4: "Businessman Pawley" Named U.S. Ambassador to Peru and Brazil

Upon the death of President Franklin Roosevelt in April 1945, Harry S. Truman ascended to the presidency. In June, he appointed William Douglas Pawley as Ambassador to the South American nation of Peru. Pawley stated that he was chosen because of his decades of familiarity with Latin America, fluency with the Spanish language and because the U.S. “had a very serious problem” with Peru’s unpaid debt of $150 million. A mutually beneficial resolution to the debt problem was desired because Peru was the first Latin American country to side with the U.S. in World War II.1

On November 13th, the State Department’s Fred Lyon telephonically informed FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover that Pawley was in Washington, DC and eager to meet with Hoover before the end of the week. The FBI Director received a memorandum detailing facts about William Douglas Pawley—his marital status; the armed services status of Pawley’s two sons; the location of Pawley’s 6700-square-foot-mansion on Pine Tree Drive in Miami Beach; his friendship with President Truman; and Pawley’s appreciation of the FBI’s August security survey of the Embassy in Lima. Hoover also was advised of the wealthy businessman’s history in Cuba, China and Florida; the fact that he has a private plane and yacht in Lima; and that Pawley “has expressed great respect for the FBI and the Director.” The memo also listed FBI personnel assigned to Peru (all nine names were redacted at the time of declassification) and the Legal Attaché, C.E. McNabb, who at the time was under recall as part of a staff reduction program.2

Internally, Peru’s years of border fights with nearby nations—Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile—had led to the development of a leadership of elites and military who were opposed by the center-left, anti-imperialist American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA). 

The APRA political party gained seats in the government but its head, Haya de la Torre, assured Pawley in mid-1946 that he did not intend, nor desire, to take complete control of the Peruvian government from President Bustamante, and, in fact, wanted a true democracy and would work to avoid bloodshed and “prevent an increase in Communist activities in Peru.”3

In February of 1946, Time praised the acumen of “Businessman Pawley” for helping settle Peruvian debt so the nation could obtain U.S. Export-Import Bank credits. He also had convinced U.S. oil companies to help develop oil reserves in the country as well as “create a new electrolytic zinc industry” by exploiting the mineral in the Santa Valley and the nearby waterpower of Cañón del Pator.4

Based on his success in negotiating a repayment plan for Peru, Pawley was transferred to the diplomatic post in Brazil in June 1946.

There he continued to be a forceful advocate of economic cooperation between the U.S. and Latin America, but the position was not his first choice. Pawley wanted to serve in Argentina where Juan Perón was raising concerns, but Pawley was blocked from the Ambassadorship by Spruille Braden.

Braden had just left the Argentinean post to become the Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America, giving him the ability to veto Pawley who had opposed Braden’s left-leaning policies in the country. More than a decade later, Pawley would testify that he believed Nelson Rockefeller, the Secretary of State for Latin America during World War II, had been dismissed in September 1945 due to a communist-inspired campaign within the Latin American wing of the powerful labor union group, the Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO). According to Pawley, the CIO wanted Braden instead of Rockefeller because his family—America’s  wealthiest at the time as a result of John D. Rockefeller’s founding of Standard Oil—was unamenable to unions.

Pawley thus believed “Braden misdirected the Government’s policy in Argentina, caused considerable embarrassment to the United States Government and, in fact, acted as an agent for the Communists. Pawley then commented that he never had been friendly with Braden and considered him as an enemy insofar as the State Department and national policy were concerned.”

Pawley’s appointment also may have been blocked by George Michanowsky, who had pressured Pawley to work closely with the CIO in Brazil, promising to do for him what he had done for Braden. Pawley considered Michanowsky a communist political action leader and threatened to throw him out the 46th floor window of his brother Edward Pawley’s Rockefeller Plaza office.5

Pawley claimed Michanowsky asserted that Braden was “washed up” and then offered Pawley “an Assistant Secretary of State position if Pawley would in turn report State Department activities to him.” After being threatened to be thrown out the office window, Michanowsky left. Pawley "immediately " traveled "to Washington and in the company of General Eisenhower and the then Attorney General Tom Clark went to the White House and told the story to President Truman.” Pawley repeated his allegations to others in 1947 but to Hoover’s dismay never brought them to the FBI until 1951. Pawley claimed his hesitancy was for political reasons.6

When the State Department shifted Pawley from Peru to Brazil to replace Adolf Berle, Jr., Henry and Clare Boothe Luce's Time noted the swashbuckler’s “fabulous up & down career” and his contribution to the defense of China. Ambassador to Peru Pawley had “earned the respect and awe of the Bustamante Government,” but Time ironically claimed Pawley “was the personal choice of Spruille Braden.”7

The news of Pawley’s transfer to Brazil drew a less-flattering response from the Peruvian Communist Party publication Labor. Its April 14, 1946 issue trumpeted “Dollar Ambassador en Route to Brazil.” Labor asserted that Pawley “acted as Ambassador of the Dollar. Of the American Bankers. Of the American Stock Exchange. Of monopolistic and imperialist capital.” The article continued in a similar vein for more than a dozen paragraphs questioning Pawley’s “flirtations with the APRA leaders” as well as his involvement with Lt. Gen. Willis Dale Crittenberger who took commanding positions in the Panama Canal Zone and the Caribbean. Readers were also asked to ponder what type of cargo was being carried out of “‘El Pato’” airbase in Talara, Peru on U.S. planes.8 Ambassador to Peru Pawley helped negotiate the agreement with Peru that enabled America’s use of the base and advised the Secretary of State: “In this connection I should appreciate being advised by the Department as to whether or not the War Department is proceeding with the necessary arrangements for taking over and maintaining permanent control of the Talara Air Base. This base is now under the jurisdiction of the Sixth Air Force, a unit of the Caribbean Defense Command.”9

The Amazon Valley of Brazil, with its abundance of rubber trees, had become of strategic importance to the United States after the Japanese captured Indonesia, cutting off supplies of natural rubber needed by the allied powers for airplane tires. The U.S. rapidly developed the Rubber Development Corporation (RDC) which added more than a thousand American employees in Brazil during the war.

John Howard Burns served in Rio de Janeiro as staff aide to Economic Counselor of Embassy Walter Donnelly. Burns soon held the same position, serving U.S. Ambassador Berle, who had been part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s quick-minded “brain trust.” Burns then was assigned to Ambassador Pawley with whom “he remained friends for life.” While Berle could dictate the perfect response, Pawley relied on Burns to answer most of his mail after barking out his response instructions. Nonetheless, he admired Pawley and his style—arriving “in Rio with several personal limousines and his own airplane with a crew” as well as a fluency in Spanish (Berle learned to speak the more dominant language, Brazilian Portuguese), charisma, an abundance of exciting personal stories, and a desire to entertain lavishly.

Among Pawley’s visitors were former Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe General Dwight David Eisenhower, General Mark Clark under whom a Brazilian division served in Italy, President and Mrs. Truman and daughter Margaret, Secretary of State Marshall, Senators Connally and Vandenberg, CBS radio news commentator Eric Sevareid, and Time-Life publisher Henry Luce whose magazine coverage of Pawley helped build his fame. 

The purpose of the Rio gathering was not only to thank Brazilians for supporting the allied effort in defeating Hitler and Mussolini in World War II, but also to get South American countries to align on the side of the United States in future struggles. The Courier Journal of Louisville, Kentucky noted, "As Ambassador to Brazil William Pawley told a press conference a few days ago if another war comes it will be one of quick overwhelming attacks and arrangements have to be made in advance and cannot be improvised as in past wars." Pawley and Eisenhower saw the bigger global picture and they hit it off immediately upon meeting, developing a relationship that was both based on national security and friendship. 

In nearby Argentina (which wanted to remain neutral like Chile), Ambassador Spruille Braden accused rising political star Juan Perón and President Farrell of fascist ties, a move that backfired when working-class masses saw Yankee imperialism in Braden’s political interference and Argentinians took to the streets chanting, "‘Braden No, Perón Si.’"

Unlike Braden and Berle, Pawley advocated non-interference by the U.S. especially in terms of overthrowing local governments such as Juan Perón’s in nearby Argentina. His stance echoed Roosevelt and Truman’s so-called “Good Neighbor” policy which conveniently reflected that South America was not considered a top priority after World War II. Europe had been torn apart by Germany and desperately needed most of Washington’s attention.10 In less than a decade, Pawley’s friendly neighbor stance would reverse, and he would be involved in the overthrow of the elected President of Guatemala.

On June 27, 1946, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover received a communication from Sam J. Papich, Acting Legal Attache, regarding William D. Pawley, United States Ambassador to Brazil, on a “Foreign Political Matter.” The contents were still redacted a half-century later.11 Papich at the time was running “counterintelligence operations against the Communist party of Brazil and bloc intelligence agents. In 1952 he became FBI liaison with CIA charged with coordinating and planning, including the development of sources. He also had special assignments overseas for Hoover.”12

In late August, Pawley sent an air mail letter from the American Embassy in Rio de Janeiro to the FBI Director, stating, “About ten days ago I had the pleasure of a visit from Mr. C.H. Carson, Chief of SIS [Special Intelligence Service] Section, and we discussed a problem in which I am deeply interested.” He told Hoover that the topic was Legal Attaches and that “the United States cannot afford at this time to lose the services of this organization and these men.” Pawley then related details of how he had expressed his concerns in Rio with “four visiting Generals including Vandenberg and Eisenhower.”13

The Legal Attaché issue was based on a struggle between those in the U.S. government who wanted the FBI in charge of agents on foreign soil and those who believed a new centralized intelligence organization should oversee foreign counterespionage. In 1940, President Roosevelt had requested the FBI to establish the Special Intelligence Service (SIS) which “dispatched Agents to countries throughout the Western Hemisphere (except Panama). FBI Agents in South and Central America gathered intelligence information and worked to prevent Axis espionage, sabotage, and propaganda efforts aimed against the U.S. and its allies. Special Agents assigned to posts in Europe, Canada and Latin America began acting in an official liaison capacity.”14

Pawley’s concern endeared him to FBI Director Hoover who, on September 17, 1946, wrote an FBI internal memo stating that he wished a full letter be written to Mr. Pawley explaining exactly the situation.15

Some 30 years later in his autobiography, Russia Is Winning, Pawley expressed that upon arriving as Ambassador he was alarmed by the influence of communism in Brazil, a country that was rich in natural resources and only “slightly smaller in area than the United States.”

His concern grew when he heard of plans within the Truman Administration to eliminate the FBI from Latin America and to establish “a new counterintelligence and intelligence organization to be controlled by the Departments of State, Army and Navy.” His main anxiety was with State, which Ambassador Pawley believed had been overrun by members of the disbanded “Office of Strategic Services, an organization that had been heavily infiltrated by Soviet agents, Communists and fellow travellers.” In fact, J. Anthony Panuch, the security official in State had protested in the spring of 1946 that the OSS had unscreened personnel. Panuch was later fired.

Ambassador Pawley wrote United States Attorney General Tom C. Clark stating that the FBI “had performed admirably” and that putting the FBI functions in State would cause host countries to become suspicious of Ambassadors. They “would immediately become suspect as head of a spy ring, whereas now all countries, and their police departments, respected and cooperated with the FBI as a separate agency, not beholden to our Foreign Service officers.”

On the same day, Pawley received a top-secret memo from Truman noting that Brazilian President Dutra planned to outlaw Brazil's Communist Party.

Clark responded to Pawley and allayed some of his concerns by reassuring him that the decision had not been made regarding the SIS agents. But when General Dwight David Eisenhower visited Pawley, he informed him that the decision had already been made to create a new intelligence agency.

In his appeal on August 29, 1946 to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (with carbon copies to Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and Hoyt S. Vandenberg), Pawley urged a postponement of the implementation because he found the U.S. cannot afford to lose the services of the “invaluable ... efficient, capable, and discreet” Legal Attachés and their assistants in Latin America.

Pawley later gloated that “Dean Acheson's dangerous plan to centralize foreign intelligence and counterintelligence in the State Department was defeated in favor of a new agency, the CIA. Hoover was not required to relinquish any of his agents to the CIA, absorbing them instead into his domestic FBI jurisdiction. I was able to keep the two outstanding FBI men we had in Brazil by the expedient of persuading Hoover to place them on leave of absence, whereupon I employed both on my personal payroll.”16

Ambassador William Douglas Pawley’s support of SIS during the early hours of the Cold War positioned him as a “friend” of the FBI and Director Hoover—winning him favorable treatment years later when the FBI was asked to review a number of his other activities.

But not everyone was impressed with Ambassador Pawley. According to his autobiography, in the summer of 1946, his Ambassadorship brought scrutiny from the press. Particularly disturbing was coverage by U.S. newspaper columnist Drew Pearson, whom Pawley claimed frequently printed classified information leaked by State Department members aligned with Dean Acheson and Alger Hiss. Congressman Richard Nixon soon attacked Hiss as a communist.

On June 17, 1946, Pearson accused Pawley of being involved in a bribe paid to the son of President Leguia of Peru—but this was “a quarter of a century before I went to Peru,” Pawley later asserted in his own defense.

Eight days later, Pawley wrote to Henry Luce of Time, Inc. pointing out the friendship between Ambassador Spruille Braden and Drew Pearson and proclaiming that he was sickened by their effort to destroy the good neighbor policy.

In a footnote to his autobiography, Pawley clarifies “I don't for one moment believe that Spruille Braden had any part in this gutter snipe attack. Whether his left-wing advisers, Duran and Michanowsky, were involved is a different question.” But Time decided not to reprimand Pearson, claiming that the column may have been too “‘inane and far-fetched’” to take action.17

Twenty-four pages later in his autobiography, Pawley wrote about the favorable conditions for security in the Western Hemisphere, noting that “Argentina had been officially declared to be in compliance with anti-Nazi provisions of the Act of Chapultepec, and, with Spruille Braden now out of the Department of State, the danger of a feud between an Argentine bloc and a United State bloc was remote.”

In the fall, Pawley’s attention turned to expediting the Export-Import Bank’s pending loan to Brazil for development of the Vale do Rio Doce mining project to help grow the country’s economy.18 Three decades later Vale was the world’s largest exporter of iron ore and remained so into the 2020s.19

Pawley’s expanding South American perspective led him to envision a Western Hemisphere gathering of the “various heads of all missions for a seminar” and bounced the idea off General Eisenhower (aka Ike), Chief of Staff of the War Department.

Ike replied by letter to Pawley in Brazil on January 31, 1947 that he gave General Marshall “a thumbnail sketch of your activities and convictions as I understood them and he seemed pleased but offered no direct comment on your proposition.” (Marshall had been aware of Pawley since 1941 when he and retired Navy commander Bruce Leighton had been involved in recruiting the Flying Tiger pilots.20) Ike expressed his belief that Marshall must focus on Moscow, rather than Latin America so Pawley should “sit tight” but stroked Pawley by stating, “it was my conviction that you were in the State Department merely because of the belief that you could serve your country and that you happened to be in such a position financially that you could afford to sacrifice something in order to render such service.”

Ike included some personal remarks about Pawley’s Virginia and Florida homes. “This writing finds me as busy as ever. Mamie and I have talked about the possibility of running down to your farm.” He also stated, “When I was in Miami a guide one day pointed out a home that he thought was yours.” Ike concluded by writing, “Mamie joins me in warmest regards to you and Edna. Above all else take care of your health.”21

Pawley’s health had been of concern a few months earlier. He and his wife, Edna, had returned to the U.S. towards the end of September 1946, to visit doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota with regard to stomach problems that had plagued him “for so long.” While in the U.S. he renewed his ties with Clare and Henry Luce, the Tom Clarks, and Democrat National Committee Chairman Robert Hannegan, a close friend of President Truman. To them he expressed his “alarm over rising Communist strength in Brazil – a theme which I expounded upon also at lunch with ex-President Herbert Hoover and with Ike and Mamie Eisenhower, when they drove down to our Belvoir Farm outside Washington for a visit.”22

Hannegan died three years later, before Eisenhower would run for president as a Republican, and Pawley would switch his support to the Republican Party.23

Pawley also met with Cardinal Spellman who arranged a dinner at the home of Monsignor Fulton Sheen, Auxillary Bishop of New York. Also attending was Monsignor John Joseph Mitty, Archbishop of San Francisco, to discuss the critical issue of atheistic communism facing Brazil and the world. Pawley believed that Russian agents were everywhere in South America “endeavoring to destroy” the Americas “in a battle of nerves, a psychological warfare that they could easily win because of the promises they are making to the masses of uneducated people, which promises they know they will never have to fulfill.”

Cardinal Spellman suggested that Pawley seek out the new Primate of Brazil, Jaime Cardinal Camara. Upon returning to his post in Rio, Pawley visited “Cardinal Camara, an excitable man who, on three occasions inadvertently spoke of outlawing ‘the Protestant Party,’ as opposed to the Communist Party.”24

Pawley had a classified meeting with Lieutenant General Hoyt S. Vandenberg at the Central Intelligence Group Situation Room on April 3, 1947. Four days earlier they had met with Col. Donald H. Galloway, an intelligence officer who helped the organization evolve into the Central Intelligence Agency over the next few months.25

On May 6, 1947, the Brazilian Supreme Electoral Tribune outlawed the communist party leading to the closure of nearly “5,000 tainted organizations” and removal of communists from the unions. Time reported that the Brazilian Communist newspaper Tribuna Popular had accused Pawley of spearheading an “offensive” of U.S. capitalism on Brazil, but Time came to his defense, noting, “The facts: peripatetic Bill Pawley had been sunning himself in Miami” when the Brazilian government under President Dutra moved to outlaw the communist party.26

Three days later, however, Pawley sent a telegram to the Secretary of State noting: “Yesterday police closed all cells and committees in federal district. Police reported to have orders proceed in strict accordance law. No disturbances any kind reported from any part Brazil.”27

While some, including Time, worried that democracy had been sacrificed to “Dutracracy”28—named for Brazil’s president, Eurico Gaspar Dutra—Pawley and the Catholic-influenced newspaper Jornal do Brasil stood firm in their belief that “‘Communism and democracy are incompatible.’” Any glee at the outlawing of the party was short-lived as Communism soon flourished again receiving “official resuscitation in 1953 from one, João Goulart, a fellow traveller if not a Party member, who was allowed to become Minister of Labor.”

“Solemnity characterizes the life of an Ambassador more often than humor” Pawley noted before claiming he was amused when the Communist newspaper Tribuna Popular falsely alleged on September 18, 1947, that Pawley had told a group of American business executives “the United States must develop a certain type of imperialism” in which colonialism and benevolent slavery were rationalized.

“Skirmishes with my friend Harry [Henry] Luce and Time magazine, resulting in frequent phone calls, which commenced while I was in Peru, now redoubled” because “Latin Americans take offense at real or imagined affronts ... In Peru, for example, President Prado had called me in to complain bitterly that he had been ‘stabbed in the back by Time,’ which had referred to him as a ‘sunken-chested pot-bellied’ president.”

Pawley also had to deal with Time’s April 21, 1947 assertion that Brazilian nurses were “wretchedly trained” and a slur of Brazil’s 260-lb first lady, Camela Dutra. He called Luce and blasted him for “‘doing more harm than my Embassy can counteract.’” Luce insisted that his editors had always been “‘impudent’” and would remain so. Pawley then invited Luce to Brazil in May 1947 where he could rest and observe the developing nation. Instead of finding tranquility, Luce was hounded by the Brazilian press and Pawley who “counted off on my fingers [to Luce] the number of times his writer failed to check his stories with me and others in possession of the facts.”29

Pawley emphasized “the extremes to which Edna and I had gone to cooperate with Time’s young reporter” while serving him highballs30 (rye whiskey and ginger ale served in a tall glass).31

When Luce was ready to return to the U.S. after just five days in Brazil, Pawley chastised him for dishing it out but not taking it. Luce remained another nine days. Decades later when he wrote his autobiography and mentioned the visit, Pawley added, “Before I leave the subject of Harry Luce, it would be a gross omission not to mention his extraordinary wife Clare Boothe Luce, my friend of many years, with whom I had shared an unlikely wartime adventure on a flying trip from India back to the United States via Cairo, Egypt early in 1942.” Pawley seemed smitten, “Like almost everyone who met this rare feminine combination of stellar actress, gifted writer, diplomat (our first woman Ambassador to Italy), student of history and intense patriot, I was among her legion of admirers.”

As a young reporter working for Henry, Clare met Pawley socially in New Delhi. They then took a military air transport to Cairo, Egypt, “no mean feat under the rigid wartime system of priorities, even for a celebrity noted for a rare combination of beauty, brains, character and a whim of steel.” Upon arrival, “Clare’s wish to be billeted at Allied Headquarters was ‘not favorably considered’ by Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck, who seemed allergic to ‘reporters,’ especially females, but he did at my request include her in a dinner for his senior staff at Headquarter.”32 (Auchinleck was a career soldier who lived to age 96 and never married.)33

When Clare stepped off the plane in Trinidad, she was arrested by British intelligence and her briefcase was confiscated because she was suspected of writing material “inimical to the desired image of Britain as our wartime ally.” After appealing to Harry and Life editor Donovan, her dispatches were given to a special courier, and she was permitted to continue to New York. Her papers went “to 10 Downing Street. Evidently Churchill knew honest and professional reporting when he saw it, for some months later he ordered a special plane to take Clare to General Alexander’s headquarters in Italy. The Prime Minister wanted someone to give him an unvarnished report, with the bark on.”34

When Pawley told former President Herbert Hoover of his editorial dueling with Time, Hoover commented over lunch that the Time-Life organization currently had “about a hundred pro-Communists and fellow travelers.”35 Fellow travelers was a term that emerged after the Russian Revolution in 1917 for those who did not join the communist party but sympathized with its goals.36 Pawley was not concerned about the Luce’s though, writing later in praise of Henry Luce’s “absolute integrity and a deep faith in American traditions of political and economic freedom. He was good enough to send me a subscription to a new fortnightly magazine, The Freeman,” proclaiming in the promotional cover letter “at last America has a journal of opinion which speaks up boldly for the great Liberal Tradition as against the collectivist drift of our age.”37

Pawley’s own belief in economic freedom led him to advise “President Dutra that friends of mine, well versed in oil exploration believed that Brazil might be sitting on one of the largest untapped petroleum reserves in the world. Oil could be the key to unlocking Brazil’s vast natural wealth. Dutra and others found my enthusiasm contagious. Before long, we secured a commitment from Standard Oil of New Jersey and other oil companies for a half-billion dollars, following a trip I made to New York to enlist their support.” Pawley’s New York City office was in Rockefeller Plaza, named for the founder of Standard Oil.

Pawley “invited the son of former President Herbert Hoover, and his associate Curtis [actually Arthur A. Curtice] both international authorities on oil legislation, to fly down and assist” Brazil but their mission was denounced as being anti-U.S. oil drilling. Then Congress “wrote its own law, cluttered with restrictions and technicalities which would discourage foreign investors.” In his autobiography, Pawley lamented about the small amount of oil production Brazil had in the 20th century compared to what it could have had.38

In August 1947, Curtice believed that for “satisfactory oil legislation in Brazil to be feasible” the nationalistic Army leaders would have to be dissuaded from their belief “that keeping a close hold on Brazilian oil for strategic reasons was vital.” They needed to be assured that relying on the know-how of U.S. oil production companies “would be to Brazil’s advantage.” Curtice believed it would take the highly admired and respected Secretary Marshall or Secretary Forrestal—not Pawley—to convince the Brazilian Generals to change their minds. Ambassador Pawley indicated to Curtice that he hoped to get Secretary Marshall “away from Rio and Petropolis for a week-end at a ranch shooting and there to indoctrinate him on the Brazilian petroleum situation with a view to having him take the matter up with General Goes Monteiro.”39 (In 2023, Brazil was 10th in oil production but a leader in alternate fuel, producing ethanol from sugar cane.)40

When Dutra protested the American flag being flown on Brazilian soil at the U.S. military bases, Pawley revealed that one “Air Force major general saw fit to ignore my explicit instructions, flying his flag the very next day. I called Ike, Chief of Staff. The offending commander was on his way home within twenty-four hours. Then Ike beat me to the punch at our next encounter ... by thanking me for bringing the insubordination to his immediate attention.”

Pawley also “negotiated a satisfactory settlement over partial repayment of the Lend-Lease supplies furnished by us to Brazil during the War.” He used some of the funds to consolidate the staff scattered among 17 buildings into a modern twelve-story chancellery complete with “a theater, cafeteria and apartments for newly arrived Embassy personnel” until they found their own accommodations.41

Pawley’s circle of friends now included those who influenced and controlled the most powerful nation in the world as well as leaders of South America, India, Cuba and China. His close friend General George C. Marshall would develop the Marshall Plan (formally known as the European Recovery Plan) which would reshape the continent. Two decades later, Pawley would donate his personal papers to the research center built in Lexington, Virginia to honor Marshall.42

With American and Europe allied victory over Hitler’s ruthless forces, numerous members of the Nazi party fled into hiding—even to the Western Hemisphere. In actuality, the Nazi party itself had gained a foothold in Brazil two decades earlier and grew to about 5% of the 40,000 Germans whose families had emigrated to Brazil over the past century.43

In November 1946, the State Department issued an alert “that the Foreign Office be informed of the United States Government’s continued interest in removing dangerous Germans from this hemisphere and preventing a resurgence of German influence in the American Republics. It is further suggested that, if practicable, some expression be obtained from the Brazilian Government as to what steps, if any, it is planning to initiate pointing towards the removal of those dangerous Germans still remaining in Brazil.” One of those Pawley was alerted to was Hitler’s right-hand man, Martin Bormann, who was “reportedly travelling in Latin America under the name Keller” in December of 1946.44 In actuality, Bormann had died the previous year, but his body in a grave was not positively identified until 1998.45

Two months later, Ambassador to Brazil Pawley sent an airgram to the Secretary of State seeking clarification after receiving a January 17, 1947 instruction to “the Embassy ‘to make no further effort to obtain repatriation or punishment of comparatively minor offenders which still remain unpunished in Brazil.’”46

On August 6,1947, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover received from Sam Papich in Rio de Janeiro a secret air courier communication “re: Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun Information.” It included three letters that U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Pawley received in June from Frederick D. Hunt, American Consul, Martinique, French West Indies, regarding sightings of the two Nazis. After the war there were numerous sightings in Latin America and the Caribbean of those who looked like Hitler and his mistress Eva Braun, whom the U.S. government stated had committed suicide rather than be captured and brought to trial for genocide.47

On September 1, 1947, President Truman arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the Inter- American Conference for the Maintenance of Continental Peace and Security, which had started on August 15. “The President visited with President Dutra at Palaciode Catete at 7 p.m., accompanied by Mrs. Truman, Miss Truman, Admiral William D. Leahy, General Harry Vaughan, Admiral James Foskett, and Ambassador and Mrs. Pawley. Following this visit, they returned to the American Embassy where they remained for the evening.”48

The next morning, the Trumans, Ambassador Pawley, Admiral William D. Leahy, and the entire White House Staff and Press departed the American Embassy and drove to the Quitandinah Hotel, where they were received by the Brazilian Foreign Minister. President Truman addressed the Conference for 25 minutes. On September 3rd, after a morning walk with General Graham, the President spent most of the day working on his speech for the Joint Session of the Brazilian Congress before attending the opera with Ambassador Pawley and Admiral Leahy. The following day the Trumans accompanied by Admiral William Leahy, Ambassador and Mrs. Pawley, General Harry Vaughan and Admiral James Foskett attended a small informal dinner given by President Dutra. Following his speech, the President had a heart-stopping moment when his car-skidded on a mountain road. He then sailed home, feeling triumphant but weary, aboard the USS Missouri, the battleship upon which Japan had surrendered two years earlier.49

The trip was hailed as a victory with one million people greeting Truman.50 Pawley recorded in his autobiography that the conference “marked a milestone in the strengthening of hemispheric solidarity.” General George C. Marshall’s “large and distinguished delegation labored diligently for thirty days” on “one of the finest treaties ever signed by the United States.”

Pawley’s autobiography also brings to light some funny insights about Truman who had not only played the role of a statesman but also climbed the hill behind the embassy looking for orchids. Then, while Margaret Truman and William Pawley’s niece Anita Pawley, went to the opera, “Truman, Admiral Leahy and I smuggled ourselves out of the Embassy without calling the Secret Service (at Truman’s request)” and snuck into the opera so Truman could hear Tosca instead of the never-ending stream of “Missouri Waltz” and “Hail to the Chief.”51 Truman’s disdain for the song was not widely known. In 2007, the curator of the Truman Library related the story of how Richard Nixon many years later tried to ingratiate himself to former President Truman by playing on the piano what he assumed to be Truman’s favorite song, “Missouri Waltz.”52 It would not be Nixon’s last sour note.

While Ambassador in Rio, Pawley’s embassy staff included Walter McConaghy; Clarence A. Brooks, an economist; and four future Ambassadors: Paul C. Daniels, Randolph Kidder, John Howard Burns and David Key.53

In addition, there was a “younger star performer”—Assistant Military Attaché Major Vernon “Dick” Walters—who was destined to rise to the top of the Central Intelligence Agency during the 1970s. Educated in Switzerland and in command of eight languages, Walters was assigned by Pawley to all “distinguished visitors.” Among the “distinguished” was General George C. Marshall who, while in Moscow, “had been criticized for not mingling more with other delegations, so he now made a point of calling on all the missions. To aid in his interviews, Pawley had assigned to him Major Vernon ‘Dick’ Walters, an accomplished linguist ..."  In addition to Spanish, Portuguese and English, Walters was fluent in Dutch, French, German, Italian, and Russian.54

Vernon Walters made an indelible impression on Pawley in Brazil. Three decades later Pawley wrote in Russia Is Winning that during the 1951 oil crisis in Iran, Walters “was to act as an aide to Harriman during negotiations with the pro-Communist Iranian Prime Minister, Mohammed Mosaddeq, whose confidence Walters quickly won, so much so that Mosaddeq, when frustrated, was not ashamed to shed real tears in front of him. And when the emotional Prime Minister was seeing Harriman off at his plane, he said: ‘You know, if you let Walters negotiate this, I think we would have reached an agreement.’”55 Two years later, Mosaddeq was overthrown by the CIA and replaced by the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Pawley’s admiration of Walters continued into the Sixties. “And again, immediately after the assassination of President Kennedy, when Brazil was on the verge of takeover by the Soviets, under its pro-Communist leader Joao Goulart, the newly appointed American Ambassador refused to assume his post unless he could have Vernon Walters with him. Today [1975] a three-star general, and Deputy Director of the CIA, Dick Walters could serve his country better than any man I know if appointed as our Ambassador to Brazil.”56

For Pawley, the Inter-American Conference in Rio reaffirmed the Monroe Doctrine that “any armed attack by one state in the Western Hemisphere against any other state would be construed as an attack upon all.”57 Yet less than a decade later, Pawley would find it acceptable for the U.S. to overthrow the elected Arbenz government of Guatemala, and a half dozen years later Pawley also would become enmeshed in the Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro and his own plots to rid his beloved island of the bearded leader.

Pawley’s rabid hatred of Castro’s communism would eventually draw anger at him from President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.58 But while Pawley was in Brazil, things were much different. John and Bobby Kennedy’s father, Joseph P. Kennedy, wrote from Hyannisport, Massachusetts on August 5, 1946 to “My dear Bill” thanking Pawley for “your kindness to young Bob and his friend, Billings.” Joseph Kennedy “thought that in all his trip through South America he should see at least one Embassy, and frankly I wouldn’t ask any of our other representatives to do anything about it. I read occasionally that you will be brought back to State Department in charge of South American affairs. That would be almost too good to be true!”59

As Pawley’s tour of duty was coming to an end in Brazil in 1947, he became dismayed with Rio’s most influential English-language newspaper, Brazil Herald, which had grown hostile to the United States. Pawley and Ralph Edward Motley, an Atlantic Refining Executive in Brazil since 1929 and head of the American Society, “negotiated for control of the paper and got rid of the anti-American editor”—replacing him with Pawley’s friend from Miami Beach, John D. Montgomery, to rebuild the Brazilian paper “into an organ worthy of the American colony”—an odd description of a country that was a democratic federative republic and the world’s fifth largest nation. A few years later Motley perished in a plane crash at age 48.60

Footnotes:

1 “Pawley Is Named Envoy to Peru.” The New York Times, June 1, 1945. Page 5.

2 11/13/1945 Memorandum “Subject: Mr. William D. Pawley, American Ambassador to Peru.” To: The Director of the FBI [J. Edgar Hoover]. From: D. M. Ladd.

Mr. Fred Lyon of the State Department advised telephonically on November 13 that Ambassador William D. Pawley is presently in Washington. Mr. Lyon said Ambassador Pawley has indicated that he is anxious to meet and pay his respects to you. He will be available at the State Department until the end of this week.

Ambassador Pawley arrived in Peru in July of this year. He is a businessman and this is his first diplomatic post. He is reportedly a friend of President Truman. According to the Legal Attache in Lima he has been very cooperative. At his request, in August of this year, Special Agent [redacted] of the Bureau conducted a security survey of the Embassy in Lima which was apparently greatly appreciated by Ambassador Pawley.

He was born at Florence, South Carolina, in 1896 and during recent years has resided in Florida at 3190 Pine Tree Drive, Miami Beach. He is a non-career diplomat and has been a successful businessman. He is married and has two sons in the armed forces.

From 1925 to 1927 Mr. Pawley was connected with various real estate promotion activities in Florida and from 1927 to 1930 he was associated with the Curtiss Aviation organization in Puerto Rico. From 1930 to 1932 he was affiliated with a Cuban aviation company and in 1933 with the Inter-Continent Aircraft organization. It is reported that he has also been interested in the Hindustan Aircraft, Ltd., Corp., of Banglore India, and with the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company of Lowing, China.

It is believed that Mr. Pawley has severed his connections with the above-mentioned organizations and it is reported that the Inter-Continent Corporation, which has been a subsidiary of the Consolidated Vultee Corporation has now been taken into the corporate structure of the latter organization.

Mr. Pawley is quite wealthy and maintains a private plane and yacht in Lima. He has been very friendly with the Bureau representative in Peru. He has expressed great respect for the FBI and the Director.

Bureau personnel openly assigned to Peru are listed below.

3 “Presidential Daily Summary #63, April 29, 1946.” CIA Library Reading Room website. Page 4. 

>> This document was released by the CIA.

Historical Programs Staff, August 30, 1918. 

4 “Apra Enters.” Time, February 4, 1946.

5 “Executive session testimony of William D. Pawley September 2 and 8, 1960” Committee of the Judiciary’s Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and other Internal Security Laws, Report, December 20, 1960. Pages 713, 716 & 722.
>> After Michanowsky went to Mexico, he did not resurface in the United States until 1960 as far as Pawley knew.

6 3/2/1953 FBI Memorandum “Subject: re: William D. Pawley.” To: D. M. Ladd. From: A. H. Belmont.

Memorandum prepared pursuant to telephonic request of Mr. [Clyde] Tolson on February 24, 1953, for summary information on a former Ambassador Pawley whose home is in Florida. William Douglas Pawley has been erroneously identified as [APPROXIMATELY 6 LINES REDACTED] ... No investigation has been conducted on William Pawley who was a real estate broker in Florida, was actively interested in airplane manufacturing and establishment of airlines in foreign countries before becoming Ambassador to Peru in 1945. He was appointed Ambassador to Brazil in 1946 and as late as October 1952, was reported to be special consultant with State Department. Pawley vigorously opposed withdrawal of FBI from SIS work and protested personally to the Director, officials of State Department, General Eisenhower, General Hoyt Vandenberg and President Truman. Expressed high regard for Bureau, the Director and its personnel in Latin America ... In 1951 Pawley was interviewed at his request and made allegations that Braden was under control of George Michanowsky, Political Advisor of Latin American Affairs for CIO in 1946, and who was accused by Pawley of working with the Communist Party ... [and] recent activities with Iron Curtain Refugee Committee headed by his good friend, General Carl Spaatz. Gave his reason for delay in reporting above information as report given to him in confidence might have incriminated high officials in State Department.

RECOMMENDA TION:

None. This for your information, and for forwarding to Mr. Tolson.

In view of the above confusion as to both the first and last names, the following searches were made: [REDACTED] William Douglas Pawley, William Douglas Pawley as well as variation Bill Pawley and Bill Pauley.

... As a young boy he lived in Cuba with his parents and later moved to the Republic of Haiti where his father had a business. From 1925 to 1927 he was a real estate broker in Miami...credited with organizing the first commercial airline in Cuba, which he later sold to Pan American Airways. In 1934 he also organized the first airline to operate in China and was credited with being the organizer of the American group of Flying Tigers in China. In March 1945, he established the Intercontinent Aircraft Corporation of Miami with offices at Rockefeller Plaza, New York City. In June 1945, Pawley was appointed Ambassador to Peru and in April, 1946, was made Ambassador to Brazil. As late as October 1952, the files reveal that he was listed as a special consultant with the Department of State.

The files reveal numerous reference reflecting contacts with the Bureau from 1945 through 1951. He repeatedly expressed great respect for the FBI and the Director ...

From his various statements it appeared that Pawley was very anti-Communist...he was bitterly attacked by such newspapers as “La Epoca,” official organ of the radical party in Argentina, and “Hoguera” of Peru. These newspapers called him a “slick promoter” and linked him with Wall Street and claimed that he made “lucrative deals for himself in Peru.”

On August 1, 1951, William D. Pawley, consultant to the Secretary of State, was interviewed at his request in the presence of [REDACTED] ... Pawley stated he heard that Michanowsky had made a deal with Braden whereby the Democratic Party would receive six million CIO votes if certain activities of Braden, particularly as they related to Latin America, could be directed by Michanowsky...a close personal friend of [Gustavo] Duran who was at the time, confidential secretary to Braden. According to Pawley, Duran was a Communist. He continued by saying that while under the direction of Michanowsky, Braden misdirected the Government’s policy in Argentina, caused considerable embarrassment to the United States Government and in fact, acted as an agent for the Communists. Pawley then commented that he never had been friendly with Braden and considered him as an enemy insofar as the State Department and national policy were concerned.

Pawley stated in the early part of 1947, while he was still Ambassador to Brazil but was in New York on private business, he received a personal visit from Michanowsky who stated ‘we realize Braden is all washed up and we would like to see you get along in the State Department.’ He proceeded to offer him an Assistant Secretary of State position if Pawley would in turn report State Department activities to him. Pawley stated that he threw Michanowsky out of his office, immediately came to Washington and in the company of General Eisenhower and the then Attorney General Tom Clark went to the White House and told the story to President Truman. Mr. Pawley related that until a short time before the interview, Michanowsky was attached to an organization in New York known as the Iron Curtain Refugee Committee and that Mr. Gustavo Duran, at which time the United Nations Refugee Committee, was also indirectly associated with the group. [REDACTED] the Refugee Committee which was reported to be sponsored by a private group to look after political refugees entering the United States.

Mr. Pawley desired to present the above-related activities of Michanowsky to the Bureau with the hope that we would investigate him as well as any political refugees brought into the country at the instigation of either Michanowsky or Duran.

When the above interview with Pawley was reported the Director stated ‘It should be tactfully pointed out that the delay of four years in bringing this to our attention by Pawley (if in fact he didn’t do so) will seriously handicap this investigation.’

It was determined after the interview on August 1, 1951 that Pawley had made allegation to the Legal Attaché in May, 1947, to the effect that Spruille Braden was being influenced by Communist elements including George Michanowsky of the CIO. He also advised our Legal Attaché in Paris in September, 1948, that Braden was controlled by the CIO and Pawley took credit for ‘breaking Braden.’ A review of the files revealed that Pawley did not, at any time prior to August 1, 1951, furnish the bureau with information concerning Michanowsky’s alleged contact with him in ‘early 1947.’

In an interview on August 27, 1951, a tactful inquiry was made as to the reason of Pawley’s delay in reporting the above matter to the FBI. He indicated at that time that a memorandum dated March 5, 1947, which had been given in confidence, closely tied in with the matter. He stated that he was reluctant to make the memorandum available because it concerned persons in the State Department, was given him in confidence, possessed a great deal of ‘political’ significance and could be harmful if it fell into the hands of the opposition party. At the conclusion of the interview he reluctantly turned over a copy of the memorandum written by an unidentified author who said he said was [REDACTED PAGE].

7 “Messersmith’s Nose.” Time, April 15, 1946.

8 4/24/1946 Message “re: Communist Activities in Peru Security Matter—C.” From the Legal Attache, Charles E. McNabb, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

>> Labor article was referenced in this message.

9 “The Ambassador in Peru (Pawley) to the Secretary of State, October 19, 1945.” U.S. State Department Office of the Historian: Foreign Relations Of The United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945. The American Republics, Volume IX.

10 5/1/1995 Interview “Ambassador John Howard Burns.” Interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy. The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project. ADST website. http://www.adst.org/OH%20TOCs/Burns,%20John%20Howard.toc.pdf

11 "Hemisphere Defense Plan Proposed: Truman Rushes Project Despite Congress' No." By Frank L. Kluckhorn. The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky) August 9, 1946, page 4. 

6/27/1946 Communication “Regarding William D. Pawley, United States Ambassador to Brazil, Foreign Political Matter.” To: FBI Director Hoover. From: Sam J. Papich, Acting Legal Attaché.

Memorandum, U.S. State Department Summary of Telegrams   

        NAID: 200252500 Department of State Office of the Secretary, Washington, June 21, 1946.  

BRAZIL Ambassador Pawley reports that the Brazilian President and other high officials have urged an early understanding between the US and Argentina and believe that Argentine participation in a hemispheric defense plan is necessary and desirable.  

        NAID 200252553 Department of State Office of the Secretary, Washington,  August 14,1946  

BRAZIL Ambassador Pawley believes a definite date should now be set for the Rio Conference, thus giving notice to Argentina of a definite period during which is could fulfill its inter-American commitments and at the same time relieving Brazil of the impression that Argentina is arbitrarily holding up progress toward a defense pact between the US and the other American Republics.   

        NAID: 200271778 Department of State Office of the Secretary, Washington,  January 7, 1947  

BRAZIL Ambassador Pawley is convinced that the group of former pro-Axis individuals within this hemisphere is no longer considered generally to constitute a threat to the hemisphere. He adds that the need to strengthen relations among the American Republics, as a logical measure of defense and industrial and commercial progress, is generally conceded to be of greater urgency in the anticipation of possible future emergencies than a full and complete liquidation of past accounts. He states there is a widespread desire in Latin America that the US and Argentina adjust their differences as an essential step to achieving and implementing hemisphere solidarity.    

        NAID: 200281142 Department of State Office of the Secretary, Washington,  June 10, 1947  

BRAZIL Ambassador Pawley reports there is a possibility that Brazil could be persuaded to enter into arrangements with the US and UK governments to receive the bulk of all displaced persons from our occupation zones in Europe under a joint program, financed and directed by the three governments, which would necessitate the building of facilities in the interior of Brazil to receive these displaced persons. 

12 NARA 157-10002-10152 ~ 5/29/1975 SSCIA “Interview with Sam Papich.” Page 3 of 23.

13 8/29/1946 Air Mail Letter. To: FBI Director Hoover at the Justice Department, Washington, DC. From: Pawley atthe American Embassy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

14 “June 24, 1940.” Timeline FBI History.” Federal Bureau of Investigation website. http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/historicdates.htm

The FBI established a Special Intelligence Service (SIS) at President Roosevelt’s request. In connection with the SIS, the Bureau dispatched agents to countries throughout the Western Hemisphere (except Panama). FBI agents in South and Central America gathered intelligence information and worked to prevent Axis espionage, sabotage, and propaganda efforts aimed against the U.S. and its allies. Special agents assigned to posts in Europe, Canada, and Latin America began acting in an official liaison capacity. After President Truman closed the SIS in 1946, these agent liaisons formed the basis of the FBI’s Legal Attaché (Legat) Program. the FBI’s Legal Attaché (Legat) Program.

A Commemorative WWII History Series

Part 2: The FBI’s Special Intelligence Service, 1940-1946

Why was the SIS launched? Because by 1940 South America had become a hotbed of German intrigue. More than half-a-million German emigrants—many supporters of the Third Reich—had settled in Brazil and Argentina alone. In line with our earlier intelligence work on threats posed by Germany, Roosevelt wanted to keep an eye on Nazi activities in our neighbors to the south. And when the U.S. joined the Allied cause in 1941, he wanted to protect our nation from Hitler’s spies and collect intelligence on Axis activities to help win the war.

The President turned to the FBI to run the SIS (remember, this was before the CIA was created), and we ended up sending more than 340 agents and support professionals undercover into Central and South America over the next seven years.

As you’d expect, there was a learning curve...and it took some time to master the languages and get undercover operatives in place. But within months, the SIS was working well. We were gathering information and sending it back to FBI headquarters in Washington, where it was crafted into useful intelligence for the military and others. And overseas, we developed ways of sharing crucial information with law enforcement and intelligence services there so they could round up Axis spies and saboteurs.

How successful was the SIS? The numbers speak for themselves. By 1946, we had identified 887 Axis spies, 281 propaganda agents, 222 agents smuggling strategic war materials, 30 saboteurs, and 97 other agents. We had located 24 secret Axis radio stations and confiscated 40 radio transmitters and 18 receiving sets. And we had even used some of these radio networks to pass false and misleading information back to Nazi Germany.

The SIS was disbanded after the war, and the newly formed CIA was asked to take over its operations and expand U.S. intelligence activities worldwide. But the SIS served the nation well: it helped protect the homeland and win the war...provided valuable lessons in intelligence and undercover operations for the Bureau for years to come...and set the stage for our overseas Legal Attaché program

History of Legal Attachés

In 1940—a year before the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor pushed the U.S. into World War II—President Franklin D. Roosevelt realized that America needed more and better intelligence to understand the threats posed by the Axis powers.

The FBI was in charge of domestic intelligence, but there was no CIA at that time to handle overseas intelligence. Roosevelt decided to assign intelligence responsibilities for different parts of the globe to various agencies. The Bureau landed the area closest to home—the Western Hemisphere.

Strategically, it made sense—South and Central America were fast becoming staging grounds for the Nazis to send spies into the U.S. and hubs for relaying information back to Germany. In June 1940, the FBI responded to the president’s charge by setting up a Special Intelligence Service that deployed scores of undercover agents to ferret out Axis spy networks.

Around this time, the FBI also realized that it needed to establish official liaison with the many countries it was working with across the world to coordinate international leads arising from the Bureau’s work and to exchange information with the police and intelligence services of those countries. In 1940, the FBI established its first international office in Mexico City to collaborate on a variety of criminal matters. By the end of 1942, special agents also had been assigned to U.S. embassies in Bogota, London and Ottawa, and they were all carried on the Department of State’s diplomatic roster and given the title of “legal attaché” (or legat). The following year, a Liaison Section in the Security Division was established at FBI Headquarters to maintain contact with the legats, the State Department, the Armed Services, and other agencies.

As the need for intelligence related to the Axis threat in the West diminished towards the end of the war, the special agents assigned to posts in Europe, Canada, and Latin America began to make relationship- building and/or training their top priorities. In 1947, the FBI’s Special Intelligence Service was disbanded, and the newly formed CIA was tasked to take over foreign intelligence operations and to coordinate intelligence activities worldwide. But the Bureau’s network of legats overseas had proven its worth and continued to crystallize its liaison mission.

The number of legats operating from the 1950s through the 1980s fluctuated greatly due to crime trends and budget allowances, with offices opening, closing, and reopening at various times. In the 1990s, FBI Director Louis Freeh—recognizing that global crime and terror were on the rise—made it a priority to open a series of new legal attaché offices. At the start of his tenure in 1993, the Bureau had 21 offices in U.S. embassies worldwide; within eight years that number had doubled. Offices were opened, for example, in such strategic locations as Pakistan, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Turkey, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia.

In 1999, an FBI agent was stationed full-time in Budapest, Hungary, at the request of the Hungarian National Police to handle an increasing number of investigations prompted largely by a rise in organized crime groups. In April 2000, this relationship was formalized into the FBI-Hungarian National Police Organized Crime Task Force, the first FBI task force established outside of the United States. The work of the task force continues to this day. A legal attaché office was later established in Budapest as well.

The attacks of 9/11—and the increasing need for global cooperation to combat terrorism and other transnational threats—led to continued growth in the legal attaché program. By the end of 2006, the FBI had 57 permanent offices and 13 sub-offices in place, with 278 employees stationed abroad, including in new locations such as Baghdad, Iraq; Kabul, Afghanistan; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Beijing, China; Doha, Qatar; and Jakarta, Indonesia.

In 2009, the International Operations Division was created out of the former Office of International Operations that had been set up by Director Mueller following 9/11.

In recent years, the work of legal attachés has been vital in major investigations such as the East African embassy bombings of 1998, the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, 9/11, as well as countless other cases. Our legal attaché personnel have also helped coordinate the FBI’s role in special events overseas such as Olympic Games and the Bureau’s response to humanitarian crises beyond our nation’s borders.

Today, the Bureau has special agents and support professionals in more than 90 overseas offices and sub-offices, pursuing terrorist, intelligence, and criminal threats with international dimensions in every part of the world.

15 9/17/1946 FBI Internal Memo.

16 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Pages 120-123. 

17 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Pages 118-119.

18 “Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Brazilian Affairs (Braddock), October 18, 1946.” U.S. State Department Office of the Historian: Foreign Relations of The United States, 1946. The American Republics, Volume XI.

19 Vale History Book 5. Website no longer available.

20 State Department History. Page 353

21 1/31/1947 Letter. To: William Pawley. From: Dwight D. Eisenhower.

22 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Pages 128-133.

23 “Robert E. Hannegan Papers.” Harry S. Truman Library & Museum. National Archives. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/hstpaper/hannegan.htm

24 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Pages 128-133.

25 CIA-RDP80R01731R002600420001-1 ~ “April 3, 1947 entry.” Diary, Lieutenant General Hoyt S. Vandenberg. Pages 5 & 6.

“Donald H. Galloway, 82, Retired Army Colonel.” The Washington Post, December 16, 1980. 

26 “Rebound Time,” Time, May 26, 1947.

27 “The Ambassador in Brazil (Pawley) to the Secretary of State, Telegram, May 10, 1947, 1 p.m.” U.S. State Department Office of the Historian: Foreign Relations of The United States, 1947. The American Republics, Volume VIII.

28 “The Outlaws.” Time, May 19, 1947. Page 17. 

29 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Pages 128-133.

30 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Page 135.

31 “Rye Highball recipe.” Drinks Mixers website. 

32 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Pages 136-137.

33 “Auchinleck, Claude 1884-1981.” Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Website no longer available.

34 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Page 138.

35 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Pages 139-140.

36 Leon Trotsky, Literature and Revolution. Chapter 2: “The Literary ‘Fellow-Travellers’ of the Revolution.”  

37 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Page 139.

38 Pawley, Russia Is Winning, pages 124-125.

39 “Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Brazilian Affairs (Dawson) August 21, 1947. Subject: Proposed Petroleum Law in Brazil; Hoover–Curtice Mission.” U.S. State Department Office of the Historian: Foreign Relations Of The United States, 1947. The American Republics, Volume VIII. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1947v08/d412

40 “Brazil posed to become significant exporter of sugarcane-based fuel.” Brazil Arab News Agency, July 13, 2004. 

41 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Page 142.

42 In the 1960s, Pawley was a member of board of the George C. Marshall Research Foundation and donated his manuscript and personal papers to the Foundation in the 1970s.

43 “Adolf Hitler – FBI Files.” Black Vault website. >> 743 pages of declassified documents.

44 “FBI Document Re: Martin Borman (sic).” Hunting Hitler (TV series). History Channel, Season 2. December 2016.

45 Michael Miller, Leaders of the SS and German Police, Vol. 1. (San Jose, CA: R. James Bender, 2006). "DNA test closes book on mystery of Martin Bormann." By Imre Karacs. The Independent. May 4, 1998.

46 Airgram: “The Ambassador In Brazil (Pawley) To The Secretary Of State, Rio de Janeiro, February 12, 1947.” U.S. State Department Office Of The Historian: Foreign Relations Of The United States, 1947. The American Republics, Volume VIII.

A–167. Reference is made to the Department’s instruction no. 366, November 23, 1946, which reads in part as follows:

It is suggested that the Foreign Office be informed of the United States Government’s continued interest in removing dangerous Germans from this hemisphere and preventing a resurgence of German influence in the American Republics. It is further suggested that, if practicable, some expression be obtained from the Brazilian Government as to what steps, if any, it is planning to initiate pointing towards the removal of those dangerous Germans still remaining in Brazil.

The Department’s telegram no. 62, January 17, 1947, instructs the Embassy “to make no further effort to obtain repatriation or punishment of comparatively minor offenders which still remain unpunished in Brazil”.

The Embassy will appreciate receiving clarification of these conflicting instructions.

47 8/6/1947 Air Courier Communication “re: Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun Information.” To: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. From Sam Papich in Rio de Janeiro. Black Vault website.

48 “September 1, 1947.” Daily Appointments of Harry S. Truman. Harry S. Truman Library & Museum. National Archives. Website.

49 September 2, 3, 4, 5, 1947. Daily Appointments of Harry S. Truman. Harry S. Truman Library & Museum. National Archives. Website.

“Truman Safe as Auto Skids On Brazilian Mountain Road.” By C. P. Trussell. The New York Times, September 7, 1947. Page 1.

“President Sailing Directly For Home.” By C. P. Trussell. The New York Times, September 8, 1947. Page 1.

50 “1,000,000 Acclaim Truman on Entry in Brazil’s Capital.” By C. P. Trussell. The New York Times, September 2, 1947. Page 1.

“Rolling Down to Rio.” Time, August 18, 1947.

A major logistics problem at the Rio Conference was the short supply of Scotch “at $115 a case ... to float Ambassador Bill Pawley’s projected cocktail party for 2,000. When one businessman bragged that he owned four bottles of Scotch, another cracked: ‘Don’t say that out loud or you’ll be giving a reception for Marshall.’”

51 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Pages 143-145.

52 “Tour of the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum.” C-Span, September 21, 2007.

53 Ellis Briggs, Proud Servant: The Memoirs of a Career Ambassador (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1998). Page 152.

>> The career of each diplomat can be found at U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian website.

• Paul C. Daniels: Ambassador to Honduras (1947) and Ecuador (1951-53) and later a leading American figure in the formulation of the Antarctic Treaty of 1959.

• Randolph Kidder: Ambassador to Viet Nam (1955).

• John H. Burns: Central African Republic (1961-63) and Tanzania (1965).

• David Key, soon Ambassador to Burma (1950-1952).

• Clarence Brooks is identified as an economist.

Australian Antarctic Data Centre website

>> You must search results for Paul Daniels to see details.

54 https://www.marshallfoundation.org/library/digital-archive/statesman-chapter-21-strengthening-latin-american- ties“Vernon Walters.” George C. Marshall Foundation website 

55 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Pages 117 and 118.

“Vernon A. Walters, Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations, May 1985 - March 1989.” History of USUN Ambassadors, Archive, United States Mission to the UN.

56 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Page 141.

57 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Pages 143-144.

58 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Page 431.

59 Pawley, Russia Is Winning. Page 436.

60 William Pawley and Richard Tyron, Why The Communists are Winning as of 1976. Chapter 7. Gratisbooks.com 

“Ralph Edward Motley.” Family Search website.