John J. McCloy
2nd President of the World Bank Group
In office
March 1947 – June 1949
Preceded byEugene Meyer
Succeeded byEugene R. Black, Sr.
Personal details
Born
John Jay McCloy

(1895-03-31)31 March 1895
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died11 March 1989(1989-03-11) (aged 93)
Stamford, Connecticut
NationalityAmerican
SpouseEllen Zinsser
Alma materHarvard University LL.B

John Jay McCloy (March 31, 1895 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – March 11, 1989 in Stamford, Connecticut) was a lawyer and banker who served as Assistant Secretary of War during World War II, president of the World Bank, U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, and chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations. He later became a prominent United States presidential advisor, served on the Warren Commission, and was a member of the foreign policy establishment group of elders called "The Wise Men."

Career

Early years

McCloy was educated at Peddie School, New Jersey, and Amherst College.[1] He enrolled in Harvard Law School in 1916, but his education was interrupted by World War I.

World War II

Secretary of War Henry Stimson hired McCloy as a consultant in September 1940, and he became immersed in war planning, even though he was a Republican and voted against Roosevelt in the November 1940 presidential election.[2] He was made Assistant Secretary of War, reporting to Secretary of War Henry Stimson. He had only civilian responsibilities, especially the purchase of war materials for the Army, the draft, and combatting sabotage.[3]

In his role in fighting sabotage, McCoy became largely responsible for Roosevelt's decision to intern Japanese Americans in relocation camps in 1942. The generals on the scene had insisted on it to prevent sabotage, and the Army's G-2 (intelligence division) concluded that is was needed. A key document was a MAGIC interception of a Japanese diplomat in Los Angeles who reported, "We also have connections with our second generations working in airplane plants for intelligence purposes."[4] McCloy was responsible for supervising the evacuations to the camps, but the camps were run by a civilian agency.[5] The actions were approved by the Supreme Court. Rogers says McCloy was strongly opposed to reopening the judicial verdicts on the constitutionality of the internment.[6]

Army service

He was commissioned into the U.S. Army as a Second Lieutenant in 1917, being promoted to Captain in 1918. He served with the American Expeditionary Force in France in 1918 and 1919. He received his LL.B. from Harvard University in 1921.[7]

President of the World Bank and US High Commissioner in Germany

From March 1947 to June 1949, McCloy was president of the World Bank.

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

On March 17, 1949, he and General Alvan Cullom Gillem, Jr. testified before the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services.

In 1949 he replaced Lucius D. Clay as military governor for the U.S. Zone in Germany as the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany and held this position until 1952, during which time he oversaw the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany. At his direction, a campaign of wholesale pardoning and commutation of sentences of Nazi criminals took place, including those of the prominent industrialists Friedrich Flick {died 1972} and Alfried Krupp {died 1967}, and Martin Sandberger (died 2010), the son of an IG Farben industrialist. McCloy also granted the restitution of Krupp's and Flick's entire property. McCloy also pardoned Ernst von Weizsäcker {died 1951}. Some of the less notable figures were retried and convicted in the newly independent West Germany.

McCloy supported the initiative of Inge Aicher-Scholl (the sister of Sophie Scholl), Otl Aicher and Max Bill to found the Ulm School of Design.[8] HfG Ulm is considered to be the most influential design school in the world after the Bauhaus. The founders sought and received support in the USA (via Walter Gropius) and within the American High Command in Germany. McCloy saw the endeavor as Project No. 1 and supported a college and campus combination along US examples. In 1952 Scholl received from McCloy a cheque for one million Deutschmarks.[9]

His successor as High Commissioner was James B. Conant; the office was terminated in 1955.

Corporate leadership

Following this, he served as chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank from 1953 to 1960, and as chairman of the Ford Foundation from 1958 to 1965; he was also a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1946 to 1949, and then again from 1953 to 1958, before he took up the position at Ford.

From 1954 to 1970, he was chairman of the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations in New York, to be succeeded by David Rockefeller, who had worked closely with him at the Chase Bank. McCloy had a long association with the Rockefeller family, going back to his early Harvard days when he taught the young Rockefeller brothers how to sail. He was also a member of the Draper Committee, formed in 1958 by Eisenhower.

He later served as advisor to John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, and was the primary negotiator on the Presidential Disarmament Committee. In 1963, he was awarded the prestigious Sylvanus Thayer Award by the United States Military Academy for his service to the country.

On December 6, 1963, he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, with Special Distinction, by President Lyndon B. Johnson

Warren Commission

He was selected by LBJ to serve on the Warren Commission in 1963. Notably, he was initially skeptical of the lone gunman theory, but a trip to Dallas with CIA veteran Allen Dulles, an old friend also serving on the Commission, convinced him of the case against Oswald. McCoy brokered the final consensus — avoiding a minority dissenting report — 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 the FBI and the CIA — as well as the Commission itself.

From 1966 to 1968 he was Honorary Chairman of the Paris-based Atlantic Institute.[10]

Law firm background

Originally a partner of the Cravath firm in New York, after the war McCloy became a name partner in the Rockefeller-associated prominent New York law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. In this capacity he acted for the "Seven Sisters", the leading multinational oil companies, including Exxon, in their initial confrontations with the nationalisation movement in Libya—as well as negotiations with Saudi Arabia and OPEC. Because of his stature in the legal world and his long association with the Rockefellers, and as a presidential adviser, he was sometimes referred to as the "Chairman of the American Establishment".

Awards

McCloy is a recipient of the Association Medal of the New York City Bar Association in recognition of exceptional contributions to the honor and standing of the Bar in the community.

He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Wilmington College (Ohio) in 1963.

See also

References

  1. ^ Staff. "MCCLOY GETS ALDRICH POST: Chase Bank Picks Successor To Ambassador-To-Be", The Baltimore Sun, December 7, 1952. Accessed February 5, 2011. "McCloy, who is 57 years old, was born in Philadelphia and educated at Peddie School."
  2. ^ Bird. The Chairman (1992) p 113
  3. ^ Bird. The Chairman (1992) pp 117-268
  4. ^ Bird. The Chairman (1992) p 155-56
  5. ^ Bird. The Chairman (1992) pp 147-74
  6. ^ Roger Daniels, Unfinished Business: The Japanese-American Internment Cases (1986)[1]
  7. ^ "John J. McCloy Papers 1897-1989: Historical note". Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.
  8. ^ Ulm School of Design HfG Ulm: Archive
  9. ^ Background of HFG (in German)
  10. ^ Who Was Who. A&C Black. 2007.

Further reading

Additional sources

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Non-profit organization positions Preceded byEugene Meyer President of the World Bank 1947 – 1949 Succeeded byEugene R. Black, Sr. Diplomatic posts Preceded byLucius D. Clay American High Commissioner for Occupied Germany 1949 - 1952 Succeeded byJames B. Conant Business positions Preceded byWinthrop Aldrich Chase CEO 1953-1960 Succeeded byGeorge Champion Awards Preceded byDouglas MacArthur Sylvanus Thayer Award recipient 1963 Succeeded byRobert A. Lovett
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