Lucius Clay | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Clay in 1949 | |
| Birth name | Lucius Dubignon Clay |
| Nickname | The Great Uncompromiser |
| Born | (1898-04-23)23 April 1898 Marietta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | 16 April 1978(1978-04-16) (aged 79) Chatham, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States Army |
| Service years | 1918–1949 |
| Rank | General |
| Commands | European Command Normandy Base Section |
| Conflicts | World War II |
| Awards | Army Distinguished Service Medal (3) Legion of Merit Bronze Star Medal |
| Alma mater | United States Military Academy (BS) |
| Children | Lucius Frank |
| Relations | Alexander S. Clay (father) Eugene Clay (brother) Henry Clay (ancestor) |
Lucius Dubignon Clay (23 April 1898 – 16 April 1978)[1] was a seniorofficer of theUnited States Army who was known for his administration of occupied Germany afterWorld War II.[1] He served as the deputy to General of the ArmyDwight D. Eisenhower in 1945; deputy military governor, Germany, in 1946; Commander in Chief, United States Forces in Europe andmilitary governor of the United States Zone, Germany, from 1947 to 1949. Clay orchestrated theBerlin Airlift (1948–1949) when the USSR blockadedWest Berlin.
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Clay was born on April 23, 1898,[1] inMarietta, Georgia, the sixth and last child ofAlexander S. Clay, who served in theUnited States Senate from 1897 to 1910. In 1918 Clay graduated fromWest Point, where he later taught.
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 thefederal agencies andCongress. He achieved close working relationships with an associate of PresidentFranklin Roosevelt,Harry Hopkins, and withHouse Majority Leader and SpeakerSam Rayburn. In Rayburn's state of Texas, Clay supervised the building of theDenison Dam. At the time of its completion, in 1943, it was the largest earthen dam in the world. From 1940 to the December 1941attack on Pearl Harbor, Clay selected and supervised the construction of 450 airports, which were the foundation of America's civil aviation network.[2] This initiative was, however, criticised forpork barrel spending, as Clay's home state of Georgia was granted 33 airports, a number that overstated the state's importance economically, militarily, and demographically.
By March 1942, Clay had risen to the position of being the youngestbrigadier general in the army, a month short of his 44th birthday. All the while, he had acquired a reputation for bringing order and operational efficiency out of chaos, and for being an exceptionally hard and disciplined worker, who went long hours and "considered lunch a waste of time".[3]
Clay did not see actual combat but was awarded theLegion of Merit in 1942 and theArmy Distinguished Service Medal in 1944 and received theBronze Star Medal for his action in stabilizing the Frenchharbor ofCherbourg, which was critical to the flow of warmatériel. In 1945, he served as deputy to GeneralDwight Eisenhower. The following year, he was made Deputy Governor of Germany during theAllied Military Government.
Clay would later remark regarding the occupation directive guiding his and Eisenhower's actions that "there was no doubt thatJCS 1067 contemplated theCarthaginian peace which dominated our operations in Germany during the early months of occupation."[4]
Clay was promoted to lieutenant general on 17 April 1945 and to general on 17 March 1947.
Clay heavily influencedUS Secretary of StateJames F. Byrnes' September 1946 speech inStuttgart, Germany. The speech, "Restatement of Policy on Germany," marked the formal transition in American occupation policy away from theMorgenthau Plan of economic dismantlement to one ofeconomic reconstruction.[5]
On 15 March 1947, Clay succeededJoseph T. McNarney as military governor (or "high commissioner"[6]) ofthe US zone of occupied Germany—the head of the OMGUS, the "Office of Military Government, United States." Clay's responsibilities covered a wide spectrum of social issues related to Germany's recovery from the war in addition to strictly military issues.[7] He commissionedLewis H. Brown to research and write "A Report on Germany", which served as a detailed recommendation for thereconstruction ofpostwar Germany and served as a basis for theMarshall Plan. Clay promoted democraticfederalism in Germany and resisted US politicians who sought to undoa constitution that a Constituent Assembly inBavaria had adopted on 26 October 1946.[8] He also closed the borders of the American Zone in 1947 to stem the tide of Jewish refugees that was generating tension with the local populations.[9]
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 theBerga concentration camp in which 350 U.S. POWs had been beaten, tortured, starved, and forced to work for the German government during World War II. The soldiers were singled out for looking or soundingJewish. At least 70 U.S. POWs soldiers died in the camp and on adeath march near the end of the war. The commutation was partly due to the military botching the case. Prosecutors did not summon a single witness, despite dozens of witnesses saying they were willing to testify.[10][11]
Clay also reduced the sentence ofIlse Koch, the "Beast of Buchenwald", who had been convicted of murder at theNuremberg trials, and who had been accused of having gloves andlampshades 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 journalistTom Bower, despite Clay's mixed record, he was one of only two prominent American and British officials, the other being British diplomatPatrick 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 theSubsequent 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.[18] In early 1948, a blanket stay of execution had been granted to all of the Nazi war criminals on death row in the U.S. occupation zone, with the exception of the seven defendants condemned at theDoctors' Trial. This came after false allegations of torture were propagated by several politicians in the United States, notablySenator Joseph McCarthy. In October 1948, however, the stay was removed for nearly everyone, excluding those convicted in theMalmedy massacre trial.[19] Upon the lifting of the stay, Clay embarked on a spate of last-minute mass executions, believing that as time passed, pressure would increase for the death sentences to be commuted. In response, the German Catholic priests started objecting to not only the executions, but the prosecutions of war criminals outright. However, their pleas failed to convince Clay to halt the executions. Between October 1948 and March 1949, over 100 Nazi war criminals convicted by U.S. military tribunals were hanged atLandsberg Prison.[20][21][22]
On 25 June 1948, one day after theSoviets imposed the Berlin Blockade, Clay gave the order for theBerlin Airlift, which was only later authorized by PresidentHarry Truman.[23][7]
Clay is remembered for ordering and maintaining the airlift, which would ultimately last 324 days and ended on 30 September 1949. He resigned his post days after the blockade had been lifted on 12 May 1949.[citation needed]
On 15 May 1949, Clay left Germany and was replaced byJohn 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 CarolinaSociety of the Cincinnati. In 1950, he became the chairman of theContinental Can Company for 12 consecutive years.[24][25] He retired from Continental Can in 1962 to become a senior partner inLehman Brothers investment banking house until his retirement in 1973.[24]
Meanwhile, Clay hired the American intellectual and former Army combat historianMelvin J. Lasky. Both developed the concept of a "cultural cold war" through which the Soviets would be fought at a psychological and intellectual level.[26] Clay was instrumental in creating, funding, and promotingDer Monat, a journal intended to support US foreign policy and win over German intellectuals. Copies ofDer Monat were delivered along with supplies during the airlift.[27]
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."[28]
After OMGUS ended, Clay served the United States in other capacities. He had previous experience in 1933 with managing and organizing projects under theNew Deal and later became one ofDwight Eisenhower's closest advisers and assisted him in securing the1952 Republican nomination and helping him selectmembers of his cabinet upon ascension to the presidency. When Eisenhower was in office, Clay served as his unofficial emissary in Europe. One of his first duties as Eisenhower's emissary and, as the national chairman of theCrusade for Freedom, was to dedicate the city of Berlin'sLiberty Bell.[29] In 1954, he was called upon by Eisenhower to help forge a plan forfinancing the proposedInterstate highway system.
During theBerlin Crisis of 1961, PresidentJohn 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.[30] During his famousIch 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.[31]
TheGeorge C. Marshall Foundation, which oversees Clay's correspondences with corporations, foundations, and committees,[32] 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.
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Clay died on April 16, 1978, inChatham, Massachusetts. Clay lies buried inWest Point Cemetery, between the graves ofApollo 1 astronautEd White and Panama Canal chief engineerGeorge W. Goethals. At Clay's grave site is a stone plate from the citizens of Berlin that says: "Wir danken dem Bewahrer unserer Freiheit" (We thank the Preserver of our Freedom).[33]
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Lucius Clay was the father of two sons, both of whom became generals. Clay's son, GeneralLucius D. Clay Jr.,[34] held the positions of commander-in-chief of theNorth American Air Defense Command, the ContinentalAir Defense Command, and the United States element ofNORAD, and was also a commander of the United States Air ForceAerospace Defense Command. Clay's other son, Major GeneralFrank B. Clay, served in conflicts fromWorld War II through theVietnam War, and was an adviser to the US delegation at theParis peace talks which ended US involvement in theVietnam War.
Clay was given aticker-tape parade, among many other honors, upon his return to the United States on 19 May 1949. He appeared on the cover ofTime magazine three times. Clay also received an honorary doctorate of theFreie Universität Berlin and became an honorary citizen of Berlin (West) in 1953. One of the longest streets inWest Berlin was namedClayallee in his honor, as was the Clay Headquarters Compound, which was located on the street. It held the headquarters of theBerlin Brigade,U.S. Army Berlin (USAB), and the U.S. Mission in Berlin.[35]Marietta, Georgia, named one of its major streetsClay Road, and South Cobb High School's football stadium is named "Clay Stadium" in honor of his work in creating what is nowDobbins Air Force Base there. While now called South Cobb Drive (State Route 280), it still carriesmemorial signs at each end dedicating thehighway to him.
In 1978, a new U.S. Army base in Northern Germany north of the city ofBremen was named for Clay and until the end of the Cold War housed a forward-stationed brigade of the2nd Armored Division, the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Armored Division, which had been based atFort Hood, Texas, with the rest of the 2AD. This unit was redesignated as the 2nd Armored Division (Forward). 2AD (FWD) saw action in theGulf War of 1991 before being inactivated as part of the post-Cold War drawdown of the U.S. Army. Since 1 October 1993, these barracks are used by theBundeswehr and are still named after Clay. The "General-Clay-March" by Heinz Mertins was written in his honor.[36]Wiesbaden Army Airfield, near Frankfurt, Germany, was renamed "Lucius D. Clay Kaserne" in his honor on 14 June 2012. Wiesbaden Army Airfield was used extensively in "Operation Vittles," aka the Berlin Airlift. The name "Lucius Clay" features in the song "The Legend of Wooley Swamp" by theCharlie Daniels Band. Clay had just died (ofemphysema and heart failure) around the time the song was written.[citation needed]
Clay's decorations include: theArmy Distinguished Service Medal with twoOak Leaf Clusters,Legion of Merit,Bronze Star Medal,World War I Victory Medal,Army of Occupation of Germany Medal,American Defense Service Medal,American Campaign Medal,European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal,World War II Victory Medal,Army of Occupation Medal,Order of Kutuzov First Class,[37]Order of the British Empire,Military Order of the White Lion,Officer of the Military William Order,Commander of the Legion of Honour andBundesverdienstkreuz (Grand Cross).
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In addition to military awards, he was also awarded the international human rights awardDr.-Rainer-Hildebrandt-Medaille.
| Insignia | Rank | Component | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| No insignia | Cadet | United States Military Academy | 15 June 1915 |
 | Second lieutenant | Regular Army | 12 June 1918 |
 | First lieutenant | Regular Army | 12 June 1918 |
 | Captain | Temporary | 15 June 1918 |
| Captain | Regular Army | 27 February 1920 |
| First lieutenant | Regular Army | 18 November 1922 |
| Captain | Regular Army | 19 June 1933 |
 | Major | Regular Army | 1 March 1940 |
 | Lieutenant colonel | Army of the United States | 12 June 1941 |
 | Colonel | Army of the United States | 23 September 1941 |
 | Brigadier general | Army of the United States | 12 March 1942 |
| Lieutenant colonel | Regular Army | 4 July 1942 |
 | Major general | Army of the United States | 3 December 1942 |
 | Lieutenant general | Army of the United States | 17 April 1945 |
| Brigadier general | Regular Army | 5 March 1946 |
 | General | Army of the United States | 17 March 1947 |
| Major general | Regular Army | 24 January 1948 |
| General | Regular Army, Retired | 31 May 1949 |
{{cite web}}:|archive-url= is malformed: timestamp (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)| External videos | |
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 Booknotes interview with Jean Edward Smith onLucius D. Clay: An American Life, November 18, 1990,C-SPAN |
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Commanding General of theEuropean Command 1947–1949 | Succeeded by |
