Truman Smith (officer)

Truman Smith
Born (1893-08-25)August 25, 1893
West Point, New York
Died October 3, 1970(1970-10-03) (aged 77)
Fairfield, Connecticut
Resting place Arlington National Cemetery, Sec: 46, Site: 759-17
Education B.A., 1915, Yale College
1915-1916 graduate student, Columbia University
Home town Stamford, Connecticut
Height 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Katherine Alling Hollister (1917-1970, his death)
Parent(s) Capt. Edmund Dickinson Smith (U.S. Inf.) and Mary (Dewing) Smith
Relatives Truman Smith, paternal grandfather

Military career

Allegiance  United States
Service/branch United States Army
Years of service 1916–1946
Rank Colonel
Battles/wars
Awards Silver Star
Notes

Truman Smith (August 25, 1893 – October 3, 1970) was a U.S. Army infantry officer, military attache, and intelligence officer. He collected valuable intelligence on German military capabilities while serving in Berlin before World War II. During the war, he was a personal advisor to General George C. Marshall. He influenced the establishment of the new Bundeswehr to play a role in the Cold War.

Early life and career

He was brought up and attended schools in Stamford, Connecticut. His father was killed in action at Cebu, Philippine Islands (February 1900). He attended Yale (1912–15), and earned a B.A. - one hundred years after his namesake grandfather. He was a graduate student at Columbia (1915-1916).[2]

He married Katherine Alling Hollister in 1917.[2]

U.S. Army

He served on the Mexican border as a Lieutenant in the New York National Guard (1916), and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Regular Army November 30, 1916.

In World War I he was a company commander and battalion commander in the U.S. 4th Infantry Regiment in France during the Marne and Meuse-Argonne Campaigns. He received the Silver Star (recommended for Distinguished Service Cross) and promotion to Major for leading his battalion in capture of the Bois de Foret.

He was in Coblenz during the occupation of Germany as political advisor to the officer in charge of civil affairs (January 1919 – June 1920), followed by nearly four years as assistant military attaché in Berlin (June 1920 – April 1924). In November 1922, Smith was sent to Munich to research a local political organizer, Adolf Hitler. In his report filed to Washington, he prophetically identified the young Hitler as a "marvelous demagogue," who was the dominating force in his Bavarian fascist movement, and whose forceful, logical, and fanatical speaking could sway a neutral listener. [4]

Smith subsequently returned to Berlin to serve as military attaché from 1935–1939.

During the eleven years between postings in Berlin, he completed the U.S. Infantry School, Ft. Benning, Georgia (1927), attended the Command and General Staff School, Ft. Leavenworth (1928), returned to the U.S. Infantry School as an instructor (1928–32), attended the Army War College (1933), and served with the 27th infantry regiment, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii (June 1933 – April 1935).

He returned to Washington, D.C. as a specialist on Germany in the U.S. Army military intelligence division, and as a personal adviser to General George C. Marshall (1939–45).

From Berlin in the late 1930s, he reported on German rearmament, Luftwaffe capabilities, and the increasing extent of the Germans' organization for war. He was friendly with important officers such as Werner von Blomberg (Minister of War).

He arranged (May 1936) the first of Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh's five inspection trips to the German aircraft industry and the Luftwaffe. Senior Luftwaffe officers discussed air tactics and operations with Lindbergh; he flew a Messerschmidt Bf-109. The trips produced valuable intelligence. Lindbergh's public opposition to Roosevelt's war policies, among other things, made him unpopular. Accepting a medal from Hermann Göring fueled suspicion that he was Nazi sympathizer and disloyal to his country. Smith represented that Lindbergh's visits in fact provided valuable intelligence. (Smith was himself vulnerable to vilification as a defeatist or German sympathizer, but General Marshall who had commanded him at Fort Benning, protected him.[5]

Smith by all accounts served the Army well during World War II but he and his wife Katharine remained staunchly anti-Roosevelt in their outlook. Upon hearing of FDR's death in April 1945 Smith and his wife burst into roars of laughter and embraced each other and a friend.[6]


Retirement

He sought the Republican nomination for Connecticut's 4th congressional district in 1946, but lost to Hon. John Davis Lodge in 1946.

He advised the Eberstadt (Armed Forces) Committee, part of the first Hoover Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch (1945-1946, or 1948).

He was military aide to the governor of Connecticut.

He translated, edited, and wrote the preface for Invasion, 1944: Rommel and the Normandy Campaign, by Lieutenant General Hans Speidel, Rommel's chief of staff.

In 1958, General Albert Wedemeyer published an autobiographic book about WW II.[7] In this book, he praised Smith for his achievements during his time in Berlin and the quality of the reports he delivered, i.e. about the German re-armament. Wedemeyer pointed out that Smith (and Charles Lindbergh) earned gratefulness of the United States but were criticized by a clique of politicians that wanted to ignore the war preparations of the Nazi regime.

Publications

References

  1. ↑ Gertz, Janet Elaine (August 1981). "Guide to the Truman Smith Reports Collection MS 405". New Haven, Connecticut: Manuscripts and Archives, Sterling Memorial Library. Retrieved 2012-07-21. |chapter= ignored (help)
  2. 1 2 3 "Truman Smith papers: Scope & Content Note". Hoover Presidential Library. Retrieved 2012-07-21.
  3. ↑ Nagorski, Andrew (March 1, 2012). "Truman Smith: The American Who Saw Hitler Coming". World War II magazine. ISSN 0898-4204. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
  4. ↑ Shirer, William (1990). The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 47. ISBN 1451651686.
  5. ↑ "BOOK SAYS LINDBERGH REPORTED ON GERMANS" (fee, via Fairfax County Public Library). New York Times. New York, N.Y. Associated Press. 9 Nov 1984. p. A.13. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2012-07-22. (subscription required)
  6. ↑ Lynne Olson, Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941, pg 406
  7. ↑ Wedemeyer Reports!, New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1958

Further reading

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