Mr. Jensen's U.S. History Website - U.S. History Blog (May 2017

Woodrow Wilson & the Declaration of War Against Germany

5/12/2018

Source: A. Scott Berg. Wilson (2013)

After the Election of 1916, the Great War in Europe raged on, with the year 1916 already the deadliest in human history to that point. Nearly a million casualties were incurred during the Battle of Verdun, and it was twice as worse at the Somme in France and at Brusilov on the Eastern Front, and Germany increased their U-Boat attacks. Despite the unprecedented carnage, no nation was yet ready to throw in the towel.
During December 1916, President Woodrow Wilson received word from the non-militaristic elements in the German government that they would be open to peace talks since the British blockade was starting to have a serious effect on the food supply for German civilians; it was the first chink in the German armor. As far as Colonel House (Wilson's representative in Europe) was concerned, Britain was the only obstacle to peace in Europe. Germany and Britain wanted commercial advantages from the US but neither nation offered anything in return in terms of peaceful overtures. By then Wilson believed that only he alone could (and should) speak for not only the US, but for the world as well. Wilson hoped to propose a series of terms that would deliver an enduring peace; as far as Wilson was concerned, he was the foreign policy of the US. On 3 January 1917, Wilson and House started to create their plan to remake the world, starting with the principle of self-determination.

On 22 January 1917 Wilson again spoke to a Joint Session of Congress, this time providing little notice of when he would deliver the speech and what he would speak about. Wilson previewed the League of Nations, arguing that the only enduring peace would be a peace among equal nations. While Wilson asked for the US to embrace his version of a New World Order, his opponents labeled him as the "President of the World". The most positive reaction to the speech came from Germany, while Britain and France wondered why Wilson felt that he had a place at the table at all since the US wasn't directly involved in the Great War.
On 31 January 1917, Germany announced a new naval engagement policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, which stated that any ship in a war zone could be attacked, even ships from neutral nations. On 3 February 1917, Wilson announced that diplomatic ties with Germany had been severed, and that the German Ambassador to the US had been expelled; the US was now only one step away from declaring war on Germany. On 29 February 1917 came news of the Zimmermann Telegram. The British had intercepted the coded telegram on US wires weeks before but didn't relay what it held to Wilson until 25 February 1917. Wilson soon thereafter again addressed Congress, again pushing for "armed neutrality".
On 5 March 1917, Wilson delivered his Second Inaugural Address (4 March was on Sunday, and Wilson was sworn in to his second term in private) and he focused on international events. Wilson had done his best to morally and mentally prepare the US for going to war, but the nation was far from ready militarily.

During yet another illness, Wilson started to use his wife Edith as "a blind" in order to pass information between Wilson and Secretary of State Robert Lansing and Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels. Then the Russian Revolution began and Czar Nicholas II abdicated his throne (he did so on his son's behalf as well), and a Provisional Government was formed with the rising tide of Bolshevism forming to topple that government.
During the next Cabinet meeting, Wilson asked if he should speak to Congress before his next scheduled address which was on 16 April 1917. The Cabinet urged action without delay, arguing that the US was already in a state of war with Germany. Even the pacifist in the Cabinet, SecNav Daniels (also a close friend of former SecState William Jennings Bryan), supported war with Germany. On 30 March 1917 Wilson started to prepare his address to Congress, which he had rescheduled for 2 April 1917. House was a huge supporter of the speech when Wilson read it to him in private, since it featured much of what House had suggested to Wilson since the Great War began . . . but as much as House would like to claim at least partial credit for the address, it was a Wilson speech all the way.

President Woodrow Wilson addressed a Joint Session of Congress on 2 April 1917. In due course Wilson worked his way to his argument that war against Germany had become a necessity for the US while also point out that sacrifices would have to be made to militarize and mobilize. Wilson stated that Germany had become a global menace and that US was going to war to achieve ultimate peace and self-determination for nations, and then Wilson came to a quote for the ages: "The world must be made safe for Democracy". Wilson closed his address by saying that the US was going to war as the champion for the rights of Mankind. Ironically, as Wilson left the podium, Senator
Henry Cabot Lodge worked his way to Wilson to personally congratulate the President.
On 4 April 1917, after a quick debate, the Senate voted in favor of a declaration of war by a vote of 82 to 6. The House of Representatives followed suit on 6 April 1917 voting 373 to 50 for a declaration of war. Among the 50 that voted no was the first female representative in US History, Jeannette Rankin (MT), who had been pressured by both hawks and doves and wanted to abstain; former Speaker Joe Cannon told Rankin to vote her conscience. On 7 April 1917, Wilson signed the joint resolution declaring war on Germany, even though the US military at the time was ranked between Belgium and Portugal.

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The Post-Presidency of Woodrow Wilson (1920 - 1924)

5/12/2018

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Source: A. Scott Berg. Wilson (2013)

After Election Day 1920, the only major remaining duty for President Woodrow Wilson was his last State of the Union Address, which he knew he couldn't deliver in person. On 6 December 1920, Congressional leaders came to the White House to formally tell Wilson that Congress was back in session. One of those Congressional leaders was Senator
Henry Cabot Lodge, whom Wilson refused to shake hands, since Lodge was the lead Senator that was doing his best to scuttle ratification of the Treaty of Versailles and US membership in the League of Nations.
Improving news from abroad actually led to Wilson's mood becoming more bitter, even mean-spirited. The disabled President (his left arm was paralyzed and his left leg was lame due to a severe stroke in September 1919) demanded on his afternoon drives that the Secret Service apprehend the drivers of the cars that passed his vehicle. Wilson even wrote Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer that he wanted each of those divers fined $1000. During January 1921, Palmer presented Wilson with a document to sign that would pardon Eugene V. Debs, and Wilson wrote "denied" on the document.
Woodrow and Edith Wilson decided to remain in Washington, D.C. largely for Wilson to be able to use the vast resources of the Library of Congress to research and write. Wilson needed to generate income (it wouldn't be until 1958 that Congress allocated a pension for former Presidents) but he absolutely refused to write his memoirs; bitterness and depression was basically oozing out of Wilson's pores. On 1 March 1921, Wilson presided over his last Cabinet meeting, and on 3 March 1921, Warren and Florence Harding invited the Wilsons to the traditional informal pre-Inauguration Day tea. Dr. Cary Grayson, who had been Wilson's doctor his entire Presidency, had to break the news to Wilson that he couldn't be a full active participant on Inauguration Day due to too many stairs. However, Wilson was able to be in the car with Harding in the first Inaugural Procession in automobiles before he had to leave the continuing ceremonies. Like Herbert Hoover in 1933, Wilson stared straight ahead in the car, refusing to acknowledge the crowds; Wilson felt that they were cheering for Harding, not for him.

When the car carrying Wilson and Harding reached the Capitol Building, Harding leaped out of the car and raced up the stairs, leaving Wilson behind to be taken in a side door in a wheelchair. Wilson and Edith were furious at Harding, who was most likely very nervous (and also thoughtless). Once in the President's Room in the Capitol for the last time, among the dignitaries that paid their respects to Wilson was former
General John J. Pershing. The last person to talk to Wilson before Vice-President Calvin Coolidge was sworn in was Senator Lodge, who asked the President if he had any last communications to make with Congress; Wilson's response was a polite-yet-curt "no".
Due to the steps involved in reaching the Presidential Platform, Wilson was not able to be present for the swearing-in for Coolidge and Harding, so the Wilsons quietly disappeared In the car back to their home on S Street, Edith vented her full fury at Harding, while Wilson gently laughed. One of Harding's first actions was a very generous gesture: Grayson was assigned to continue to take care of former President Woodrow Wilson. It didn't take too many months to pass for Harding's brand of arrogance and his anti-intellectual tone to start foreign leaders to worry about the leadership in the US; now Wilson didn't look too bad to European leaders.
No President has left the White House being/feeling more depleted than Wilson, who lacked the spirit to do things that consumed his (apparently) fully-functioning mind. What Wilson looked forward to the most each day was his daily drive around DC, and starting in April 1921, every Saturday evening was "Play Night" at Keith's Theater, where the manager reserved seats in the last row for the Wilsons and their entourage. Soon enough, Wilson became part of that theater's landscape with its patrons, and often Wilson received ovations in his honor in the theater and when he approached his Pierce Arrow to go back home. By then Wilson had become a bit more mobile, but his physical health hadn't improved much overall in that his left arm and left leg were not improving, and he was experiencing gastrointestinal difficulties.

On 25 August 1921, the US signed the Treaty of Berlin which officially ended the war between the US and Germany. It was a watered-down version of the Treaty of Versailles packed with "Lodge Reservations". Later that week the US signed treaties with Austria and Hungary, formally ending the state of war with those nations. The Revenue Act of 1921 drastically reduced the taxes for the rich, something new Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon argued was
necessary for economic growth. During December 1921, Harding commuted the prison sentence of Debs, something Wilson had absolutely refused to do since he viewed Debs as a traitor.
Where Wilson (when he was healthy) had been a nose-to-the-grindstone President when he wasn't "off-the-clock" with Edith reading or watching movies, Warren Harding drank, played poker, cheated on his wife, and was taken advantage of by his cronies since he was basically incapable of saying "no". A tone of licentiousness was transmitted to the nation by the Harding Administration, which encouraged far too many citizens to engage in the same boorish behavior. One result was that the admiration of Wilson in the press and public increased a tremendous amount. Crowds would gather to watch Wilson leave his house on
S Street for his daily drive, and people passed by Wilson's residence in de facto tours to see where the former President lived. Wilson's name started appearing in the US and elsewhere in the world on plaques, bridges, and streets.

On 4 October 1921, Harding notified Wilson of an "unusual assemblage" at Arlington National Cemetery in which the burial of an
Unknown Soldier from World War I would occur. An Act of Congress with just minutes left in Wilson's Presidency authorized an exhumation of an unnamed US soldier buried in France for entombment in a new marble sarcophagus at Arlington. Wilson wasn't physically able to be at the burial itself, but he wanted to be part of the procession, requesting an open carriage instead of a car. The Wilsons arrived on time in their carriage for the procession, but in the last of a series of slights from the Harding Administration, Wilson and Edith found that their place in the procession had already been filled, and that they didn't have a guard. So, the Wilson carriage had to unceremoniously wedge itself into the procession at its first opportunity, and they were far behind the government officials in the parade. The crowd, upon realizing Wilson was in the procession, responded with appropriate praise which lasted all the way to the White House. Once there, Wilson left the procession as he had been instructed and went home.
The next day about 20,000 people were in front of Wilson's house, cheering at the two instances when Wilson came outside to engage the crowd, especially when he talked to two veterans. Soon after the entombment of the Unknown Soldier, many Americans started calling Wilson the "Known Soldier". The famous journalist/muckraker Ida Tarbell came to realize that Americans were starting to see foreign affairs Wilson's way, and she wrote an article that was published in Collier's asking the rhetorical question why so many Americans from different backgrounds revered Wilson. Tarbell believed that Wilson's mission had been to elevate mankind.

Even though Wilson was not a military man, soldiers and their families held Wilson in high regard, believing that he had sacrificed much for his nation as they had. Ironically during this "Wilson Revival" there was no role for Joseph Tumulty, who had been Wilson's loyal secretary and also part of the conspiracy with Edith and Grayson to keep Wilson's stroke secret. A marginalized Tumulty frantically tried to get back into the Wilson fold, going so far to fabricate a statement that he claimed was given to him by Wilson at the annual Democratic function honoring Thomas Jefferson. When Wilson read about his "statement" in the newspapers he was thunderstruck; Tumulty had to sheepishly admit to Wilson that he was the culprit, and he gave a rather lame admission and retraction to the New York Times. Tumulty just kept digging a deeper hole for himself with Wilson, and he was excluded form Wilson's life just as Wilson had cut of all ties with
Colonel Edward House in Paris in 1919 (but Wilson never doubted Tumulty's loyalty and service for the eight years he was President).
The Congressional Elections of 1922 were a referendum on Harding's Presidency, and his fellow Republicans suffered in that their lead in the Senate was halved and the Democrats were in striking distance of re-taking control in the House winning 76 seats. It seemed that the voters weren't in total agreement with the Republican effort to erase all-things-Wilson, such as enacting protective tariffs and coddling Big Business. Wilson was very irritated that Lodge won re-election to his sixth term by a very thin margin of only a few thousand votes.
After reaching the age of 66, Wilson received two unexpected tributes. On 27 December 1922, Franklin Roosevelt told Wilson that the Woodrow Wilson Foundation had raised over one million dollars, the vast majority coming from regular citizens. Then came a resolution from the Senate stating their pleasure at Wilson's continued improving health (most Republicans were "busy' during the actual vote), and a very complimentary appended message was included by Vice-President Calvin Coolidge. On 2 August 1923, President Warren Harding died of a heart attack. Despite being on cordial terms with Harding, Wilson believed that Harding was an inept politician. Nonetheless, Wilson sent a prompt note of sympathy to Harding's widow, Florence.

President Coolidge invited Wilson to participate in Harding's funeral which was to occur on
8 August 1923. Wilson wrote Coolidge that he was very grateful but unable to attend the funeral, procession, and the other ceremonies at the Capitol. But Wilson did view Harding's casket from his car and was part of the procession down Pennsylvania Avenue, where upon reaching the Capitol, Wilson and Edith returned home.
As the scandal-ridden postmortem of Harding's Presidency came to light (e.g. Teapot Dome
and his numerous affairs), Wilson became even more popular. Florence Harding hadn't allowed an autopsy, so conspiracy theories abounded as to how Harding REALLY died. Wilson truly appreciated and admired the calming influence that President Coolidge had on the nation.

However, Wilson's energy and health soon diminished to the point where few were allowed to see him at home and Wilson didn't make as many outings. Yet Wilson did agree to give a radio address (8 paragraphs) from his home on the significance of Armistice Day. Radio technicians worked for hours in Wilson's home to get ready for the radio address which would be delivered later that day on 10 November 1923, on the Eve of Armistice Day. At 8:30 pm that night, Wilson gave his radio address to the nation; the address went without a hitch but Wilson was hard on himself for not being as eloquent as he had wanted. On Armistice Day 1923, a large crowd formed in front of Wilson's house as had become the recent tradition.
On 28 December 1923, Woodrow Wilson celebrated his 67th birthday. On 31 January 1924, Grayson examined Wilson, and despite the reduced energy, Grayson was not alarmed. However, Edith wanted a second opinion, and a specialist told her that Wilson was very sick, and Grayson agreed to stay overnight. On the morning of 1 February 1924, Edith was convinced that her husband was dying and that she needed to notify the three daughters. Grayson informed Edith that Wilson had taken a turn for the worse overnight in that his systems were shutting down.

Soon the public realized what was going on at the Wilson house and many Americans gathered outside the home in a sort of death vigil. Wilson's kidneys were failing and doctors administered oxygen and gave him morphine to reduce the pain. On 3 February 1924 at 11:15 pm, Woodrow Wilson died. Coolidge directed that US Flags be lowered to half-staff for 30 days in honor of the former President. Coolidge also offered Arlington National Cemetery for Wilson's internment, but Edith wanted to maintain as much dignity and modesty as possible, knowing that was the wish of her husband.
The Bethlehem Chapel in the National Cathedral offered their services and location for Wilson's funeral and burial, which pleased Edith since she didn't want a state funeral. Edith wrote Lodge telling him that he wasn't welcome to the funeral or burial; Lodge responded very courteously saying he would not attend, and he released a notice to the press that he was unable to attend due to a respiratory condition. Edith's behavior was at its worst in that she used the time before the funeral/burial to exact some petty revenge on those she felt had wronged her husband. Edith arranged for a small private funeral at home and then a second formal funeral at the Bethlehem Chapel where only about 300 could attend. Edith would spend her remaining years in the same house where she had lived with her husband after he left the Presidency.
The Bethlehem Chapel was not the final resting place for Wilson; in 1956 Wilson was moved on the grounds of the National Cathedral, interred in a limestone sarcophagus which was more visible in honoring Wilson and more accessible. Edith, age 85, was there for the ceremony. On 20 January 1961, Edith was in the third row in the Presidential Platform for the Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and during the Inaugural Parade Edith rode in the same car as Eleanor Roosevelt. Edith Wilson died at the age of 89 from heart/lung problems on 28 December 1961, which was Wilson's birthday . . . she was interred with Wilson in the South Nave of the National Cathedral in Washington, D. C.

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Woodrow Wilson and the Election of 1916

5/6/2018

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Source: A. Scott Berg. Wilson (2013)

Nationalism had become a global epidemic, and in the Summer of 1916 that contagion hit the US in an election year. Flag-waving became a manic fad in America with parades the norm all across the nation for "Americanism" and preparedness (example: over 130,000 marched in a parade in Chicago). President Woodrow Wilson conspicuously showed his patriotism for all to see in speeches and appearances. On 14 June 1916 (Flag Day) Wilson led 66,000+ down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House. Wilson made appearances at Arlington National Cemetery and West Point.
On 7 June 1916, the Republican National Convention started in Chicago, but their house was in disarray in that the Grand Old Party still hadn't resolved its clash between the conservative, moderate, and liberal branches of the party. The Old Guard of the party refused to accept Theodore Roosevelt as the nominee believing that he valued himself over the Republican Party. Their focus instead shifted to Supreme Court Associate Justice Charles Evans Hughes, who was also the former governor of New York. An eager Hughes garnered the nomination on the 3rd ballot with TR far back in the tally of delegates. Hughes was pro-business and eager to enter the war in Europe. Hughes was the only Supreme Court justice to leave the bench to run for President. Doing so allowed Wilson to nominate a Progressive judge to the Supreme Court who was quickly confirmed by the Senate.

A week later the Democrats held their national convention in St. Louis which basically served as a coronation of Wilson, who controlled the convention from the White House. The mantra "He Kept Us Out Of War" was a product of a carefully staged convention. After the convention Wilson took to the hustings (campaigning) in many of the toss-up states, with almost all of them in the Midwest and the West, with California and its 13 Electoral Votes a top prize.
Wilson traveled as far west as Nebraska, while the Democratic Party sent the appropriate surrogates to campaign for Wilson in specific areas, such as large voting blocs of immigrant voters in New York City and William Jennings Bryan in the Midwest and the Great Plains. Wilson had become an even greater orator by 1916, and he refused to "talk down" to the voters. But Hughes proved to be a match for Wilson in almost every category, including oratory and academic background.
However, the Republican campaign for Hughes wasn't nearly as cohesive and focused as was Wilson's, and Hughes lacked a positive message or a vision. During the campaign, Wilson announced that the US had become a creditor nation, which took much of the wind out of the sails for Hughes in terms of of his pro-business rhetoric. Theodore Roosevelt's attacks on Wilson intensified during the campaign, but TR failed to bring voters in the Bull Moose Party to the Republican fold, with a sizable number ready to vote Democratic.

Unlike Wilson, Hughes barnstormed the nation, including California, and Hughes delved into the gutter bringing up Mary Peck from Wilson's past. Eugene V. Debs didn't run for President; Debs instead ran for a set in Congress from his home district in Indiana, focusing his campaign rhetoric on attacking Wilson. Edith (who became Wilson's second wife on 18 December 1915) expected Wilson to lose the election, and Wilson had written a secret memo in which if he lost the election he would step down as President before his term ended . . . a plan of which Edith wasn't aware.
Similar to the Chicago Tribune's headline in 1948, the New York Times said it would flash a light on top of its building when a winner was determined on Election Day, white for Wilson and red for Hughes; late on Election Day the NY Times building flashed red. The New York World also predicted a Hughes victory at 10 pm on Election Day, and Theodore Roosevelt issued a public statement thanking Americans for electing Hughes as President. As the day after Election Day dawned, results coming in from the West had been unexpectedly pro-Wilson and as the morning hours passed the result was still in doubt with the Electoral Tally too close to call.

The election came down to California and its 13 Electoral Votes. Each of the state's ballots was carefully guarded and painstakingly counted for accuracy. California held back on announcing a winner because Sierra County's results weren't yet in due to an early blizzard, so the nation had to wait. On 10 November 1915, California, which had been traditionally a Republican state, officially announced Wilson the winner by 3806 votes. California's result was due in large part because Wilson campaigned for peace while Hughes campaigned for war; the rising tide of Nationalism in America hadn't yet reached critical mass. Wilson also benefited from women voters in California as well as other western states.
The final tally in the Electoral College was Wilson with 277 and Hughes at 254. Wilson had 9.13 million votes to Hughes 8.55 million. Wilson was the first Democratic candidate elected to a second term since Andrew Jackson in 1832, and Wilson was the first Democratic candidate since James Knox Polk in 1844 to win the Presidency without carrying his home state (which in Wilson's case was New Jersey). However, the Democrats lost two seats in the Senate, but still held an advantage of 54 to 42 over the Republicans. In the House, the Democrats fared much worse, in that the Republicans held an advantage of 215 - 214, but three Progressive Party representatives announced they would caucus with the Democrats, giving them a razor-thin majority. The Republican candidate for President, Charles Evans Hughes, didn't concede the election by telegram until 22 November 1916.

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Woodrow Wilson: August 1914 to June 1915

4/21/2018

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Source: A. Scott Berg. Wilson (2013)

As early as August 1914, President Woodrow Wilson was concerned that Germany's actions on the Atlantic would jeopardize US neutrality. Wilson began to structure his own permanent plan for peace after the war, which was in effect a New World Order; Wilson believed that the world had become a neighborhood of nations. Wilson came up with four overall principles: no more land would be acquired by conquest, small nations have equal rights, governments should be the only ones that make weapons, and the creation of an association of nations where all guarantee the territorial integrity of all other nations.
On 8 December 1914, Wilson delivered his Annual Message to Congress where he focused on national defense, or to be more accurate, the lack thereof. Wilson did not want to commit the US to the development of a large standing army, and in subsequent speeches Wilson repeated the mantra of neutrality. Former President Theodore Roosevelt attacked Wilson in the press, basically calling Wilson a coward. Wilson sent his main adviser, Colonel Edward House, to Europe to get accurate information on what was really occurring in the war. Already, Wilson saw the Great War as a way to expand his ideal of liberating people from autocracy.

On 30 January 1915, House and his wife sailed to Europe on board the RMS Lusitania. House was a US Minister without portfolio, which meant he in essence had carte blanche to make decisions on behalf of Wilson. House met with King George V, and then went to Berlin where he met with the German foreign minister Arthur Zimmermann. All those House talked to in Europe were not remotely interested in ending the war, with each nation actually convincing itself that they were winning.
In early-1915, Great Britain enacted a naval blockade on the German coastline in the North Sea, and Germany responded by expanding their naval engagement zone, meaning that all enemy ships, naval or commercial, were subject to being sunk in the war zone around Britain. On 10 February 1915, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan wanted assurances from Germany that American ships would be left alone in the war zone. But even before his communique was sent, in January 1915 Germany had sunk the SS William P. Frye that was carrying wheat. Adding to the tension was that by 1 May 1915 the Germans had sunk two more US merchant ships.

Meanwhile, Dr. Cary Grayson, Wilson personal physician, had fallen in love with Alice Gertrude Gordon, a DC heiress. Before his death her father asked a long-time friend to look out for his daughter, and she agreed to be Alice's unofficial guardian; that friend was Edith Bolling Galt, the future second wife of President Woodrow Wilson. After a five month trip in Europe, Alice and Edith had bonded, and Edith had found that she also liked Grayson.
One day Wilson saw Edith in Grayson's presence, and he asked his doctor about that beautiful woman that he had seen. Grayson took it upon himself to introduce Edith to Wilson, and that task wasn't easy in that Edith wasn't smitten with DC society or its politics. Grayson arranged it so Edith became friends with Helen Bones, Wilson's part-time hostess (Wilson had
lost his first wife, Ellen, not long before, so there wasn't a First Lady). Edith was the first woman in DC to drive her own automobile, and she and Helen took short drives in her electric car (Also of interest: it appears that Edith was a direct descendant of Pocahontas). Edith liked hearing stories about Wilson from Helen, finding out that the President was very different from how he was portrayed in the press.
Helen arranged things one day so that Edith visited the White House when Wilson had come back from golfing with Grayson (who was in cahoots with Helen), and sure enough the four had tea. Edith did not stay for dinner, not wanting to overstay her welcome. On 23 March 1915 Edith was invited to the White House for dinner, where Wilson entertained Helen and Edith. Two weeks later Wilson and Edith and Helen took a drive in the White House limousine which led Wilson to invite Edith to go with him to a Washington Senators game where he was to throw out the first pitch. For appearances (and politics) sake Helen accompanied Wilson and Edith when they were out in public.

On 3 May 1915, Helen and Grayson arranged it so Wilson and Edith were alone for the first time. Wilson told Edith that he loved her and wanted to marry her, all after knowing her for only two months. Edith said that if Wilson required an answer right then-and-there, her answer was no; Edith wanted time to weigh the benefits/costs of marrying the President. So started Wilson's most passionate chase, where he wrote many romantic letters to Edith; to Wilson, the world stood still despite all the tumultuous events occurring nationally and globally until she accepted his proposal.
On 7 May 1915 Wilson had just finished lunch when he was told of the sinking of the Lusitania; initial reports had no loss of life, but soon changed. Wilson canceled his golf game and instead went for a drive in order to process what he had been told. The sinking of the Lusitania became a rallying cry for the Jingoes (especially Theodore Roosevelt) to declare war in Germany, which was also the prevailing view of at least a few members of the Cabinet. Wilson was upset that Britain had indeed used passengers, including Americans, as human shields to protect luxury liners that were carrying weapons (The Lusitania sank in less that 20 minutes due to the German torpedo igniting coal dust, which was the source of the second explosion that doomed the ship . . . but that knowledge came decades later in the early-1990s due to the efforts of Bob Ballard).

As for Germany, Wilson knew that a disaster such as the Lusitania could cause in inevitable drift towards war. But Wilson wasn't thinking all that straight at the time due to his obsession with Edith, which perhaps explained why in a speech after the Lusitania disaster Wilson claimed that there were times when a nation is so right that it didn't have to convince other nations that it was right. The next day's headlines in many newspapers read "Too Proud to Fight", which gave plenty of ammunition to Wilson's increasing number of political enemies such as Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. Lodge resented Wilson's rhetorical gifts (he was forever irritated that Wilson was the Intellectual Politician instead of him) and was all too happy to take advantage of the opportunity in order to politically attack Wilson.
Wilson admitted that he wasn't sure what he said in that speech in Philadelphia, since Edith was foremost on his mind. The next day Wilson did some damage control saying that he was not afraid of war, but that the Lusitania disaster didn't necessitate a declaration of war. The next day former President William Howard Taft publicly supported Wilson, but SecState Bryan disagreed with Wilson's tough diplomatic response to Germany, wanting to play peacemaker.

In Europe, House was trying to get Britain to lift their devastating blockade while at the same time he was trying to get Germany to reduce the number of U-Boat attacks and its use of poison gas. During Cabinet meetings, SecState Bryan's pacifism was starting to get on Wilson's nerves. Bryan sent Wilson a letter letting him know that if the situation remained the same in terms of Wilson's rhetoric with Germany, he would resign. Wilson told Edith of the letter, and she totally supported Wilson in replacing Bryan. Edith knew she had much to learn about politics if she was to become the First Lady, and first in order was to avoid reacting in knee-jerk fashion.
Wilson finally received a reply from Germany, and while the communique wasn't conciliatory, there was a promise to not target neutral ships. SecState Bryan again disagreed with the tone of Wilson's drafted response to Berlin, and resigned as SecState a few days later after meeting with Wilson. Wilson was overjoyed with Bryan's resignation as was Edith; Wilson truly enjoyed and appreciated that Edith saw things the same way he did, which meant they were able to vent their frustrations to each other in private. Wilson decided to nominate Robert Lansing as Acting Secretary of State to replace Bryan; little did Wilson know that he would have far more difficulty with Lansing as Secretary of State after the Armistice was signed in November 1918.

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Woodrow Wilson: From NJ Governor to President-Elect

4/15/2018

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Source: A. Scott Berg. Wilson (2013)

By 1910, New Jersey had become the most densely-populated state, and it had also become the "Mother of Trusts"; the President of Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson, commented that New Jersey was one of the "backward states". When presented with the offer to run for Governor of New Jersey as a Democrat by the state's party bosses, Wilson didn't resist. Wilson had to show the various powerful interests in New Jersey that he would be a team player, and Wilson's answers to questions posed to him by the state's power brokers in the Boss System were deemed adequate, not outstanding. But not even support from the New Jersey Democratic Machine made Wilson's nomination a lock, in that there were other candidates that were far-more politically connected and experienced; even Wilson's supporters wondered how a political novice from academia could hold his own in the rough-and-tumble of New Jersey politics.
Wilson won the Democratic nomination for governor on the first ballot, and his acceptance speech at the state convention electrified the delegates. Wilson claimed that he would be single-minded in his pursuit of serving the citizens of New Jersey. The campaign for governor was interesting in that Wilson still had a university to run, and he had to work his campaign around his obligations at Princeton. On 20 October 1910, Wilson submitted his resignation to the Board of Trustees at Princeton; Wilson was allowed to used the President's mansion for the rest of the semester, and he was honored with Princeton's greatest award, the Doctor of Laws degree. Wilson said that he would get out of the mansion after the campaign, and that he would forego the remainder of his salary as President of Princeton.

Soon enough, Wilson's political handlers discovered that he had a great grasp on a great number of political topics/issues. Wilson campaigned hard across the state for six weeks, and he already had shown that he was not a puppet to the state's party bosses, remaining his idealistic self. But Wilson did one thing the state party machine wanted, and that was to attack the Republicans; Wilson also mixed state issues with national and global concerns. Wilson's political independence was the talk of the state, even attracting Republican voters, and Wilson won in a landslide, 54 to 43 percent.
Governor-Elect Wilson soon found himself at odds with the state's party machine bosses over who the legislature should send to the US Senate (before the 17th Amendment, state legislatures selected their own US Senators). On 17 January 1911, Wilson was inaugurated as the Governor of New Jersey, and soon was able to garner enough support to get a non-machine candidate appointed to the US Senate. As he did when he became President of Princeton, Governor Wilson proposed a sweeping agenda of reform, with many items geared towards limiting the power of monopolies and election reform.
Without announcing his intention to run for President, the tide of Progressivism took Wilson's name to the forefront in the national Democratic Party. In 1911, the elder statesman of the Democratic Party was William Jennings Bryan, who was ironically four years younger than Wilson. While Bryan was not going to win the party's nomination in 1912, he would be key in determining who would. After a dinner with Wilson, Bryan became a Wilson fan, and Wilson was a fan of Bryan's. Wilson's successes in New Jersey had made him a national political figure by the Spring of 1911, and by then Wilson had become a true Progressive reformer.

Among Wilson's wealthy supporters was Henry Morgenthau, Sr. (his son, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., served in FDR's Cabinet), and in October 1911, Wilson was introduced to Edward Mandell House of Texas, who would provide much more than campaign funds. House, due mostly to an inheritance, was able to pursue the only thing that aroused passion in him: politics. House, relatively fragile physically, was politically formidable in Texas, and his influence in national Democratic Party politics was growing. While House had impressed Wilson' most ardent and influential supporters, he wasn't yet ready to commit his support to Wilson. On 24 November 1911, House and Wilson met for the first time, and a meaningful political connection (and friendship) was made; Wilson had met his alter ego.
House became a conduit for Wilson, talking to influential people such as Bryan, whom House had known for over a decade. Within a year, Wilson told others that House was his second personality. In New Jersey, Princeton selected a President that Wilson believed was a step back for the university, the Republicans won back both houses in the state legislature, and Wilson vetoed over 40 bills, which enraged the state's Republican Party. Even so, Wilson was able to get Progressive legislation passed, enhancing his standing as a reformer governor.
For the first time before a Democratic National Convention, several states used primary elections to pledge delegates to candidates. Wilson had to forego some state primaries (such as Missouri and Alabama) since their Favorite Son candidates were a lock to win, and in the primaries he ran, Wilson basically got clobbered, and there was no momentum gained. But some states went Wilson's way: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Jersey, even with the state's party bosses working against him. Not since 1860 had the Democratic Party been so divided in terms of selecting a candidate to run for President.

The upcoming Democratic National Convention in Baltimore would operate on the "2/3's Rule", which meant that 729 delegates (a super-majority of 2/3's) was the magic number. Wilson thought that the "2/3's Rule" was undemocratic, but the same rule increased the odds of a brokered convention, which could only aid Wilson's bid for the nomination. Heading into the convention, Wilson had the second-most delegates, but was almost 200 behind. Bryan maneuvered things ahead of the convention to force the major candidates to declare their political intentions, and Wilson was revealed to be the only Progressive among the candidates (much to Bryan's delight). Among the items in the Democratic Platform was the popular election of US Senators (the future 17th Amendment) and a federal income tax (the future 16th Amendment).
After the first ballot, Wilson was behind 440 to 324, and Wilson agreed to keep his name in the ring instead of withdrawing his name as a candidate, which kept his candidates pledged to him. As more ballots were taken, Wilson was advised by his representatives at the convention (the tradition was that candidates were not at the convention) that he had gained momentum and the delegate leader had peaked. Among the delegates on the floor of the convention that laid claim to shifting momentum in favor of Wilson was a state senator from New York, Franklin Roosevelt (he made over 300 campaign buttons for Wilson and created much hooplah).
On the 30th ballot, Wilson inched ahead, and finally, on the 46th ballot, Wilson surpassed the 2/3's mark with 990 delegates. House offered his services to Wilson to help be sure that a likely victory in the upcoming Presidential Election in 1912 wouldn't be lost. On 7 August 1912, Wilson, in front of thousands in New Jersey, officially accepted the Democratic nomination with an acceptance speech (which was the tradition in those days).
Not since the Election of 1860 had four candidates run for President: Wilson (Democrat), former President Theodore Roosevelt (the Progressive Party, a.k.a. the "Bull Moose Party"),
President William Howard Taft (Republican), and Eugene V. Debs (Socialist). In 1912, all media was local, so in order to effectively campaign, a candidate had to set "small fires" across the nation, which meant many speeches in big cities and on the train on what was called Whistle-Stop Tours. President Taft didn't actively campaign (believing he would lose), and Debs wasn't able to nationally campaign, so the election in effect came down to Wilson and Roosevelt. Wilson was the novelty that Americans came to see, since TR was a known political personality. Wilson was able to stir the moral and political convictions of millions of American voters, far more so than TR.

Wilson told his campaign treasurer (Morgenthau) that he would not accept campaign donations if there were strings attached, and he wanted to publicize the money coming in and going out. 90,000+ citizens contributed over $1.1m . . . but there was something missing from Wilson's campaign, and he filled it with Louis Brandeis, who was Wilson's expert on Trusts. Where TR wanted to regulate, Wilson and Brandeis wanted much stronger limits on monopolies which they believed was achievable by increasing competition instead of government regulation. Wilson and Brandeis called their Progressive agenda the New Freedom.
TR's campaign focused on histrionics and hyperbole, while Wilson quietly converted citizens to followers. Wilson had a rare skill set, an intellectual politician that had charm and charisma, which connected him to the voter. After TR was shot in Milwaukee and needed to stop his campaign for two weeks, Wilson refused to campaign until TR returned to the hustings. As the general campaign wound down, TR spoke to a huge crowd at Madison Square Garden to thunderous applause, and Wilson spoke the next day at the Garden to an even greater reception. On Election Day, Wilson carried all but 8 states: TR won 6, while President Taft carried Utah and Vermont. Wilson's 435 Electoral Votes were the highest number ever to that point in a Presidential Election even though his popular vote total was only 41.9% (a majority was basically impossible with four candidates). In only 658 days after becoming a politician, Wilson had been elected President of the United States.
Wilson's victory had coattails, in that Democrats in the House of Representatives added to their majority with 61 additional seats, and even though states still "selected" their US Senators, the Democrats had an advantage of 7 in the Senate. Wilson was the first Democratic President in 20 years (since Grover Cleveland, elected in 1884 and 1892), and the first Southerner elected President since Zachary Taylor in 1848. An additional item that had Wilson very much looking forward to his time in the White House: Colonel House would continue as his main political adviser.

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Intrepid, Niels Bohr, and the Manhattan Project: Part One

4/1/2018

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Source: William Stevenson. A Man Called Intrepid - The Incredible True Story
of the Master Spy That Helped Win World War II (1976, 2000)

The greatest intelligence operation was the development of the atomic bomb. By the time of Operation Barbarossa, Hitler was confident that Germany could build the atomic bomb, in large part due to the competitive advantage Germany had in terms of research and development since 1939. An added advantage was gained in that the Danish physicist Niels Bohr had an incurable desire to share his knowledge-of-all-things, which of course included his theoretical research on the atomic bomb. By 1940, although safe in Denmark, he was in Nazi-occupied territory. German scientists gained more-and-more knowledge in terms of atomic bomb research due to Bohr's passion and intellectual honesty.
The British knew that they had to pass what they had learned to America from their atomic bomb research since they didn't have the necessary abilities on their own to take the research further, knowing that Nazi Germany was able to do so. FDR had authorized the Manhattan Project, but the biggest initial threat to the Anglo-American effort to make the atomic bomb was Niels Bohr, who had already split the uranium atom. Two months after Enrico Fermi's successful test of a chain reaction in Chicago, British commandos tried to destroy the Norsk Hydro heavy water plant in Norway. It seemed to the commandos that they had failed in their mission, in that their demolitions didn't make a large noise when detonated, but the truth was they had succeeded. When the heavy water plant went back into production, the Royal Air Force tried to bomb it; the RAF and USAAF air raids inflict any damage, but the guerilla-style commando raid did. Leader in both the US and Britain were too stubborn (or slow) to realize that guerilla strategies/tactics were the way to go at Norsk Hydro.

Since the powers-that-be in Britain and the US deemed Norsk Hydro too difficult to damage/destroy, the decision was made to go after the supply lines that carried the heavy water to their destinations. As a result, Nazi Germany's supply of heavy water was greatly slowed to an amount that was too small to conduct the necessary atomic research. William Stephenson (WS; Intrepid) saw that development as a game-changer for World War II.
Underneath Bohr's ever-expanding research laboratory, Danish saboteurs planted explosives "just in case" it was necessary to destroy the lab. Using secret messaging set up by British intelligence, Bohr told the British that he would keep his research going at full-tilt and would not be smuggled to Britain to work. In Denmark, Bohr had immense prestige, and as of yet he didn't know about the Anglo-American effort to build the atomic bomb. Both Bohr and King Christian X of Denmark (age 73) were close, and in the early days of the Nazi occupation in Denmark, both were handled with kid gloves. Christian X was allowed to remain in his castle, believing that his presence would help protect his people, while Bohr blissfully and happily worked in his lab believing he was doing the right thing for science and humanity.
About the only positive concerning Bohr was that he kept up a secret correspondence with a British scientist he respected, and via that pathway Bohr stated that the Germans in the Spring of 1943 were looking for more metallic uranium and heavy water for use in his lab. WS kept up his argument that Britain needed to grab Bohr from the Nazis. WS calculated that when the Nazi occupation of Denmark turned nasty, Bohr would all-of-a-sudden be in the mood to be smuggled to Britain . . . WS didn't wait for that development to occur, and started to organize a plan of escape for Bohr.

The showdown in Denmark occurred in August 1943 when Hitler was advised that Christian X should be "de-fanged" and Bohr and his lab put under direct Nazi supervision. SS (Schutzstaffeln, German for "Protective Echelon") "courts" convicted Danish "terrorists", and Christian X was forced into a corner when it was suggested that the Danish police assist the Gestapo, to which the King refused. When the King's Castle was invaded by a large German force, Christian X ridiculed the commanding German officer by congratulating him on a great victory; the humiliated Germans left the castle. Afterwards, Christian X wrote Bohr advising him to leave Denmark. Very soon the Nazis started to round-up Danish Jews, including key scientists working with Bohr.
Bohr buried his communications with the outside world in his garden as a failsafe to show that he wasn't loyal to the Nazis or a traitor, including his reports on what the Germans wanted and were up to. At last Bohr realized that he had been terribly wrong about the Nazis; by September 1943, orders for Bohr's arrest reached the Gestapo in Denmark. A scientist that Bohr trusted with his theories lost the entrusted documents as he escaped to Sweden, and they were lost forever. Meanwhile, a Nazi reign of terror surged across Denmark as Jews were deported en masse.

To WS it seemed that it was too late to extract Bohr, but on 30 September 1943 Bohr reached neutral Sweden right before the Gestapo moved to arrest him. In Sweden, Bohr immediately went to Princess Ingeborg (Christian X's sister) who was part of WS's intelligence network. After Bohr begged Sweden's King Gustaf to get the deported Danish Jews redirected to Sweden, Ingeborg wasted no time directly telling Bohr how naive he was, living in Nazi-occupied Denmark and not knowing who the Nazis really were . . . she went so far as to scold Bohr that his research lab had been a "Fool's Paradise".
With every new revelation about the Nazis, Bohr became more-and-more tortured; finally Bohr reached the conclusion that his giant brain should be in the service of the Allies . . . but how would he reach Britain? Bohr was asked if he would ride in an unarmed bomb bay of a British Moon Squadron aircraft; great secrecy surrounded the Moon flights, in that if the Nazis discovered that the Moon Squadron was flying planes to neutral Sweden the Nazis would almost certainly react violently. The favorite Moon Squadron plane was a modified Mosquito bomber (made mostly of wood, in part to be invisible to German radar) which was designed to carry agents instead of bombs.
A female intelligence agent (related to King George VI of Great Britain) told Bohr of the stark realities of being a secret passenger in the bomb bay; among the problems was that there wasn't much room to move during the flight. In essence Bohr would be helpless and physically cut-off from the pilot until the plane landed, or crashed into the North Sea. If wounded by Luftwaffe fighters, only a small dose of morphine in a first aid kit would be available.

Bohr asked about his wife and kids, and the female agent said they would be taken care of in Sweden, and when Bohr asked if they could follow him to Britain, he was told that it would be too dangerous for them, for him, and for the spy network in place in Sweden. Bohr agreed to get on the plane, knowing that there really wasn't a choice. On 7 October 1943, Bohr, one of the world's greatest scientists, was outfitted and placed in the Mosquito's bomb bay in between two Rolls Royce engines. The plane flew high enough where Bohr received oxygen; flying at high altitude was the only protection against the Luftwaffe.
When the pilot tried to communicate with Bohr to check if his oxygen was working, he received no answer. The pilot had to risk flying lower so Bohr could survive, but that meant that Luftwaffe fighters could intercept the plane. The pilot could not turn back to Sweden in that the airfield had already been abandoned, and landing would almost certainly lead to arrest; even if allowed to remain free, the Swedes, under tremendous pressure from Berlin, would never let Bohr out of their sight. The pilot flew full throttle at sea level, trying to reach Scotland which was beyond the reach of Luftwaffe fighters, but it would be a close call in terms of fuel. Ten miles from Scapa Flow, the pilot alerted the British defenses that he was a friend and was getting ready to make his approach; the pilot still hadn't heard from Bohr in the bomb bay.

WS waited for the modified Mosquito that carried Bohr near Edinburgh, and WS was perhaps the only one that could convince Bohr to assist the Anglo-American effort to develop the atomic bomb. The limp form of Dr. Niels Bohr was lowered from the bomb bay by a Royal Air Force ambulance. The pilot told WS that there was nothing he could have done other than what he did, and WS reassured the pilot and told him that he would take care of the situation, telling the pilot he did his job well. To the pilot, the mission would forever be a disaster, since he would never be told the identity or the fate of his passenger.
WS asked a British doctor (who was part of the intelligence network) if there was any chance of Bohr's survival, and the doctor said Bohr's pulse was weak, but that he would pull through. WS quickly made arrangements for Bohr's son, Aage, to be airlifted from Sweden a few days later to join his father, since he was Bohr's right-hand-man in the lab. By the time Aage joined his father, Bohr had recovered from his near-death experience: Bohr's intercom plug had been jerked out of connection at take-off, and he was unable to trace the problem, and unable to hear the pilot tell him to put on his oxygen mask . . . the pilot's decision to fly at a low altitude saved Bohr's life.
Bohr and his son were quickly placed in an office in a drab Westminster hotel and became part of Tube Alloys, the British code name for their atomic research. Bohr was quickly overwhelmed with the knowledge of the other scientists/analysts involved in Tube Alloys, having run solo in Nazi-occupied Denmark . . . it was only then that Bohr truly understood the evil of Nazi Germany . . .

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Intrepid, Niels Bohr, and the Manhattan Project: Part Two

4/1/2018

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Source: William Stevenson. A Man Called Intrepid - The Incredible True Story
of the Master Spy That Helped Win World War II (1976, 2000)

Within a week of arriving in Britain, Bohr was able to meet Churchill, and for 45 minutes Bohr mumbled scientific jargon. While Churchill knew how Bohr came to be in Britain, he still had no patience for eggheads. Bohr was shown plans of the German V Rockets that he didn't know existed, and was asked if it was possible that the Nazis could fire 5000 of them on Britain, and if an atomic warhead could be placed on even one rocket . . . Bohr didn't have any definitive answers other than it was theoretically possible to place an atomic warhead on a rocket.
Bohr was told that he needed to go to the US to help build the atomic bomb, but Bohr balked, stating that he couldn't be part of something that was inherently violent. It was the same old story: Bohr was back in his Scientific Ivory Tower refusing to see the reality of World War II . . . but eventually Bohr agreed to "join the team". In late-1943, Bohr and Aage flew to NYC, provided with false ID papers under the name of Baker, a name that Bohr could remember, having never remembered any of his previous false names (he even answered the phone "Bohr here"); Bohr was now part of the Manhattan Project.
There were those (including Churchill) that believed Bohr, while in Nazi-occupied Denmark, had come close to committing a moral crime against all of humanity, and some of them were in the US working on the Manhattan Project. As far as FDR was told, Bohr proved to be more of a liability than an asset to the Manhattan Project, and the President actually decided to sent Bohr back to London.

Bohr told WS "a cruel time comes when to save a nation's deepest values, we have to disobey the state". Disobedience was forced on the Danes when the Gestapo mass arrests intensified after Bohr escaped. Soon it became apparent to British intelligence and the Danish Resistance that the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen had to be destroyed, regardless of collateral damage. Bohr helped provide intelligence about the Gestapo HQ to WS and his intelligence network in NYC (the British Security Coordination) so Camp X near Toronto could create a model mock-up HQ in order to train guerillas.
Bohr pleaded that his lab be left alone, and that his Van de Graaff generator that he used in heavy water experiments be left alone, so the Nazis wouldn't be alerted to its importance, and the planners of the operation agreed. After much debate, it was decided that Bohr's lab in Copenhagen would not be destroyed (Bohr was aware that the Danish Resistance had placed explosives under his lab). However, Danish prisoners held at Gestapo HQ knew how important Bohr's work was to the development of the atomic bomb, and British Intelligence knew that all prisoners talked in the end, unable to indefinitely endure torture.

Those Danish prisoners were still located in Copenhagen so long as King Christian X held at least minimal influence, and most Danes were unwilling to risk acting against the Nazis at that point. Christian X got word to London that Danish Resistance knew oceans of intelligence about the locations/workings of the Nazi war apparatus in Denmark, and that key Danish Resistance figures were held at Gestapo HQ. A plan soon emerged at the suggestion of the King's emissary who had reached London: bomb the part of the Gestapo HQ where the Danish Resistance was located so they could escape . . . otherwise it would be only a matter of time until the Nazis would find out the true significance of what was going on in Bohr's lab in Copenhagen.
It was determined that the Royal Air Force would give the air raid a go. Christian X's emissary even provided the RAF, upon their request, a photograph of the building at wave-top level. Civilian lives would be lost in the raid, and not just prisoners in Gestapo HQ; having decided that there was no other alternative but to risk collateral casualties, 18 Mosquito bombers were re-tasked from other raids in Europe to bomb Gestapo HQ in Copenhagen.

On 21 March 1945, shortly before dawn, the fully-briefed 36 pilots of the 18 Mosquitoes took off and crossed the English Coast for Operation Carthage. Each plane carried bombs that exploded after an 11 second delay so the planes could avoid the bomb's blast and attempt their escape. The 1st and 3rd Waves carried incendiary bombs designed to make Gestapo HQ a hellish bonfire. The Mosquitoes couldn't use radios and had to fly at wave-top, all to avoid detection. The air raid was timed to coincide with the greatest number of Gestapo expected to be at HQ. Thirty
P-51 Mustangs provided air cover for a time under a Belgian commander.
The 18 Mosquitoes took the Germans in Copenhagen completely by surprise; German efforts to camouflage Gestapo HQ actually made it easier for at least some of the British pilots to spot and hit the building. As almost always with military planning, the operation ran into problems: one of the Mosquitoes crashed into a nearby school, which meant that pilots coming in later would have difficulty finding their real target, and some didn't drop their bombs as a result. The cost in human life for saving (and killing some) Danish Resistance prisoners were 10 airmen, 27 teachers, 87 children, with many more civilians wounded. But 30 Danish Resistance prisoners escaped and the Gestapo's files at HQ were destroyed. WS was in the process of preparing a detailed report of the air raid to FDR, but the President died of natural causes on 12 April 1945, and WS never sent the report.

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Intrepid and Operation Barbarossa (1941)

3/9/2018

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Source: William Stevenson. A Man Called Intrepid - The Incredible True Story
of the Master Spy That Helped Win World War II (1976, 2000)

Hitler saw himself as the second-coming of Barbarossa, the great medieval conqueror, and when William Stephenson (WS) found out that Hitler named the offensive against the USSR Operation Barbarossa, WS believed that Hitler's superstitious mind could be unbalanced by experiencing failures . . . many, many failures. That belief was to lead to the greatest intelligence coup of World War II, delaying Operation Barbarossa, which then led to the Wehrmacht being stopped in its tracks during the Russian Winter of 1941-42.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (who years ago had helped organize the "Secret War" of intelligence against the Nazis) requested that William Donovan be sent to the Balkans on Britain's behalf (Donovan was FDR's right-hand man in terms of intelligence, just as WS was Churchill's right-hand man). Churchill wanted Donovan to do what he could to frustrate Hitler's timetable for unleashing Barbarossa. Donovan left under an assumed name, but he intentionally kept his initials on his luggage (WJD) in order to draw attention to himself so others could operate in the dark.
German intelligence had Donovan tabbed as FDR's emissary since 1937, and they were aware that Donovan was in London . . . and in following Donovan, Hitler was led into the trap. While Donovan scattered clues wherever he could, WS left nothing on his trail; in essence Donovan's role was to be the "clown" providing cover for WS. In response to Charles Lindbergh
and the American First movement (the "Firsters"), FDR wanted to demonstrate that the true first line of defense for the US was in Europe, and even in the Mediterranean. WS let it be known in not-so-carefully coded radio transmissions that Donovan was the source in the US for what Britain desperately needed during the war (e.g. bombsights), which was enough to explain Donovan's movements as an American "neutral".

Churchill was convinced via the Ultra network that Hitler would attack Russia on May 1941, but those advising the Prime Minister didn't think that Hitler would do so until he finished off Great Britain. Churchill's real problem at the moment was to convince Stalin that Hitler was heading his way, and so far Stalin had totally fallen for Hitler's lies and misdirection. Churchill's plan was to have events in the Balkans delay the Germans enough so that the USSR could recover from the initial onslaught of Barbarossa. Donovan's job was to convince the leaders in the Balkans to not only avoid signing a pact with the Germans but to also resist.
Ultra had known for quite some time about Hitler's plan to invade the USSR, but the British couldn't reveal how they discovered that information, which made it impossible to change Stalin's mind. On 18 December 1940 Ultra intercepted/decoded a German transmission that confirmed Barbarossa, but Britain could do little with that intelligence. Hitler was about to unleash the greatest military surprise in history, and Stalin was an unwitting accomplice. So, Churchill thought, if Stalin refused to see the reality of the situation, then he needed to figure out a way to delay the Wehrmacht so that the Russian Winter would hit them hard and buy the USSR some time . . . it was under those limitations that Donovan headed to the Balkans to stir up trouble.

Ironically, Hitler delayed the invasion of Russia to the very day and hour of Napoleon's invasion of Russia; somehow the superstitious Hitler wasn't aware of that omen. The reason why Hitler was so concerned about the Balkans wasn't purely out of concern for his southern flank, but also because trouble in the Balkans would present an unwanted obstacle in his goal of controlling both ends of the Mediterranean Sea. Donovan headed first to Sofia; his goal was to force Hitler to secure his southern flank by getting pro-Fascist regimes in the Balkans to back him (and Britain), not Hitler. Donovan planted the seeds of doubt in the minds of the Bulgarian regime (who had already signed the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany) as to the wisdom of cooperating with Hitler. Churchill hoped for a delay of one day by the Bulgarian government before they acquiesced to the Nazis, but Donovan secured a delay of eight days.
Donovan also "allowed" German agents to take "top secret" documents from his room that stated that the US would intervene in the Balkans if Hitler went too far in the region. Donovan went so far to pretend he was totally drunk at a party (he was a teetotaler), despondent that he had lost the documents . . . and Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, bought the ruse. The forged documents the Germans had taken from Donovan were incredibly well-made by a small unit WS had set up near Toronto (Camp X), and the Germans believed that the US was cooperating with the British Secret Service, who was viewed with both respect and hatred by the Nazis.

Donovan next headed to Belgrade, hoping to weave the same magic as he had in Sofia. However, there was only one group in Yugoslavia that could organize/execute any meaningful resistance, and they were led by Marshal Tito and his fellow Communists. While Stalin and other Communist leaders were busy appeasing Hitler, Tito was getting ready for war. Tito also had no love for Stalin, seeing how lesser Communist nations had been treated by the USSR. The only useful guidance and information Tito received was from Donovan, who said that anyone that resisted Hitler, even Communists, would receive support from the US.
Donovan made it clear to Tito that if Prince Paul (the de facto leader of Yugoslavia) caved to the Nazis, he needed to revolt; when Donovan left Belgrade, the Germans were nervous and trigger-happy. On 22 March 1941 a Nazi ultimatum was presented to the Yugoslav government, and officers within the military overthrew Prince Paul, and Tito waited on the sidelines, biding his time. On 25 March 1941, Donovan, who had returned to the US, made a national radio address in which he spoke of the courage of those in the Mediterranean that were standing up to Hitler. The speech was designed to provoke Hitler into another fit of rage, which it did; it was known to Churchill, et al by then that Hitler made mistakes when he was in true fit that wasn't staged for effect.
Donovan's speech was recorded/filmed and was widely distributed, and it received a tremendous amount of global publicity. As a result, FDR could circumvent the Neutrality Acts by labeling the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf as as no longer combat zones.

On 6 April 1941, German bombers hit Belgrade after Hitler declared it an Open City, which meant that under international law Hitler could do what he wanted; 24,000 were killed in Belgrade and untold numbers of innocent people were never found. Belgrade, like other locations in World War II, was a victim of the Secret War, in that knowledge gained by Ultra couldn't be released out of fear that the Germans would figure out Ultra's sources of information. On 7 April 1941, with the bombing of Belgrade continuing, German troops arrived in Belgrade to "defend" German civilians in Yugoslavia.
The resistance forces in Yugoslavia went active, and they were similar to those in Belgium against Germany in World War I in that once again the Germans were delayed in achieving a greater goal, needing to use divisions that were supposed to be part of Barbarossa to deal with Yugoslavia, and then resistance in Greece and Turkey. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel complained that Barbarossa could be delayed by four weeks, but the reality would be closer to six weeks. Hitler's Operation Punishment in the Balkans would commit Germany to being involved in a quagmire against guerilla forces that would last the rest of the war. The key to initially committing the Germans to a quagmire was to overthrow the regime of Prince Paul in Yugoslavia, which was something Britain had wanted to occur for at least five months, but was unable to do . . . until Churchill enlisted the services of William Donovan, and the Nazis overreacted.

When Hitler tasked divisions of the Wehrmacht to defeat the British forces in Greece, the cost to Britain was high, but in relative terms the cost was acceptable to keep Ultra secret from the Germans; but the British military took a public relations beating at home and in America. On 22 June 1941 Operation Barbarossa began, and 1400 Russian planes were caught napping on the ground. In short order the Luftwaffe controlled the skies and the Wehrmacht moved 400 miles in just 4 weeks.
What saved the USSR was that Hitler was delayed enough by the British shenanigans in the Balkans that the Russian Winter came into play; the delay was something Stalin and most Russians to this day don't either know or appreciate.

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The Role of the US in the Sinking of the Bismarck (27 May, 1941)

3/3/2018

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Source: William Stevenson. A Man Called Intrepid - The Incredible True Story
of the Master Spy That Helped Win World War II (1976, 2000)

By May 1941 Britain's poor military performance against Nazi Germany made it even more difficult for FDR to gain American support for assisting Britain in meaningful ways, but the President was included in the British effort to sink the great (and elusive) German battleship Bismarck.
The US was of great assistance in avenging the sinking of the HMS Hood, which the Bismarck sank near Iceland; the pride of the Royal Navy was sunk killing over 1500 on board (Britain viewed the HMS Hood in the same manner as the US would view the USS Arizona). British Prime Minister Winston Churchill believed that the Bismarck (plus her supporting ships) could sever the vital Atlantic artery with the US. Britain would eventually commit 8 battleships, 2 aircraft carriers (Atlantic carriers weren't nearly as large as those in the Pacific) with squadrons of airplanes, 11 cruisers, 21 destroyers, and 6 submarines.
Among that formidable force was a US Navy ensign, Leonard Smith, who was part of the American contingent of PBY Catalinas stationed in Northern Ireland, which at the time were the most effective weapon against enemy warships. Britain had nothing like them, and Smith, along with US naval radio detection units and a Coast Guard cutter, would play a huge role in the sinking of the Bismarck . . . although the US involvement would be "scrubbed" from the official documents.

The Bismarck disappeared from sight, and FDR asked the US Navy to be on high alert for the Bismarck, and to use its state-of-the-art radio detection technology. The Bismarck sent a long radio message to Berlin, and the US listening posts were very good at not only detecting German radio transmissions, but also fixing a location. That 30 minute radio transmission was quite the bold maneuver on the part of the Bismarck, and Britain (with US assistance) was able to determine that the Bismarck had headed towards the southeast since her last sighting.
After a mistake in plotting a course, the British eventually figured out that the Bismarck was heading towards the Bay of Biscay. The Home Fleet had wasted quite a bit of fuel and time looking for the Bismarck in the wrong direction, but the US Coast Guard cutter Modoc saved the day for the British. The Modoc was looking for survivors from the Bismarck's attacks and just happened to be in the Bay of Biscay.

The Modoc saw the unique profile of the Bismarck in the distance before it disappeared over the horizon, and the Modoc radioed in the position. Soon, a long-range PBY Catalina left Northern Ireland, and the unarmed patrol bomber was piloted by Leonard Smith and manned by a mixed US/British crew; in six hours the Catalina arrived at the position reported by the Modoc. The British Admiralty had already resigned itself that the Bismarck would be protected by coastal aircraft.
Twenty-four hours after the half-hour radio transmission sent by the Bismarck, Smith saw the great battleship through the clouds, and he decided to fly beneath the cloud cover to get a much better look. Almost immediately after clearing the clouds, Smith saw the Bismarck dead ahead, incredibly close, and the battleship's gunners opened fire on the Catalina. Under fire, Smith turned 180 degrees and then sent off a radio message that sealed the fate of the Bismarck, giving precise coordinates and direction. Very soon after receiving Smith's radio message, 15 British Swordfish torpedo bombers took off from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal; the Germans were unaware that these relatively obsolete planes had radar.

Bletchley Park discovered that the Bismarck was desperately trying to put into a safe port since the ship was leaking oil very badly. One Swordfish was able to damage the Bismarck's huge rudders, also damaging at least one propeller; steering the Bismarck was now out of the question, and the speed of the battleship was greatly reduced. That was the break that the Royal Navy needed; during the night, a ring of British destroyers and eventually the King George V fired torpedoes and shelled the helpless Bismarck. The Bismarck's guns were silenced, but the battleship remained afloat.
On 27 May 1941 the Bismarck was sunk after one-too-many torpedo hits, with the coup-de-grace fired from a British cruiser that had just arrived on the scene. The British military/government and civilian population became re-energized after Churchill announced the sinking of the Bismarck. The sinking of the Bismarck also had a great psychological effect on FDR in that he pushed even harder for more overt US support for Britain. However, America wasn't yet ready for the commitment that FDR envisioned, so FDR kept pressing for more covert support for Britain. The sinking of the Bismarck led to greater radio intelligence sharing/coordination between the US and Britain; FDR's thinking was that if the US helped Britain against the Nazis, the British, with all their colonial possessions in the Pacific, would help the US against Japan if the need arose . . .

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Intrepid: Creating an Alliance - Churchill & FDR Against Hitler

2/2/2018

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Source: William Stevenson. A Man Called Intrepid - The Incredible True Story
of the Master Spy That Helped Win World War II (1976, 2000)

In 1924 William Stephenson
(WS) received an offer from a company in Berlin called Cipher Machines to create what would become known as Enigma. WS thought Enigma could be miniaturized, which was exactly what experts in Germany were thinking. WS played around with the first stages of Enigma, and then moved on to other ventures and forgot all about it.
Much happened in WS's world during the next ten years, including becoming a millionaire by the age of 30. In the midst of his success, WS kept supplying information, at least indirectly, to Winston Churchill (who at the time was basically politically dead, but not out) of the dangers Hitler presented to Britain. When Hitler was appointed Chancellor of the Reichstag in 1933, Churchill had Hitler pegged exactly right in terms of what he would do during the next 12 years.
WS saw that Hitler was using weapons of mass persuasion and thought control (e.g. burning books), and Hitler's use of propaganda spread in Germany like poison gas. WS privately wrote Churchill that he believed Hitler would try to conquer the world. When WS was in Germany looking after business interests, Alfred Rosenberg (Hitler's propaganda minister before Joseph Goebbels) saw WS as a potential asset to the Nazis in that WS controlled one of the largest movie/recording studios outside of Hollywood. The Nazis saw WS as a possible conduit to spread their propaganda, and WS's worldwide connections could be useful to the German corporations.

In 1933, WS discovered that Enigma was being effectively used in limited situations through AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph); Hitler promised huge profits to AT&T if the corporation invested in German cartels. WS's radar was roused in terms of Enigma and its intelligence uses on the Nazi Germany side of things, and WS discovered that London was far more interested in what he had to report than Washington, D.C. However, the US Radio Intelligence Division had independently reached the same conclusion as WS concerning Enigma . . . and then Enigma vanished from the horizon.
Only informal individuals/groups (such as WS) saw the potential for Enigma in Nazi Germany and that there was another (worse) war coming. However, these "Nervous Nellies" were labeled as unpatriotic, and there was also the desire to avoid having to deal with more adversity during the Great Depression . . . so WS and those that viewed Nazi Germany as a dire threat had to become invisible reluctant detectives.
WS was building planes at a time when Britain basically refused to build military aircraft; one of WS's planes was the direct forerunner of the British Spitfire. Admiral Reginald ("Blinker") Hall put together another informal intelligence group that he called Focus, which was made up of men/women that saw war as inevitable, which ran counter to the "official line" from Whitehall (the British Gov't). Churchill and Hall didn't have parliamentary authority, but they did have King George V's (the king died in 1936) permission and funding for what was in essence a secret intelligence operation. Hall's point man was Major Desmond Morton, who shuttled between the secret informal intelligence groups that Hall had created, which included
Ian Fleming. WS's business office just off Piccadilly Circus was the informal base of intelligence which was used to inform Washington, D.C. of what had been learned.

While official rules prohibited any official communication between Britain and the US in terms of sharing intelligence, informal sharing of intelligence was another matter. Already these groups were trying to intercept/decipher coded radio transmissions from Germany and Japan. With the help of WS's intelligence location in Canada, this kind of informal eavesdropping became more-and-more efficient.
WS was becoming the chief of an intelligence apparatus, and after 1935 there started to be very little mention of WS in newspapers, and clippings about WS started to disappear in newspaper files. But WS was still in the public eye, which was intentional in that he knew the first resource German intelligence would use would be newspapers (and their files). WS was also building up his international contacts in preparation for the Secret War of intelligence he knew was coming.
At about the time his newspaper clippings were starting to vanish from various locations, WS won the prestigious King's Cup air race in a plane designed by his own company. The Luftwaffe still viewed WS as a potential asset, and as they talked to and questioned WS, he learned much about the Nazis. Luftwaffe officers spoke so freely to WS in large part because they were so proud of their efficiency. WS was told that the Wehracht and Luftwaffe would crush Russia using coordination unheard of before radio transmissions . . . the Blitzkrieg.
WS knew the key to the Blitzkrieg was the speed of communications, and WS reported to Churchill that he believed communications was the weak link in the Nazi German military machine. WS told Churchill if they could read their radio traffic, the Britain could anticipate Hitler's actions . . . without knowing it, WS's search for the Enigma machine had already started.

Flying from Berlin to London on a passenger airline, WS was aware that there were Luftwaffe officers on board casing out Britain from the air, familiarizing themselves with their future target. Meanwhile, Whitehall was doing everything they could to pacify Hitler; those like WS that saw the danger of Nazi Germany were in the shadow in the informal intelligence groups under Churchill's umbrella. The Luftwaffe spies on the passenger planes had official support of the Nazi leadership in Berlin, while the WS's in Britain had to operate under the government's radar. At that point in time, Churchill was a political leper in Britain.
WS thought that the US could be their supporter, in that Churchill had loads of courage but no power, and FDR wasn't under any such restraints. President Franklin Roosevelt, the furthest thing from a warmonger, saw the danger of Nazi Germany in the same light as WS and Churchill. FDR relied on and trusted William Donovan for foreign intelligence, which in effect made Donovan FDR's William Stephenson. Donovan, as a corporate lawyer, knew an incredible amount about international corporate operations/law, especially in terms of Nazi involvement. So it was very logical that WS and Donovan would once again connect as they had during the Great War.
While it was officially frowned-upon to intercept and try to decode Japanese radio traffic, FDR did nothing to discourage such actions. The existence of a cipher machine being used by both Japan and Germany was known by the US and Britain, and at least somewhat understood. Both WS and Donovan knew that the "soft underbelly" of any dictatorship was it security system. WS knew that a dictator functioned in a cocoon in which he feels invulnerable, which then would lead to making mistakes. Secret communications would be the Achilles Heel of Nazi Germany, and WS was beyond-delighted that Donovan shared his point of view.

The US groped for any intelligence on Enigma on the Japanese side of the coin, while the informal intelligence groups in Britain did the same concerning Nazi Germany. WS discovered that Enigma was being used to enhance the Nazi Party's communications security, and one of the Nazis in control of Enigma at that point was Reinhard Heydrich, who used Enigma for internal domestic security, trying to find Enemies of the State. In addition, Heydrich was the one that, through false documents leaked into the USSR, caused Stalin to purge the Red Army's officer corps starting in 1936; the result was that the USSR was not in a position to go to war with Nazi Germany when it wanted/needed to.
Heydrich and WS were opponents in an increasing battle of intelligence wits, and Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the leader of the Abwher, kept grooming Heydrich for greater intelligence successes. WS knew of Heydrich's actions, such as getting factories to switch over to making kitchen appliances when international inspectors came to Germany to see if the Nazis were honoring the Treaty of Versailles. WS had such knowledge because he was so plugged-in to the international corporate scene. Whitehall was unmoved when WS presented them with evidence that Nazi Germany was manufacturing Stuka fighter planes. In 1938, under Heydrich's orders, brand new and far more complicated Enigma machines were being manufactured, which would keep the Nazi top secret radio transmissions even more secure; Enigma would also be the central nervous system of the Blitzkrieg.
Heydrich would become the greatest intelligence leader in Nazi Germany, and Enigma would allow Hitler to use Shock and Awe against anyone he decided to invade. The Blitzkrieg depended on quick communications and total secrecy, so to WS it was an obvious priority to find out how to crack Enigma . . . unless Enigma was cracked, there was no effective way in the early years of World War II to stop the Blitzkrieg.

As a result of the Munich Appeasement in 1938, the 1st Lord of the Admiralty, Duff Cooper (a very loyal and talented man), resigned in protest of the agreed-upon document, which then led to Churchill being named to the post. Cooper, with Hall's help, was the one that started Britain down the serious road to recruiting/organizing an intelligence apparatus. After Munich, WS believed that Hitler would be able to perfect the Blitzkrieg, and WS made it as clear as possible to as many in the British government as possible that after the agreement in Munich, war was a certainty, and that the US would eventually be dragged into another catastrophic European war.
Churchill was still relatively powerless, even with the responsibilities of being the 1st Lord of the Admiralty, and the strong right arm he needed to increase his power was FDR. By April 1939, FDR wanted Germany and Italy to promise to not invade 31 specifically listed nations. Hitler ranted/raved in absolute derision as a result, which cemented FDR's view of Hitler to the same tune as WS's and Churchill's During the Great Depression, most Americans focused on the economic successes of Nazi Germany, not Hitler's tyranny, which posed a huge obstacle for FDR. Hitler's desire for Lebensraum wasn't nearly as innocuous as most Americans believed ...

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