‘[…] the best security for London is the nine Kennedy children.’ Perceptions by US Officials in Washington DC and London of Britain's Readiness for War in 1939

Abstract

The London Observer was the title given to the published version of the diaries of General Raymond E. Lee, US military attaché in London in 1940–1941, edited by James R. Leutze, which appeared in 1971. Yet Lee did not arrive in London till spring 1940, as Britain's ‘Finest Hour’ sounded and the nation squared up to Luftwaffe air attack and the threat of German invasion. Compared with this phase of the Second World War, so extensively chronicled by historians, scant attention has been paid to British preparedness for war—and especially little to evaluations by America's London observers of the quality of British preparedness. This article seeks to fill that gap. Firstly, it highlights the severe organisational shortcomings and largely absent coordination that prevented the US diplomatic and intelligence apparatus forming coherent advice to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the State Department on whether Britain's defences, and Neville Chamberlain's government, could withstand the Third Reich. Secondly, it shows that seriously divergent assessments resulted as to the likelihood of Britain withstanding a war, notably as between the pessimism of Joseph P. Kennedy, the US ambassador to the Court of St James from 1937 to 1941 and father of later President John F. Kennedy, and the measured optimism of his professional defence advisor, Brigadier-General Bradford G. Chynoweth, Lee's predecessor as US military attaché in London. Finally, it suggests the importance of personalities in international politics, as the difficulty for the State Department, the War Department and the President of accurately calibrating British war readiness in 1939 became greatly exacerbated by the personal animosity between their men on the spot.

Keywords:

• Anglo-American Relations
• Diplomacy
• Diplomats
• State Department
• Joseph Kennedy
• Military History

Notes

Martin S. Alexander is a Professor of International Relations at Aberystwyth University, having previously been Professor of Contemporary History and Politics at Salford University (1993–2001) and Visiting Associate Professor of Strategy and Policy at the U.S. Naval War College in 1991–92. He is writing a book on the phoney war of 1939–1940. His publications include The Republic in Danger: General Maurice Gamelin and the Politics of French Defence, 1933–1940 (1992); as editor, Knowing Your Friends. Intelligence inside Alliances and Coalitions from 1914 to the Cold War (1998); and as co-editor with William J. Philpott, Anglo-French Defence Relations between the Wars (2002).

 [1] Great Britain: Comments on Current Events: Report no. 40105 (5 May 1939), 3, Bradford Gethen Chynoweth Papers, Box 6: ‘Miscellaneous Papers—attaché reports, 1939’, US Army Military History Institute [hereafter USAMHI], Carlisle Barracks, Carlisle, Pennsylvania; see also the treatment of some of the subject matter of this essay in Wilson, The U.S. Army and World War II, 47–72. I am indebted to Prof. Wilson for helpfully sending a copy of this chapter to me at short notice.

 [2] For a broader perspective of US views of Britain across the whole interwar period, see Gooch, War, Strategy and International Politics, 155–73.

 [3] Leutze (ed.), The London Observer. Excellent wider studies of the Anglo-American relationship in the later 1930s, include Reynolds, The Creation; MacDonald, The United States; Schmitz and Challener (eds), Appeasement in Europe; Doenecke, ‘U.S. Policy’, 669–98; Leutze, Bargaining for Supremacy.

 [4] In the persuasive assessment of one historian: ‘Radio commentators did their part to instruct Americans on the great questions raised by the war […] They brought the disturbing events of the war into American homes in a fashion that equaled the impact movies were having in theaters. Murrow, an interventionist, promoted the cause through his dramatic word pictures of London's destruction by the Luftwaffe’. Zahniser, Then Came Disaster, 176–7; also Sevareid, Not So Wild A Dream, 82–3, 176–83. The radio and newsreel journalists also wrote books, some of them rushed out for maximum influence on their intended US readership, others appearing slightly later as works of contemporary history, e.g. Klemmer, They'll Never Quit; Reynolds, Britain Can Take It; Reynolds, A London Diary ; Middleton, Our Share of Night; Middleton, The Sky Suspended .

 [5] A notable exception is Reynolds, The Creation (cited supra, note 3); see also McFarland and Roll, Louis Johnson, 31–92; and Haglund, ‘George C. Marshall’, 745–60.

 [6] See Alexander, ‘Safes and Houses’, 187–210.

 [7] Cf. Vieth, U.S. Diplomats, 165–82; Kaufmann, The Diplomats, 649–68; see also Smith (ed.), Hostage to Fortune; and Dallek, John F. Kennedy, 53–66.

 [8] For another case, with comparative similarities in certain interesting respects albeit not in others, see Liang-Tsai, ‘A Wrong Man in the Wrong Place’.

 [9] See Colman, ‘Portrait of an Institution’, 339–60; and Colman, ‘The London Ambassadorship’, 327–52; in the reverse direction, for the wartime and Cold War era British envoys in Washington DC, see Hopkins, Kelly and Young (eds), The Washington Embassy.

[10] US National Archives and Records Administration: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York [hereafter: NARA-FDRL), Judge R. Walton Moore Papers, Record Group 55, Box 3: William C. Bullitt (Paris) to R. Walton Moore, ‘Personal and Confidential’, 8 November 1936.

[11] In General Maurice Gamelin (Cabinet), Journal de marche (21 September 1939), Fonds Gamelin, 1K224 Carton 9, Service Historique de la Défense: Département de Terre (hereafter: SHD-T), Vincennes, France.

[12] NARA-FDRL: Judge R. Walton Moore Papers, Group 55, Box 3: Bullitt letter to Moore, ‘Personal and Confidential’, 26 October 1936.

[13] Ibid., Bullitt letter to Moore ‘Personal and Confidential’, 3 May 1937; also Moss, U.S. Diplomats, 113–26; and Cannistraro, Wynot and Kovaleff (eds), Poland and the Coming.

[14] See Clifford, ‘Both Ends of the Telescope’, 213–30; Heinrichs, Threshold of War; McDonald, Paths to War; Offner, The Fascist Challenge, 400–12; and Ibid., 413–27.

[15] Kahn, Knowing One's Enemies, 476–501 (quotation, p. 489).

[16] See Alexander, ‘Perspectives’; and more generally, Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt; Ketchum, The Borrowed Years.

[17] Christman, Calculations, 216–57 (quotations 225).

[18] Career resumé of General George Malin Craig (5 July 1875–25 July 1945), at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malin_Craig (accessed 19 February 2010); on the pre-Pearl Harbor politics of the War Department and the modest but positive steps to expand and re-arm the US Army, see Bland (ed.), The Papers of George Catlett Marshall.

[19] Harry Hines Woodring (31 May 1890–9 September 1967), at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Hines_Woodring (accessed 3 March 2010); McFarland, Harry H. Woodring; McFarland and Roll, Louis Johnson, 96–110.

[20] See Andrew, For the President's Eyes Only.

[21] Reynolds, ‘From World War to Cold War’, 211–27.

[22] See Watson, U.S. Army in World War II.

[23] Reynolds, ‘From World War to Cold War’ (article cited supra, note 21); see also the important book of Stoler, Allies and Adversaries; and the perceptive reflections, informed by his first-hand experiences, in Major-General Sir Kenneth Strong, Men of Intelligence, 111–41.

[24] More generally on the work, background, sub-cultures and roles of service attachés as ‘diplomats in uniforms’, see Vagts, The Military Attaché; also Wark, ‘Three Military Attachés’, 586–611.

[25] Vagts, The Military Attaché, 70–1.

[26] Private letter, Chynoweth to Col. E. R. W. McCabe, Assistant Chief of Staff G-2 (5 May 1939), Chynoweth Papers, Box labelled ‘Correspondence 1916–1940, 1941–45’, USAMHI.

[27] Kahn, Knowing One's Enemies, 487–8.

[28] See Mahnken, ‘Uncovering Foreign’, 26–54; and the essays in Murray and Millett (eds), Military Innovation.

[29] Vagts, The Military Attaché, 68–9.

[30] Farnsworth, William C. Bullitt; Sempa, American Diplomacy.

[31] Gamelin (Cabinet), Journal de marche (11 October 1939), in Fonds Gamelin, 1K224 Carton 9, SHD-T, Vincennes, France.

[32] See Vagts, The Military Attaché, 65–6.

[33] Of comparative interest here is the British perspective on the USSR's military potential and intentions at this time; see Herndon, The Fascist Challenge, 297–319.

[34] Career resumé of Colonel (temp. Major-Gen.) Horace H. Fuller (10 August 1886–18 September 1966) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_H_Fuller (accessed 19 February 2010).

[35] Biography. United States Air Force. Brigadier General Frank Purdy Lahm (b. 1877, d. 7 July 1963) at http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio_print.asp?bioID = 6126&page = 1 (accessed 19 February 2010). For more detail on US diplomatic and military reportage from France, see Alexander, ‘Safes and Houses’ (article cited supra, note 6); and Bullitt (ed.), For the President, 171–491 passim.

[36] NARA-FDRL: Judge R. Walton Moore Papers, Group 55, Box 3: Letter, Bullitt to Moore, 5 July 1937.

[37] Ibid., Bullitt letter to Moore, 2 July 1937.

[38] Ibid., Bullitt letter to Moore, 5 July 1937.

[39] Biographical and career resumé of Admiral Roscoe Henry Hillenkoetter (8 May 1897–18 June 1982), is available by searching the CIA website https://www.cia.gov.

[40] See Burdick, ‘The American Military’ also Little, U.S. Diplomats, 129–46.

[41] Biography. United States Air Force. Major General George Clement McDonald (1892–1 May 1969), at http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio_print.asp?bioID = 6384&page = 1 (accessed 19 February 2010); Biography. United States Air Force. Brigadier General Martin Francis Scanlon (b. 1889—d. 26 January 1980), at http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio_print.asp?bioID = 7044&page = 1 (accessed 19 February 2010); and photograph of the much-expanded team of US Army, Army Air Corps and US Navy attachés and assistant attachés in London at the height of the Battle of Britain, totalling 14 officers, captioned ‘Mr Kennedy's Other Family’, Flight magazine (19 September 1940), 220.

[42] Private letter, Chynoweth to McCabe (5 May 1939), Chynoweth Papers, Box labelled ‘Correspondence 1916–1940, 1941–45’, USAMHI.

[43] Vagts, The Military Attaché, 69.

[44] Great Britain: Comments on Current Events: Report no. 40269 (20 July 1939), Chynoweth Papers, Box 6: ‘Miscellaneous Papers—Attaché Reports, 1939’, USAMHI.

[45] See Alexander, ‘Safes and Houses’ (article cited supra, note 6).

[46] Chynoweth letter to McCabe (20 April1939), Chynoweth Papers, Box labelled ‘Correspondence 1916–1940, 1941–45’, USAMHI.

[47] McCabe, personal letter to Chynoweth (26 April 1939), Chynoweth Papers, Box labelled ‘Correspondence 1916–1940, 1941–45’, USAMHI.

[48] Great Britain: Comments on Current Events: Report no. 40105 (5 May 1939), 3, Chynoweth Papers, Box 6: ‘Miscellaneous Papers—Attaché Reports, 1939’, USAMHI, emphasis in original.

[49] For the estimates and commentaries sent to Washington D.C. from the US attachés stationed inside Nazi Germany itself, see Deist, Russland, 279–95.

[50] Chynoweth private letter to McCabe (5 May 1939), Chynoweth Papers, Box labelled ‘Correspondence 1916–1940, 1941–45’, USAMHI.

[51] Chynoweth personal letter to McCabe (9 May 1939), Chynoweth Papers, Box labelled ‘Correspondence 1916–1940, 1941–45’, USAMHI.

[52] McCabe personal letter to Chynoweth (9 May 1939), Chynoweth Papers, Box labelled ‘Correspondence 1916–1940, 1941–45’, USAMHI.

[53] Memorandum for the Ambassador from the Military Attaché, no. S.D.1789 (15 May 1939), Chynoweth Papers, Box labelled ‘General Correspondence 1916–1940, 1941–45’, USAMHI.

[54] Chynoweth personal letter to McCabe (17 May 1939), Chynoweth Papers, Box labelled ‘Correspondence 1916–1940, 1941–45’, USAMHI.

[55] McCabe letter to Chynoweth (19 May 1939), Chynoweth Papers, Box labelled ‘Correspondence 1916–1940, 1941–45’, USAMHI.

[56] Mallon, ‘Ambassador’, reviewing Smith, Hostage to Fortune.

[57] Great Britain. Comments on Current Events. Report no. 40134 (17 May 1939), Chynoweth Papers Box 6 ‘Attaché Reports 1939—Miscellaneous Papers, 1917–1941’, USAMHI, emphases in original.

[58] United States Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States. Diplomatic Papers, 1939. General [hereafter: FRUS], Vol. I (Preface by E. R. Perkins). Washington, DC, 1939, 22.

[59] Ibid., 139–40 (Kennedy to the Secretary of State, 17 April 1939).

[60] NARA–FDRL: Judge R. Walton Moore Papers, Group 55, Box 3, Bullitt letter to Moore (7 June 1940); Bullitt (ed.), For the President, 416–91 passim. For historians' analyses of American reactions to the completely unexpected and shockingly swift collapse of the French, Belgian and British military defences before Germany's western offensive of May–June 1940, see Zahniser, Then Came Disaster (cited supra, note 4), 73–174, passim; Zahniser, ‘Rethinking the Significance’, 252–76; Hurstfield, America and the French Nation, 3–66; Blumenthal, Illusion and Reality, 257–67; Wright, ‘Ambassador Bullitt’, 63–90.

[61] Britain's mobilisation of finance, industry, manpower and woman–power was, indeed, profound and sustained between 1939 and 1945, arguably unmatched by any other belligerent nation in terms of the comprehensive impact for the people. See Milward, War, Economy and Society, 40–3, 67–72, 102–4, 111–2, 219–20, 233–6, 251–5; also Smith, The War's Long Shadow.

[62] Ritchie, The Siren Years, 54.

[63] Letter dated 3 January 1968 in Chynoweth Papers, Box labelled ‘Correspondence 1916–1940, 1941–45’, USAMHI.

[64] Great Britain: Comment on Current Events (5 September 1939), Report no. 40383, 5, Chynoweth Papers, Box 6: ‘Miscellaneous Papers—attaché reports, 1939’, USAMHI.

[65] Chynoweth to Department of the Army (MID), Report no. 40385 (6 September 1939)—Subject: War Plans. Air Raid Precautions, Chynoweth Papers, USAMHI.

[66] FRUS 1939. General, Vol. I, 423 (Kennedy to Secretary of State, 11 September 1939).

[67] Mallon, ‘Ambassador in Spite of Himself’.

[68] NARA–FDRL: Judge R. Walton Moore Papers, Group 55, Box 3, Moore letter to Bullitt (27 December 1939); there was a good deal of this sentiment in the US House of Representatives and Senate, particularly after the mid-term elections of November 1938 half-way through FDR's second mandate. See Doenecke, ‘Non-interventionism of the Left’, 221–36; also Clavin, ‘Kindred Spirits’, 156–62; O'Sullivan, Sumner Welles, 25–8, 33–42; Rofe, Franklin Roosevelt's Foreign Policy.

[69] See Reynolds, Diplomacy, 147–67; also Haglund, ‘George C. Marshall’ (article cited supra, note 5).

[70] See, for example, Charmley, Churchill; also McKercher, Transition of Power.