John J. McCloy

For other people named John McCloy, seeJohn McCloy (disambiguation).

John McCloy
McCloy in 1950
Chairman of theCouncil on Foreign Relations
In office 1953–1970
Preceded by	Russell Cornell Leffingwell
Succeeded by	David Rockefeller
American High Commissioner for Occupied Germany
In office September 21, 1949 – August 1, 1952
President	Harry Truman
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Walter J. Donnelly
2ndPresident of the World Bank Group
In office March 17, 1947 – June 30, 1949
Preceded by	Eugene Meyer
Succeeded by	Gene Black
United States Assistant Secretary of War
In office April 22, 1941 – November 24, 1945
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Robert P. Patterson
Succeeded by	Howard C. Petersen
Personal details
Born	John Snader McCloy (1895-03-31)March 31, 1895 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,U.S.
Died	March 11, 1989(1989-03-11)(aged 93) Cos Cob, Connecticut,U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Ellen Zinsser ​ ​ (m.1930; died 1986)​
Children	2
Education	Amherst College(BA) Harvard University(LLB)
Awards	Presidential Medal of Freedomwith Distinction (1963)

John Jay McCloy(March 31, 1895 – March 11, 1989) was an American lawyer, diplomat, banker, and presidential advisor. He served asAssistant Secretary of WarduringWorld War IIunderHenry Stimson.In this capacity he dealt with German sabotage and political tensions in theNorth Africa Campaign.He was both the prime mover ofJapanese internmentand one of the few high-ranking Federal bureaucrats to advocate againstthe atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.After the war, he served as the president of theWorld Bank,U.S. High CommissionerforGermany,chairman ofChase Manhattan Bank,chairman of theCouncil on Foreign Relations,a member of theWarren Commission,and a prominent United States adviser to all presidents fromFranklin D. RoosevelttoRonald Reagan.

McCloy is best remembered as a member of the foreign policy establishment group of elders called "The Wise Men",a group of statesmen marked by nonpartisanship, pragmaticinternationalism,and aversion to ideological fervor.

Early life

John McCloy was born inPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania, the son of John J. McCloy (1862–1901) and Anna (née Snader) McCloy (1866–1959). His father was an insurance man who died when McCloy was five. His mother was a hairdresser in Philadelphia, with many high-society clients. McCloy's family was poor; he would later often say he grew up on the "wrong side of the tracks," and describe himself as being an outsider of the establishment circles in which he would later move.His original name was "John Snader McCloy."It was later changed to "John Jay McCloy", probably to sound more aristocratic.

McCloy was educated at thePeddie Schoolin New Jersey, andAmherst Collegefrom which he graduated in 1916. He was an above-average student who excelled at tennis and moved smoothly among the sons of the nation's elite.McCloy was a brother ofBeta Theta Pifraternity at Amherst.

In 1930, McCloy married Ellen Zinsser, a native of Hastings-on-Hudson, New York and a 1918 graduate ofSmith College.She was active in volunteer and civic organizations, such as volunteer nursing programs and served on the board of the New York chapter of the Girls Clubs of America, the Bellevue Hospital nursing school, and the New York chapter of theAmerican Red Cross.They had two children: John J. McCloy II and Ellen Z. McCloy.

World War I

McCloy enrolled inHarvard Law Schoolin 1916, and he was an average student. He was profoundly influenced by his experience at thePlattsburg Preparedness camps.When theUS entered the war in April 1917,he joined theUnited States Armyin May and was trained atPlattsburgh, New Yorkand was commissioned as asecond lieutenantin the Artillery on August 15, 1917. He was promoted tofirst lieutenanton December 29. In May 1918 he was assigned as an aide to Brigadier General Guy Henry Preston, commander of the 160th Field Artillery Brigade of the85th Division.He sailed for France for service with theAmerican Expeditionary Forces(AEF) on July 29, 1918. He saw combat service in the last weeks of the war, as commander of an artillery battery during theMeuse–Argonne offensive.

After thearmistice of 11 November 1918,he was transferred to General Headquarters of the AEF inChaumont, Haute-Marne,France,on March 1, 1919. He was then sent to the Advance General Headquarters inTrier, Germanyand was promoted tocaptainon June 29. McCloy returned to the US on July 20 and resigned from the army on August 15, 1919. He then returned to Harvard where he received his LL.B. degree in 1921.

Wall Street lawyer

Undercover German agents sabotaged a munitions factory to prevent arms supplies to Allied countries. This is the aftermath of the Black Tom explosion, which John McCloy helped uncover.

McCloy went to New York to become an associate in the firm ofCadwalader, Wickersham & Taft,which was then one of the nation's most prestigious law firms. He moved toCravath, Henderson, & de Gersdorffin 1924, where he worked with many wealthy clients, such as the St. Paul Railroad. In 1934, McCloy found new evidence allowing him to re-open an action for damages against Germany for the destruction caused by the 1916Black Tom explosion.

He undertook much work for corporations inNazi Germanyand advised the major German chemical combineI.G. Farben,later the manufacturer of theZyklon Bgas. By the time he left for government service in 1940, McCloy earned about $45,000 a year ($835,000 in 2020 dollars) and had savings of $106,000 ($2,000,000 in 2020 dollars). His involvement in litigation over a World War I sabotage case gave him a strong interest in intelligence issues and in German affairs.

World War II

McCloy arrives atRAF Gatowin Berlin to attend thePotsdam Conferencein 1945.

Secretary of War Henry Stimson greets his assistant John McCloy at RAF Gatow.

USSecretary of WarHenry Stimsonhired McCloy as a consultant in September 1940, even though McCloy was aRepublican Partysupporter and opposedFranklin Rooseveltfor the upcoming November 1940 presidential election.Stimson was particularly interested in McCloy due to McCloy's extensive experience with German sabotage inthe Black Tomcase. Stimson knew that the Germans would once again try to sabotage American infrastructure if a war against the United States were to break out. Working for Stimson, McCloy became immersed in war planning.

On April 22, 1941, he was made Assistant Secretary of War but held only civilian responsibilities, especially the purchase of war materials for the Army,Lend Lease,the draft, and issues of intelligence and sabotage.Once the war started, McCloy was a crucial voice in setting US military priorities and played a key role in several notable decisions.

Creating a wartime security apparatus

An indefatigable committee member, McCloy during the war served on the government task forces that built the Pentagon, created theOffice of Strategic Services,which eventually became theCentral Intelligence Agency,and he proposed both theUnited Nationsand the war crimes tribunals. He chaired the predecessor to theNational Security Council.

Internment of Japanese-Americans

In February 1942, his involvement in combating sabotage made McCloy heavily involved in the decision to forcibly remove Japanese-Americans from their homes on theWest Coastto inland internment camps.Kai Birdwrote in his biography of McCloy:

More than any individual, McCloy was responsible for the decision, since the (U.S.) President had delegated the matter to him through (U.S. Secretary of War) Stimson.

The generals on the scene had insisted on mass relocation to prevent sabotage, and the Army's G-2 (intelligence division) concluded that it was needed. A key document was aMagic-decrypted interception of a Japanese diplomat inLos Angeles,who reported, "We also have connections with our second generations working in airplane plants for intelligence purposes."

The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), however, disagreed with the Army; in a concurrent report prepared by Commander Kenneth Ringle, ONI had argued against mass internment because most of the Japanese-American citizens suspected of espionage or sabotage were already under surveillance or in FBI custody.McCloy was responsible for supervising the evacuations to the camps, but the camps were run by a civilian agency.

The actions were unanimously upheld by theSupreme Court.By 1945, the judicial consensus had eroded considerably. Three justices dissented in a similar internment challenge brought byFred Korematsu.The dissenters were led by JusticeFrank Murphy's reversal of his reluctant concurrence in the earlier case ofGordon Hirabayashi.

Historian Roger Daniels says McCloy was strongly opposed to reopening the judicial verdicts on the constitutionality of the internment.The dissent eventually led to judicial reversal of the criminal convictions of Hirabayashi, Korematsu, and others on the basis of government misconduct including the deliberate suppression of the ONI's Ringle report during the Supreme Court's deliberations in 1943.

Edward Ennis, a former colleague and Justice Department lawyer tasked with the preparation of the government's briefs to the Supreme Court in the Hirabayashi case, would directly accuse McCloy of personal deception in testimony before the Seattle Federal Court's 1985coram nobisreview.

That led directly to the final resolution, in 1987, of the internment cases before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which fully exonerated Hirabayashi and other Japanese-American citizens, who fought the wartime curfews and forced relocations resulting from Army orders which the three-judge panel unanimously held were "based upon racism rather than military necessity."

Bombing of Auschwitz

TheWar Departmentwas petitioned throughout late 1944 to help save Nazi-held prisoners by ordering the bombing of the railroad lines leading toAuschwitzand the gas chambers in the camp. McCloy responded in a letter dated 4 July 1944 to John W. Pehle of the War Refugee Board, "The War Department is of the opinion that the suggested air operation is impracticable. It could be executed only by the diversion of considerable air support essential to the success of our forces now engaged in decisive operations and would in any case be of such doubtful efficacy that it would not amount to a practical project." "In fact, long range American bombers stationed in Italy had flown over Auschwitz several times that spring in search of the I.G. petrochemical plant nearby."McCloy had no direct authority over theArmy Air Forcesand could not overrule its choice of targets; the Army Air Forces, led by GeneralHap Arnoldwas adamantly opposed to any outside civilian group choosing its targets. Roosevelt himself rejected any such proposals.

Preserving Rothenburg ob der Tauber

In March 1945,Rothenburg ob der Tauberwas defended by German soldiers. Since McCloy knew about the historic importance and beauty of Rothenburg, he ordered US Army GeneralJacob L. Deversnot to use artillery in taking Rothenburg. Battalion commanderFrank Burke,a futureMedal of Honorwinner, ordered six soldiers of the12th Infantry Regiment,4th Division to march into Rothenburg on a three-hour mission and negotiate the surrender of the town.

When stopped by a German soldier, one of the six soldiers, Private Lichey, who spoke fluent German and served as the group's translator, held up a white flag and explained, "We are representatives of our division commander. We bring you his offer to spare the city of Rothenburg from shelling and bombing if you agree not to defend it. We have been given three hours to get this message to you. If we haven't returned to our lines by 1800 hours, the town will be bombed and shelled to the ground." The local military commander Major Thömmes gave up the town, ignoring the order of Hitler for all towns to fight to the end and thereby saving it from total destruction by artillery. American troops of the 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division occupied the town on April 17, 1945, and in November 1948, McCloy was named an honorary citizen (German:Ehrenbürger) of Rothenburg.

Ending war with Japan

McCloy tried to convince President Truman that aninvasion of Japanwas not sensible. By mid-1945, the Japanese emperor began looking for ways to unwind the war, going as far as asking the Soviet Union to broker a peace between the United States and Japan. Through Magic intercepts, McCloy had known that the emperor was prepared to surrender if assurances to preserve the Japanese monarchy were given. As such, he advised Truman to offer terms of surrender that offered such a guarantee bundled with the implied threat of using theatomic bombagainst Japan.He argued that by doing so, it would enable the United States to claim a moral high ground, in the event that a bombing would be needed to thwart a Japanese mainland invasion.While traveling by boat to the Potsdam Conference, Secretary of StateJames Byrnesconvinced Truman to ignore McCloy's advice.Eventually, Truman ordered the atomic bombs to be dropped as soon as they were ready.

Rejection of the Morgenthau Plan

In 1945, he and Stimson convinced President Truman to reject theMorgenthau Planand to avoid stripping Germany of its industrial capacity.

Ending segregation

As chairman of the Army's Advisory Committee on Negro Troop Policy, he at first opposed the civil rights spokesman who wanted the Army to end segregation. However, he changed his mind and in late 1945, just before leaving the government to return to Wall Street, he proposed ending segregation in the military. On March 17, 1949, McCloy and GeneralAlvan Cullom Gillem, Jr.testified before the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services.

Later career

President of World Bank

From March 1947 to June 1949, McCloy served as the second president of theWorld Bank.At the time of his appointment, the World Bank was a new entity, having only been manned by one previous president, Eugene Meyer, who resigned six months into his tenure over disputes with the bank's executive directors. McCloy was brought in to resolve the situation and was determined to make the bank an entity that would fund economically efficient projects, not just consumption. Over this tenure, he would develop relationships with Wall Street to overcome their skepticism of these bonds from countries, selling over hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds. Eventually, McCloy would leave the World Bank, as theMarshall Planwould start giving vast sums of economic support in 1948 for Allied countries that would swamp the investment the World Bank could provide.

US High Commissioner for Germany

John McCloy meets President Truman and Secretary of State Dean Acheson for talks in the Oval Office.

On September 2, 1949, McCloy replaced the previous five successive military governors for the US Zone in Germany as the firstUS High CommissionerforGermanyand held the position until August 1, 1952. He oversaw the further creation of theFederal Republic of Germanyafter May 23, 1949.

At the strong urging of the West German government, and under massive pressure from the West German public, McCloy approved recommendations (including from thePeck Panel) for commuting of sentences of Nazi criminals including those of the prominent industrialistAlfried Kruppand Einsatzgruppe commanderMartin Sandberger.McCloy granted the restitution of Krupp's entire property. He also commuted the sentence ofErnst von Weizsäckerat the urging ofWinston Churchill.Another commutation handed down was forEdmund Veesenmayer,who played a role in mass deportations.

Nuremberg judgeWilliam J. Wilkinswrote,

Imagine my surprise one day in February 1951 to read in the newspaper that John J. McCloy, the high commissioner to Germany, had restored all the Krupp properties that had been ordered confiscated.

McCloy did reject requests for an amnesty. He also refused to commute the death sentences of five men whom he called "the worst of the worst":Oswald Pohl,Otto Ohlendorf,Paul Blobel,Werner Braune,andErich Naumann.Two other death sentences from theDachau trialswere upheld byGeneral Thomas T. Handy,that ofGeorg SchallermairandHans-Theodor Schmidt.There were mass protests by hundreds of thousands amongst the West German public and government. Many were outraged that full amnesty had not been granted to the condemned, and it reached the point that McCloy's family started receiving death threats. Nevertheless, all seven men were executed atLandsberg Prisonon June 7, 1951.

Ulm School of Design (Hochschule für Gestaltung—HfG Ulm) 1953–68

McCloy supported the initiative ofInge Aicher-Scholl(the sister ofSophie Scholl),Otl AicherandMax Billto found theUlm School of Design.HfG Ulm is considered to be the most influential design school in the world after theBauhaus.The founders sought and received support in the USA (viaWalter Gropius) and within the American High Command in Germany. McCloy saw the endeavor asProject No. 1and supported a college and campus combination along US examples. In 1952 Scholl received from McCloy a check for one millionDeutschmarks.

McCloy had served as the first US High Commissioner. His final successor in the post was the fourth US High Commissioner,James B. Conant;the office was terminated on May 5, 1955.

Return to Wall Street

Following his service in Germany, he served as chairman of theChase Manhattan Bankfrom 1953 to 1960 (operating as "Chase National Bank" prior to 1955), and as chairman of theFord Foundationfrom 1958 to 1965; he was also a trustee of theRockefeller Foundationfrom 1946 to 1949, and then again from 1953 to 1958, before he took up the position at Ford.

Following the 1953 death ofChief JusticeFred M. Vinson,President Eisenhower considered appointing McCloy in his place, but he was viewed as too favourable to big business.

From 1954 to 1970, he was chairman of the prestigiousCouncil on Foreign Relationsin New York, to be succeeded byDavid Rockefeller,who had worked closely with him at the Chase Bank. McCloy had a long association with theRockefeller family,going back to his early Harvard days when he taught the young Rockefeller brothers how to sail. He was also a member of theDraper Committee,formed in 1958 byEisenhower.

He later served as adviser toJohn F. Kennedy,Lyndon Johnson,Richard Nixon,Jimmy CarterandRonald Reagan,and was the primary negotiator on the Presidential Disarmament Committee.

John McCloy discusses his views in theCabinet Room.

From 1966 to 1968, he was Honorary Chairman of the Paris-basedAtlantic Institute.

In late 1967 McCloy was considered by US PresidentLyndon Johnsonfor the position of US Ambassador to theUnited Nationsand was approached by Secretary of StateDean Ruskon this matter, however McCloy turned down the offer.

John McCloy (far left) and the Warren Commission present their report to President Johnson.

Warren Commission

McCloy was selected by PresidentLyndon Johnsonto serve on theWarren Commissionin late November 1963. Notably, he was initially skeptical of the lone gunman theory, but a trip to Dallas with CIA veteranAllen Dulles,an old friend also serving on the commission, convinced him of the case againstLee Harvey Oswald.To avoid a minority dissenting report, McCloy brokered the final consensus and the crucial wording of the primary conclusion of the final report. He stated that any possible evidence of a conspiracy was "beyond the reach" of all of America's investigatory agencies, principally theFBIand theCIAas well as the Commission itself.In a 1975 interview withEric SevareidofCBS,McCloy stated, "I never saw a case that I thought was more completely proven than... the assassination."

He described writings that propagatedassassination conspiracies theoriesas "just nonsense."

Return to law firm

McCloy became a name partner in the Rockefeller-associated prominent New York law firmMilbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.He would serve there from 1945 to 1947, and then after serving on the Warren Commission, remained a general partner for 27 years, until he died in 1989. In that capacity, he acted for the "Seven Sisters",the leading multinational oil companies, includingExxon,in their initial confrontations with the nationalization movement inLibyaas well as negotiations withSaudi ArabiaandOPEC.Because of his stature in the legal world and his long association with theRockefellersand as a presidential adviser, he was sometimes referred to as the "Chairman of the American Establishment".

Death

McCloy died ofpulmonary edemaat his home inCos Cob,a neighborhood ofGreenwich, Connecticut,on March 11, 1989. His wife had died at 87 a few years earlier ofParkinson's disease.

Legacy

John McCloy accepts an award for an honorary citizen of Berlin as President von Weizsacker and President Ronald Reagan look on.

Without regard to partisanship, he served under presidents of both parties. Although a Republican, he was the second-highest-ranking official in the War Department during World War II. Like his fellow "Wise Men," McCloy often heeded the call to service. Despite having lucrative jobs on Wall Street, he left his positions to serve in government, whether to serve in the War Department or as the High Commissioner in Germany.

McCloy is also remembered for his role in forming the predecessor of theCentral Intelligence Agency.He was tasked by Henry Stimson in the early 1940s to sort out the political tensions in the pre-war intelligence community, which was marked by political infighting and jurisdictional disputes among the chiefs of the Army and Navy and the FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover. To sort out the issue, he and William Donovan created a new intelligence program, Office of Strategic Services, that attempted to fuse and streamline those forms of intelligence and is modeled after the British intelligence agencies. The centralization of the war intelligence office became a blueprint for the founding of the Central Intelligence Agency under theNational Security Act of 1947.

In recognition of his efforts to the United States, he was presented with thePresidential Medal of Freedomwith Distinction by PresidentLyndon B. Johnsonon December 6, 1963. In the same year, he was awarded theOffice of Strategic Services(OSS) Society'sWilliam J. DonovanAward.Also in 1963, McCloy received theSylvanus Thayer Awardby theUnited States Military Academyfor his service to the country. Furthermore, McCloy was a recipient of the Association Medal of theNew York City Bar Associationin recognition of exceptional contributions to the honor and standing of the Bar in the community.

On his 90th birthday on the White House lawn with President Ronald Reagan overlooking, John McCloy was named an honorary citizen of Berlin by German PresidentRichard von Weizsackerand the mayor of Berlin,Eberhard Diepgen.At the event, Ronald Reagan recalled how "John McCloy's selfless heart made a difference, an enduring difference, in the lives of millions" and thanked him on behalf of "for all [McCloy's] countrymen and the millions of people around the world whose lives [McCloy] helped make safer because of your devotion to duty and to the cause of humanity." The citation for his honorary citizenship reads "John McCloy is closely connected with the reconstruction and development of this city. His dedication contributed to a great extent to understanding of Berlin in the United States of America and to preservation of peace and freedom."

Publications

Articles

• "The World Seeks Peace".American Journal of Economics and Sociology,vol. 20, no. 4 (Jul. 1961), p. 376.JSTOR3484375.

Book contributions

• Introduction toRussia and America, Dangers and Prospects,by Henry L. Roberts. New York: Published byHarperon behalf of theCouncil on Foreign Relations(1956).

Correspondence

• 1947–1949: As President of theWorld Bank,available at the World Bank Group Archive.

Public speaking

• Addressas President of theWorld Bankpresenting the third annual report of the Bank to the Board of Governors at the second session, September 29, 1948 (English).Washington, D.C.:World Bank Group.

See also

• Chase Manhattan Bank
• Council on Foreign Relations
• Japanese American internment
• McCloy–Zorin Accords
• Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy
• David Rockefeller
• Rockefeller family
• The World at War- "The Bomb"
• World Bank

Further reading

• Bird, Kai(1992).The Chairman: John J. McCloy & the Making of the American Establishment.New York:Simon & Schuster.ISBN978-0-671-45415-9.
• Erdheim, Stuart (Fall 1997)."Could The Allies Have Bombed Auschwitz-Birkenau?"Holocaust and Genocide Studies.pp. 129–170.doi:10.1093/hgs/11.2.129.
• Gilbert, Martin(1981).Auschwitz and the Allies.Illinois:Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.ISBN0-03-059284-4,978-0030592843.
• Holland, Max(Autumn 1991)."Citizen McCloy."The Wilson Quarterly,vol. 15, no. 4. pp. 22–42.full issue.JSTOR40258158.
• Irons, Peter(1988).The Courage of Their Convictions: Sixteen Americans Who Fought Their Way to the Supreme Court.New York:The Free Press.ISBN0-02-915670-X.
• Isaacson, Walter,andEvan Thomas(1986).The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made: Acheson, Bohlen, Harriman, Kennan, Lovett, and McCloy.New York:Simon & Schuster.
• Roberts, Priscilla (Dec. 1992)."'All the Right People': The Historiography of the American Foreign Policy Establishment. "Journal of American Studies,vol. 26, no. 3. pp. 409–434.JSTOR27555686.
• Rockefeller, David(2002).Memoirs.New York:Random House.ISBN0-8129-6973-1,978-0812969733.
• Schwartz, Thomas Alan(1991).America's Germany: John J. McCloy and the Federal Republic of Germany.Cambridge, Mass.:Harvard University Press.ISBN0-674-03115-6.
• Schwartz, Thomas Alan(1993)."John J. McCloy and the Landsberg Cases" (Chapter 21).In: Diefendorf, Jeffry M., and Axel Frohn, Hermann-Josef Rupieper (eds.).American Policy and the Reconstruction of West Germany 1945–1955.New York:Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-43120-0.
• Wilson, John Donald (1986).The Chase: The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 1945–85.Boston:Harvard Business School Press.ISBN0-87584-134-1.
• Wolf, Thomas P. (Feb. 2000)."McCloy, John Jay, Jr."American National Biography Online.

External links

• Works related to John J. McCloyat theAlsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
• Biography of John McCloy (website)
• Could The Allies Have Bombed Auschwitz-Birkenau?by Mitchell Bard
• John McCloyatDensho Encyclopedia
• "John J. McCloy, 1895–1989"—Spring 1989Foreign Affairsarticle by William G. Hyland
• John J. McCloy,a biography on Nuclearfiles.org
• Presidential Medal of FreedomatJohn F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
• A letterArchived2017-03-23 at theWayback Machineto John W. Pehle
• "The Splendid Reconciliation"
• Newspaper clippings about John J. McCloyin the20th Century Press Archivesof theZBW
• John J. McCloy (AC 1916) Papersfrom the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections