A TRIBUTE TO GENERAL DONOVAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67-00318R000100390001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 8, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 30, 1959
• Content Type: LETTER

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/08 :CIA-RDP67-003188000100390001-5
STAT
The man more responsible than any other for the existence
of the Central Intelligence Agency has passed away. Major General
William J. Donovan died at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington on
Sunday afternoon, February 8th. His last trial was undoubtedly the
severest of his life, for he had been desperately ill for nearly three
years and the enforced quiet was hard on this amazing man of action.
But even in his declining days Bill Donovan knew that his work
was being carried on. The President awarded him the National
Security Medal in recognition of his creation of the central intelligence
concept. A striking oil portrait of him was completed and he was able
to come see it in the reception room of our present administration
building. It will be hung in a place of honor in the new building when
it is completed. And many of Bill's old friends from OSS days visited
him in the hospital and talked about the continuation of his work.
It is appropriate in this moment of tribute to the passing of a
great man that we take note of the significance of his accomplishment.
In General Donovan's own words, the Office of Strategic Services was
the "first comprehensive organization for intelligence and unorthodox
warfare in the history of the United States. " He noted, "The impor-
tance of OSS lies not only in its role in hastening military victory, but
also in the development of the concept of unorthodox warfare. Of even
farther reaching importance are the lessons learned and the contribu-
tions made to the future of American defense and foreign policy. "
General Donovan said, "The experience of OS5 showed above
all how essential it is for winning the war and keeping the peace to
base national policy upon accurate and complete intelligence. Unortho-
dox warfare is now recognized as a vital part of our defense system. "
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/08 :CIA-RDP67-003188000100390001-5
 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/08 :CIA-RDP67-003188000100390001-5
Even at the height of the war General Donovan was looking
forward to the peace and pressing for the establishment of a central
intelligence organization. In October 1944 he produced a paper
entitled "The Basis for a Permanent World-Wide Intelligence Service. "
This document was used in the preparation of both the Executive
Directive which created the Central Intelligence Group in 1946 and
the National Security Act of 1947-which established the Central Intelli-
gence Agency.
Many words of tribute have been written and spoken by
General Donovan's friends and admirers. I was deeply moved by the
sermon of Monsignor John K. Cartwright at the requiem mass for
General Donovan. David Bruce, our Ambassador to Germany, was
one of the top officials of OSS and worked very closely with General
Donovan. His letter to the New York Times expresses the views of
many of us. We are enclosing these statements for you to read.
General Donovan will undoubtedly be the subject of many more
words by friends, biographers and historians. The one that will
interest all of us the most will be that now under preparation by
Whitney Shepardson, another of the General's chief lieutenants during
OSS days. Mr. Shepardson has been given full access to General
Donovan's personal files and the OSS archives in order to prepare a
history of the organization which will be a lasting tribute. This works
which will be published by Columbia University Press, appropriately
enough, is being sponsored by several foundations.
The greatest tribute of all can be paid by us~in the organization
that Bill Donovan helped create. He will know his tife~s work has
been well done if the CIA can help assure the nation's security by
keeping the Government fully informed of world developments.
Kindly share this with your staff, particularly any who may
have served in the OSS under General Donovan.
ALLEN W:'DULLES
Director
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/08 :CIA-RDP67-003188000100390001-5
 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/08 :CIA-RDP67-003188000100390001-5
NEW YORK TIMES
15 February 1959
Tribute to Wm. Donovan
General's Qualities of Leadership, Vivid Personality Recalled
The writer of the following letter is United States Ambassador
to West Germany.
The news of Bill Donovan's death is a profound shock to all of
his associates, friends and acquaintances. It izardly seems possible
that this ageless man, this almost elemental force of nature, has been
removed from our immediate contact.
Wherever there was a stir, and especially whenever--all too
frequently--trouble brewed, Donovan was there. He was an adventurer,
in the best sense of the word, in the modern world.
Imagination and the quality of great leadership weze his domi-
nant characteristics. The word "impossible" was not in his lexicon.
What man had done was only a springboard from which to vault into the
unknown.
I was most closely familiar with him during more than four
years' service in his Office of Strategic Services organization. There
he was the inspirer of more than thirty thousand people. All were fish
in his net, tumbled together in what organizationally appeared to be
chaos.
His mandate was almost unlimited in the field of clandestine
activities. Nor did any chief ever as readily respond to such a challenge.
Something had to knit together beings so disparate, recruited for tasks
so indefinite. The polarization came from one individual--Donovan.
In the midst of the gravest preoccupations, with a task so com-
prehensive as, at times, to appall his subordinates, the General
remained unruffled, calm to deal with the exigencies of world-wide
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/08 :CIA-RDP67-003188000100390001-5
 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/08 :CIA-RDP67-003188000100390001-5
covert operations, but able to turn what seemed an equal concentration
on the marital, or extramarital, problems, the health or illness, the
financial tribulations or any other concerns of those who worked for him.
He contracted enmities, but never as readily as he made friends.
Giving complete loyalty himself, he commanded it from others.
He taxed his brain and body without mercy. In his sixties, he
was still a threatening opponent on a squash court. Sleep he scarcely
considered a necessity but an imposition by nature on man's obligation
for self-improvement. For him no moment was an occasion for idle-
ness. Qn uncomfortable and dangerous airplane flights he was usually
discovered amusing himself with a German, French, Spanish, Italian
or other grammar, unless he was concocting a complicated scheme to
harass the enemy.
His personal charm was disarming. His sympathies were
almost universal. He could not abide cowardice, being so constituted
that this weakness was incomprehensible to him.
His imagination was unlimited. Ideas were his plaything.
Excitement made him snort like a race horse. Woe to the officer who
turned down a project because, on its face, it seemed ridiculous, or
at least unusual. For painful weeks under his command I tested the
possibility of using bats--taken from concentrations in Western caves--
to destroy Tokyo. The General, backed by the intrigued President
Roosevelt, was only dissuaded from further experiments in this field
when it appeared probable that the cave bats would not survive a trans-
pacific flight at high altitudes.
He was a torchbearer of much that was most luminous during
American participation in wars. In civil life he was adamant in the
protection of our liberties and traditions.
I feel I can speak for thousands of others who served him during
his great period in saying that I wish we had adequately conveyed to him
during his lifetime the deep affection and admiration we always enter-
tained for him.
Berlin, Feb. 9, 1959
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/08 :CIA-RDP67-003188000100390001-5
 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/08 :CIA-RDP67-003188000100390001-5
Excerpts from a sermon delivered by the Right Rev. John K. Cartwright
at the Mass of Requiem for the repose of the soul of General William J.
Donovan, St. Matthew's Cathedral, February 11, 1959.
As our years go on it becomes a more frequent duty for each of
us to say farewell to those who will no longer occupy a part of our lives
except in grateful and loving memory. The citizen and soldier of whom
we are taking leave today filled an exceptional role in the lives of multi-
tudes of people. This gathering testifies both by number and character
how great a role that was. General Donovan bore an illustrious part in
the two great wars that have filled so much of our century. No less
illustrious were the services he rendered in our years of anxious and
troubled peace. His record of achievement and honor has been much
reviewed since the day of his death and will always be remembered in
the pages of our history. But this life of combat and of leadership, of
service and example is ended now. He has gone from the scene of his
success to meet his final judgment, his final reward, his final destiny.
He saw his life in terms of his religious fai.';h and in accordance
with that faith we have brought his remains for our last farewell before
God's holy altar. Here we pay then our personal respect and ask the
Church to send him forth from this world with her prayers and blessings,
with the thoughts which the sacred liturgy places in our minds in the
presence of death.
The saints who are today proposed by the Church, for our admira-
tion and example were once conducted to the grave by these rites, as
was the lowly parishioner of last week or month, as was the Holy Father
who ruled over God's Church for so many years until God called him.
And this great patriot and soldier is sent from us with the same insistent
thoughts: life is short, death is certain, our human nature is faulty
and imperfect, this world is not our destiny, our earthly achievements
are not what is important since their reward cannot satisfy immortal
souls, our greatest success is trivial in comparison with the success of
God's approval, even our greatest loves and greatest friendships are at
their true goal when they are blessed with God's love and friendship,
our death which humanly seems so final is in God's purpose no end but a
passageway leading to another life of which the scope and splendor fulfill
the potentialities of an immortal soul.
God has made us to be a part of the lives of our fellow men. He
has made us necessary to each other. He has His answer to the sneer of
the ancient sinner when He says to us: "Thou art thy brother's keeper. "
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/08 :CIA-RDP67-003188000100390001-5
 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/08 :CIA-RDP67-003188000100390001-5
Each of ~.~.s has his purpose, fulfilled on earth but planned by God for
us, to carry out a 'Human ministry. He who does this well serves God
and can look for God's reward. Thus the deeds and accomplishments
of this man, as brave soldier, as distinguished captain, as wise
counsellor, as ambassador of his country in days of anxiety and peril--
these deeds are part, not only of man's records but of God's. He sees
in them not as we do the splendor and the glory, but the spirit of fulfill-
ment of a task assigned by His holy will, the faithfulness, the loyalty,
the humility of faith. Seen in this light, those who are illustrious in
man's history, like those who are lowly and unsung, both have the
merit of doing what God wants them to do in the rank where God has
placed them. Perhaps this is the reason why the Holy Scripture so
often compares the life of the Christian with that of the soldier. This is
the reason why in our human way we express the confidence that this
soldier, after a life full of valor and helpfulness, has gone to hear the
word of his commander: "Well done, good and faithful servant. "
May his soul rest in God's peace. And may those whom he has
loved and the many whom he has served be worthy to know him again
in ti-ie communion of saints.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/05/08 :CIA-RDP67-003188000100390001-5