Lucius D. Clay
Lucius Clay | |
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Alma mater | United States Military Academy (BS) |
Children | Lucius Frank |
Relations | Alexander S. Clay (father) Eugene Clay (brother) Henry Clay (ancestor) |
Lucius Dubignon Clay (April 23, 1898 – April 16, 1978)
Early life
Clay was born on April 23, 1898,[1] in Marietta, Georgia, the sixth and last child of Alexander S. Clay, who served in the United States Senate from 1897 to 1910. In 1918 Clay graduated from West Point, where he later taught.
Early career
Clay held various civil and military engineering posts in the 1920s and 1930s, such as directing the construction of dams and civilian airports. Because Clay's work involved large government projects, he became closely acquainted with the people and workings of the
World War II
By March 1942, Clay had risen to the position of being the youngest
Clay did not see actual combat but was awarded the
Clay would later remark regarding the occupation directive guiding his and Eisenhower's actions that "there was no doubt that
OMGUS and Cold War
Clay was promoted to lieutenant general on 17 April 1945 and to general on 17 March 1947.
Clay heavily influenced
On March 15, 1947, Clay succeeded
Treatment of Nazis during governorship
Clay was responsible for the controversial commuting of some death sentences, such as convicted Nazi war criminals Erwin Metz and his superior, Hauptmann Ludwig Merz. Metz and Merz were two notorious figures of the
Clay also reduced the sentence of Ilse Koch, the "Beast of Buchenwald", who had been convicted of murder at the Nuremberg trials, and who had been accused of having gloves and lampshades made from prisoners' skin. Clay later said he commuted Koch's sentence since none of the documents about Koch actually mentioned the fact or included any evidence of her committing murder. The reductions in sentences were based on the hasty convictions of some Buchenwald personnel following the end of the war. Evidence was sometimes questionable, and many witnesses claimed to have been beaten by Allied interrogators.[12] Clay confirmed several death sentences as valid, commuted several, and had some like Koch released after they had served a reduced sentence because of questionable evidence.[13] Under the pressure of public opinion, Koch was rearrested in 1949, tried before a West German court, and, on 15 January 1951, sentenced to life imprisonment.
According to BBC journalist Tom Bower, despite Clay's mixed record, he was one of only two prominent American and British officials, the other being British diplomat Patrick Dean, who were both competent and showed some level of genuine commitment to denazification.[14] According to Donald Bloxham, Clay's influence was crucial to American occupation authorities prosecuting major Nazi war criminals on their own in the Subsequent Nuremberg trials.[15]
In 1946, Clay announced to West German officials that he was disappointed with their results from denazification tribunals:
"I do not see how you can demonstrate your ability for self-government nor your will for democracy if you are going to evade or shirk the first unpleasant and difficult task that falls upon you. Unless there is real and rapid improvement, I can only assume that German administration is unwilling to accept this responsibility."[16]
The results temporarily improved after Clay ordered them to make improvements within 60 days.[16] In late 1948, Clay admitted he did not enjoy, in his position as Military Governor, having to regularly "sign many death warrants and to approve many life imprisonments." Nevertheless, he was willing to and did approve most death sentences imposed by American military tribunals. He also approved all but one of the sentences imposed in the Subsequent Nuremberg trials.[17]
Near the end of the occupation, Clay openly admitted his hopes for denazification were failing.
Berlin Airlift
On June 25, 1948, one day
Clay is remembered for ordering and maintaining the airlift, which would ultimately last 324 days and ended on September 30, 1949. He resigned his post days after the blockade had been lifted on May 12, 1949.[citation needed]
Later career
On May 15, 1949, Clay left Germany and was replaced by John McCloy as civilian high commissioner for Germany. Clay retired from the Army at the end of the month. In the same year, he was elected as an honorary member of the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati. In 1950, he became the chairman of the Continental Can Company for 12 consecutive years.[25][26] He retired from Continental Can in 1962 to become a senior partner in Lehman Brothers investment banking house until his retirement in 1973.[25]
Cultural cold war
Meanwhile, Clay hired the American intellectual and former Army combat historian Melvin J. Lasky. Both developed the concept of a "cultural cold war" through which the Soviets would be fought at a psychological and intellectual level.[27] Clay was instrumental in creating, funding, and promoting Der Monat, a journal intended to support US foreign policy and win over German intellectuals. Copies of Der Monat were delivered along with supplies during the airlift.[28]
Clay also studied television propaganda and suggested that in Europe "you get this constant repeated propaganda without advertising and without break," but in the United States, "the advertising gives you a direct feeling of assurance that you haven't got propaganda in the program being thrown at you."[29]
Eisenhower administration and Crusade for Freedom
After OMGUS ended, Clay served the United States in other capacities. He had previous experience in 1933 with managing and organizing projects under the
During the Berlin Crisis of 1961, President John F. Kennedy asked him to be an adviser and to go to Berlin and report on the situation. Two years later Clay accompanied Kennedy on his trip to Berlin.[31] During his famous Ich bin ein Berliner speech, Kennedy said, "I am proud .. to come here in the company of my fellow American, General Clay, who has been in this city during its great moments of crisis and will come again if ever needed." That mention triggered enthusiastic cheers from the hundreds of thousands gathered to hear the president.[32]
Foundations, corporations, and committees: 1950–1978
The George C. Marshall Foundation, which oversees Clay's correspondences with corporations, foundations, and committees,[33] assembled an alphabetical list that gives a very good overview of Clay's broad range of activities in those fields. Clay served all of the following institutions in some capacity as an associate, as board member, or in a similar position.
- Advisory Committee on Army Organization, 1953–1954
- Affirmation: Vietnam, 1965–1966
- American Express, 1953, 1967–1969, 1977
- American Red Cross, 1952, 1955, 1957–1959, 1962
- American Rose Society, 1972–1973
- American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1971–1974
- American Society of Civil Engineers, 1975–1979
- Business Advisory Council, 1950–1958
- Business Council, The, 1967–1972
- Central Savings Bank, 1952
- Chase Manhattan Bank, 1965, 1974–1975
- Citizens for Eisenhower-Nixon, 1956, 1962
- Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, 1969, 1972–1976
- Committee of Concern, 1973–1975
- Committee of Cuban Families, 1963–1965
- Continental Can Company, 1973–1977
- Cornell University, 1954, 1956–1957
- Corps of Engineers, 1971, 1974–1977
- Council on Social Work Education, 1968–1971
- Crusade for Freedom, 1950, 1953
- Federal National Mortgage Association, 1972–1977
- George C. Marshall Research Foundation, 1972–1974
- George C. Marshall Research Foundation, 1975–1978
- General Aniline and Film Corporation, 1955, 1957
- General Motors Corporation, 1951–1973
- Infantry Museum Association, Inc., 1972–1973
- International Management and Development Institute, 1973–1978
- Lehman Brothers, 1963–1974
- Lehman Brothers, 1975–1978
- Marine Midland Trust Company, 1950–1951, 1953, 1955, 1957
- Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, 1953–1957
- Munitions Board, 1951
- National Committee for a Free Europe, 1953
- National Fire Protection Association, 1953–1954
- New York City Mayor's Committee on Stock Transfer Tax, 1966–1968
- New York State Civil Defense Commission, 1950 July 10
- Pakistan Relief Committee, 1970–1971
Death and burial
Clay died on April 16, 1978, in
Family
This section needs additional citations for verification. (February 2024) |
Lucius Clay was the father of two sons, both of whom became generals. Clay's son, General
Honors
Clay was given a
to him.In 1978, a new U.S. Army base in Northern Germany north of the city of
Awards and decorations
Clay's decorations include: the
In addition to military awards, he was also awarded the international human rights award Dr.-Rainer-Hildebrandt-Medaille.
Dates of rank
Insignia | Rank | Component | Date |
---|---|---|---|
No insignia | Cadet | United States Military Academy | June 15, 1915 |
Second lieutenant | Regular Army | June 12, 1918 | |
First lieutenant | Regular Army | June 12, 1918 | |
Captain | Temporary | June 12, 1918 | |
Captain | Regular Army | February 27, 1920 | |
First lieutenant | Regular Army | November 18, 1922 | |
Captain | Regular Army | June 19, 1933 | |
Major | Regular Army | March 1, 1940 | |
Lieutenant colonel | Army of the United States | June 12, 1941 | |
Colonel | Army of the United States | September 23, 1941 | |
Brigadier general | Army of the United States | March 12, 1942 | |
Lieutenant colonel | Regular Army | July 4, 1942 | |
Major general | Army of the United States | December 3, 1942 | |
Lieutenant general | Army of the United States | April 17, 1945 | |
Brigadier general | Regular Army | March 5, 1946 | |
General | Army of the United States | March 17, 1947 | |
Major general | Regular Army | January 24, 1948 | |
General | Regular Army, Retired | May 31, 1949 |
Notes
- ^ ISBN 978-0-679-64429-3.
- ^ Lucius D. Clay: An American Life by Jean Edward Smith, New York: Henry, Holt & Company, 1990.
- ^ Cold War—Episode 4: "Berlin" (5:24), retrieved March 26, 2022
- ^ A Nation at War in an Era of Strategic Change, p.129 (Google Books)
- ^ Curtis Franklin Morgan Jr, James F. Byrnes, Lucius Clay and American Policy in Germany, 1945-1947 (Edwin Mellen Press, 2002).
- ^ "Max Lowenthal, Lawyer, Dies; Book on F.B.I. Stirred a Storm". New York Times. May 19, 1971. Retrieved August 19, 2017.
- ^ a b Vaughn, Mark (February 5, 1998). "GENERAL LUCIUS DUBIGNON CLAY (1897–1978) – FATHER OF THE BERLIN AIRLIFT IN 1948 – 1949". Berlin Airlift Veterans Association. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
- ^ Hudson, Walter M. (2004). "THE U.S. MILITARY GOVERNMENT AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMOCRATIC REFORM, FEDERALISM, AND CONSTITUTIONALISM DURING THE OCCUPATION OF BAVARIA, 1945–47" (PDF). Military Law Review. 180. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
- ^ "U.S. Army and the Holocaust". Encyclopedia Judaica. Macmillan Reference. 2008. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
- ^ Wayne Drash (October 28, 2010). "'You don't forget': Medic's Holocaust diary tells story of hell". CNN. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
- ^ "Feature: "Our Fellows Deserve to Be Heard" | 2009: Fall | Amherst College". www.amherst.edu. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-8133-3363-2.
- ^ McCarthy, Jamie. "Frau Ilse Koch, General Lucius Clay, and Human-Skin Atrocities". Bloomberg News. Retrieved September 13, 2011.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 25, 2023.
- ^ "Chapter One Shaping the Trials: The Politics of Trial Policy, 1945–1949 | Genocide on Trial: War Crimes Trials and the Formation of Holocaust History and Memory". academic.oup.com. Retrieved April 25, 2023.
- ^ a b "THE U.S. MILITARY GOVERNMENT AND DEMOCRATIC REFORM AND DENAZIFICATION IN BAVARIA, 1945-47" (PDF).
- ^ "Aftermath | The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law". academic.oup.com. Retrieved April 25, 2023.
- ^ "Denazifying Germany: German Protestantism and the Response to Denazification in the American Zone, 1945-1948" (PDF).
- ^ "Landsberger Zeitgeschichte: War Criminal Prison No. 1 Landsberg". www.landsberger-zeitgeschichte.de. Retrieved April 25, 2023.
- ^ "Persons hanged after World War II under US jurisdiction". www.capitalpunishmentuk.org. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
- JSTOR 24429508.
- JSTOR 1430508.
- JSTOR 27547587– via JSTOR.
- ^ Clay speaks on Berlin Airlift, 1948/10/21 (1948). Universal Newsreel. 1948. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
- ^ a b "The Papers of Lucius DuBignon Clay – Biographical and Subject Summary" George C. Marchall Research Foundation
- ^ Kisatsky, Deborah: The United States and the European Right, 1945–1955. p.11 Ohio State University Press, 2005
- ^ Lasky, Melvin (May 21, 2004). "Melvin Lasky". The Telegraph. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
- ^ Saunders, Cultural Cold War (1999), pp. 30, 140.
- ^ Anna McCarthy, The Citizen Machine: Governing by Television in 1950s America, New York: The New Press, 2010, p. 23.
- ^ Bennett, Lowell. Freedom Bell Tolls Message of Hope and Faith, in: Information Bulletin, High Commission of Germany, November 1950.
- ISBN 978-0-521-85824-3, 47‒49, 73, 80, 101–102.
- ^ Daum, Kennedy in Berlin, p. 141, 224.
- ^ The Papers of Lucius DuBignon Clay – Biographical and Subject Summary George C. Marshall Research Foundation (Undated)
- ^ "The Berlin Airlift | American Experience | PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
- ^ "Lucius D. Clay Jr. USAF Biography". Archived from the original on February 11, 2004. Retrieved December 19, 2006.
- ^ "Blog der Casinospieler-Brigade - Just another WordPress site". Archived from the original on January 4, 2005.
- ^ "German Federal Defence Forces Massed Bands". YouTube.
- ^ Official Register of Officers of the United States Army. 1948. Vol. 1. pg. 349.
References and further reading
External videos | |
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Booknotes interview with Jean Edward Smith on Lucius D. Clay: An American Life, November 18, 1990, C-SPAN |
- Cherny, Andrei. "The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour" 2009 (New York: Berkley Caliber)
- ISBN 978-0-521-85824-3.
- George, Matthew A. "The Operational Art of Political Transformation: General Lucius D. Clay, Post World War II Germany, and Beyond" (Army Command And General Staff College Fort Leavenworth KS, 2018). online
- Hackett, David A. The Buchenwald Report. 1997 Westview Press ISBN 0-8133-3363-6
- Judge, Clark S. "Clay, Lucius." In Tracy S. Uebelhor, ed. The Truman Years, Presidential Profiles (New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006)
- Lamberti, Marjorie. "General Lucius Clay, German Politicians, and the Great Crisis during the Making of West Germany's Constitution." German Politics and Society 27.4 (2009): 24-50.
- Morgan, Jr., Curtis F. James F. Byrnes, Lucius Clay and American Policy in Germany, 1945-1947. (Edwin Mellen Press, 2002).
- Smith, Jean Edward. Lucius D. Clay: An American Life New York: Henry, Holt & Company, 1990.
- ISBN 1-56584-596-X).
- Trauschweizer, Ingo Wolfgang. "Tanks at Checkpoint Charlie: Lucius Clay and the Berlin Crisis, 1961–62." Cold War History 6.2 (2006): 205-228.
Primary sources
- Jean Edward Smith. The Papers Of General Lucius D. Clay Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1974.
External links
- Interview with General Lucius D. Clay
- United States Department of Transportation – Federal Highway Administration: "The Man Who Changed America"
- Clay's role in the US highway system
- SOUTHERN PARTNERSHIP: JAMES F. BYRNES, LUCIUS D. CLAY AND GERMANY, 1945–47 by Curtis F. Morgan, PhD
- Lucius D. Clay at the Georgia Encyclopedia
- Bell Bomber – building airstrips and airfields
- The Road Ahead: Lessons in Nation Building from Japan, Germany, and Afghanistan for Postwar Iraq, by Ray Salvatore Jennings May 2003, Peaceworks No. 49, United States Institute of Peace (The PDF report contains a good overview of Clays activities in Germany 1945–1949)
- Finding aid for General Lucius D. Clay Oral History, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library Archived January 14, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- Nazis dig up mass grave of US soldiers
- The complete guide to World War 2
- Newspaper clippings about Lucius D. Clay in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
- Lucius Clay | American Experience | PBS