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Crook, Ruth Walter The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Information Series RUTH WALTER CROOK Interviewed by: Cliff Groce Initial interview date: January 7, 1987 and September 18, 1990 Copyri ht 2009 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS 19 9: Entrance Into U.S. Government Information Wor()The Original U.S. Information Service 1942 OWI ,reated, A.sor.ing U. S. Information Service And Four Other Related Organi0ations. OSS ,reated And 1ecomes Overseas Office. Political Factors ,ause A.olition Of State2Side U.S. Information Service: ,roo( Goes To Overseas Support Office 3nown As Outpost Service 1ureau Wor( E5pands Enormously For Support Office When 6acArthur Sets Up H7 In Australia And 8ater 6oves H7 Up Pacific Island ,hain Toward 9apan The 6any And :ariegated Duties Required In 1ac(stopping 6acArthur Operations OWI Activities: Philippines, ,hina, The Rise And Demise Of The OWI Supply Ship "Phoeni5" 1945: War Ends. OWI Phased Out. ,roo( 1ecomes Foreign Press 8iaison In Newly Esta.lished Office In New Yor( ,ity. E5citing Times. ,reation Of UN Soviet Attempt To Ta(e Over Part Of Iran :isit Of Shah Of Iran To U.S. :isit Of President Of ,hile Helping Foreign Press To ,over U.S. Scene Outside New Yor( Getting Foreign Press On ,ampaign Trains During Pre2Election Day Period In 1952, And 8ater, :iewing Televised Inauguration ,roo( 9oins :OA, August, 195 At Time Of USIA ,reation 1954: :OA 6oves From New Yor( To Washington. 6any Disruptions Involved ,roo( 6oves To :OA Special Events (1955A Then Shifts To 1ecome Deputy Head Of 1 Field Relations Staff 1959: ,roo( 1ecomes An Assistant To New :OA Director Henry 8oomis 8oomis 8eaves :OA. 9ohn ,hancellor 1ecomes Director. ,roo( Goes To :OA PR Office Out Of Sequence Recollections Of :OA During ,u.an 6issile ,risis 196C: ,roo( Shifts To USIA Pu.lic Information Office, 1ut Returns Year 8ater To :OA Recollections Of 6emora.le ,haracters In :OA INTERVIEW &: Ruth, how did you first get into the international information operation) ,ROO3:: I began wor(ing for the U. S. information program in 6ay of 1941. At that time it was the Office of Government Reports, headed by 8owell 6illett, and I was hired .y Reed Harris as an information cler(. He was the acting director of the OGR for New Yor( State. Our office was located in the R,A building, down on the ,oncourse, and the part I played was information cler( with the original U. S. Information Service. It had .een created in 19 9 for the Federal building at the WorldDs Fair at Flushing 6eadows, New Yor(. The information cler(s answered questions a.out the U. S. Government. We were dressed in Air Force blue uniforms, with a shield on the left breast poc(et which had on the top, EU. S. Information Service.F When I first went to wor( for the organi0ation, I wore a uniform every day. We never had time for lunch because the lunch hour was the most critical time when people just poured in to as( questions a.out the government, particularly, as it was then quic(ening toward the war. People were as(ing a.out how you got a contract to go overseas to build some of the bases which were already being built a.road, and they wanted to (now a.out the draft, what their chances were. Then as the war progressed, of course, there were answers to be given on OPA regulations for businessmen. It was an e5tremely busy operation. We moved to 521 Fifth Avenue in early G42, and e5panded to the e5tent that we were the only government agency in New Yor( ,ity that was selling government documents. Everyone was buying government documents to find out the latest regulations. For e5ample, the Harry Truman investigations of defense cost overruns. We had all (inds of documents to sell. It was an e5tremely busy place. There were times when it was very amusing. I remem.er when war was declared, the very ne5t day we had a bom.ing scare in New Yor( ,ityH some.ody had sighted German 2 planes, supposedly, coming over toward the Empire State 1uilding. Our instructions were to get under the des(. So all of us, the whole office, got under our des(s, and we all had our phones down there because the phones were ringing off the hoo(: Was there really a .om.ing threatI Of course we (new no more a.out it at that moment than anyone else. No. There was no real bom. threat. 1942 OWI ,reated, A.sor.ing U. S. Information Service and Four Other Related Organi0ations. OSS ,reated And 1ecomes Overseas Office. We had a teletype through to the Washington office. Our opposite num.er down there was the head of the U. S. Information Service, Harriet Root. Her supervisor was 3. ,. 1lac(.urn, who was a very active figure in the FDR period. It was a very going concern. They did press intelligence, and a lot of other materials came out of that office, which ultimately became the domestic part of OWI (Office of War InformationA. Then in 9une of G42, OWI was created out of five different agencies concerning information in the government, trying to coordinate them. The OSS (Office of Strategic ServicesA, of course, was the overseas portion that went separate and later became the ,IA (,entral Intelligence AgencyA. The information part ultimately became our foreign service. Domestically, we continued to be in operation, and actually at one point our offices e5panded so that we had outlets in 8os Angeles and 1oston, and there were a couple of othersH I donDt remem.er where they were at this point. That went on until the summer of 194 . 1y then I had become acting director of the New Yor( office, had gone up the ladder, and then our little operation was a.olished. We had .ecome a part of the Domestic 1ranch of OWI, and in Washington the pu.lications division had put out a pamphlet called EThe Negro and the War.F Political Factors ,ause A.olition Of State2Side U. S. Information Service: ,roo( Goes To Overseas Support Office 3nown As Outpost Service 1ureau There were pictures in that document showing white people wor(ing side by side with .lac( people. Well, the southern senators got on their high horse and the whole of the domestic OWI was just put out of business overnight, by law. The heart of OWI, as I (new it, was gutted, and all that was left was the overseas 1ranch. There may have been a few little things left, but the U. S. Information Service was part of what was a.olished. (A small operation (nown as the 1ureau of Pu.lic Inquiries was esta.lished later.A We had complete files of government documents since 19 9. This li.rary .ecame the nucleus of the li.rary which was used by the Overseas 1ranch, in the old Argonaut .uilding. Roth Newpher had just been brought in as li.rarian, and he wanted that whole li.rary, and he wanted me. Well, I did not wish to .e a li.rarianH that was not my calling in life, so I was interviewed for different jo.s and finally became the deputy outpost representative in the branch that was handling all the 1ritish Empire outposts. That included then India, South Africa, Australia, New Jealand, and a lot of little places li(e the Fiji islands K everything that had to do with the 1ritish Empire. ,anada was not included because it was considered a part of Europe and was handled by the European division K but just a.out all the others. 9ean Singer was the chief of my branch of the Outpost Service 1ureau, and the head of the Outpost Service 1ureau was 1arney 1ernard, who was very well (nown. He had come to us from an advertising agency. His deputy was 8uther ,onant. I may have the timing wrong, as 9im 8inen at one point was also head of Outpost Service. He was originally from Time, and went bac( to it after the war years. So I landed in an office where I (new very little a.out anything e5cept that our primary function was to get anything and everything that the outposts overseas as(ed for, whether it was a body or a paper clip. &: So this was like an area office) ,ROO3: It was an area office as a servicing operation. Every ca.le that came in from that outpost we had to answer one way or another, whether we could get the thing or not. It was up to us to go through whatever part of OWI we had to go through to get what was wanted, such as a pu.lication. All these materials were cleared through us. Well, the wor( was quite a lot because 9ean was then primarily concerned with our psy2warfare operation in the ,hina21urma2India theater, and we were stoc(piling people as well as equipment to go to the part of India where all this was going on K I thin( it was Assam. They were going to go over the Hump and drop leaflets and do radio broadcasts from there into ,hina22the whole Pacific part of the war. &: Was there coordination with the military in this re ard) ,ROO3: Well, of course there had to be coordination with the military because overseas that was all under the military. So 9ean was very much involved and a.sor.ed in that and by default I got Australia, New Jealand, South Africa and the little pieces to handle.
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