Wild Bill Donovan: Our Hero

Every generation has its heroes, unfortunately only a few of these heroes are remembered for very long. One of these courageous people is Wild Bill Donovan. Although not many modern Americans have heard of this man besides in pasing comments, he had an enormous impact on our country that still influences our lives. Donovan proved his unfailing devotion to the US and its people time and time again and we should be forever grateful to him. Our hero was born on new years day 1883, he was a second generation American as his grandparents had all migrated from Ireland. They originally moved to Canada but decided to relocate to Buffalo, New York after a short period of time. Known as the O’Donovans in their homeland, they became known as the Donovans after moving to America.

The young Bill had a fairly normal childhood, his father, Timothy P. Donovan, was a middle class man who was known for being hardworking and determined, he worked for a railroad and eventually tried to start a more political career but was unsuccessful in his endeavors. Anna Letitia Tish, Bill Donovan's mother, did not have a career but was known for her good etiquette and big dreams. Only five of her children survived to adulthood, Bill Donovan was the oldest child. He attended two schools, St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute and Niagara University, before receiving his bachelor degree in art. While in College Donovan became quite popular. He was on the varsity rowing team and a star football player, it was during his football years he allegedly first gained the title “wild” bill for his game tactics. In 1905, his senior year, he was also voted one of the most “modest” and “handsome” boys in his grade.

These early achievements point to his later display of both determination and people skills that helped him be so successful in his life. However, not to be deterred by his father's earlier unsuccess in becoming more politically involved, Donovan decided to pursue a career in law and studied at Columbia Law school for two years. Once graduated, Donovan worked for a respected law firm for two more years before he started a successful private law practice and because a well known lawyer. Nevertheless, Donovan wanted to do more than just be a lawyer and started to study military and combat strategies as well as take acting classes from an old famous actress named Eleanor Robson. In 1912 he helped start a troop called the New York National Guard who helped watch the Mexican-American border. Not long after in 1914, he married Ruth Rumsey who was from his hometown of Buffalo. They had two children David born in 1915 and Patricia in 1917 but Patricia later had an accident and died at the age of 23.

Donovans worldwide travels and influence began in 1916 when he tried to convince Britain and Germany to allow shipments into several other European countries. The same year he was promoted to Major and moved back to Buffalo to join the 69th Regiment. Because most of the soldiers in this regiment were of Irish descent they were known as the ‘Fighting Irish’, their regiment was later renamed the 165th and several years later a movie was made about them. The already stewing international tensions had actually bubbled over in 1914 when WWI began but the US didn’t officially join the war until 1917. This war was especially brutal due to the trench fighting techniques and Donovan was injured several times but continued to be a strong example to his men. During battle many soldiers of rank chose to cover their insignia but he chose to keep his out in the open telling his soldiers, “They can’t hit me and they won’t hit you!” His bravery and unfailing courage in battle caused his old college nickname of “Wild Bill” to resurface and solidify. By the time the war ended in 1918, Donovan had been promoted to colonel as well as receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, and two Purple Hearts, making him one of the most decorated heroes of the war. Although he had certainly played a part in our country before the war he was now recognized as a loyal and upstanding man and slowly but surely he started to climb the ranks. His status continued to grow between the wars as he continued his career in law and became a very successful Wall Street lawyer. In 1922 he became the US Attorney for the Western District of NY and gained a reputation of being an ardent crime and alcohol fighter. A year after receiving his new position, his agents discovered and confiscated large amounts of illegal liquor.

These drinks had belonged to the high classes of society who had decided they were exempt form the liquor restrictions. This was an especially difficult time for Donovan as he faced threats on his life and home as well as inner turmoil with his wife and law partner over his unbending stance on the illegal drink issues. He become known for his inspiring arguments before the supreme court but when he decided to run for Governor of NY in 1932 he proved to be unsuccessful. His personal charm that had brought him so far did not extend into a direct spotlight and his disorganized campaign collapsed around him. By the time World War II rolled around Donovan was deeply rooted in the American Government. Although he had not won previous elections he was very popular with both the common people and government officials. He was known as a hardworking, passionate, and caring person with high moral standards. His hard work between the wars started to pay off as he became deeply involved in international affairs. Although he made it very clear that he was no friend to the Hitler, Mussolini or Stalin he was allowed to visit the Italian front and talk with several leading figures in Nazi Germany. Roosevelt also forgave him for campaign brutality because of his foreign connections and political popularity that had grown significantly due to the movie The Fighting 69th that told the story of his regiments WWI days. As Donovan and Roosevelt grew closer he was given increasingly important assignments. One of the most notable assignments he received was to become an emissary to Britain. During this time he got to know several high ranking officials including both Winston Churchill and King George VI. Over time he was granted unlimited access to all of Britain's classified information and became so popular with the British it was requested he beome the new US ambassador although this request was denied.

Aside from the British, Donovan was asked to examine the American Navy in the Pacific and tried to convince several countries in the Middle East and Mediterranean to stand up to Germany. He also started meeting with spies and became particularly close to one by the name of ‘Intrepid’, so much that after a while people called them Big and Little Bill. Meanwhile, his time with the British Intelligence had started Donovan thinking about the intelligence system in the US and how it could be modeled more like Britains. On July 11, 1941 Bill Donovan became the Coordinator of Information which allowed him to put to use the information he had been gathering from his time abroad. He started to lay the foundation for a centralized intelligence program which had not existed in America up until that point. The FBI and other organizations still existed but they were reluctant to help or share information with each other in the struggle for power. In 1942 the Office of Strategic Services officially began. The organization created sabotage and espionage schools, front companies, and instigated collaborations with other international corporations. However, it started slowly because it has to deal with a lot of bad press and multiple high ranking officials who disagreed with Donovan's plan. One of their main problems with the program was rank and social class didn't matter, for people who had based their whole existence on these two things it came as a blow to watch people quickly climb the ranks. The OSS agents had a wide variety of backgrounds, some were intellectuals or artists while others were criminals, they even had female spies which although not unheard of was still rare. When the OSS was the most powerful they successfully sabotaged parts of both European and Asian operations however they had difficulty infiltrating South America because its leaders were hostile and suspicious of Americans.

The end of WWII was also the fall of the OSS. Although Donovan fought to keep it in power the people wanted less government control after the war and when Roosevelt died Donovan’s political power weakened significantly. When President Truman came into office he strongly opposed the idea and with the cutting reviews of the critics the OSS started to fall out of popularity. Despite several large successes on their part the Office still had not fulfilled its ultimate goal of uniting all the Intelligence agencies in the US. After WWII was brought to a close in 1945 a surprisingly small number of people were interested in following up with prosecuting the old German leaders. Donovan wanted to look into it which brought the OSS into a good light and ultimately saved the organization. In the process of tracking down ex commanders of the SS and Gestapo teamed up with Robert Jackson. They were both dedicated to their mission but ended up having a fight about whether to convict all of the German High Command or Just the men who had personally ordered the crimes. Donovan felt it was unjust to accuse all of them but Jackson felt that they were all guilty by association. After a second spat about the strength of their court case and cross examinations Jackson dismissed Donovan from the team and he returned to the US and received a distinguished Service Medal.

Nonetheless, he would not surrender his hold in america yet and he came up with a plan to finally unite the American Intelligence system once and for all. Roosevelt, one of Donovan's main supporters had died and President Truman and replaced him. Truman was not one of Donovan's biggest fan and although he listened to the plan for a centralized agency he decided to confirm a weaker version of the plan in 1946. Donovan warned him that it wouldn’t work and sure enough, when the cold war rolled around Truman backed down and approved Donovan's original plan which created the CIA. After putting so much time into the creation of the new agency Bill Donovan had hopes to become the CIA president but was not granted the honor. Notwithstanding, he still would not give up on his project and continued to work behind the scenes to help them on their missions by sharing contacts and information, suggestion different places and operations and even leaking information from the other side of the Iron Curtain. But no matter what he accomplished there was one thing he could not overcome. In 1957 he was hospitalized for dementia and eventually died at age 76.

Although not everyone agreed with all of his policies or viewpoints everyone could agree that he had loved America and did his best to protect it for generations to come. When he passed away the OSS created the William J. Donovan award which goes to people that have shown the dedication of a lifetime of public service. Credit for the forming of the CIA also goes to him. In his lifetime he received over two dozen awards from countries all across the globe and influenced much of our modern day government. There was even a book written about him in 2010. Wild Bill Donovan dedicated his whole life to our country and even though he started at the bottom our country had only become better because of him.