Kermit Roosevelt Jr. (February 16, 1916 – June 8, 2000) was an American intelligence officer who served in the
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all bran ...
during and following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. A grandson of
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
, the
26th President of the United States
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
, Roosevelt went on to establish
American Friends of the Middle East The American Friends of the Middle East (AFME) was an American international educational organization, formed in 1951. It was founded by columnist Dorothy Thompson, Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., Harry Emerson Fosdick, and 24 other American educators, theol ...
and then played a lead role in the
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
's efforts to overthrow
Mohammad Mosaddegh
Mohammad Mosaddegh ( fa, محمد مصدق, ; 16 June 1882 – 5 March 1967) was an Iranian politician, author, and lawyer who served as the 35th Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953, after appointment by the 16th Majlis. He was a member of ...
, the
Majlis
( ar, المجلس, pl. ') is an Arabic term meaning "sitting room", used to describe various types of special gatherings among common interest groups of administrative, social or religious nature in countries with linguistic or cultural conne ...
-appointed leader of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...
, in August 1953.
Early life
Kermit Roosevelt Jr. (called "Kim," as was standard for alternating generations of Kermits in the
Roosevelt family
The Roosevelt family is an American political family from New York whose members have included two United States presidents, a First Lady, and various merchants, bankers, politicians, inventors, clergymen, artists, and socialites. The progen ...
) was born to
Kermit Roosevelt Sr., son of
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, and Belle Wyatt Roosevelt (née Willard) in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the Capital city, capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata ...
in 1916. At the time, Kermit Roosevelt Sr. was an official for a shipping line and then a manager of the Buenos Aires branch of the
National City Bank.
The Roosevelt family returned to the US, and Kim, his two brothers,
Joseph Willard and Dirck, and his sister, Belle Wyatt, grew up in
Oyster Bay, New York
The Town of Oyster Bay is the easternmost of the three towns which make up Nassau County, New York, United States. Part of the New York metropolitan area, it is the only town in Nassau County to extend from the North Shore to the South Shore of ...
, a homestead near
Sagamore Hill, the
Long Island home of the Roosevelt clan.
Kim attended
Groton School
Groton School (founded as Groton School for Boys) is a private college-preparatory boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts. Ranked as one of the top five boarding high schools in the United States in Niche (2021–2022), it is affiliat ...
as a young man. He graduated from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 1937, a year ahead of his class.
After graduating from Harvard, Roosevelt taught history at
Caltech
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
.
Intelligence career
OSS
With the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, Roosevelt joined the
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all bran ...
(OSS), the forerunner to the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
. On June 4, 1943, when Kim was 27, his father, Kermit Sr., committed suicide at
Fort Richardson in
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S ...
where he was posted.
[Edward Renehan, 1998, ''The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War,'' Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, , se]
accessed 16 June 2015. Roosevelt Jr. remained with the OSS after the war and wrote and edited its history.
Postwar period
Roosevelt went on to serve on the advisory board of a largely-Arab organization, the Institute of Arab American Affairs, a New York City-based organization, and Roosevelt wrote an essay in 1948 about his views on American Zionism and the partition of Palestine. In February 1948 Roosevelt joined more than 100 like-minded individuals to form a "Christian group" to aid the fight of the largely-rabbinical
American Council for Judaism
The American Council for Judaism (ACJ) is an organization of American Jews. In particular, it is notable for its historical opposition to Zionism, though it is Zionist today. The ACJ has also championed women's rights, including the right for women ...
to reverse the ongoing partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. The
Committee for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land
The Committee for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land was an organization founded in February 1948 by Virginia Gildersleeve and Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., for the purpose of lobbying the Truman administration to oppose the creation of the State of Isr ...
(CJP) was founded on March 2, 1948, with
Dean emeritus Gildersleeve serving as CJP chair, former
Union Theological Seminary as president,
Henry Sloane Coffin
Henry Sloane Coffin (January 5, 1877, in New York City – November 25, 1954, in Lakeville, Connecticut) was president of the Union Theological Seminary, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and one of the mos ...
as vice-chair, and Roosevelt as executive director.
In 1951, Roosevelt,
Virginia Gildersleeve
Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (October 3, 1877 – July 7, 1965) was an American academic, the long-time dean of Barnard College, co-founder of the International Federation of University Women, and the only woman delegated by United States ...
;
Dorothy Thompson
Dorothy Celene Thompson (July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster. She was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany in 1934 and was one of the few women news commentators on radio ...
; and a further group of 24 American educators, theologians, and writers (including
Harry Emerson Fosdick
Harry Emerson Fosdick (May 24, 1878 – October 5, 1969) was an American pastor. Fosdick became a central figure in the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy within American Protestantism in the 1920s and 1930s and was one of the most prominen ...
) founded the
American Friends of the Middle East The American Friends of the Middle East (AFME) was an American international educational organization, formed in 1951. It was founded by columnist Dorothy Thompson, Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., Harry Emerson Fosdick, and 24 other American educators, theol ...
(AFME), a pro-Arabist organization often critical of US support for Israel.
[Kira Zalan, 2014, "How the CIA Shaped the Modern Middle East ]ugh Wilford interview
Ugh or UGH may refer to:
*'' Ugh!'', a computer game
* "UGH!" (song), by The 1975
* "Ugh" (''SpongeBob SquarePants''), a 2004 TV episode
*"Ugh! Your Ugly Houses!
"Ugh! Your Ugly Houses!" is a song by Chumbawamba. Released in 1995, it served as ...
" ''U.S. News & World Report'' (online), January 16, 2014, se
accessed 17 June 2015. ubtitle: "History Professor Hugh Wilford chronicles the agency's involvement in the region."/ref>[Robert Moats Miller, 1985, ''Harry Emerson Fosdick: Preacher, Pastor, Prophet,'' p. 192, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, , se]
accessed 17 June 2015. The CJP, which Roosevelt had helped form in 1948, was subsumed into the AFME in 1951,[Paul Charles Merkley, 2001, ''Christian Attitudes Towards the State of Israel,'' Vol. 16 of McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Religion, Montreal, pp. 6–8, Canada: McGill-Queen's University Press, , se]
accessed 17 June 2015. and Roosevelt served for a time as the AFME executive secretary for the group of intellectuals and spokespersons.[ The historians Robert Moats Miller, Hugh Wilford, and others have stated that from its early years, AFME was a part of an Arabist propaganda effort within the US that was "secretly funded and to some extent managed" by the CIA,] with further funding from the oil consortium ARAMCO
Saudi Aramco ( ar, أرامكو السعودية '), officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (formerly Arabian-American Oil Company) or simply Aramco, is a Saudi Arabian public petroleum and natural gas company based in Dhahran. , it is one of ...
.
Cold War and CIA
Roosevelt was recruited to the CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
's Office of Policy Coordination
The Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) was the covert operation wing of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Created as a department of the CIA in 1948, it actually operated independently until October 1950. OPC existed until 1 A ...
(OPC) in 1950 by its chief, Frank Wisner
Frank Gardiner Wisner (June 23, 1909 – October 29, 1965) was one of the founding officers of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and played a major role in CIA operations throughout the 1950s.
Wisner began his intelligence career in the Off ...
.[ Prados, John (2006). ''Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA''. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. p]
98.
. . Assigned to Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...
, Roosevelt impressed his colleagues with Project FF, which encouraged the Free Officers Movement to carry out a coup d'état in 1952, and Roosevelt developed close CIA links to the new leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-r ...
.[
The historian Hugh Wilford attempts to describe Roosevelt's motivations and views underpinning his intelligence efforts and states:
The views of the CIA Arabists were not in isolation since Wilford notes that the "]Eisenhower administration
Dwight D. Eisenhower's tenure as the 34th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1953, and ended on January 20, 1961. Eisenhower, a Republican from Kansas, took office following a landslide victory ...
ncluding Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, was">John_Foster_Dulles.html" ;"title="ncluding Secretary of State John Foster Dulles">ncluding Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, wasinitially quite sympathetic towards... Roosevelt's Arabist agenda" and willing to oppose Middle Eastern regimes seen "as backing the Soviet Union rather than the U.S." Ultimately, the emergence of American public support for Israel and the administration's evolving framework to respond to its principal Cold War adversary, the Soviet Union, would lead to failure of the Arabist agenda of Roosevelt and his colleagues. In discussing Roosevelt's role, Wilford describes him as being among "the most important intelligence officers of their generation in the Middle East."
Roosevelt played a highly-critical role in Operation Ajax as the ground operational planner, especially in getting the Shah to issue the ''firmans'', or decrees, dismissing Mossadegh. He established networks of Anglophiles and sympathizers in Iran, who were willing to take part in various aspects of the coup. The tactics aided in dividing and dissolving Mossadegh's political power base within the National Front, the Tudeh, and the clerics. However, the first attempt at the coup failed, likely because Mossadegh had learned of his impending overthrow. Although the CIA sent Roosevelt a telegram to flee Iran immediately, he began work on the second coup and circulated a false account that Mossadegh attempted to seize the throne and bribed Iranian agents. The coup was a success and hence was adapted for use in other Third World
The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the Nor ...
countries during the Cold War. Eisenhower secretly awarded Roosevelt the National Security Medal
The National Security Medal is a decoration of the United States of America officially established by President Harry S. Truman in Executive Order 10431 of January 19, 1953. The medal was originally awarded to any person, without regard to nat ...
in 1954 for his work. In 2014, the National Security Archive released telegrams and accounts of the CIA operation, many of which are revealing as to the part he played in the operation.
Roosevelt, 26 years after the Mossadeq coup, wrote a book about how he and the CIA had carried out the operation, ''Countercoup''. According to him, he had slipped across the border under his CIA cover as "James Lochridge" on July 19, 1953.
Roosevelt submitted his ''Countercoup'' manuscript to the CIA for pre-publication approval. The agency proposed various alterations, and in the perspective of a CIA reviewer, "Roosevelt has reflected quite faithfully the changes that we suggested to him. This has become, therefore, essentially a work of fiction." The conclusion allowed the release of the book; a catalog of the actual changes made during the review is available.
A former senior adviser to the Obama administration and Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is a nonprofit organization that is independent and nonpartisan. CFR is based in New York Ci ...
Iran expert, Ray Takeyh
Ray Takeyh is an Iranian-American Middle East scholar, former United States Department of State official, and a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Early life
Ray Takeyh was born to an Assyrian family in Tehran, Iran in 1966. H ...
, wrote in 2014 that "Contrary to Roosevelt's account n ''Countercoup''
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
the documentary record reveals that the Eisenhower administration was hardly in control and was in fact surprised by the way events played out." William Blum
William Henry Blum (; March 6, 1933 – December 9, 2018) was an American author, critic of United States foreign policy and socialist. He lived in Washington, DC.
Early life
Blum was born at Beth Moses Hospital (now part of Maimonides Medic ...
wrote that Roosevelt had provided no evidence for his claim that a communist takeover in Iran was imminent but rather "mere assertions of the thesis which are stated over and over."[William Blum, 2003, ''Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II'', 2nd edn., p. 66, London: Zed Books Radical International Publishing, , se]
accessed 17 June 2015. Abbas Milani
Abbas Malekzadeh Milani ( fa, عباس ملکزاده میلانی; born 1949) is an Iranian-American historian, educator, and author. Milani is a visiting professor of Political Science, and the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of the Ira ...
wrote, "Roosevelt's memoir inflated his own and, in turn, America's centrality to the coup. He tells the story with the relish of a John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...
knock-off.... Eisenhower, for one, considered reports like this to be the stuff of 'dime novels.'"
After Iran, Roosevelt became assistant deputy director of the Directorate of Plans
The Directorate of Operations (DO), less formally called the Clandestine Service, Central Intelligence AgencyCareers & Internships Retrieved: July 9, 2015. is a component of the US Central Intelligence Agency. It was known as the ''Directorate ...
.
Dulles asked Roosevelt to lead the CIA-sponsored 1954 coup in Guatemala, which deposed the government of Jacobo Árbenz. Roosevelt refused: "AJAX had succeeded, he believed, chiefly because the CIA's aims were shared by large numbers of Iranians, and it was obvious that the same condition did not obtain among Guatemalans." Noting that Árbenz's resignation had been forced largely by rumors "that a full-scale U.S. invasion was imminent," Roosevelt later remarked, "We had our will in Guatemala, utit wasn't really accomplished by clandestine means."
Roosevelt left the CIA in 1958. to work for American oil and defense firms. He often visited former operatives and the Shah in Iran.
Personal life
Roosevelt married Mary Lowe "Polly" Gaddis in 1937, and they had four children: Kermit III (father of Kermit IV, who also goes by Kermit III), Jonathan, Mark
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* F ...
, and Anne.
Death
Roosevelt died in 2000 at a retirement community in Cockeysville, Maryland
Cockeysville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 20,776 at the 2010 census.
History
Cockeysville was named after the Cockey family who helped establish the town. Thomas Cockey (1676� ...
. He was survived by his wife, children, a brother, and seven grandchildren.[Mark Ribbing & Jacques Kelly, 2000, "Obituary: Kermit Roosevelt, 84, TR's grandson." '']The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
,'' June 10, 2000, Local, p. 4B, se
accessed 17 June 2015.
Selected bibliography
Articles
"Propaganda Techniques of the English Civil Wars – and the Propaganda Psychosis of Today."
''Pacific Historical Review
The ''Pacific Historical Review'' is the official publication of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association. It is a quarterly academic journal published by University of California Press. It was established in 1932 under f ...
'', vol. 12, no. 4 (Dec. 1943), pp. 369–379. .
Pamphlets
"Partition of Palestine: A Lesson in Pressure Politics." (Pamphlet No. 7).
New York (160 Broadway): ''Institute of Arab American Affairs'' (Feb. 1948).
Books
''Arabs, Oil, and History: The Story of the Middle East''.
London (1948). .
''Countercoup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran''.
New York: McGraw-Hill
McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referen ...
(1979). .
See also
* Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
(grandfather)
* Kermit Roosevelt
Kermit Roosevelt MC (October 10, 1889 – June 4, 1943) was an American businessman, soldier, explorer, and writer. A son of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, Kermit graduated from Harvard College, served in both Wor ...
(father)
* Kermit Roosevelt III
Kermit Roosevelt III (born July 14, 1971) is an American author, lawyer, and legal scholar. He is a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a great-great-grandson of United States President Theodore Roosevelt and a distant cou ...
(grandson)
References
External links
The Secret CIA History of the Iran Coup – The National Security Archive
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roosevelt, Kermit Jr.
1916 births
2000 deaths
American people of Dutch descent
American people of French descent
American people of Scottish descent
American people of Welsh descent
Anglo-Persian Oil Company
Bulloch family
Harvard University alumni
Maryland Republicans
People from Buenos Aires
People of the Central Intelligence Agency
People of the Office of Strategic Services
Kermit
Schuyler family
CIA operatives in Iran