THE DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE PAYS TRIBUTE TO HIS FORMER BOSS.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000200020033-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 19
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2000
• Sequence Number: 33
• Content Type: SPEECH

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Zig II:actor a rigaza. IzteU.gence
mug tribute to jgg former Inv
=INK J. DONOVAN AND THE NATIONAL SEOUH
Allen W. Dulles
It was py privilege to be associated with William J. Donovan both
as a lawyer between the wars and then during World War II, when / served
under his command in the Office of Strategic Services. His courage and
leadership made a profound impression on ma. I should like to convey to
you eomething of that impression, and some idea of what his pioneering
has meant to all of us.
His interest in our national defense and security started early,
In 1912, aa the war clouds gathered in the Balkans, he helped organize
Troop / of the New. York National Guard. In 1915 he went to Poland as a
member of a Rockefeller commission charged with relieving the great
ahortage of food there, and particularly of milk for the children. When
the National Guard was mobilized in 1916, he came home to join his Troop /
on the Mexican Border.
Service
Then came his fabulous career in Worldlier / with the 165th Infantry
of the 42nd Division -- the renowned "Fighting 69th" of the Rainbow
Division. Here he got his nickname "Wild Bill." The legend goes that
after the regiment landed in France he ran them five miles with full
packs to limber them up. As the men were grumbling with ekhaustion
Donovan pointed out that he waa ten years older and carrying the same
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50-pound pack. One of the nmn replied, "But we ain't Eta wild as you,
Bill!" Another story has it that the honorary title was transferred to
him from a professional baseball pitcher of the same name whose control
left mamething to be desired. Whatever its origin, the title atuck.
The citations Colonel Donovan received in Prance tell the military
story: On July 28, 1918, a Distinguished Service Cross: "He was in
advance of the division for four days, all the while under shell and
machine gun fire from the enemy, who were on three sides of him, and
he was repeatedly and persistently counterattacked, being wounded twice."
Three days later the Distinguished Seivice Medals "He displayed con-
spicuous energy and most efficient leadership in the advance of his
battalion across the Ourcq River and the capture of strong enemy
positions. ? 'His devotion to duty, heroism, and pronounced qualities of
a Commander enabled him to successfely accomplish all missions aasigned
to him in this important operation."
And then, for action in combat in the Meuse-Argonne on October 14,
the highest of all awards, this Congressional Medal of Honors "...Colonel
Donovan personnally led the assaulting wave in an attack upon a very
strongly organised position, and when our troops were Buffering heavy
casualties he encouraged all near him by his example, moving among his
men in exposed positions, reorganizing decimated platoons and accompanying
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them forward in attacks* When he use wounded in the leg by a machine gun
bullet, he refused to be evacuated and continued with his unit until it
withdrew to a less exposed position." "No man ever deserved it more,"
said General Douglas MacArthur, who had seen this action.
Three aide were killed at Donovan's side in the course of these
actions. Reverend Francis P. Duffy, the chaplain of the 69th said,
"Hie men would have cheerfully gone to hell with him, and as a priest,
I mean what I say." Several years ago General Frank McCoy, describing
his close association with Bill Donovan during World War 1, eaid he was
one of the finest soldiers he ever saw in his life-long service in the
Army, that he had the qualities of the ideal soldier, judgment and
courage and the respect and affection of his men.
ciirev
Al
In 1922 Donovan wse appointed U.S. Attorney in Buffalo,A and shortly
thereafter he entered a new phase of his career. In 1924 President
Coolidge reorganised the Department of Justice and called Bill to
Washington to be assistant to the Attorney General, heading the
Antitrust Division. Here he showed both hie fearlesenees in law
enforcement and his intense interest in making law a practical vehicle
to promote the economic welfare*
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He was firmly convinced that individual freedom is vitafly linked
to our system of free enterprise* He attacked restraints and monopoly
with effective enthusiasm* In the Trenton Potteries *lee he won
Supreme Court agreement that price fixing among dominant competitors is
of itself illegal* He brought under legal attack such diverse industries
as Oili sugar, harvesting machinery, motion pictures, water transportation,
and labor unions* Yet he recognised that the uncertainties of our
antitrust laws pose serious business problems, and accordingly lnatitu
the practice of giving advance opinion on the legality of proposed
mergeTsand other business activities that might be questioned under the
Offered the Governor Generalship of the Ph GO Mien President
Hoover entered the White Houee in 1929, Hill turned it down and went
into law praotice in NOW York City* He waa Shortly appointed counsel to
several of the New York bar asaoci?tions in connection with a general
overhauling of the bankruptcy laws* During this period he also served
as counsel to a committee for review of the laws governing the State's
Public Service Commission* In 1932 he unauccessfally ran for Governor
of the State*
As a corporation ,attorney he won in 3.935 the inportant Humphrey
case in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that the President could not
arbitrarily remove a chairman of the Federal Trade Commiesion* He also
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won an important decision in the Appalachian coal calm, upholding the
right of coal producers to organize a joint selling agency in economic
eelf-defense. This agency in still in exiatence.
During this period of corporate law practice, Bill never lost his
intereet in world affairs* He took time off to visit Ethiopia during
the 1935 Italian invasion* He was in Spain during it CI:vulgar,
carefully observing the Axis efforts to test their new equiment in
these foreign adventures*
Preeidelltlal Emipaarr
In the early days of World War II Donovan was caited into action by
President Roosevelt. In 1940 he was it on a fact-finding mission to
England and in 1941 to the Balkans and the Middle Eaet. Anthony Eden
told Waehington that the Balkan mission had been moat helpful to the
British aesesament of the eituation there.
From the first trip, the one to Britain not long after Dunkirk, Bill
had brought tack to Washington a very important report. You will recall
thare was skepticism at that time in some quarters as to whether the
British could effectively carry out Churchill's thrilling promise, We
shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the
beaches, we ehall fight on the landing-grounde, we shall fight in the
fields and in the streets, we &lel' fight in the hills; we shall never
eurrender. Donovan reported to Roosevelt that the British could and
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would do just that. This had a direct effect on American policy. He
also warned Harry Hopkins that the Germans night strike toward Suez
through ?ranch North Africa -- a prophecy that goon became a reality.
Donovan also recommended to the President that the United States
tart preparing immediately for a global war. He rarticearly stressed
the need of a service to wage unorthodox warfare and to gather information
through every means available. He discussed this idea at length with
his close friends in the Cabinet, Secretaries "Knox and Stinson, end with
Attorney General Jackson.
The seeds which Bill panted bore fruit. In July 1941 the President
establiahed the Office of the Coordinator of Infornation and called
Donovan to Washington to head it. In original concept this Office was
to combine: the information and Intelligence programs with psychological
and guerrilla warfare. This proved to be too big a package for one
basket, and in 1942 the organization was split. That portion of it
coordinating wartime information services became the Office altar
Information, and the intelligence and =orthodox warfare work, where
Bill greatest interest lay, was put under an Office of Strategic
Services.
MAL
Truly one of the remarkable accompliehmente in World War II vas the
organization and activity of the 0.8.3. -- feats utich would never have
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been achieved out Bill Donovvits ie&dership and his vast interest in
the unorthodox, the novel and the dangerous. Starting from scratch in
1941, he built an organization of about 25,000 people that made a reel
contribution to the victory. Many of the deeds of 0.3.8. will have to
remain secret, but with the passage of time many have been disclosed.
Bill conceived the OZ.& as a world-wide inte,ligence organization
that could collect the facts necessary to develop our policy and war
strategy* He was convinced that Axis seorets were to be found not only
in Berlin, Rome, and Tokyo, but in other capitals and outposts around
the world, So he immediately set about dispatching officers to kW'
mote in Zurope, Asia and later Africa. The pey-off Justified the
effort. He was able to obtain information of great value from carefully
establidaed agents with contacts in Berlin, in the German High Command,
and in the Abwehr? the German military intelligence service. The work
of these *gents gave us advance information about the development of
German jet aircraft, about German work with heavy water in the effort to
develop a nuclear weapon about the Tf-lts and V-218, and about the
plot against Hitler.
In addition to hie organization for the collectionof strategic
inteUeice,Donovan provided means to help gather tactical nfozation
in the combat areas forming teams of parachutists Americans as well
as indigenous to drop behind enemy lines. But not content with paseive
intelligence, he also wanted action. He knew that well-organized querril'es
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operating behind an line n areas where the locel population was
friendly could wreak havoc on enemy lines of communication and tie
down troops that could otherwies be used in combat Working:with our
allies, he built up team of leaders and communicators to organize
resistance in the countries occupied by the Nazis, Feecists, and
Japanese* There were also air drape of euppliee and equipment deep
behind the Axis lines in France and Italy, in Burma and elsewhere*
Theee action tam e were well supported by a headquarters technical
group, Uhiah under Donovan's, guiding hand was imaginative*y developing
new ways to sabotage the enemy war effort and new gadgets either to
hareem the gamy or help our own cause -- equipment ranging from the
most sophisticated communications systems to a repellent used by pereonnel
forced to bail out in ehark?infested waters. Not all of the products
were so practical as these* Ambassador David Bruce, one of Bill
Donovan's closeet associates, in a recent tribute to the General's
valitiea of leaderthip, vividly deeoribed his excitement aver ideas.
AMbaseador Bruce wrote, and / sUbecrfbe to every word of its
"His imagination was unlimited* Ideas were his pleything
xettnent made him snort like a race horse* Woe to the officer
who turned dawn a project, because, on its face, it seemed
ridiculous, or at least unusual For painful weeks under his
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th
command I tooted the poaibility of using
concentrations inliestern cavee to destroy
o[with delayed
action incendiary bomb. The General, backed by the intrigued
President Roosevelt, was only dissuaded frmnfurther experimente
in this field when it appeared probable that the cave bats
would not survive a tramp-Pacific flight at high altitudes.
tt
Many ingeniaue ideas to
er part of the 0.8.8.
rk on the nerves of the enemy were born in
Morale Operations Branch. This wa
undercover peychological warfare branch of the war effort.
the Office of War information, was telling the enemy about the ntude
of the U.S. war effort and getting the facts and figures well circulated
this Brsnch was dedicated to confusing the enemy and brooking their
will to resist
General Donovan was convinced that there were great untapped
reservoirs of information in this country about foreign areas which had
become of vital interest in the war effort -- data in the archives of
business orprizations, information acquired abroad by American scientists,
academicians, and tourists, and ale* that held by foreign experts residing
here. He set about to collect thie information and data and a =as of
photograille of foreign areas. As the war reached more and more areas of
the globe, this infomation came to have great importance.
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Haalao riiEd the importance of analyzing and presenting
Wotion to the policy makera in readily usable form - one of the
a of intelligence. He establihhed in the 0.54.
rah and analysis, assenbLing in Whshington the
beet academic and analytic brains he could beg, borrow, or steal from
the universities, laboratories, libraries, museums, the business world,
and other agenciee of government. Theirs was the task of probing the
political and economic aepects of the war, assesning both our alliee and
our enemies, both neutrals and the occupied lands. Theirs aleo was the
ta0k of etiinatfng Axis vulnerability and war potential and the staying
power of the Russians who even then told us almost nothing about
themselves.
Dill Donovan had the qualitiest intelligence offic
have. He took nothing for granted and at the same time was insatiably
curioue He had a good nosethi/the newt a faint whiff of something
unusual would speed his mind into a dozen possible emanations, gen-
erally as ingenious as the wiles of the snows He wanted to see things
on the spot and judge for himself. He want constantly on the move and
drove his staff wild trying to keep him from places they thought too
exposed. He also put them into a state of near exhaustion trying to
keep up with the pace he set himself, One of his great malities was
his dedication to the men who served under him, and hie ever-readinees
to give them his full 'support. He, in turn, had their complete
loyalty respect and affection I vividly recall a personal instance.
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For about two years, from Novnter 1942to September 1944 Wan
woridng for Donovan in 9witzerlend, then entirely encircled by the
Nagi4aecj!t forces* In September 1944 the American Seventh Army,
coming up from Southern Trance, broke through to the Swiss border ziear
Geneva. Under orders to return to Washington to report, / had joined
a group of the French underground in a secret hideout in the Rhone Valley
between Geneva and Lyon to await a clandestine flight to take me to
London, As far as I knew, General Donovan was in Washington and had not
the slightest idea where I was hidden. After weather had held up my
plane for several days there was a knock on the door of my hideout in
the middle of the night It was one of General Donovan's aides, telling
me that the General %se waiting for me at the nearest availsble airstrip
south of Lyon, which had just been evacuated by the Nazis. He had been
searching the area for same twenty-four hours before he discovered Where
/ was.
Together flew back to
emenber, on
that day in ember 1944 first of their
bailiitio miaailes on the British capital. It descended near the center
of an after a flight of nearly two hundred miles. Both the
Arnerian d the Britieh intelligence services had been closely following
the de iopnwt of thia missile, I have often wondered why, in this
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country, our technicians and strategiststailed to see earlier the !uU
of the success of the 7-2, as I believe the Soviet did, and
to rlize niioh earlier in the game that the combination of the ballistic
missile with the atomic bomb, which was then about to be unveiled, cou.d
change the nature of war and the security position of this country*.
Few men of hie time were more alert than Donovan to the new threats
that might develop. In late 1944 sending a man to Cairo to take over
the idrection of act vities at that poet, he gave oral instructions to
the effect that the main target for intelligence operations should now
be at the Soviets were doing in the Balkans rather than German
aotivities in the Middle East. The German threat was receding. The
Soviet danger was already looming* Operations were to be adjusted
accordingly, although each instructions could not be put into official
iting.
Also the war was still in progress, General Donovan wee
looking forward to the peaoe. He foresaw the need for a permanent
organisation not only to collect intelligence but, perhaps even more
portant,,to coordinate the whole government intelligence effort and
eee that the Preaident and policy makers get comprehensive and
conso idated analyses to guide their decisions as to our course of actions
2111 WIC 21 tm1 4ato134Aeloe
In the fall of 1944 Donovan preeented to the President a paper
ing an Intelligence organisation operating on a world-wide scale
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and having direct respon bility to the Presidents While it ae not to
take upon itself the responsibilities of the departmental intelligence
services, it would eiot as a coordinating mechanism for all intelligence.
The paper stressed that the proposed organization mould have no police or
subpoena powers and would not operate in the United States. President
Roosevelt expressed considerable interest in this proposal, and a week
before his death in April 1945 eked Donovan to poll the Cabinet and
the heads of agencies concerned for comment on it. These comments
ranging from the opinion that there mss no need for such a peacetime organ-
ization to the belief that it was vital to national security, make
intereeting reading today.
Donovan received an Oak Leaf Cluster to his Dist Service
Medal for his wartime work, but his plan to develop the M.S. into a
peacetime intelligence organization was beset with conflicting views.
Some mould have the new organization, like the M.S., report to the
Joint Chiefe of Staff, while others preferred that it be put under the
Department of State.- And there was controversy as to Whether one
individual could or should be responsible for presenting a consolidated
view of the intelligence picture to the policy makers, rather than leave
this the collective responsibility of the oblate of all the intelligence
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service. No agre ent had bean reached by the time the we ended in
August 1945, and the 0.S.S. was soon ordered diebanded,
A proposal for a central intelligence organization such
had conceived was contained in the firet draft of the so.called unifi
a ion
act submitted by Ferdinand lberstadt to Secretary Forrestal in October 1945.
And in January 1946, to preserve assets while the Josue was being settled
President Truman Segued the order creating the Central intelligence Group,
whidh later picked up some of the activitiee and personnel still remaining
from the 0.8.8. and other scattered independent intelligence activities.
Bill Donovan's dream wags not yet completely realized. Congress
had to act. After extensive hearings to which General Donovan contributed
important testimony, the provisions for a Central Intelligence Agency
were incorporated into the National Seturity Act of 1947, which created
a Department of Defense and set up the National Security Council to
advise the President and oversee the new intelligence agency. In
July 1947 final executive and legialative endorsement was thue given to
the views which Donovan had been striving to have accepted. T have
always felt that the decision to place the C.I.A. under the President
as Donovan recommended, mewls*" and neceasary.
Bill Donovan's restless energy had turned eleewhere
of 0.S.8., although he never gave up his interest in the
or stopped hammering home to the pdblic the neceesity for providing
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adequate and acourate
in order to protect
being called an for other
vast knowledge of German wartime acti
0
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to the policy nkers of the government
rity, His varied talents were
es. His legal lability and
e used to help prepare
the NureMburg trials for the Nazi war criminale. He vent to Greece to
investigate the murder of nommen George Polk, a clear effort of the
Communists to prevent the truth about the extent of their activities in
the Greek civil wer from seeping out.
The more General Donovan saw of the Soviets in tetion the more
concerncl he was with alerting the American people to the dangere. He
co-authored an article in the Yale Law Journal for July 1949 presenting
a stftogram for a Democratic Counter Attack to Communist Penetration of
Government Servioes" the article said:
?The Conammist Fifth Column... ses to identify itself
with every. &nisi grievance. Ruesian espdonage and eUbversive
operations are made up of trained and skilled ;spy technician*
and telligenoe officers, propaganda specialists, experts in
rtg rumors. Instruction is planned too that the agent
d it as saw for a minority to operate a labor union*
oifist league, or any other such movement, as it is for
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a ndn
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o control a large corporation hei nt of
the stockholder? take no active interest in the
In 1950 President Zieethowe, thai Pretdentb UniversitY,
presided on the ocoaeion of the award to Bill Donovan of the Alexander
Hemilton Medal, given by the ColuMbia Alumni Aesociationfor distingnithed
ervice and accomplishment in any of the great fields of human endeavor,
In 1953 the President named him AMbassador to Thailand. At thin time the
ancient kingdom of Siam was a main target for Communist stibvereion, With
a vigor that belied his years, this remarkable man of 70 threw himself
into the job of helping the Thais bolster their defenses against the
Communists so that this ksystone of anti-Communium in Southeast Aeia
could continue free.
Upon his return to the United States one might have expected him
to odic retirement but notMng W&3 further from his mind, He became
National Chairman of the International Reftgee Committee and the
director of that group's fight against the Soviet program to induce
Ruesians who escaped from Communism to return home. At the time of the
Hungarian Revolution he turned his energies to aiding the refugee* of
this unsuocessfUl effort to win freedom from Soviet tyranny. He was
Chairmen of the American Committee an United Earope from its inception
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in 1949, and through this or tion he continued to fzrter the cff
of our major allies in Western Europe to achieve a greeter wity in the
fa of Communist danger*
3411n after ill health forced hie ret5emt to Whiter Reed Ho
eral Donovan continued his interest in the fight against Communiem nd
the development of our intelligence work* In recognition of his role in
the intelligence field, President Eisenhower in 1957 awarded him the
National Seoarity Medal The citation reads:
vilhrough his foresight, wisdom, and ience, he foresaw,
during the course of World War II, the probiie whiCh would face
the postwar world and the urgent need for: a permanent, oentralised
intelligence function* Thus his wartime work contributed to the
establiahement of the Central lhtelligenoe Agency and a 000rdinated
national intelligence structure*"
Th1ai959hepeeedayatWa1teReedI3nongthernenhehad
As soldier, public prosecutor, leader of the bar, director of the
Strategic Services in wartime pdblic servant in time of peace, he had
eft his record with the nation he served so well. Re wae a rare
combination of physical courage, intellectual ability, and political
acumen* He was a mild?mannered man, with an insatiable curiosity, an
unflagging imagination, and the energy to turn his ideas into action*
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The heritage of Bill Donovan is written in the national eecrn'it.
He awoke the American people to the need of a permanent peacetime
intelligence service* He bestirred Washington into creating a mechanism
whereby all the government components which receive information on utlat
is going on anywhere in the world pool their knowledge, *are their
interpretatione, and work together to make one unified estimate of what
it means* He helped place intelligence in its proper perepeotive and
stimulated the policy makers to recognise its role in determining
American policy abroad* He was one of the architects of an organization
that should keep our government the best informed of any in the world*
Hietoryte epitaph for William J. Domovanwill bet Up madejits
more 'fourth
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