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Buckeye Steel Castings Co., 1910
Military Industrial Superiority Complexes By Kevin Phillips Bush: The Life of a Lone Star Yankee (New York: Scribner, 1997) described the tactical genesis of this class denial: or political reasons, office seekers in the Bush fam- Prescott’s recorded reminiscences, given in 1966, present, ily have frequently misrepresented their social and somewhat disingenuously, a hint of genteel poverty, un- Feconomic status. Senator Prescott Bush pretended that doubtedly a habit cultivated by one who had spent the modest income kept his father from sending him to law bulk of his previous two decades canvassing for votes school after he graduated from Yale. George H.W. Bush among ordinary people. To deny the realities of his back- purported to have “interviewed” for his first job. George ground, the stature of his father [Samuel Bush] as a lead- W. Bush chose to portray himself as a young man molded ing industrialist of the day, was consistent with perpetu- and Texified by San Jacinto Junior High School. ating the myth of the self-made man. Prescott Bush, a Historian Herbert Parmet, in his biography George U.S. Senator at the time of the interview, was practised
amuel Bush and George Herbert the committee, but the American Ship Corp. as a private vehicle for U.S. Walker knew some of the reviled and Commerce Corp. (in which he was ambitions and investments in Europe Sweapons merchants – the WWI- very involved) had partial ownership and Russia. A collateral objective was era munitions makers, “armor trust” and influence over the German Ham- to abet any Bolshevik-inspired up- members and arms manufacturers who burg-Amerika line which may have heaval in Germany that might end were later investigated during Presi- helped Remington Arms ship weapons German participation in the war.1 dent Franklin D. Roosevelt’s early New to right-wing, German political fac- In 1916, the American Interna- Deal years. For example, both Samuel tions in the early 1930s. tional Corp. (AIC) bought New York Bush and G.H. Walker knew Samuel George Herbert Walker and Shipbuilding, a major navy contractor, Frazier Pryor, the president of Samuel Frazier Pryor had several which by 1918 owned the world’s big- Remington Arms, whose firm was que- things in common. They were of the gest shipyard.2 More than a year ear- ried by the Nye Committee* about the same generation; they were friends lier, some of the same New York in- clandestine flow of American-made with kindred business backgrounds be- terests, centered on National City weaponry to Germany through Hol- fore the war in St. Louis; and they Bank, had reorganized the principal land in the early 1930s. shared a taste for guns and financial U.S. small-arms and munition pro- Walker was not investigated by buccaneering. Both were on the pe- ducer, hundred-year-old Remington riphery of a frequently collaborative Arms, installing Pryor as general man- Kevin Phillips wrote The Emerging group of moneymen – Averell Har- ager and later president, to meet what Republican Majority (1967) and was riman, Percy Rockefeller at National became an avalanche of wartime de- the Republican presidential cam- City Bank, and others at Guaranty mand. Ultimately, as company publi- paign’s chief political analyst in 1968 Trust – who had large international cations boasted, Remington Arms pro- and worked in the Nixon White House. plans. In 1915, a number of these busi- duced 69% of all rifles manufactured In the 1980s, he turned away from the ness and financial leaders had helped for U.S. troops during WWI, as well Republican Party. Among his books are to set up the American International as over 50% of all the small-arms am- The Politics of Rich and Poor (1990), * The Senate’s Nye Committee on the munition for the U.S. and the Allies.3 Boiling Point: Republicans, Demo- Investigation of the Munitions Indus- After the war’s end, Remington crats and the Decline of Middle-Class try, nicknamed the “Merchants of Arms officials wondered about their Prosperity (1993), Arrogant Capital: Death” investigation, issued its report next markets. Russia wouldn’t be Washington, Wall Street and the Frus- “Investigation of the Munitions Indus- among them, because in 1917 the new tration of American Politics (1994) try,” on February 24, 1936
lar arms contract with the czar’s re- Corp. (UBC) in New York on behalf bers to make no reference to secret re- gime – and some of those rifles instead of the politically active German steel ports about German rearmament.6 No armed White Russian troops to fight baron Fritz Thyssen, control of UBC documentation exists for how many the Bolsheviks. Remington Arms ex- was held by a Dutch entity, the Rotter- Remington-made weapons reached ecutives looked to other major markets dam-based Bank voor Handel en Germany through Dutch barge routes – for example, Germany. Scheepvart. This Dutch bank, in turn, or Thyssen transport. In 1919, National City Bank was owned by Berlin’s August Thys- By 1933, Remington Arms let joined in setting up the new W.A. Har- sen Bank. The Rotterdam bank, it has Du Pont, the nation’s leading muni- riman and Co., soon to be under been proven, handled some of Thys- tions maker, acquire a controlling in- George H. Walker’s presidency. Like sen’s 1920s contributions to the fledg- terest.7 War was not far off and once Harriman and Walker, National City ling Nazi Party. Samuel Pryor of again the company became the princi- would do a lot of 1920s business in Remington Arms was named an origi- pal U.S. small-arms and ammunition Germany. Percy Rockefeller of Na- nal director of UBC. He seems to have supplier. Its payroll rose from under tional City, a moving force in the been a tight third side of the Harriman- 4,000 in 1939 to 82,500 at the peak of 8 Remington Arms reorganization – and German triangle. Indeed, after he died production in 1943. a director there as well as at AIC – in 1934, his son became a director of Notes also became a W.A.Harriman director.4 Harriman Securities Corp., joining the Remington Arms’s Samuel two Harriman brothers, Averell and 1. Antony Sutton, Wall Street and the Bol- shevik Revolution. Western Australia: Pryor was part of this cabal, and took Roland.5 This does make one wonder Veritas Publishing, 1981, pp.83, 91. a role in the first big Harriman-Walker about Remington-made arms going to 2. Matthew Ware Coulter, The Senate Mu- international gambit: the arrangement Thyssen – or Thyssen’s friends. nitions Inquiry of the 1930s. Westport, of a major participation in Germany’s The Nye Committee never got Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997, p.67. once great Hamburg-Amerika steam- too deeply into the major 1933-1934 3. K.D. Kirkland, Remington. New York: ship line. Harriman and Walker held surge of U.S. military exports to Hit- Exeter Books, 1988, p.46. their Hamburg-Amerika shares ler’s Germany. Although the commit- 4. The Directory of Directors in the City through another mutual framework, tee chairman cited figures that exports of New York, 1916-1933. the American Ship and Commerce to Germany by United Aircraft (Boeing 5. Directory of Directors, 1936-39. 6. Matthew Ware Coulter, Senate Muni- Corp. Pryor was named one of its di- Aircraft, ChanceVought, and Pratt and tions Inquiry, p.45. rectors. Whitney) had increased by 500% be- 7. Kirkland, op cit., p.46. In 1924, when Harriman and tween 1933 and 1934, the State De- 8. Ibid., p.50. Walker set up the Union Banking partment leaned on committee mem- August 2004 Issue # 54 Press for Conversion! 9 July 1964 From left to right: E.Roland Harriman, Prescott Bush, R.Knight Woolley, Robert A.Lovett All were close friends and classmates at Yale in 1917. All were members of Yales powerful Skull and Bones Society. All were long-time, senior partners in Brown Brothers Harriman: n Edward Roland Harriman (held 99.75% of Union Bank shares, worth $3 billion in 1951!!) n Prescott Bush (Connecticut Senator and proginator of two U.S. presidents) n Knight Woolley (Director of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and Guaranty Trust, NY) n Robert Lovett (Secretary of Defense under President Harry Truman) the government, supposedly in order ‘to save space.’] haps their friend George H. Walker); and third, through In 1918, WIB chairman Bernard Baruch made his brief involvement in small arms and ordnance, with top Samuel Bush the director of its facilities division, charged executives of firms like Du Pont, Reming-ton, Winchester with strategic coordination of manufacturing output and and Colt Arms. Paul Koistinen, the principal historian of railroad transportation capacity. When some WIB functions the political economy of American warfare, found that in were transferred to the Commerce Department, he migrated contrast to the Spanish-American War, the 1917-1918 chal- to that department’s advisory board. Before long, however, lenge drew industrial, military and business together into the Commerce board’s support for government planning the lasting relationships that would dominate the twenti- and collaborative price fixing to cushion postwar deflation eth-century political economy. Despite the hiatus in the displeased President Wilson as overly interventionist, and twenties and thirties, this marked “a major and seemingly the effort was abandoned. irrevocable step in the direction of [the U.S.] becoming a Samuel Bush’s background and WWI respon- warfare or national security state.” sibilities brought wide acquaintance – first, with railroad- [Editor’s Note: Between the wars, Samuel Bush be- connected Harrimans and Rockefellers; second, with influ- came a close advisor to Republican President Herbert Hoo- ential board officials like Clarence Dillon, Robert Brook- ver, who served between 1929 and 1933.] ings, Judge Robert S. Lovett (and per- Prescott Bush led fellow Bonesmen of 1917 in des- Skull and Bones ecrating the grave of the Apache chief Geronimo. They removed his head for display, along with ounded in 1833 by William Russell other skulls, in The Crypt. F(heir to Russell & Co., one of the world’s leading opium traders), Skull and Bones (S&B) was an offshoot of a German secret society. Now the oldest and most prestigious of Yale’s secret fraternities, its members “tap” 15 re- Bush family S & B members include: cruits from among America’s most in- s Prescott Sheldon Bush (1917) fluential families each year. Its mem- s George Herbert Walker Bush (1948) bers have risen to the top of America’s s George Walker Bush (1968) s power elite: congressmen, governors, Jonathan J. Bush (1953) (Prescott’s son) the Trilateral Commission…. [and] ambassadors, bankers, spies, judges, Other S & B relatives of were among the CIA’s founders.” media moguls, captains of industry President George Walker Bush: Skull and Bones is more than Secretaries of State, Secretaries of War, s George Herbert Walker Jr. (1927) an aristocratic social club serving the and National Security Advisors. A few (George W’s great uncle) privileged ivy league elite. Its impos- s have even become U.S. presidents, George Herb Walker III (1953) (see p.44) ing Greco-Egyptian headquarters, s Ray Carter Walker (1955) such as two who share the name “The Crypt” or “The Tomb,” on (two of George W’s cousins) George Bush. Senator John Kerry is Yale’s campus is the site of ridiculous, also a Bonesman (class of 1966), as fluenced the decision to use it on Ja- occult rituals fixating on death. It has was Henry J. Heinz II (1931), the fa- pan. They managed the postwar occu- long been an incubator for U.S. for- ther of his wife’s former husband. pation of Germany. They helped shape eign policymakers and has provided As stated in the Washington Post Cold War policies, were policymakers an important political and economic April 4, 2004: “Bonesmen oversaw de- during the Vietnam War, have ties to networking function for the elite of velopment of the atomic bomb and in- the Council on Foreign Relations and the elite from Yale. (See also pp.18, 45) 10 Press for Conversion! Issue # 54 August 2004 Prescott Bush, In 1926, he was recruited by fa- Prescott S. Bush Republican Senator ther-in-law, George H. Walker, to work in W.A. Harriman & ow much Samuel Bush for Connecticut Co., an investment bank, When drew on his experience H (1952-1963). it merged with Brown Brothers and connections to advance his in 1931 to become Brown son Prescott’s career in the Brothers Harriman & Co., 1920s and 1930s is a gap in the Prescott was managing partner. various Bush biographies and Prescott also sat on many cor- memoirs. For good reason, the porate boards, including: arms connection is not one that the family has wanted to s Dresser Industries. In 1928, W.A. Harriman & Co. paid $4 see pursued. It is striking how clearly Prescott’s employ- million for this oil-drilling-equipment firm’s stocks. In 1929, ment after his demobilization in 1919 related to areas that Prescott refinanced Dresser to retain “a substantial measure of were within the WIB’s purview. control.” In 1930, E.R. Harriman and Prescott joined the Dresser Prescott got his first job with Simmons, a railroad- board. Prescott installed Yale classmate Henry Neil Mallon as equipment manufacturer, through its president, Wallace chair. In 1948, Mallon hired Prescott’s son, George H.W. Bush, Simmons, a wartime planning colleague of Samuel Bush. for his first job. George Sr. later named a son, Neil Mallon Bush, Samuel Pryor, President of Remington Arms, had also after his mentor. [In 1998, Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney, the worked for Simmons before the war. One of Prescott’s as- current U.S. vice president, merged Dresser into Halliburton. It signments at Simmons involved selling a wartime saddlery is now a prime beneficiary of oil service contracts in Iraq.] plant in Kingsport, Tennessee, to Winchester Arms. Pres- s Columbia Broadcasting System. Prescott met CBS founder, cott went back to Columbus in 1921 to help run a small William Paley, through Averell Harriman, who represented CBS rubber enterprise in which Samuel Bush had an investment. in a merger with Paramount Studios in 1929. Already a growth industry of the automobile era, rubber s Union Banking Corp. was established in 1924 with George had been much regulated in the last year of WWI, leaving H. Walker as president. Prescott was on the board (1934-1943). postwar circumstances uncertain. When his father’s small s Harriman Fifteen Corp. (1 Wall Street). W.A.Harriman and Ohio rubber business was bought by a New England firm, Bush were sole directors and G.H. Walker was its president. s Prescott moved to Massachusetts. In 1924, he worked for Vanadium Corp. of America. In 1942, it procured and proc- U.S. Rubber in New York. Patronage was presumably his essed uranium for the Manhattan Project’s nuclear bombs. s entrée to this Harriman-linked firm. Two years later, at age Simmons. A major donor to both Bush presidential bids. s 31, he became a vice president of W.A. Harriman and Co. Pan American Airlines. Prescott Jr., joined the firm in 1943. s Rockbestos Products. Prescott Bush sat in the middle of three overlapping s Hydrocarbon Research s Prudential Insurance circles that played a huge role in directing his future: s U.S. Guaranty Trust s Massachusetts In- l His friends and classmates from Yale and especially its s Continental Bank & Trust, NY vestors Second Fund elitist secret fraternity, Skull and Bones (E. Roland Har- s Commercial Pacific Cable Co. s Pennsylvania Water riman, Neil Mallon, Ellery James, Robert A. Lovett, R. s Hamburg-America Line and Power. Knight Woolley, Wallace Simmons, et al.). All eventu- ally wound up at W.A. Harriman, or came together Source: