There Was a Man of UNRRA: Internationalism, Humanitarianism, and the Early Cold War in Europe, 1943-1947 A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Amanda Melaine Bundy Graduate Program in History. The Ohio State University 2017 Dissertation Committee: Jennifer Siegel, Advisor Peter Hahn Robin Judd Copyrighted by Amanda Melaine Bundy 2017 Abstract This dissertation analyzes the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), a postwar humanitarian organization. UNRRA represented a new internationalist spirit in humanitarian cooperation, but its demise after only three years of operation reflects the emerging divisions between the Western democracies and the Soviet Union. UNRRA leadership and personnel faced daunting challenges in confronting the refugee crisis and rebuilding devastated nations. Because UNRRA was an innovation in international humanitarian cooperation, no precedent existed for those on the ground. Relief became politicized, as UNRRA staff sought to remain neutral in an increasingly bipolar context. In Greece and Italy, UNRRA implemented vital public health programs that eased the suffering of the populations in those nations. In Poland and Yugoslavia, UNRRA was caught between its neutral mission to provide relief to anyone in need, and the increasing pressure from the United States not to feed Communists. In Germany, leadership undermined the mission to provide help for displaced persons. In Ukraine and Byelorussia, American leadership overcame significant negative public opinion to deliver relief. Ultimately, UNRRA and the internationalism that created it fell victim to the breakdown of the postwar alliance. ii To my mother, Who loves and works with equal passion iii Acknowledgments A number of people deserve my deepest gratitude for their support. I have benefitted enormously from the mentorship of a number of professors at Ohio State including Alice Conklin, Peter Hahn, Robin Judd, Robert McMahon, and Chris Otter. My advisor, Jennifer Siegel, pushed me to think more broadly about my research and my project is much better for her efforts. Russell and Liz Bundy served as inspiration for thinking about how personalities shape organizations. Gretchen gave me the support and encouragement I needed to keep working. My mom set a high standard for education and achievement while always showing her unconditional love. Nola and Alex offered frequent and much needed interruption to my work that actually forced me to be more focused when facing deadlines. Finally, Bobby knew me well enough to know that I needed to stay on this intellectual journey and made the necessary sacrifices to ensure that I could see it through. iv Vita 2000 ............................................................................ Upper St. Clair High School 2004 ............................................................................ B.A. History and German, University of Notre Dame 2006 ............................................................................ M.A. History, Ohio State University 2004 to 2006, 2012 ............................................. Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of History, Ohio State University Fields of Study Major field: History v Table of Contents Abstract.……………………………………………………………………………………………………..….. ii Acknowledgments.………………………………………………………………………………………… iv Vita.…………………………………………………………………………………………………………...….. v Introduction.………………………………………………………………………………………………..… 1 Why UNRRA?: Internationalism’s Flawed Vessel……………………………………………. 36 “Don’t Abandon the Victory”: Health as Collective Security in Greece and Italy... 87 The Politicization of Relief: UNRRA in Poland, Yugoslavia, and Germany…….… 114 “Communists Need to Eat, Too”: Delivering Relief to Ukraine and Byelorussia..170 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 221 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………………...….. 228 vi Introduction In March of 1946, former New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia received a call from Secretary of State James F. Byrnes asking him to replace Herbert Lehman as head of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). Tired after forty years of service, LaGuardia had left public life only a few months earlier. His initial inclination was to decline the offer, although he would eventually agree to serve. Conceived by the much-admired Franklin D. Roosevelt, UNRRA had promised to be the greatest relief operation in history at its founding in 1943, but it was widely regarded as a disappointment two years into its operations. Allied military authorities regarded UNRRA as a weak civilian organization and had little inclination to share their authority. With its prestige waning, UNRRA’s first General Director Herbert Lehman had resigned for health reasons. In a conversation with his close advisor, Ira Hirschmann, LaGuardia argued that UNRRA must deliver food to the people quickly and address the problem of displaced persons. Hirschmann added that the organization would have to break with precedent to be effective, possibly offending the British Foreign Office and the State Department along the way. As the two friends 1 discussed plans excitedly, LaGuardia settled on the slogan for his leadership of UNRRA: “save them first and argue after!”1 Solving UNRRA’s problems would take more than a slogan and LaGuardia’s patented enthusiasm for reform. The organization represented an innovation in humanitarianism: the partnership of multiple nations in pursuit of postwar stability through the relief and rehabilitation of conquered nations. Beyond its core mission, UNRRA represented a commitment to internationalism and neutrality. UNRRA operated while the wartime alliance between the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union remained intact, but met a premature end as the spirit of internationalism waned in 1946. UNRRA’s continued existence relied heavily on that tenuous relationship, in particular the United States’ willingness to support an internationalist organization rather than forge a unilateralist path. For a brief moment, UNRRA embodied hopes of continued postwar cooperation that would soon be dashed by the hardening divisions of the Cold War. This project will analyze UNRRA’s successes and failures as an international organization. At a critical point in 1943, it emerged to address the overwhelming destruction of the war and displacement of millions of people. It represents the best of the immediate postwar internationalist moment. That internationalism constituted the desire to remake the international system with the input of a large share of the world’s nations in a way that would encourage peace and prosperity. Internationalism under this definition is multilateral, not 1 Ira A. Hirschmann, The Embers Still Burn (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1949), 7. 2 unilateral or bilateral. It would promote intergovernmental cooperation on a number of issues including world governance, human rights, war crimes, public health, refugees, and monetary policy. For its proponents, internationalism would be the key to collective security, a replacement for the balance of power system of the nineteenth century and the weakness of the League of Nations in the interwar period. The United Nations, established in San Francisco in 1945, would be the long-term embodiment of this commitment to internationalism, while UNRRA’s tenure would last only three years despite the ongoing challenges of rebuilding and resettling displaced persons. Why? The commitment to internationalism on the part of the United States and to UNRRA specifically depended on the perception that the organization fulfilled American objectives. Within the emerging scholarship on internationalism in the twentieth century, broad consensus exists that internationalism and nationalism are intertwined. The nature of that relationship, and the extent to which either force subsumes the other, is the central question. Patricia Clavin argues that “the drive to international organization would be no antidote to great-power politics,” describing the influence of small states in the League relative to the dominance of a few powers in the early days of the United Nations.2 According to Glenda Sluga, many hoped that internationalism would be such an antidote. She defines liberal internationalism as a broad range of activities that promote global peace and cooperation. Nationalism is the natural enemy of this movement as it fosters 2 Patricia Clavin, “International Organizations,” The Cambridge History of the Second World War, Vol. II: Politics and Ideology, ed. Richard J. B. Bosworth and Joseph A. Maiolo (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 155. 3 rivalry and competition.3 In reality, the relationship between internationalism and nationalism lies somewhere in between. States use internationalism to their own ends, as the promotion of peace and prosperity ensures stability. Jessica Reinisch offers synthesis in The Reluctant Internationalists, a research project that explores the role of public health in Europe and its connections with the world in 20th century. Concerns about public health crises such as the outbreak of epidemics, the resettlement of refugees, malnutrition, and venereal disease spurred policymakers into action that they often undertook with considerable reluctance.4 Reinisch and Matthew Frank argue against an idealistic internationalism, but rather say that policymakers had national interests at