William J. Donovan and User:Chevre/Crazy Goat: Difference between pages

Revision as of 08:29, 2 August 2005

Revision as of 14:43, 6 November 2005

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{{Football club infobox |

:''For the baseball pitcher and manager, see: [[Bill Donovan (baseball)]]''

clubname = Crazy Goat |

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image = [[Image:Crazy Goat Hattrick.png|120px|logo]] |

[[Image:William Donovan.jpg|thumbnail|200px|William Donovan]]

fullname = Crazy Goat |

nickname = ''Kozy'', ''Clintonki'' |

'''William Joseph Donovan''' ([[January 1]], [[1883]] – [[February 8]], [[1959]]) was born in [[Buffalo, New York]] on [[New Year's Day]], [[1883]], and is best remembered today as wartime head of the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS).

founded = [[2002]] |

ground = Pastwisko,<br/>[[Poznań]], [[Poland]] |

Donovan was a college football star at [[Columbia University]], graduating in [[1905]]. On the football field, he got the nickname that he would earn over and over again in a long and eventful life: "Wild Bill" Donovan.

capacity = 66,600 |

chairman = [[User:Chevre|Maciej Meller]] |

Donovan was a member of the [[New York City]] "Establishment," a powerful [[Wall Street]] lawyer and a [[Columbia Law School]] classmate ([[1907]]) of [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]], although they were not close at the time.

manager = [[User:Chevre|Maciej Meller]] |

league = [[Polish V.192|V.192]] |

In [[1912]], Donovan formed and led a troop of [[cavalry]] of the New York [[United States National Guard|State Militia]], that in [[1916]] served on the Mexican border in the [[Pancho Villa]] campaign.

season = Season 15 |

position = 5th |

During [[World War I]], Donovan organized and led a regiment of the [[United States Army]], the 165th Regiment of the [[U.S. 42nd Infantry Division|42nd Division]], on the battlefield in France. As a lieutenant colonel, he was awarded the [[Medal of Honor]], the highest American valor award, for leading a successful assault, despite serious wounds. By the end of the war he was a full colonel and his other awards included the [[Distinguished Service Cross (USA)|Distinguished Service Cross]], the second highest award, and three [[purple heart]]s.

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After the war, he was the [[U.S. Attorney]] for the Western District of New York, famous for his energetic enforcement of [[Prohibition]], and he ran unsuccessfully for public office. President [[Calvin Coolidge]] named him to the [[Justice Department]]'s [[Antitrust]] Division.

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After the start of [[World War II]], President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt|Franklin Roosevelt]] began to put the United States on a war footing. After [[Secretary of the Navy]] [[Frank Knox]] recommended Donovan, Roosevelt gave him a number of increasingly important assignments, trusting him absolutely until Roosevelt's death in [[1945]], even though they were political opponents &mdash; Roosevelt was a [[United States Democratic Party|Democrat]] and Donovan a lifelong [[United States Republican Party|Republican]].

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In [[1940]] and [[1941]] he served as an [[emissary]] and information gatherer for Knox and President Roosevelt, traveling to [[Britain]] and parts of [[Europe]] that were not under [[Nazi]] control.

==OSS==

In [[June]] [[1941]], Donovan received what would be his most important assignment: Roosevelt named him Coordinator of Information (COI). This made him the first overall chief of the United States [[Intelligence community]], which at the time was fragmented into Army, Navy, [[FBI]], [[State Department]], and other interests. The [[FBI]] retained its independence, and control of intelligence in South America, at the insistence of FBI Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]].

The COI became the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] and Donovan was returned to active duty in his WWI rank of Colonel (by war's end he would be Major General). The OSS was responsible for espionage and sabotage in Europe and in parts in Asia. The OSS was kept out of South America by Hoover's hostility to Donovan, and out of the Philippines by [[Douglas MacArthur]]'s. For many years the exploits of the OSS remained under wraps, but in the [[1970s]] and [[1980s]] significant parts of the OSS history were declassified, making Donovan a household name to a new generation.

After Roosevelt's death, Donovan's political position, which depended on his personal connection to the President, was substantially weakened. He argued forcefully for the retention of the OSS in the years after the war, but President Harry S. Truman was not interested. After the war, he reverted to his lifelong role as a lawyer to perform one last duty: he served as special assistant to chief [[prosecutor]] [[Telford Taylor]] at the [[Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal]]. There he got the personal satisfaction of seeing [[Nazi]] leaders who were responsible for torturing and murdering OSS agents brought to justice. For his WWII service, Donovan received the [[Distinguished Service Medal (USA)|Distinguished Service Medal]], the highest award the United States military gives for service (not valor).

At the conclusion of the [[trial]], he returned to Wall Street where his firm, Donovan, Leisure, Newton and Irvine, was a powerhouse. He remained always available to the postwar Presidents who needed his counsel &mdash; or his intelligence management experience. In [[1949]], he became chairman of the newly-founded [[American Committee on United Europe]], which worked to counter the perceived new Communist threat to Europe by promoting European political unity.

Donovan's son, David Rumsey Donovan, was a naval officer who served with distinction in WWII. His grandson William James Donovan served as an enlisted soldier in Vietnam.

Donovan died on [[February 8]], [[1959]] at [[Walter Reed Army Medical Center]], in [[Washington, D.C.]], and is buried in [[Arlington National Cemetery]]. President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] referred to him as "the Last Hero," which later became the title of a biography of him. After his death, Donovan was awarded the [[Freedom Award]] of the [[International Rescue Committee]] (not, as some biographies state, the "Medal of Freedom," a different award). The law firm he founded, Donovan, Leisure, was dissolved in [[1998]].

General Donovan is a member of the [[Military Intelligence Hall of Fame]].

==List of Honors and Decorations==

'''American Awards'''

[[Medal of Honor]]

[[Distinguished Service Cross (USA)|Distinguished Service Cross]]

[[Distinguished Service Medal (USA)|Distinguished Service Medal]] with 1 [[Oak Leaf Cluster]]

[[Purple Heart]] with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters

[[National Security Medal]]

[[Mexican Border Service Medal]]

[[World War I Victory Medal]] with 5 [[campaign clasp|Battle Clasps]]

[[Army of Occupation of Germany Medal]]

[[American Defense Service Medal]]

[[American Campaign Medal]]

[[Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal]] with Arrowhead and 2 Bronze Service Stars

[[European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal]] with Arrowheads, 2 Silver Service Stars, and 2 Bronze Service Stars

[[World War II Victory Medal]]

[[Armed Forces Reserve Medal]] with one ten-year [[hourglass device]]

'''Foreign Awards'''

[[Légion d'Honneur]] (France) (WWI)

[[Légion d'Honneur|Commandant de la Légion d'Honneur]] (France)(WWII)

[[Croix de Guerre]] with Palm and Silver Star (France)

[[Order of the British Empire|Knight Commander of the British Empire]]

[[Lateran Medal]] (Vatican)

[[Order of St. Sylvester]] (Vatican)

==References==

''Father Duffy’s Story'', by Father Francis Patrick Duffy, George H. Doran Company, 1919.

''A Doughboy with the Fighting 69th'', by Albert M. and A. Churchill Ettinger, Simon & Schuster, 1992.

''The Shamrock Battalion of the Rainbow: A Story of the Fighting Sixty-Ninth'', by Martin J. Hogan, D. Appleton, 1919.

''Into Siam'', by Nicol and Blake Clark, Bobbs-Merrill, 1946.

''No Banners, No Bands'', by Robert Alcorn,D. McKay, 1965.

''Donovan and the CIA: A History of the Establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency'' by Thomas F. Troy, CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1981.

''Wild Bill Donovan: The Last Hero'', by Anthony Cave Brown, NY Times Books, 1982.

''Americans All, the Rainbow at War: The Official History of the 42nd Rainbow Division in the World War'', by Henry J. Reilly, F.J. Heer, 1936.

''OSS: The Secret History of America’s First Central Intelligence Agency'', by R. Harris Smith, University of California Press, 1972.

==External links==

*[http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/citations_1918_wwi/donovan_william.html Donovan's Medal of Honor citation]

*[http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/wjodonov.htm Donovan's grave]

*[http://foia.fbi.gov/donovan.htm An FBI security investigation of Donovan]

*[http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library/donovan/nur.html The Donovan War Crimes Trials Library at Cornell University]

[[Category:1883 births|Donovan, William]]

[[Category:1959 deaths|Donovan, William]]

[[Category:Medal of Honor recipients|Donovan, William]]

[[Category:American World War II veterans|Donovan, William]]

[[Category:American lawyers|Donovan, William]]

[[Category:World War II espionage|Donovan, William]]

[[Category:World War II spies|Donovan, William]]

[[pl:William J. Donovan]]