MD MD - James Forrestal, 57, Bethesda, Murder or Suicide, 22 May 1949

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James Vincent Forrestal

1st United States Secretary of Defense
September 17, 1947 – March 28, 1949
48th United States Secretary of the Navy
May 19, 1944 – September 17, 1947
United States Under Secretary of the Navy
August 22, 1940 – May 16, 1944

Born
James Vincent Forrestal
February 15, 1892
Matteawan, New York, U.S. (now Beacon)
Died May 22, 1949 (aged 57)
Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Resting place Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, U.S.

James Vincent Forrestal (February 15, 1892 – May 22, 1949) was the last Cabinet-level United States Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense.

He came from a very strict middle class Irish Catholic family. He was a successful financier on Wall Street. He became Undersecretary of the Navy in 1940. President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted him to take the lead in building up the Navy. He became Secretary of the Navy in May 1944, and the first Secretary of the newly created Defense Department in 1947. He was intensely hostile to the Soviet Union, fearing Communist expansion in Europe and the Middle East. He strongly opposed the creation of Israel because it would alienate Arab nations that were needed as allies.

Forrestal was a supporter of naval battle groups centered on aircraft carriers. He tried to weaken the proposed Department of Defense for the Navy's benefit, but was hard pressed to run it in 1947-49 when Harry S. Truman named him Secretary of Defense. They were often at odds and Truman forced his resignation. His mental health was rapidly deteriorating and he underwent medical care for depression, and died after falling from a sixteenth floor window of his hospital, provoking rumors of murder.

In 1954, the world's first supercarrier was named USS Forrestal in his honor, as is the James V. Forrestal Building, which houses the headquarters of the United States Department of Energy. He is the namesake of the Forrestal Lecture Series at the United States Naval Academy and of the James Forrestal Campus of his alma mater Princeton University...

LINK:
James Forrestal - Wikipedia

 

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The Death of James Forrestal

LINKS:

Who Killed James Forrestal? Was There A Cover-up?

James Forrestal: Suicide or Something Way More Sinister? | Mysterious Universe

The Death of James Forrestal

 

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DIARIES OF JAMES V FORRESTAL, 1944-1949
Complete and unexpurgated diaries from the Seeley G Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University

This microfilm project makes available for the first time the complete and unexpurgated version of Forrestal's manuscript and typescript diaries covering the period March 1944 to March 1949. While the printed edition, The Forrestal Diaries, edited by Walter Millis with the collaboration of E. S. Duffield in 1951, runs to some 555 pages plus index, there are nearly 3000 pages of diary entries, mostly in typescript format which we are now able to reproduce in full.

Who was Forrestal and why was he important ? As Secretary of the Navy, 1944-1947, and first Secretary of Defense, 1947-1949, he had significant access to the President and was part of a State Department team with crucial responsibilities for running the war effort, ensuring a successful outcome for the Allies and, moreover, with a key role in considering and shaping the peace, reconstruction policies and the structure of the post-war world. Forrestal's background was of a businessman of considerable wealth, power, and position. In 1938 he had succeeded Clarence Dillon as President of Dillon Read. An efficient operator with a quietly driving ambition, he had risen relatively early to the top aged forty-six. Two years later he abandoned this career for good to enter the Roosevelt administration as one of FDR's special administrative assistants.

On 5 August 1940 the President nominated Forrestal to fill the position of Under Secretary of the Navy and he worked closely with Frank Knox (Secretary of the Navy) and Henry L. Stimson (Secretary of War). He was well suited to the colossal tasks of wartime procurement and logistics as well as the expansion of the Navy Department.

The diary notes reproduced here start when Forrestal took over as Secretary of the Navy on Knox's death in 1944 and continue through to Forrestal's resignation as Secretary of Defense in March 1949.

The diaries provide insights into many important questions:

- Pearl Harbor
- strategy for the War in the Pacific
- Yalta and post-war planning
- Discussions with the Soviet Union
- the strategic bombing of Japan and the use of the atomic bomb
- plans for the surrender, occupation and future of Japan
- reconversion of the American economy to a civilian footing
- the post war international situation in China and in the Middle East
- Allied Control of Germany and reconstruction policies in Europe
- the Marshall Plan
- The IMF and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development...

LINK:

DIARIES OF JAMES V FORRESTAL, 1944-1949 Secretary of the Navy, 1944-1947, and First Secretary of Defence, 1947-1949 Complete and unexpurgated diaries from the Seeley G Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University

 

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President Truman presents a Medal of Merit to Secretary of Defense James Forrestal in the Oval Office.

Bethesda Naval Hospital. James V. Forrestal was a patient in the 16th floor of the tower portion when he fell (or was pushed) to his death on 22 May 1949.