Drew
Pearson was born on 13th December, 1897, in Evanson, Illinois. In
1902 the family moved to Pennsylvania, where his father, Paul Pearson,
became professor of public speaking at Swarthmore College.
Pearson was educated at the Exeter Academy and Swarthmore College,
where he edited the student newspaper, The
Phoenix.
In 1919 Pearson, a Quaker, travelled to Serbia
where he spent two years rebuilding houses that had been destroyed
during the First World War.
After returning to America, Drew taught industrial geography at the
University of Pennsylvania. In 1923 he embarked on a worldwide tour
visiting Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand and India. He paid for
his trip by writing articles for an American newspaper syndicate.
Pearson taught briefly at Columbia University before returning to
journalism and reporting on anti-foreigner demonstrations in China (1927), the Geneva Naval Conference (1928) and the Pan American Conference
in Cuba (1928).
In 1929 Pearson became Washington
correspondent of the Baltimore
Sun.
Three years later he joined the Scripps-Howard
syndicate, United Features. His Merry-Go-Round
column was published in newspapers all over the United States.
Pearson was a strong supporter of Franklin
D. Roosevelt and his New Deal program.
He also upset more conservative editors when he advocated United
States involvement in the struggle against fascism in Europe.
Pearson's articles were often censored and so in 1941 he switched
to the more liberal The
Washington Post.
During the Second World War Pearson became a
radio broadcaster. He soon became one of America's most popular radio
personalities. After the war he was an enthusiastic supporter of the
United Nations and helped to organize the
Friendship Train project in 1947. The train travelled coast-to-coast
collecting gifts of food for those people in Europe still suffering
from the consequences of the war.
In 1947 Pearson recruited Jack Anderson as his assistant. Over the next few years Anderson was able to use his contacts that he had developed in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in the Second World War.
One of Anderson's first stories concerned the dispute between Howard Hughes, the owner of Trans World Airlines and Owen Brewster, chairman of the Senate War Investigating Committee. Hughes claimed that Brewster was being paid by Pan American Airways (Pan Am) to persuade the United States government to set up an official worldwide monopoly under its control. Part of this plan was to force all existing American carriers with overseas operations to close down or merge with Pan Am. As the owner of Trans World Airlines, Hughes posed a serious threat to this plan. Hughes claimed that Brewster had approached him and suggested he merge Trans World with Pan Am.
Pearson and Anderson began a campaign against Brewster. They reported that Pan Am had provided Bewster with free flights to Hobe Sound, Florida, where he stayed free of charge at the holiday home of Pan Am Vice President Sam Pryor. As a result of this campaign Bewster lost his seat in Congress.
In the late 1940s Anderson became friendly with Joseph McCarthy. As he pointed out in his autobiography, Confessions of a Muckraker, "Joe McCarthy... was a pal of mine, irresponsible to be sure, but a fellow bachelor of vast amiability and an excellent source of inside dope on the Hill."
McCarthy began supplying Anderson with stories about suspected communists in government. Pearson refused to publish these stories as he was very suspicious of the motives of people like McCarthy. In fact, in 1948, Pearson began investigating J. Parnell Thomas, the Chairman of the House of Un-American Activities Committee. It was not long before Thomas' secretary, Helen Campbell, began providing information about his illegal activities. On 4th August, 1948, Pearson published the story that Thomas had been putting friends on his congressional payroll. They did no work but in return shared their salaries with Thomas.
Called before a grand jury, Thomas availed himself to the 1st Amendment, a strategy that he had been unwilling to accept when dealing with the Hollywood Ten. Indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the government, Thomas was found guilty and sentenced to 18 months in prison and forced to pay a $10,000 fine. Two of his fellow inmates in Danbury Prison were Lester Cole and Ring Lardner Jr. who were serving terms as a result of refusing to testify in front of Thomas and the House of Un-American Activities Committee.
In 1949 Pearson criticised the Secretary of Defence, James Forrestal, for his conservative views on foreign policy. He told Jack Anderson that he believed Forrestal was "the most dangerous man in America" and claimed that if he was not removed from office he would "cause another world war". Pearson also suggested that Forrestal was guilty of corruption. Pearson was blamed when Forrestal committed suicide on 22nd May 1949. One journalist, Westbrook Pegler, wrote: "For months, Drew Pearson... hounded Jim Forrestal with dirty aspersions and insinuations, until, at last, exhausted and his nerves unstrung, one of the finest servants that the Republic ever had died of suicide."
Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson also began investigating General Douglas MacArthur. In December, 1949, Anderson got hold of a top-secret cable from MacArthur to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressing his disagreement with President Harry S. Truman concerning Chaing Kai-shek. On 22nd December, 1949, Pearson published the story that: "General MacArthur has sent a triple-urgent cable urging that Formosa be occupied by U.S. troops." Pearson argued that MacArthur was "trying to dictate U.S. foreign policy in the Far East".
Harry S. Truman and Dean Acheson, the Secretary of State, told MacArthur to limit the war to Korea. MacArthur disagreed, favoring an attack on Chinese forces. Unwilling to accept the views of Truman and Dean Acheson, MacArthur began to make inflammatory statements indicating his disagreements with the United States government.
MacArthur gained support from right-wing members of the Senate such as Joe McCarthy who led the attack on Truman's administration: "With half a million Communists in Korea killing American men, Acheson says, 'Now let's be calm, let's do nothing'. It is like advising a man whose family is being killed not to take hasty action for fear he might alienate the affection of the murders."
On 7th October, 1950, MacArthur launched an invasion of North Korea by the end of the month had reached the Yalu River, close to the frontier of China. On 20th November, Pearson wrote in his column that the Chinese were following a strategy that was "sucking our troops into a trap." Three days later the Chinese Army launched an attack on MacArthur's army. North Korean forces took Seoul in January 1951. Two months later, Harry S. Truman removed MacArthur from his command of the United Nations forces in Korea.
Joe McCarthy continued to provide Jack Anderson with a lot of information. In his autobiography, Confessions of a Muckraker, Anderson pointed out: "At my prompting he (McCarthy) would phone fellow senators to ask what had transpired this morning behind closed doors or what strategy was planned for the morrow. While I listened in on an extension he would pump even a Robert Taft or a William Knowland with the handwritten questions I passed him."
In return, Anderson provided McCarthy with information about politicians and state officials he suspected of being "communists". Anderson later recalled that his decision to work with McCarthy "was almost automatic.. for one thing, I owed him; for another, he might be able to flesh out some of our inconclusive material, and if so, I would no doubt get the scoop." As a result Anderson passed on his file on the presidential aide, David Demarest Lloyd.
On 9th February, 1950, Joe McCarthy made a speech in Salt Lake City where he attacked Dean Acheson, the Secretary of State, as "a pompous diplomat in striped pants". He claimed that he had a list of 57 people in the State Department that were known to be members of the American Communist Party. McCarthy went on to argue that some of these people were passing secret information to the Soviet Union. He added: "The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because the enemy has sent men to invade our shores, but rather because of the traitorous actions of those who have had all the benefits that the wealthiest nation on earth has had to offer - the finest homes, the finest college educations, and the finest jobs in Government we can give."
The list of names was not a secret and had been in fact published by the Secretary of State in 1946. These people had been identified during a preliminary screening of 3,000 federal employees. Some had been communists but others had been fascists, alcoholics and sexual deviants. As it happens, if McCarthy had been screened, his own drink problems and sexual preferences would have resulted in him being put on the list.
Pearson immediately launched an attack on Joe McCarthy. He pointed out that only three people on the list were State Department officials. He added that when this list was first published four years ago, Gustavo Duran and Mary Jane Keeney had both resigned from the State Department (1946). He added that the third person, John Service, had been cleared after a prolonged and careful investigation. Pearson also argued that none of these people had been named were members of the American Communist Party.
Jack Anderson asked Pearson to stop attacking McCarthy: "He is our best source on the Hill." Pearson replied, "He may be a good source, Jack, but he's a bad man."
On 20th February, 1950, Joe McCarthy made a speech in the Senate supporting the allegations he had made in Salt Lake City. This time he did not describe them as "card-carrying communists" because this had been shown to be untrue. Instead he argued that his list were all "loyalty risks". He also claimed that one of the president's speech-writers, was a communist. Although he did not name him, he was referring to David Demarest Lloyd, the man that Anderson had provided information on.
Lloyd immediately issued a statement where he defended himself against McCarthy's charges. President Harry S. Truman not only kept him on but promoted him to the post of Administrative Assistant. Lloyd was indeed innocent of these claims and McCarthy was forced to withdraw these allegations. As Anderson admitted: "At my instigation, then, Lloyd had been done an injustice that was saved from being grevious only by Truman's steadfastness."
McCarthy now informed Jack Anderson that he had evidence that Professor Owen Lattimore, director of the Walter Hines Page School of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University, was a Soviet spy. Pearson, who knew Lattimore, and while accepting he held left-wing views, he was convinced he was not a spy. In his speeches, McCarthy referred to Lattimore as "Mr X... the top Russian spy... the key man in a Russian espionage ring."
On 26th March, 1950, Pearson named Lattimore as McCarthy's Mr. X. Pearson then went onto defend Lattimore against these charges. McCarthy responded by making a speech in Congress where he admitted: "I fear that in the case of Lattimore I may have perhaps placed too much stress on the question of whether he is a paid espionage agent."
McCarthy then produced Louis Budenz, the former editor of The Daily Worker. Budenz claimed that Lattimore was a "concealed communist". However, as Jack Anderson admitted: "Budenz had never met Lattimore; he spoke not from personal observation of him but from what he remembered of what others had told him five, six, seven and thirteen years before."
Pearson now wrote an article where he showed that Budenz was a serial liar: "Apologists for Budenz minimize this on the ground that Budenz has now reformed. Nevertheless, untruthful statements made regarding his past and refusal to answer questions have a bearing on Budenz's credibility." He went on to point out that "all in all, Budenz refused to answer 23 questions on the ground of self-incrimination".
Owen Lattimore was eventually cleared of the charge that he was a Soviet spy or a secret member of the American Communist Party and like several other victims of McCarthyism, he went to live in Europe and for several years was professor of Chinese studies at Leeds University.
Despite the efforts of Jack Anderson, by the end of June, 1950, Drew Pearson had written more than forty daily columns and a significant percentage of his weekly radio broadcasts, that had been devoted to discrediting the charges made by Joseph McCarthy. He now decided to take on Pearson and he told Anderson: "Jack, I'm going to have to go after your boss. I mean, no holds barred. I figure I've already lost his supporters; by going after him, I can pick up his enemies." McCarthy, when drunk, told Assistant Attorney General Joe Keenan, that he was considering "bumping Pearson off".
On 15th December, 1950, McCarthy made a speech in Congress where he claimed that Pearson was "the voice of international Communism" and "a Moscow-directed character assassin." McCarthy added that Pearson was "a prostitute of journalism" and that Pearson "and the Communist Party murdered James Forrestal in just as cold blood as though they had machine-gunned him."
Over the next two months McCarthy made seven Senate speeches on Drew Pearson. He called for a "patriotic boycott" of his radio show and as a result, Adam Hats, withdrew as Pearson's radio sponsor. Although he was able to make a series of short-term arrangements, Pearson was never again able to find a permanent sponsor. Twelve newspapers cancelled their contract with Pearson.
Joe McCarthy and his friends also raised money to help Fred Napoleon Howser, the Attorney General of California, to sue Pearson for $350,000. This involved an incident in 1948 when Pearson accused Howser of consorting with mobsters and of taking a bribe from gambling interests. Help was also given to Father Charles Coughlin, who sued Pearson for $225,000. However, in 1951 the courts ruled that Pearson had not libeled either Howser or Coughlin.
Only the St. Louis Star-Times defended Pearson. As its editorial pointed out: "If Joseph McCarthy can silence a critic named Drew Pearson, simply by smearing him with the brush of Communist association, he can silence any other critic." However, Pearson did get the support of J. William Fulbright, Wayne Morse, Clinton Anderson, William Benton and Thomas Hennings in the Senate.
In October, 1953, Joe McCarthy began investigating communist infiltration into the military. Attempts were made by McCarthy to discredit Robert Stevens, the Secretary of the Army. The president, Dwight Eisenhower, was furious and now realised that it was time to bring an end to McCarthy's activities.
The United States Army now passed information about McCarthy to journalists who were known to be opposed to him. This included the news that McCarthy and Roy Cohn had abused congressional privilege by trying to prevent David Schine from being drafted. When that failed, it was claimed that Cohn tried to pressurize the Army into granting Schine special privileges. Pearson published the story on 15th December, 1953.
Some figures in the media, such as writers George Seldes and I. F. Stone, and cartoonists, Herb Block and Daniel Fitzpatrick, had fought a long campaign against McCarthy. Other figures in the media, who had for a long time been opposed to McCarthyism, but were frightened to speak out, now began to get the confidence to join the counter-attack. Edward Murrow, the experienced broadcaster, used his television programme, See It Now, on 9th March, 1954, to criticize McCarthy's methods. Newspaper columnists such as Walter Lippmann also became more open in their attacks on McCarthy.
The senate investigations into the United States Army were televised and this helped to expose the tactics of Joseph McCarthy. One newspaper, the Louisville Courier-Journal, reported that: "In this long, degrading travesty of the democratic process, McCarthy has shown himself to be evil and unmatched in malice." Leading politicians in both parties, had been embarrassed by McCarthy's performance and on 2nd December, 1954, a censure motion condemned his conduct by 67 votes to 22.
McCarthy also lost the chairmanship of the Government Committee on Operations of the Senate. He was now without a power base and the media lost interest in his claims of a communist conspiracy. As one journalist, Willard Edwards, pointed out: "Most reporters just refused to file McCarthy stories. And most papers would not have printed them anyway."
In 1956 Pearson began investigating the relationship between Lyndon B. Johnson and two businessmen, George R. Brown and Herman Brown. Pearson believed that Johnson had arranged for the Texas-based Brown and Root Construction Company to avoid large tax bills. Johnson brought an end to this investigation by offering Pearson a deal. If Pearson dropped his Brown-Root crusade, Johnson would support the presidential ambitions of Estes Kefauver. Pearson accepted and wrote in his diary (16th April, 1956): "This is the first time I've ever made a deal like this, and I feel a little unhappy about it. With the Presidency of the United States at stake, maybe it's justified, maybe not - I don't know."
Jack Anderson also helped Pearson investigate stories of corruption inside the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower. They discovered that Eisenhower had received gifts worth more than $500,000 from "big-business well-wishers." In 1957 Anderson threaten to quit because these stories always appeared under Pearson's name. Pearson responded by promising him more bylines and pledged to leave the column to him when he died.
Pearson and Anderson began investigating the presidential assistant Sherman Adams. The former governor of New Hampshire, was considered to be a key figure in Eisenhower's administration. Anderson discovered that Bernard Goldfine, a wealthy industrialist, had given Adams a large number of presents. This included suits, overcoats, alcohol, furnishings and the payment of hotel and resort bills. Anderson eventually found evidence that Adams had twice persuaded the Federal Trade Commission to "ease up its pursuit of Goldfine for putting false labels on the products of his textile plants."
The story was eventually published in 1958 and Adams was forced to resign from office. However, Jack Anderson was much criticized for the way he carried out his investigation and one of his assistants, Les Whitten, was arrested by the FBI for receiving stolen government documents.
In 1960 Pearson supported Hubert Humphrey in his efforts to become the Democratic Party candidate. However, those campaigning for John F. Kennedy, accused him of being a draft dodger. As a result, when Humphrey dropped out of the race, Pearson switched his support to Lyndon B. Johnson. However, it was Kennedy who eventually got the nomination.
Pearson now supported Kennedy's attempt to become president. One of the ways he helped his campaign was to investigate the relationship between Howard Hughes and Richard Nixon. Pearson and Anderson discovered that in 1956 the Hughes Tool Company provided a $205,000 loan to Nixon Incorporated, a company run by Richard's brother, F. Donald Nixon. The money was never paid back. Soon after the money was paid the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reversed a previous decision to grant tax-exempt status to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
This information was revealed by Pearson and Jack Anderson during the 1960 presidential campaign. Nixon initially denied the loan but later was forced to admit that this money had been given to his brother. It was claimed that this story helped John F. Kennedy defeat Nixon in the election.
Like other political journalists, Pearson and Anderson investigated the death of President John F. Kennedy. Sources close to John McCone and Robert Kennedy claimed that the assassination was linked to the plots against Fidel Castro of Cuba.
In 1966 attempts were made
to deport Johnny
Roselli
as an illegal alien. Roselli
moved to Los
Angeles where
he went into early retirement. It was at this time he told attorney,
Edward Morgan: "The last of the sniper teams dispatched by Robert
Kennedy in 1963 to assassinate Fidel Castro were captured in Havana.
Under torture they broke and confessed to being sponsored by the CIA
and the US government. At that point, Castro remarked that, 'If that
was the way President Kennedy wanted it, Cuba could engage in the
same tactics'. The result was that Castro infiltrated teams of snipers
into the US to kill Kennedy".
Morgan took the story to
Pearson. The
story was then passed on to Earl
Warren. He did
not want anything to do with it and so the information was then passed
to the FBI. When they failed to investigate
the story Jack Anderson wrote an article entitled "President Johnson
is sitting on a political H-bomb" about Roselli's story. It has
been suggested that Roselli started this story at the request of his
friends in the Central
Intelligence Agency in
order to divert attention from the investigation being carried out
by Jim
Garrison.
In 1968 Jack Anderson and Drew Pearson published The Case Against Congress. The book documented examples of how politicians had "abused their power and priviledge by placing their own interests ahead of those of the American people". This included the activities of Bobby Baker, James Eastland, Lyndon B. Johnson, Dwight Eisenhower, Hubert Humphrey, Everett Dirksen, Thomas J. Dodd, John McClellan and Clark Clifford.
Drew
Pearson died after collapsing in his garden on 1st September, 1969. Chalmers Roberts of the Washington Post wrote: "Drew Pearson was a muckraker with a Quaker conscience. In print he sounded fierce; in life he was gentle, even courtly. For thirty-eight years he did more than any man to keep the national capital honest."
Open Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
Forum Debate on Watergate
Forum Debate: Investigative Journalism
Forum Debate on Jack Anderson
Name Base: Drew Pearson
(1)
Jack
Anderson, Confessions of a Muckraker
(1979)
The motivation behind most
of his (Drew Pearson) crusades was his Quaker pacifism and a conviction
that peoples must reach out, over governmental barriers, to aid and
communicate with one another lest the horrors of the past be repeated.
In the late 1930s he had
put aside his Quaker principles because of the overriding peril he
saw in totalitarian aggression, and he effectively supported the Roosevelt
interventionist policies and the war effort. But at war's end he became
plagued with alarming visions - an America permanently militarized,
the sweep of Stalinism into Western Europe, a world divided by backward-looking
politicians into hostile East-West camps. He had emerged from the
war years as the single most influential commentator in the world,
and he determined to use that influence...
With his daily "Merry-Go-Round"
column and his Sunday-night broadcast over the ABC radio network,
the Pearson operation reached an audience of 60 million. The name
Drew Pearson evoked the image of the ubiquitous, hyperactive news
hawk, with open collar, clipped mustache, the inevitable reporter's
hat set back on his head, fast-talking into a mike. So much did his
public image fit the mystique of the reporter-sleuth that a comic
strip based on his career ("Hap Hazard") was being syndicated
in competition with Dick Tracy. No other American had ever had the
eyes and ears of so many people for so long a time.
He used this unprecedented
access to help what he saw as the humanitarian cause and to hurt those
who thwarted it - imperialists, militarists, monopolists, racists,
crooks in public and corporate life, all of whom he saw as subverters
of the American system and exploiters of the poor. On the attack he
was unremitting, and even when not mortally engaged, he thought it
salutary that the mighty should be humbled. He often trampled upon
the customary immunity granted by the correspondents of that day to
the highly placed as regards their private vices, self-indulgences
and eccentricities.
(5)
Drew
Pearson, Washington Merry-Go-Round
(13th November, 1947)
Republicans who will have
to pass upon the qualifications of James Forrestal for the all-important
job of Secretary of National Defense have been checking into his background
and have stumbled onto some highly interesting facts. Back in the
first years of the Roosevelt Administration, Forrestal was exposed
by the Senate Banking Committee probe for having got around a $840,000
income-tax payment by setting up a personal holding corporation. This
Senate Banking probe also exposed Forrestal's banking firm - Dillon,
Read & Co. - as one of the worst highbinders on Wall Street when
it came to floating bad loans to Germany and Latin America. As a result
of this investigation, Roosevelt set up the Securities and Exchange
Commission. Now, however, Republicans point out that the head of a
Wall Street house with one of the worst records of all has become
head of the combined Army and Navy.
(2)
Drew
Pearson, Washington Merry-Go-Round
(4th August, 1948)
One Congressman who has
sadly ignored the old adage that
those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones is bouncing
Rep. J. Parnell Thomas
of New Jersey, Chairman of the UnAmerican Activities Committee.
If some of his own personal
operations were scrutinized on the witness stand as carefully as he
cross-examines witnesses, they would make headlines of
a kind the Congressman doesn't like.
It is not, for instance,
considered good "Americanism" to hire a stenographer and
have her pay a "kickback." This kind of operation is also
likely to get an ordinary American in income tax trouble. However,
this hasn't seemed
to worry the Chairman of the UnAmerican Activities Committee.
On Jan. 1, 1940, Rep.
Thomas placed on his payroll Myra Midkiff as a clerk at $1,200 a year
with the arrangement that she would then kick back all her salary
to the Congressman. This gave Mr. Thomas a neat annual addition to
his own $10,000 salary, and presumably he did not have to worry about
paying income taxes in this higher bracket, because he paid Miss Midkiff's
taxes for her in the much lower bracket.
The arrangement was quite
simple and lasted for four years. Miss Midkiff's salary was merely
deposited in the First National Bank of Allendale, N.J., to the Congressman's
account. Meanwhile she never came anywhere near his office and did
not work for him except addressing envelopes at home for which she
got paid $2 per hundred.
This kickback plan worked
so well that four years later. Miss Midkiff having got married and
left his phantom employ, the Congressman decided to extend it. On
Nov. 16, 1944, the House Disbursing Officer was notified to place
on Thomas's payroll the name of Arnette Minor at $1,800 a year.
Actually Miss Minor was
a day worker who made beds and cleaned the room of Thomas's secretary,
Miss Helen Campbell. Miss Minor's salary was remitted to the Congressman.
She never got it.
This arrangement lasted
only a month and a half, for on Jan. 1, 1945, the name of Grace Wilson
appeared on the Congressman's payroll for $2,900.
Miss Wilson turned out
to be Mrs. Thomas's aged aunt, and during the year 1945 she drew checks
totaling $3,467.45, though she did not come near the office, in fact
remained quietly in Allendale, N.J., where she was supported by Mrs.
Thomas and her sisters, Mrs. Lawrence Wellington and Mrs.
William Quaintance.
In the summer of 1946,
however, the Congressman decided to let the county support his wife's
aunt, since his son had recently married and he wanted to put his
daughter-in-law on the payroll. Thereafter, his daughter-in-law, Lillian,
drew Miss Wilson's salary, and the Congressman demanded that his wife's
aunt be put on relief.
(2)
Drew Pearson,
comments made to Jack
Anderson in 1948.
Jack, Forrestal is the most dangerous man in America. Sure he's able.
Of course he's dedicated. But to what? He's
a man who lives only for himself. He has broken his word, turned his
back on his friends. He is driven by one ambition; he has always craved
to be top man - first of Wall Street and now of the United States.
Any principles he has are the kind that will cause another world war
- unless he's stopped first."
(5)
Drew
Pearson, Washington Merry-Go-Round
(15th December, 1948)
Ever since
election day, Secretary of Defense Forrestal has been frantically
painting himself a true and loyal Democrat. But there is has been
frantically painting himself a true and loyal Democrat. But here is
an off-the-record talk indicating the kind of men Forrestal puts in
high position...
Practically all Latin America
is watching the State Department to see what we do about recognizing
the new Army dictatorship in Venezuela... the State Department's trigger-recognition
of Latin dictators has brought forth a rash of military revolts, the
latest being the Nicaraguan-inspired march against the peaceful government
of Costa Rica...
Secretary of Defense Forrestal
still favors his plan of sending more arms to Latin America under
a new lend-lease agreement, despite the fact that new arms to Latin
American generals are like a toy train to a small boy at Christmastime.
They can't wait to use them - usually against their own President.
General Somoza, the Nicaraguan
who has now inspired the fracas in Costa Rica, was trained by the
U.S. Marines, later seized the Presidency of Nicaragua. President
Trujillo, worst dictator in all Latin America, was also trained by
the U.S. Marines. Unfortunately, under the Forrestal-Marine Corps
program, we train men to shoot and give them the weapons to shoot
with. But we don't give them any ideas or ideals as to what they should
shoot for.
Back
in the 1920's, Secretary Forrestal's Wall Street firm loaned 20 million
dollars to Bolivia, used to buy arms to wage war against Paraguay.
Some time after Forrestal loaned this money to Bolivia, the Remington
Arms Co., of which Donald Carpenter is now vice president, stepped
in to profit by it. Remington got a contract for 7.65 mm. and 9 mm.
cartridges. Carpenter had just joined the firm when this sale was
made. So Forrestal and Carpenter, once operators in indirectly fomenting
war in Latin America, are now together in running American defense.
(3)
Drew Pearson, Washington Post (30th May, 1949)
In the end, it may be found that
Mr. Forrestal's friends had more to do with his death than his critics.
For those close to him now admit privately that he had been sick for
some time, suffered embarrassing lapses too painful to be mentioned
here.
Yet
during the most of last winter, when Jim Forrestal was under heavy
responsibilities and definitely not a well man, the little coterie
of newspapermen who now insinuate Jim was killed by his critics, encouraged
him to stay on. This got to be almost an obsession, both on their
part and on his, until Mr. Truman's final
request for his resignation undoubtedly worsened the illness.
The
real fact is that Jim Forrestal had a relatively good press. All one
need do is examine the newspaper files to see that his press was far
better than that of some of his old associates.
Are
public officials to be immune from criticism or investigation for
fear of impairing their health? If we are to withhold the check of
congressional investigation or newspaper criticism from any public
official, no
matter how mild, because of health, then the Government of checks
and balances created by the Founding Fathers is thrown out of gear.
It
was not criticism which caused Jim Forrestal to conclude that his
life was no longer worth living. There were other factors in his life
that made him unhappy.
(5)
Drew
Pearson, diary (22nd
May, 1949)
Jim
Forrestal died at 2 a.m. by jumping out of the Naval Hospital
window...
I think
that Forrestal really died because he had no spiritual reserves. He
had spent all his life thinking only about himself, trying to fulfill
his great ambition to be President of the United States. When that
ambition became out of his reach, he had nothing to fall back on.
He had no church; he had deserted it. He had no wife. They had both
deserted each other. She was in Paris at the time of his death - though
it was well-known that he had been seriously ill for weeks. But most
important of all, he had no spiritual resources...
But James
Forrestal's passion was public approval. It was his lifeblood. He
craved it almost as a dope addict craves morphine. Toward the end
he would break down and cry pitifully, like a child, when criticized
too much. He had worked hard - too much in fact - for his country.
He was loyal and patriotic. Few men were more devoted to their country,
but he seriously hurt the country that he loved by taking his own
life. All his policies now are under closer suspicion than before...
Forrestal
not only had no spiritual resources, but also he had no calluses.
He was unique in this respect. He was acutely sensitive. He had traveled
not on the hard political path of the politician, but on the protected,
cloistered avenue of the Wall Street bankers. All his life he had
been surrounded by public relations men. He did not know what the
lash of criticism meant. He did not understand the give-and-take of
the political arena. Even in the executive branch of government, he
surrounded himself with public relations men, invited newsmen to dinner,
lunch, and breakfast, made a fetish of courting their favor. History
unfortunately will decree that Forrestal's
great reputation was synthetic. It was built on the most unstable
foundation of all - the handouts of paid press agents.
If Forrestal had been
true to his friends, if he had made one sacrifice for a friend, if
he had even gone to bat for Tom Corcoran who put him in the White
House, if he had spent more time with his wife instead of courting
his mistress, he would not have been so alone this morning when he
went to the diet pantry of the Naval Hospital and jumped to his death.
(12)
Saturday
Evening Post (18th June, 1949)
It is
an interesting speculation as to what extent Forrestal's desperation
was deepened by a group of ill-assorted columnists and ideological
libertarians. During his whole Government service it was implied in
a continuous stream of billingsgate that Forrestal was in the Government
to serve his former partners in the investment-banking business, that
he was a "cartelist" and a truckler to fascism.
It is a little late to
go into all that, but it is not too late to make the obvious comment
that the responsibility for this abuse of a free press goes beyond
the malice of gossip columnists and rests firmly on the heads of publishers
who permit their newspapers to take from syndicated columnists libelous
and half-baked abuse which they would not print if it were written
by their own reporters.
It is not necessary to
have agreed with everything James Forrestal believed or did, but it
is reasonable to
insist that news and opinion regarding the acts of public men or private
citizens for that matter, be held to ordinary standards of accuracy,
fairness and decency.
(4)
Drew Pearson, diary entry (28th November, 1949)
Parnell Thomas's trial started
this morning. Looking at him in the courtroom. I couldn't help but
feel sorry for him. I can't relish helping to send a man to jail.
Nevertheless, when I figure all the times Thomas has sent other people
to jail and all the instances when he has kept men away from combat
duty in return for money in his own pocket, to say nothing of salary
kickbacks, perhaps I shouldn't be too sorry.
(5)
Drew
Pearson, Washington
Merry-Go-Round (18th September, 1950)
Senator Brewster in 1947
was chairman of the powerful Senate War Investigating Committee. He
was also the bosom friend of Pan American Airways. Brewster and Pan
American wanted Howard Hughes's TWA to consolidate its overseas lines
with Pan Am. This Hughes refused to do. Whereupon Brewster investigated
Hughes, and, during the period when he was before Brewster's Senate
committee, Hughes's telephone wire and that of his attorneys were
tapped, apparently under the off-stage direction of Henry Grunewald,
who admits that at various times he checked telephone wires for Pan
American Airways.
Grunewald and others deny
this. Nevertheless this is the conclusion which Senators are forced
to arrive at. No wonder businessmen who come to Washington are worried
about talking over telephones. They never know when some competitor,
perhaps with the cooperation of a Senate committee, is listening in.
Yet this is supposed to be the capital of the USA not Moscow.
(6)
Drew Pearson, diary entry (24th
April, 1951)
This afternoon McCarthy sounded
off with another speech on the Senate floor claiming that the Justice
Department had now finished its investigation and had a complete espionage
case against me. He also pontificated that I had received State Department
documents from the State Department via Dave Karr, whom he described
as a top member of the Communist party. McCarthy also claimed that
the column today, which dealt with developments in the atomic bomb
field, paraphrased a secret report and was a violation of security.
(7) Drew
Pearson, diary entry (21st May, 1951)
The facts were that MacArthur
had wasted blood most of his career, not only in Korea. I urged the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, when they testify, should show up MacArthur's
glaring errors and his well-known "extravagance with his men".
For instance, General Eichelberger, who commanded the 8th Army during
World War II, could testify to MacArthur's shameful laxness on New
Guinea and his refusal to visit the front at Buna even once.
(8)
Jack
Anderson, Confessions of a Muckraker
(1979)
Drew Pearson was nearing
his fiftieth year and the pinnacle of his influence when I joined
his staff. During my first days on the job, the senior staffmen alerted
me against stumbling over established taboos: Mr. Pearson did not
tolerate certain activities around him, such as smoking; he brooked
no insubordination; he did not appreciate questions on how to proceed,
expecting his reporters to know how to carry out his missions impossible.
He could not abide air conditioning, so one must not leave open the
door to his den which would let in drafts from the air conditioners
in the staff rooms. No one was allowed to use, or even touch, his
personal typewriter, an antique portable Corona given him by his revered
father in 1922. He required little sleep and was apt to phone his
reporters at any hour of the night, as the spirit moved him; I must
learn to come out of a deep sleep instantly and to make a show of
alertness, if not joviality, at three o'clock in the morning.
So forewarned, I approached
Mr. Pearson with apprehension in the beginning. But the polecat in
his lair was disarmingly mild. Sitting behind his paper-strewn desk
in a maroon smoking jacket, or in the bathrobe he wore some days until
noon, amid pictures and mementoes of his much-loved family, with a
black cat named Cinders preening companionably in the out-box on his
desk, he appeared not at all menacing. When he arose, he revealed
a frame that was tall, trim and well constructed, conveying an impression
of considerable physical strength. He had an impressive, high forehead
under thinning light-brown hair, and a general look of learnedness
that made him seem too dignified and elegant for the rough-and-tumble
he in fact relished. The anguished visitor who missed the occasional
glint of watchfulness in his blue eyes would likely be lulled by his
soft voice, quiet manners and the peaceful gentility of the atmosphere
into the comfortable feeling that he was paying a courtesy call on
Mr. Chips.
Conversation with him
did not flow easily. Despite his prodigious production of the written
word and an experience as a public lecturer that spanned several continents
and went back almost to his adolescence, he often seemed ill at ease
in conversation. He could be a most gracious host, with a disciplined
adherence to the ordinary courtesies, but he quickly became bored
with small talk. He was a listener more than a discourses He spoke
slowly and would join in intermittently when some subject sparked
his interest, then would lapse into silences that could become awkward.
(9)
Jack
Anderson, Peace, War, And Politics
(1999)
Drew Pearson took off
the month of August 1969 for a vacation and, as had become his habit,
left the office in my charge. Just a few days earlier, Senator Ted
Kennedy had fallen victim to the family curse: he drove his Oldsmobile
off the narrow Dyke Bridge into Poucha Pond on Chappaquiddick Island,
plunging his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, to her death. Drew left
behind a column to run under his byline predicting that the tragedy
would dog Kennedy for the rest of his life.
I was busy mobilizing
the staff to break through the thick net of half-truths thrown up
by the Kennedy propaganda machine when I got a call from Luvie Pearson.
Drew had suffered a heart attack. Luvie's voice was even and unruffled,
calming the anxiety that welled up in me. Drew needed a few weeks
to recuperate, Luvie said. She suggested that no one from the office
stress him with phone calls or visits.
One night a few weeks
later, I answered the phone to hear Drew's weakened, thin voice. Why
hadn't I come to visit him? I hurried out to his farm on the Potomac
the next day and found him sitting at his typewriter. He had a paragraph
in the making about the state of medical care. "I thought I would
help you out," he said, with a tone of sheepishness. I assured
him we would muddle along without him. Two days later on September
I, 1969, he collapsed in his garden and was dead.
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