DOCSLIB.ORG

President Harry Truman Liked to Refer to His Wife, Bess, As the Boss

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
President Harry Truman Liked to Refer to His Wife, Bess, As the Boss CSPAN/FIRST LADIES BESS TRUMAN JUNE 9, 2014 11:34 a.m. ET SUSAN SWAIN, HOST: President Harry Truman liked to refer to his wife, Bess, as the boss. Family was her number-one priority. She had little to say to the media, destroyed many of her letters, and spent a good part of her White House years home in Missouri. Bess Truman served as first lady on her own terms. Good evening, and welcome to C-SPAN's continuing series, "First Ladies: Influence and Image.” Tonight, the story of the wife of the 33rd president of the United States, Bess Truman. Here to tell us more about her are two guests. We're very pleased to welcome back to our set Bill Seale, who is a White House historian. His latest book is called "The Imperial Season," coming out on November 12th. A little plug for you there, Bill. WILLIAM SEALE, AUTHOR: Yes, thank you. SWAIN: Nicole Anslover is a history professor and the author of a biography of Harry Truman called "The Coming of the Cold War.” Thanks for being here. Nice to meet you. NICOLE ANSLOVER, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY: Thank you. SWAIN: Well, where we left off last week was the death of Franklin Roosevelt. April 12, 1945, the call comes in to Harry Truman. Where is he? Then he gets the message that he's needed. ANSLOVER: He's having a drink with his cronies, as he was often want to do. He thought a lot of politics was accomplished by relaxing and having a somewhat more cordial atmosphere. And he received a phone call, and he said he just knew. And the story goes that he ran to get to his car and get to the White House. SWAIN: He was sworn in two hours later at the White House itself. SEALE: Yes. Yeah, Mrs. Roosevelt was at a luncheon at the Sulgrave Club, and they went and got her and didn't tell her anything. Steve Early told her when she got to the White House, the press secretary. But, you know, it wasn't a surprise to anyone in the White House at all. They knew Roosevelt was going. SWAIN: But no one suspected so quickly. SEALE: I think it was an issue of when. SWAIN: Eighty-two days. SEALE: Of when, because he looked horrible, you know, on the last campaign, and he had spoken to the Congress sitting down. And he was ashen. And his Inaugural Address for the fourth term had to be given from the White House. He was stood -- he was stood up on the north porch -- south portico. What am I saying? And the audience was out front. I mean, it was not really a surprise to anyone. I don't know why it was a surprise to President Truman. SWAIN: Well, two hours later, as we said, in the Cabinet Room at the White House, Harry Truman, joined by his family, took the oath of office delivered by Chief Justice Harlan Stone. How surprised was the nation? Did they knew who Harry Truman was? ANSLOVER: No. I mean, they knew he was the vice president. They knew his name. He had gotten some acclaim for his Truman Committee. He was a very admired senator within Washington. The general public, who's Harry Truman? Even his own mother was nervous for him. SWAIN: And what about Bess Truman? Where was she and how did she get to the White House so quickly and what do we know of her reaction? SEALE: She's with him there, I guess, in the apartment. I don't know. But, you know, Roosevelt -- it wasn't he didn't admire Truman. He approved him for vice president and thought it was a good idea. So as, you know, Nicole says, it was in Washington. He was well-known, but he wasn't a household word, and Roosevelt had been in for 13 years, you know? He was just a fixture, like a king or something, and the very idea of his declining, you know, most people didn't really understand that he couldn't walk. ANSLOVER: Right, he had kept that very well hidden. SWAIN: So the Trumans are now the first couple. As you said, the Roosevelts had been in the White House for 13 years. That's the longest stretch any president's ever been in the White House. How did the transition happen there? SEALE: Fourteen van-loads of furniture were taken out of Roosevelt things. Because of his condition and also Mrs. Roosevelt's nature, as you saw in the last show, they liked to have everything around them all the time. They were table people. And they had tables in front of things, and all his things were in easy reach, so there were just thousands of things, pictures, all sorts of things. And imagine what the Trumans faced when they went in there with these squares on the wall where pictures had been and the carpets taken up and the floors that jiggled like that. The transition was they only -- they had a little apartment in town and they took the piano from it. That's all they moved. SWAIN: Did they go immediately to the White House or did they spend some time at Blair House? SEALE: No, no. ANSLOVER: No. Well, the Trumans thought they could stay in their apartment until they moved into the White House. They offered Mrs. Roosevelt as much time as she needed. She took about two weeks, I think. But by then, the Trumans realized that security-wise they could not stay in their apartment, so they were living in Blair House. And I love the story that, as Eleanor Roosevelt watched them pack up the last of her belongings, she went across the street to Blair House to say goodbye to the Trumans and she warned Bess, watch out for the rates, because she and one of her female friends had seen a rat run across the terrace recently. SEALE: Of course, the White House was full of rats, and now she was -- I think it was Roosevelt... ANSLOVER: Right, so that was the Trumans' introduction to their new home. Bess and Margaret went over to take a tour, and they were appalled. SWAIN: So she was thrust into the job. Whatever Harry Truman's aspirations may or may not be, she was thrust into the job of first lady. Did she have any guidance from the outgoing first lady? ANSLOVER: Well, her first problem was that Eleanor Roosevelt had probably -- meaning well -- set up a press conference for Bess, because Eleanor had established the tradition, as you talked about last week, about press conferences. And Bess Truman went to the secretary of labor, Frances Perkins, and said, do I have to do that? Is it okay to set my own tone? And she was assured that she could do what she wanted. She put a lot of thought into it. And at the last minute, she decided that that was not something she was going to do and she never did hold a press conference. SEALE: And she sent Edith Helm. ANSLOVER: Yes. SEALE: Edith Helm was the old-time White House social secretary, went there with Mrs. Woodrow Wilson II. It was the second, right? ANSLOVER: Correct. SEALE: With Mrs. Woodrow Wilson and stayed through -- all through the Roosevelts, all through everything. She was Admiral Helm's wife and lived -- commuted a limousine from Leesburg everyday and she knew everything to do. She knew where the bodies were buried. She knew everything, and she handled the press conference. SWAIN: So the other thing we should establish early on is that the Trumans got their support from one another. ANSLOVER: They were a partnership 100 percent. SWAIN: Bess, Harry, and daughter, Margaret. ANSLOVER: Yes. SWAIN: And, in fact, ushers who worked in the White House described them as the closest-knit family that they had seen over the years. SEALE: Yes. SWAIN: Now, can you talk a little bit about what you know about how they interrelated with one another and how they supported one another? SEALE: Well, they remind me a lot of the Carters. They were together a lot and they liked to listen to music and they liked to read things, discuss things, and just enjoyed being together. And they were -- Margaret and the president were musical. And so they liked to listen to records and stuff like that, the same way the Carters did. And it was very much the same thing, I think. It's just intimate, personal upstairs, how they lived. SWAIN: Well, we're going to, as we do in this program, then go back in time and tell you a bit of the biography of this woman who came to serve as first lady. Before we do that, let me tell you how you can be involved in the program. If you've been watching our series, you know one of the things that makes us special and interesting are your comments. And there's three ways you can do that. One is by phone. We'll put the phone numbers on the screen and you can dial in throughout the program with your question or comment. You can also tweet us, @firstladies is our Twitter handle. And we have a conversation already underway at the C-SPAN Facebook page, and you'll see a photograph of the Trumans, and you could post a question there, and we'll try to work in as many of those as we can.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Truman, Congress and the Struggle for War and Peace In
    TRUMAN, CONGRESS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR WAR AND PEACE IN KOREA A Dissertation by LARRY WAYNE BLOMSTEDT Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2008 Major Subject: History TRUMAN, CONGRESS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR WAR AND PEACE IN KOREA A Dissertation by LARRY WAYNE BLOMSTEDT Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Chair of Committee, Terry H. Anderson Committee Members, Jon R. Bond H. W. Brands John H. Lenihan David Vaught Head of Department, Walter L. Buenger May 2008 Major Subject: History iii ABSTRACT Truman, Congress and the Struggle for War and Peace in Korea. (May 2008) Larry Wayne Blomstedt, B.S., Texas State University; M.S., Texas A&M University-Kingsville Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Terry H. Anderson This dissertation analyzes the roles of the Harry Truman administration and Congress in directing American policy regarding the Korean conflict. Using evidence from primary sources such as Truman’s presidential papers, communications of White House staffers, and correspondence from State Department operatives and key congressional figures, this study suggests that the legislative branch had an important role in Korean policy. Congress sometimes affected the war by what it did and, at other times, by what it did not do. Several themes are addressed in this project. One is how Truman and the congressional Democrats failed each other during the war. The president did not dedicate adequate attention to congressional relations early in his term, and was slow to react to charges of corruption within his administration, weakening his party politically.
    [Show full text]
  • Harry Truman, the Atomic Bomb and the Apocalyptic Narrative
    Volume 5 | Issue 7 | Article ID 2479 | Jul 12, 2007 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus The Decision to Risk the Future: Harry Truman, the Atomic Bomb and the Apocalyptic Narrative Peter J. Kuznick The Decision to Risk the Future: Harry stressed that the future of mankind would be Truman, the Atomic Bomb and theshaped by how such bombs were used and Apocalyptic Narrative subsequently controlled or shared.[3] Truman recalled Stimson “gravely” expressing his Peter J. Kuznick uncertainty about whether the U.S. should ever use the bomb, “because he was afraid it was so I powerful that it could end up destroying the whole world.” Truman admitted that, listening In his personal narrative Atomic Quest, Nobel to Stimson and Groves and reading Groves’s Prize-winning physicist Arthur Holly Compton, accompanying memo, he “felt the same who directed atomic research at the University fear.”[4] of Chicago’s Metallurgical Laboratory during the Second World War, tells of receiving an urgent visit from J. Robert Oppenheimer while vacationing in Michigan during the summer of 1942. Oppenheimer and the brain trust he assembled had just calculated the possibility that an atomic explosion could ignite all the hydrogen in the oceans or the nitrogen in the atmosphere. If such a possibility existed, Compton concluded, “these bombs must never be made.” As Compton said, “Better to accept the slavery of the Nazis than to run a chance of drawing the final curtain on mankind.”[1] Certainly, any reasonable human being could be expected to respond similarly. Three years later, with Hitler dead and the Nazis defeated, President Harry Truman faced Truman and Byrnes en route to Potsdam, July a comparably weighty decision.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Harry Truman' by David Blanchflower
    Harry Truman 12 April 1945 – 20 January 1953 Democrat By David Blanchflower Full name: Harry S Truman Date of birth: 8 May 1884 Place of birth: Lamar, Missouri Date of death: 26 December 1972 Site of grave: Harry S Truman Presidential Library & Museum, Independence, Missouri Education: Spalding’s Commercial College, Kansas City Married to: Bess Wallace. m. 1919. (1885-1982) Children: 1 d. Margaret "You know, it's easy for the Monday morning quarterback to say what the coach should have done, after the game is over. But when the decision is up before you - - and on my desk I have a motto which says The Buck Stops Here" Harry Truman, National War College, December 19th, 1952 'Give 'em hell' Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States and also the 33rd tallest. He was born on May 8th, 1884 and died at age 88 on December 22nd, 1972. Of note also is that V- E Day occurred on Truman's birthday on May 8th, 1945. He had no middle name. His parents gave him the middle initial, 'S', to honor his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young. He married his wife Elizabeth 'Bess' Wallace on June 28, 1919; he had previously proposed in 1911 and she turned him down; but they finally got engaged in 1913. She had been in his class at school when he was six and she was five, and she sat in the desk immediately behind him. The couple had one child, Mary Margaret Truman. Harry was a little man who did a lot, standing just 5 feet 9 inches tall which is short for a president.
    [Show full text]
  • Handrails Installation at Blair House Complex Entrance Stairs
    704 Jackson Place, NW: Proposed addition of secondary, code-compliant handrails at entrance stair Constructed in 1861 and purchased by the U.S. Government in 1950, the rowhouse at 704 Jackson Place, NW was incorporated into the President's Guest House in 1969. The rowhouse is adjacent to (north of) the corner rowhouse at Jackson Place and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. The Blair House Complex is occupied by the U.S. Department of State and serves our nation’s diplomatic activities. The entrance, which faces Jackson Place and Lafayette Square, is the primary entry for Blair House public events, such as the annual holiday gatherings, hosted by the U.S. Department of State. The brownstone stair assembly was installed in the late 1980's, replicating the original, which was removed due to its severe deterioration. A safety concern has been noted, as the brownstone railings’ width and height do not afford a safe means of grabbing and holding should a person entering or exiting the building lose balance, particularly when the steps are wet. Further, the ambient lighting on Jackson Place is low, adding to the safety concern of those using the stairs. GSA proposes adding a pair of secondary, ABA Standards code-compliant handrails, following the example of those added at public historic building entrances throughout the District of Columbia. The simple railings are designed to acknowledge their additive, secondary status, while being compatible with the brownstone railings. The proposed handrails have as small a diameter top rail as allowable to meet code (1 ½ inches), the smallest cross section picket structurally feasible, (1 1/8 inches), and the minimum structurally acceptable number of pickets to support the top rail.
    [Show full text]
  • White House Photographs August 28, 1974
    Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library White House Photographs August 28, 1974 This database was created by Library staff and indexes all photographs taken by the Ford White House photographers on this date. Use the search capabilities in your PDF reader to locate key words within this index. Please note that clicking on the link in the “Roll #” field will display a 200 dpi JPEG image of the contact sheet (1:1 images of the 35 mm negatives). Gerald Ford is always abbreviated “GRF” in the "Names" field. If the "Geographic" field is blank, the photo was taken within the White House complex. The date on the contact sheet image is the date the roll of film was processed, not the date the photographs were taken. All photographs taken by the White House photographers are in the public domain and reproductions (600 dpi scans or photographic prints) of individual images may be purchased and used without copyright restriction. Please include the roll and frame numbers when contacting the Library staff about a specific photo (e.g., A1422-10). To view photo listings for other dates, to learn more about this project or other Library holdings, or to contact an archivist, please visit t White House Photographic Collection page View President Ford's Daily Diary (activities log) for this day Roll # Frames Tone Subject - Proper Subject - Generic Names Geographic Location Photographer A0389 5, 7, Color First Press Conference talking; chairs empty - long Media East Room Fitz-Patrick And 9 range A0389 10, 12, Color First Press Conference GRF at podium, media
    [Show full text]
  • White House Photographs October 11, 1974
    Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library White House Photographs October 11, 1974 This database was created by Library staff and indexes all photographs taken by the Ford White House photographers on this date. Use the search capabilities in your PDF reader to locate key words within this index. Please note that clicking on the link in the “Roll #” field will display a 200 dpi JPEG image of the contact sheet (1:1 images of the 35 mm negatives). Gerald Ford is always abbreviated “GRF” in the "Names" field. If the "Geographic" field is blank, the photo was taken within the White House complex. The date on the contact sheet image is the date the roll of film was processed, not the date the photographs were taken. All photographs taken by the White House photographers are in the public domain and reproductions (600 dpi scans or photographic prints) of individual images may be purchased and used without copyright restriction. Please include the roll and frame numbers when contacting the Library staff about a specific photo (e.g., A1422-10). To view photo listings for other dates, to learn more about this project or other Library holdings, or to contact an archivist, please visit t White House Photographic Collection page View President Ford's Daily Diary (activities log) for this day Roll # Frames Tone Subject - Proper Subject - Generic Names Geographic Location Photographer A1369 4A-10A BW GRF seated, smoking pipe; GRF, Rumsfeld Oval Office Thomas Rumsfeld standing near desk - various angles and distances A1370 17A-22A BW Morning Briefing - Chief, Central seated around desk GRF, David Peterson, Oval Office Thomas Intelligence Agency (CIA)/Office of Current Scowcroft Intelligence A1371 3-4 BW US Senator from Oregon (OR) greeting, handshaking GRF, Sen.
    [Show full text]
  • Truman, ''Faith-Based'' Diplomatie Et Ambigüités Du Plan Marshall: Cas
    Truman, ”faith-based” diplomatie et ambigüités du Plan Marshall : cas de la France de l’après-guerre Jean-Marie Autran To cite this version: Jean-Marie Autran. Truman, ”faith-based” diplomatie et ambigüités du Plan Marshall : cas de la France de l’après-guerre. Histoire. Université Michel de Montaigne - Bordeaux III, 2015. Français. NNT : 2015BOR30023. tel-01245761 HAL Id: tel-01245761 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01245761 Submitted on 17 Dec 2015 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux 3 École Doctorale Montaigne Humanités (ED 480) Équipe de recherche : Culture, Langue, Littérature des Mondes Anglophones (CLIMAS, EA 4196) THÈSE DE DOCTORAT EN ÉTUDES ANGLOPHONES Truman, « faith-based » diplomatie et ambigüités du Plan Marshall. Le cas de la France de l'Après-guerre. Présentée et soutenue publiquement le 6 juillet 2015 par Jean-Marie AUTRAN Sous la direction de Madame Bernadette Rigal-Cellard Membres du jury Mme Blandine Chelini-Pont, Professeur, Université Aix-Marseille, Rapporteur. M. Pierre Sicard, Professeur, Université de Picardie, Rapporteur. M. Pierre Chaissaigne, Professeur, Université Bordeaux Montaigne. Mme Bernadette Rigal-Cellard, Professeur, Université Bordeaux Montaigne. 1 2 À mon épouse, Sheryl À mes enfants, Chloé, Wesley et Kevin À mon frère Philippe À la mémoire de mes parents 3 Je suis baptiste par éducation et par conviction, que Jean le Baptiste a reconnu et baptisé le Sauveur du monde, Jésus.
    [Show full text]
  • University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA St
    INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to lielp you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated vwth a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large dieet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • Fortress of Liberty: the Rise and Fall of the Draft and the Remaking of American Law
    Fortress of Liberty: The Rise and Fall of the Draft and the Remaking of American Law Jeremy K. Kessler∗ Introduction: Civil Liberty in a Conscripted Age Between 1917 and 1973, the United States fought its wars with drafted soldiers. These conscript wars were also, however, civil libertarian wars. Waged against the “militaristic” or “totalitarian” enemies of civil liberty, each war embodied expanding notions of individual freedom in its execution. At the moment of their country’s rise to global dominance, American citizens accepted conscription as a fact of life. But they also embraced civil liberties law – the protections of freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, and procedural due process – as the distinguishing feature of American society, and the ultimate justification for American military power. Fortress of Liberty tries to make sense of this puzzling synthesis of mass coercion and individual freedom that once defined American law and politics. It also argues that the collapse of that synthesis during the Cold War continues to haunt our contemporary legal order. Chapter 1: The World War I Draft Chapter One identifies the WWI draft as a civil libertarian institution – a legal and political apparatus that not only constrained but created new forms of expressive freedom. Several progressive War Department officials were also early civil libertarian innovators, and they built a system of conscientious objection that allowed for the expression of individual difference and dissent within the draft. These officials, including future Supreme Court Justices Felix Frankfurter and Harlan Fiske Stone, believed that a powerful, centralized government was essential to the creation of a civil libertarian nation – a nation shaped and strengthened by its diverse, engaged citizenry.
    [Show full text]
  • Modern First Ladies: Their Documentary Legacy. INSTITUTION National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 412 562 CS 216 046 AUTHOR Smith, Nancy Kegan, Comp.; Ryan, Mary C., Comp. TITLE Modern First Ladies: Their Documentary Legacy. INSTITUTION National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC. ISBN ISBN-0-911333-73-8 PUB DATE 1989-00-00 NOTE 189p.; Foreword by Don W. Wilson (Archivist of the United States). Introduction and Afterword by Lewis L. Gould. Published for the National Archives Trust Fund Board. PUB TYPE Collected Works General (020) -- Historical Materials (060) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC08 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Archives; *Authors; *Females; Modern History; Presidents of the United States; Primary Sources; Resource Materials; Social History; *United States History IDENTIFIERS *First Ladies (United States); *Personal Writing; Public Records; Social Power; Twentieth Century; Womens History ABSTRACT This collection of essays about the Presidential wives of the 20th century through Nancy Reagan. An exploration of the records of first ladies will elicit diverse insights about the historical impact of these women in their times. Interpretive theories that explain modern first ladies are still tentative and exploratory. The contention in the essays, however, is that whatever direction historical writing on presidential wives may follow, there is little question that the future role of first ladies is more likely to expand than to recede to the days of relatively silent and passive helpmates. Following a foreword and an introduction, essays in the collection and their authors are, as follows: "Meeting a New Century: The Papers of Four Twentieth-Century First Ladies" (Mary M. Wolf skill); "Not One to Stay at Home: The Papers of Lou Henry Hoover" (Dale C.
    [Show full text]
  • 17, 1977 Ashington, D .C
    THE WHITE HOUSE THE DAILY DIARY OF PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER LOCATION DATE (MO.. Day. Yr.) THE WHITE HOUSE APRIL 17, 1977 ASHINGTON, D .C. TIME DAY 6:OO a.m. SUNDAY PHONE TIME 3e, 5 ,‘:‘4 -:, ACTIVITY s ’ zII !I From To L z 6:00 R The President received a wake up call from the White House signal board operator. 827b 1 The President had breakfast with his mother, Mrs. Lillian Carter, 8:51 / 8:55 P The President talked with the First Lady. c&*L-r't, ; The President went to the South Grounds. I 9:47 I 9:51 The President motored from the South Grounds to the First I Baptist Church,1328 16th Street, N.W. 1 The President was greeted by: I , Charles A. Trentham, Pastor of First Baptist Church Associate Pastor of First 1! Charles R. Sanks, Jr., I Baptist Church I 9:57 i 10:49 The President attended Sunday School class at the First Baptist Church. , 11:03 12:02 The President attended worship services at the First Baptist Church. , The President returned to his motorcade. 12:02 12:05 The President motored from the First Baptist Church to the South Grounds of the White House. 12:06 I The President returned to the second floor Residence. 12:42 12:52 P The President talked with Marion G. Romney, 2nd Counselor / in the 1st presidency,Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints,Salt Lake City, Utah, t The President went to the Truman Balcony. l:oo The President had lunch with Mrs.
    [Show full text]
  • A Counterintelligence Reader, Volume 2 Chapter 1, CI in World
    CI in World War II 113 CHAPTER 1 Counterintelligence In World War II Introduction President Franklin Roosevelts confidential directive, issued on 26 June 1939, established lines of responsibility for domestic counterintelligence, but failed to clearly define areas of accountability for overseas counterintelligence operations" The pressing need for a decision in this field grew more evident in the early months of 1940" This resulted in consultations between the President, FBI Director J" Edgar Hoover, Director of Army Intelligence Sherman Miles, Director of Naval Intelligence Rear Admiral W"S" Anderson, and Assistant Secretary of State Adolf A" Berle" Following these discussions, Berle issued a report, which expressed the Presidents wish that the FBI assume the responsibility for foreign intelligence matters in the Western Hemisphere, with the existing military and naval intelligence branches covering the rest of the world as the necessity arose" With this decision of authority, the three agencies worked out the details of an agreement, which, roughly, charged the Navy with the responsibility for intelligence coverage in the Pacific" The Army was entrusted with the coverage in Europe, Africa, and the Canal Zone" The FBI was given the responsibility for the Western Hemisphere, including Canada and Central and South America, except Panama" The meetings in this formative period led to a proposal for the organization within the FBI of a Special Intelligence Service (SIS) for overseas operations" Agreement was reached that the SIS would act
    [Show full text]