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 appeasement 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). © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org 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 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org 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 From the Rise of Hitler to the End of World War II David Mayers © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org 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 cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sa˜o Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru,UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107031265 # David Mayers 2013 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2013 Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by the MPG Books Group A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library 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 Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org 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 To Elizabeth, To Peter © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org 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 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org 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 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 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org 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 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 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org 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 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 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org 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 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.