrote. “It’s so unoriginal (and it reads like propaganda).”
Chapter 17: In the Blood
The weather was so bad last night: Letter from EM to MM, Apr. 15, 1945. EM was just at the early stages of an interrupted newspaper career when he wrote that letter, but it echoed through the decades when I read it more than seventy years later. It had a profound effect on me, somewhat like his statement with the imperfect S, but this time it thrilled me, with no pangs of regret.
Chapter 18: The Power of America
The last party was under way: EM letter to MM, Apr. 24, 1945. “Our party last night was quite a slam-bang success. When I got there at 8:30 it was already started—since the bus carrying the girls from Richmond had already arrived.”
“One of the most interesting developments of the past few days”: EM letter to MM, Apr. 17, 1945.
Elliott and his soldiers boarded their troopship, the Cape Canso: Roland W. Charles, Troopships of World War II (Fort Eustis, VA: Army Transportation Association, 1947), 163: “Another C1A type vessel that went directly from the building yard to the conversion yard. She was converted at New York by Arthur Tickle Engineering Co., between 11 November 1943 and 17 February 1944. Following alteration the vessel went from New York to Hampton Roads, arriving there on 3 March 1944. Having transited the Panama Canal in late March, the ship reached Noumea in April and from there made several visits to Milne Bay and Oro Bay before going to Brisbane on 10 May. She returned to San Francisco in June and in mid-July left, via Heuneme and Honolulu, for Manus Island, Espiritu Santo, Noumea, and Havannah Pass. Return to San Francisco via Honolulu on 23 November. Next going to San Diego, the CAPE CANSO sailed, two days before Christmas, for Honolulu, Eniwetok, and Saipan. She returned on 23 February to San Francisco. Following repairs, the ship next left (via Seattle), on May 7 for Pearl Harbor, Eniwetok, Ulithi and Okinawa.” (That was the voyage that carried Elliott and his troops.)
On the third day out, Elliott got “sick as a dog”: EM letters to MM, May 10, 11, 1945.
He tried to consider the various needs and attitudes of the men: Undated letter, EM to MM, aboard the Cape Canso.
He complimented Elliott on the cleanliness: Undated letter, EM to MM, aboard the Cape Canso, approximate date determined by information in the letter. “I must admit with no little pride that my unit is a more cohesive, better disciplined and more military-looking and acting organization than a lot of the others I’ve seen here and at port.”
Books about “American literature”: EM letter to MM, June 10, 1945 (thirty-fourth day at sea).
“No one knows better than I”: EM letter to MM, June 21, 1945. “Now with no false heroics, but no false apologies either, I am anxious to get on with the war against the Japanese: to destroy the last vestiges of the Axis war alliance, to finish the war and return home to you.”
“The first ditty, a parody”: EM letter to MM, Aug. 17, 1945.
“We heard the news at 0800”: EM letter to MM, Aug. 15, 1945.
He was trying to answer her apparent concern: Undated letter, EM to MM, from Okinawa.
&nbs
p; On the morning of September 4: EM letter to MM, Sept. 4, 1945. He signed off that letter, “JOIN THE ARMY AND SEE THE WORLD!”
Elliott was in the middle of a gin rummy game: Description of EM’s experiences awaiting the LST and in the rough seas on the way to Korea from Sept. 19 letter to MM: “Somewhere on the Yellow Sea off the coast of Korea.” He wrote a second letter on Sept. 22 at anchor in Jinsen Harbor summarizing what he had learned leading the company.
Chapter 19: The Virginian
On the third Friday of March: Description of Tavenner leaving Virginia and flying west to Tokyo drawn from Personal Papers of Frank S. Tavenner, and Official Records of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, 1945–48; Tavenner file, Box 13, folder 1, University of Virginia (UVA) Law Library; “Woodstock Socials and Clubs,” Shenandoah Herald, week of Mar. 15, 1946; “Serum Plane’s Supercargo Is VA Attorney,” Washington Post, Mar. 17, 1946.
Even before Tavenner reached Japan: Tokyo Wars Crimes Trial, Tavenner Papers, UVA Law School archive. The introduction to the trial papers: “Unlike the quick convening of Nuremberg, planning for the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) began with some delay under the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee. Initially, multiple tribunals were envisioned, each focusing on a separate aspect: crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The Tokyo trial was supposed to focus predominantly on crimes against peace, known as Class A. [Instead, they were all combined in Tokyo.] An overt aim of the US planners of the tribunal was to create an educational moment for the world centering on the consequences of waging aggressive war.”
According to an internal memo: June 10, 1946, letter, Tavenner File, UVA Law Library.
On May 1 . . . Tavenner held a press conference: Radiopress Special, “Complete Report of Press Conference by Hon. Frank S. Tavenner, May 1, 1945, 10:00 a.m.,” Tavenner File, UVA Law Library.
The Southern Railway System offered him a lucrative job: Tavenner letter, Dec. 30, 1946, Tavenner File, UVA Law Library. “I do not feel that I can with propriety give consideration to the matter of employment.”
The Tavenner name was well known in Woodstock: Daily News Record, Harrisonburg, Va., July 30, 1932; Tavenner File, UVA Law Library; American Taitai: In Search of Beauty in the Mundane, June 7, 2013, https://americantaitai.com/; Tim Hensley, “A Curious Tale: The Apple in North America,” Brooklyn Botanic Garden, June 2, 2005, https://www.bbg.org/gardening/article/the_apple_in_north_america; William A. Fischel, “The Law and Economics of Cedar-Apple Rust,” Dartmouth College, Apr. 23, 2004, https://www.dartmouth.edu/~wfischel/Papers/cedar%20rust%20Fischel%2028apr04.pdf; Nina Martyris, “ ‘Paradise Lost’: How the Apple Became the Forbidden Fruit,” Food for Thought, NPR, Apr. 30, 2017, https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/04/30/526069512/paradise-lost-how-the-apple-became-the-forbidden-fruit.
His army unit was the 1st Pioneer Infantry: Daily News-Record, Harrisonburg, Va., July 24, 1918; Valley Boys in Action, 382, Woodstock Public Library.
He proved better at the first two than the last: Associated Press, Feb. 8, 1939; stories of FDR’s fight with the Virginia senators over judicial appointment carried in newspapers around the country that week.
he received a letter from Keenan explaining his situation: Tavenner Papers, UVA Law School.
Tavenner in Tokyo had his first interaction with Russians: Dec. 4, 1946, memo to Tavenner from Eugene D. Williams; May 22, 1947, memo, Tavenner to Vasiliev; Feb. 5, 1948, memo, Tavenner to Vasiliev, all in Tavenner Papers, UVA Law School.
Pritchard’s son, Cpl. B. W. Pritchard: Letter to Tavenner, Aug. 21, 1947, Tavenner Papers, UVA Law School.
Tavenner delivered the final summation: Transcript, International Prosecution Section final summation, Apr. 18, 1948, Tavenner Papers, UVA Law School.
Chapter 20: Foley Square
George Crockett sat in the federal courthouse: Depiction of opening day of trial drawn from New York Times, Jan. 18, 1949; H. D. Quigg, United Press, Jan. 17, 1949; “Trial of Twelve Top Red Bosses in U.S. Opens: 400 Police Stand By in Court Area,” Box 149, Folders 7, 10, 18, National Lawyers Guild Archive, Tamiment Library; Harold R. Medina Papers, Mudd Manuscript Library; Martelle, The Fear Within.
The first prosecution under the act: Michal R. Belknap, American Political Trials (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994), and Cold War Political Justice (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1977); Michael Steven Smith, “About the Smith Act Trials,” in Encyclopedia of the American Left, edited by Mary Jo Buhle, Paul Buhle, and Dan Georgakas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).
The independent streak started with his surname: Portrait of Crockett as a young man drawn from George Crockett Papers, Reuther Library; Wright, The Making of a Champion; Crockett Files, Tamiment Library; interview with Edward J. Littlejohn, retired Wayne State law professor and Crockett expert.
Copies of the Michigan Daily: Michigan Daily articles, July 16, 1932, Feb. 22, 1933, Oct. 6, 1933, Feb. 20, 1934, Mar. 17, 1934. The last item: “A Negro symposium led by Willis Ward ’35 was held last night at Ann Arbor High. The question under discussion was ‘A Critical Survey of the Problems Confronting the Negro’ in the following fields: history, social progress, law, literature, public health and education. Those besides Ward who participated included George Crockett, James O. Slade, H. J. Harrison, Doxey A. Wilkerson, C. E. Boulware. The Bethel AME choir rendered several selections.”
There were petition drives, mass meetings: Michigan Daily articles, Oct. 17–22, 1934; Stephen J. Nesbitt, “The Forgotten Man,” Michigan Daily, Oct. 18, 2012; Time, Oct. 29, 1934; “Willis Ward, Gerald Ford, and Michigan Football’s Darkest Day,” Detroit News, Oct. 22, 2012; interview and material from Michigan historian John U. Bacon.
When he finished law school: Unpublished Crockett biography, Reuther Library; Crockett Papers, Tamiment Library.
One of his cases took him to Detroit: Depiction of Crockett working for UAW in Detroit drawn from Crockett column in Michigan Chronicle, “Labor Looks Ahead,” June 16, 1945, George Crockett and Ernest Goodman files, Reuther Library; Wright, The Making of a Champion; Detroit Free Press profile, Jan. 12, 1975.
The language of Eugene Dennis was hardly innocent or indirect: Eugene Dennis, What America Faces: The New War Danger and the Struggle for Peace, Democracy, and Economic Security (Whitefish, MT: Literary Licensing, 2013). Text of Dennis’s report to the plenary meeting of the National Committee of the Communist Party held in New York, Feb. 12, 1946. Subjects included “Strike Movement,” “Truman Administration,” “Struggle for Peace,” “The ’46 Elections and Third Party Question,” “CP as Powerful Vanguard Party,” and “Struggle against Browderism.” Of former national leader Earl Browder, Dennis said, “Browderism is no longer current, a trend, in the communist party. Browder is an opponent, an enemy of our party. Browder has become what Lenin termed a social-chauvinist, a social imperialist. It is clear, comrades, that this meeting of our National Convention should and will expel this notorious revisionist who has deserted the ranks and the cause of communism and has become a servile champion of American monopoly capital.”
Crockett had not read Marx and Lenin: “Freedom Is Everybody’s Job!,” George W. Crockett summation at Foley Square trial, published as pamphlet by National Non-Partisan Committee; also in trial transcripts of Medina Papers, Mudd Manuscript Library; Babson et al., The Color of Law, 192.
Judge Medina, a graduate of Princeton: Portrait of Judge Medina and account of back-and-forth between Medina and Crockett drawn from trial transcript, Medina Papers, Mudd Manuscript Library; “Hectic Trial Haunts Crockett’s Bid for Bench,” Detroit News, Oct. 10, 1966; Crockett FBI files, Tamiment Library; Crockett and Goodman Papers, Reuther Library.
In a letter to a sympathetic friend: Letter to George W. Alger, Esq., Park Avenue, New York, Mar. 14, 1949, Medina Papers, Mudd Manuscript Library: “In all the welter of thousands of letters, mostly cursing me out for not letting the defendants off or for not bearing down on them hard enough, and so forth, your
affectionate letter came as a refreshing blast of fresh air.”
Paul Robeson, whose life offered a kaleidoscopic: The most thorough biography is Martin Duberman’s Paul Robeson (Knopf, 1989).
The anticommunist hostility toward Robeson was never stronger: Depiction of Peekskill riot and Robeson testimony at Foley Square trial drawn from Martin Duberman, Paul Robeson (New York: New Press, 1995), 365; “A Rough Sunday at Peekskill,” American Heritage Magazine, Apr. 1976; History Today 62, no. 4 (Apr. 2012); Brave New Films, “Pete Seeger & Majora Carter,” YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjLdegTHIVA; trial transcript, Robeson testimony, Sept. 20, 1949, Medina Papers, Mudd Manuscript Library; Crockett Papers, Folder 6, Tamiment Library; New York Times, Sept. 21, 1949.
In riding the subways in New York: “Freedom Is Everybody’s Job!” The National Non-Partisan Committee that published Crockett’s summation to the jury featured Paul Robeson as a cochairman and novelist Howard Fast as treasurer. Other board members included the international president of the Farm Equipment Union, a cochair of the Republican Party in Columbia, South Carolina, and a judge from Sullivan, Indiana.
The gray-haired bailiff issued the cry: Medina Papers trial transcript, Mudd Manuscript Library; New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 15, 1949; Crockett FBI file, Tamiment Library; George Crockett and Ernest Goodman Papers, Reuther Library.
Chapter 21: Committee Men
Wood was less strident: Walter Goodman, The Committee: The Extraordinary Career of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1968), 173–74.
Wood . . . voted against a 1949 measure prohibiting poll taxes: Wood’s congressional voting record is on www.govtrack.us.
Wood’s role was notable not because of the side he took: The best coverage of Wood’s role in the Taft-Hartley subterfuge was done by Peter Edson for the NEA news service, Apr. 29, May 5, 1949; also Drew Pearson, “Washington Merry-Go-Round,” June 12, 1950.