Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-03126-5 - FDR’s Ambassadors and the Diplomacy of Crisis: From the Rise of Hitler to the End of World War II David Mayers Frontmatter More information

FDR’s Ambassadors and the Diplomacy of Crisis

What effect did personality and circumstance have on US foreign policy during World War II? This incisive account of US envoys residing in the major belligerent countries – Japan, Germany, Italy, China, France, Great Britain, USSR – highlights the fascinating role played by such diplomats as Joseph Grew, William Dodd, William Bullitt, Joseph Kennedy, and W. Averell Harriman. Between Hitler’s 1933 ascent to power and the 1945 bombing of Nagasaki, US ambassadors sculpted formal policy – occasionally deliberately, other times inadvertently – giving shape and meaning not always intended by FDR or predicted by his principal advisors. From to the Holocaust and the onset of the Cold War, David Mayers examines the complicated interaction between policy, as conceived in Washington, and implementation on the ground in Europe and Asia. By so doing, he also sheds needed light on the fragility, ambigu- ities, and enduring urgency of diplomacy and its crucial function in inter- national politics.

David Mayers teaches at Boston University, where he holds a joint profes- sorship in the History and Political Science departments. His previous books include Cracking the Monolith: US Policy Against the Sino-Soviet Alliance, 1949–1955 (1986), George Kennan and the Dilemmas of US Foreign Policy (1988), The Ambassadors and America’s Soviet Policy (1995), Wars and Peace: The Future Americans Envisioned, 1861–1991 (1998), and Dissenting Voices in America’s Rise to Power (2007).

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FDR’s Ambassadors and the Diplomacy of Crisis From the Rise of Hitler to the End of World War II

David Mayers

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Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Mayers, David, 1951– FDR’s ambassadors and the diplomacy of crisis : from the rise of Hitler to the end of World War II / David Mayers. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-107-03126-5 (Hardback) 1. United States–Foreign relations–1933–1945. 2. Ambassadors–United States– History–20th century. 3. World War, 1939–1945–Diplomatic history. 4. Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882–1945. I. Title. E806.M424 2012 973.917–dc23 2012024352

ISBN 978-1-107-03126-5 Hardback

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To Elizabeth, To Peter

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CONTENTS

List of illustrations viii Acknowledgements ix Selected United States Chiefs of Mission, 1933–1945 xi

Introduction 1

Part I Axis 9

1 Rising Sun 11

2 Third Reich 36

3 New Roman Empire 67

Part II Victims 93

4 Middle Kingdom 95

5 France Agonistes 125

Part III Victors 173

6 Britannia 175

7 Great Patriotic War 204

8 Conclusions: US diplomacy and war 249

Notes 260 Bibliography 331 Index 358

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1 General George Marshall, W. Averell Harriman, Admiral William Leahy, FDR. Yalta 1945 (Library of Congress). page 4 2 Joseph C. Grew (Library of Congress). 18 3 Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, US Embassy, in foreground Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. March 2009 (author’s photograph). 65 4 William Phillips (Library of Congress). 83 5 Clarence Gauss crosses river to Chongqing to present credentials, 26 May 1941 (Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training). 105 6 Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, FDR, Churchill, Madame Chiang. Cairo 1943 (Library of Congress). 112 7 William C. Bullitt, upon presentation of credentials, 13 October 1936 (Library of Congress). 136 8 General Charles de Gaulle inspects British tank factory, circa 1940 (Library of Congress). 164 9 Joseph P. Kennedy (Library of Congress). 184 10 John Gilbert Winant (Library of Congress). 197 11 Churchill, W. Averell Harriman, Stalin and Molotov. Moscow 1942 (Library of Congress). 231 12 FDR and Admiral Claude Bloch aboard the USS Houston (Library of Congress). 251

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study draws upon the research of numerous scholars, memoir literature, published government documents – above all the invaluable Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series – and archival mater- ials housed in repositories in North America and elsewhere. The archivists and librarians with whom I dealt were uniformly gracious. My thanks to the excellent staffs of the archives listed in this book’s bibliography and the people of Boston University’s Mugar Library and the Saluda Public Library. I spent much of 2008 as a Fellow (Haniel) at the American Academy in Berlin (AAB). My German and American comrades were unfailingly helpful as I worked on this book. I am grateful to the AAB’s energetic impresario, Gary Smith, to his courteous staff, and to the engaging Fellows that I had the privilege to know. Additionally, Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences provided sabbatical relief and generous funds in support of travel to archival collections, without which this study could not have been written. Professional associations and specialty groups let me present parts of this book as it developed to thoughtful audiences. I benefited from responses at meetings of the British International Studies Associ- ation (BISA), German-American Center/James Byrnes Institute in Stutt- gart, International History Institute of Boston University, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Transatlantic Studies Asso- ciation, and the US Foreign Policy Working Group of BISA. Portions of Chapter 2 appeared as an article in the March 2009 volume of Diplomacy and Statecraft: “Neither War Nor Peace: FDR’s Ambassadors in Berlin and Policy toward Germany, 1933–1941.” Parts

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x / Acknowledgements

of Chapter 7 appeared as an article in the June 2011 volume of The International History Review: “The Great Patriotic War, FDR’s Embassy Moscow, and Soviet-U.S. Relations.” Friends, relatives, colleagues, and students have been crucial. They listened. They made good recommendations and saved me from stupidities and infelicities. I acknowledge with appreciation Susan Abel, John Archer, Andrew Bacevich, Brooke Blower, Donald Brand, David Clinton, Walter Connor, Frank Costigliola, Michael Cullen, Kathleen Dalton, Andrew David, Stephanie Fawcett, Joseph Fewsmith, Zach Fredman, Max Paul Friedman, David Fromkin, Irene Gendzier, Jonathan Harris, Gregg Herken, Takeo Iguchi, Robert Jackson, Detleff Junker, Peter Kenez, William Keylor, Warren Kimball, Martina Kohl, Vladislava Kukuy, Walter LaFeber, Fred Leventhal, David Levering Lewis, Igor Lukes, Marc Masurovsky, Marilyn Mayers, Peter Michael Mayers, Carol McHale, Richard Melanson, Charles Neu, Cathal Nolan, Suzanne O’Brien, Arnold Offner, Larry Plitch, the late Lucian Pye, J. Simon Rofe, Gina Sapiro, James Schmidt, Ruth Ann Stewart, Manfred Stinnes, Mark Stoler, Vladimir Vulovic, Jeremy Weiss, Jenny White, Peter Widdicombe, Graham Wilson, Gregory Winger, the late Howard Zinn. As before, I am grateful to Michael Watson, the highly accom- plished and supportive History editor at Cambridge University Press. Once more, working with him and his colleagues has been a delight from start to finish. Special thanks also to Laurence Marsh, masterful copy-editor. This book is dedicated to my wife, Elizabeth Kirkland Jones, and our son, Peter Kirkland Mayers. Elizabeth has been my writing coach for years. She has also used her admirable literary and administrative skills on behalf of ’s School of Public Health. Peter has inspired me by his commitment to humanitarian service. Through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Catholic Migration Commission, he has worked in Geneva and Bangla- desh on behalf of refugees and displaced persons. Both of his grand- fathers – John James Jones, Eugene David Mayers – served as officers in the United States army during World War II. They and their wives – Sarah Moore Jones, Odette Gilchriest Mayers – must in their heavenly bower sigh with satisfaction as Peter continues to help put right a world that, in the years of their vitality, was wildly out of joint.

DM Saluda, North Carolina 6 June 2012

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SELECTED UNITED STATES CHIEFS OF MISSION, 1933–1945

Japan

Ambassador Joseph C. Grew: Appointment 19 February 1932, Presen- tation of Credentials 14 June 1932, Termination of Mission 8 December 1941 (having been interned, Grew left Japan 25 June 1942).

Germany

Ambassador William E. Dodd: Appointment 13 June 1933, Presentation of Credentials 30 August 1933, Termination of Mission 29 December 1937. Ambassador Hugh R. Wilson: Appointment 17 January 1938, Presenta- tion of Credentials 3 March 1938, Termination of Mission 16 November 1938. Charge´ d’affaires ad interim Alexander C. Kirk served from May 1939 to October 1940. Charge´ d’affaires ad interim Leland B. Morris served from October 1940 to December 1941.

Italy

Ambassador Breckinridge Long: Appointment 24 April 1933,Presenta- tion of Credentials 31 May 1933, Termination of Mission 23 April 1936.

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xii / Selected United States Chiefs of Mission, 1933–1945

Ambassador William Phillips: Appointment 4 August 1936, Presenta- tion of Credentials 4 November 1936, Termination of Mission 6 October 1941. George Wadsworth was charge´ d’affaires ad interim when Italy declared war on the United States, 11 December 1941. Ambassador Alexander C. Kirk: Appointment 8 December 1944, Presentation of Credentials 8 January 1945, Termination of Mission 5 March 1946.

China

Ambassador Nelson T. Johnson: Appointment 16 December 1929, Presentation of Credentials 1 February 1930, Termination of Mission 14 May 1941. Ambassador Clarence E. Gauss: Appointment 11 February 1941,Presen- tation of Credentials 26 May 1941, Termination of Mission 14 November 1944. Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley: Appointment 30 November 1944, Presentation of Credentials 8 January 1945, Termination of Mission 22 September 1945.

France

Ambassador Jesse Isidor Straus: Appointment 17 March 1933, Presen- tation of Credentials 8 June 1933, Termination of Mission 5 August 1936. Ambassador William C. Bullitt: Appointment 25 August 1936, Presen- tation of Credentials 13 October 1936, Termination of Mission 11 July 1940 (Anthony J. Drexel Biddle acted as Deputy Ambassador during 13–25 June 1940). Ambassador William D. Leahy: Appointment 29 November 1940, Presentation of Credentials 8 January 1941, Terminaiton of Mission 1 May 1942.

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xiii / Selected United States Chiefs of Mission, 1933–1945

S. Pinkney Tuck was charge´ d’affaires ad interim when Vichy author- ities cut diplomatic relations with the United States, 8 November 1942. Ambassador Jefferson Caffery: Appointment 25 November 1944, Presentation of Credentials 30 December 1944, Termination of Mission 13 May 1949.

United Kingdom

Ambassador : Appointment 23 March 1933, Presentation of Credentials 23 May 1933, Termination of Mission 19 November 1937. Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy: Appointment 17 January 1938, Presentation of Credentials 8 March 1938, Termination of Mission 22 October 1940. Ambassador John Gilbert Winant: Appointment 11 February 1941, Presentation of Credentials 1 March 1941, Termination of Mission 10 April 1946.

Soviet Union

Ambassador William Bullitt: Appointment 21 November 1933, Presen- tation of Credentials 13 December 1933, Termination of Mission 16 May 1936. Ambassador Joseph E. Davies: Appointment 16 November 1936, Presentation of Credentials 25 January 1937, Termination of Mission 11 June 1938. Ambassador Laurence A. Steinhardt: Appointment 23 March 1939, Presentation of Credentials 11 August 1939, Termination of Mission 12 November 1941. Ambassador William H. Standley: Appointment 14 February 1942, Presentation of Credentials 14 April 1942, Termination of Mission 19 September 1943.

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xiv / Selected United States Chiefs of Mission, 1933–1945

Ambassador W. Averell Harriman: Appointment 7 October 1943, Presentation of Credentials 23 October 1943, Termination of Mission 24 January 1946 Source: United States Department of State, Principal Officers of the Department of State and Chiefs of Mission 1778–1988 (Washington, DC, 1988).

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