Better late than never

[Flashermac]

Who was Harry Bingham and why is he getting a stamp?

 

 

Just an interesting piece of evidence of the curious behavior of the Roosevelt administration toward the Jews during WWII:

 

A few months ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell gave a posthumous award for "constructive dissent" to Hiram (or Harry) Bingham, IV. For over fifty years, the State Department resisted any attempt to honor Bingham. For them he was an insubordinate member of the US diplomatic service, a dangerous maverick who was eventually demoted. Now, after his death, he has been officially recognized as a hero.

 

Bingham came from an illustrious family. His father (on whom the fictional character Indiana Jones was based) was the archeologist who unearthed the Inca City of Machu Picchu, Peru, in 1911. Harry entered the US diplomatic service and, in 1939, was posted to Marseilles, France, as American Vice-Consul.

 

The USA was then neutral and, not wishing to annoy Marshal Petain's puppet Vichy regime, President Roosevelt's government ordered its representatives in Marseilles not to grant visas to any Jews. Bingham found this policy immoral and, risking his career, did all in his power to undermine it.

 

In defiance of his bosses in Washington, he granted over 2,500 USA visas to Jewish and other European refugees, including the artists Marc Chagall and Max Ernst and the family of the writer Thomas Mann. He also sheltered Jews in his Marseilles home, and obtained forged identity papers to help Jews in their dangerous journeys to safety. He worked with the French underground to smuggle Jews out of France into Franco's Spain or across the Mediterranean and even contributed to their expenses out of his own pocket. In 1941, FDR finally lost patience with him. Bingham was transfered to Argentina, where later he continued to annoy his superiors by reporting on the movements of Nazi agents.

 

Eventually, he was forced out of the American diplomatic service completely. Bingham died almost penniless in 1988. Little was known of his extraordinary activities until his son found some letters in his belongings after his death. He has now been honored by many groups and organizations including the United Nations and the State of Israel.

 

 

Source

[Julian2]

The lives of guys like him make fascinating reading, they're real unsung heros. It definitely puts the shoddy attempts of todays popular press to rewrite history in perspective.

[McBif]

He dabbled in Holocaust denial later on, though. Was he senile by then? He seems to have been a tad flaky all his life.

 

Apparently it was the Vichy government that demanded he be removed. He took no personal risks. He was the son of a state Governor and his mother was heir to the Tiffany fortune (dunno how he allegedly managed to die "broke").

 

But I think we might at least TRY from our supreme moral elevation 66 years later to look at the bigger picture in 1940. Roosevelt was battling isolationism and the German vote etc. At the same time he was receiving daily telegrams from good old Ambassador Joe Kennedy in London telling him the Brits were finished. Etc. etc...

 

A lot of things happened during in "WWII". Remember all the Communist parties and fellow-travellers of Europe denouncing the "imperialist" war for the 18 months between the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and the German invasion of Russia? No? The Communist-led French unions literally sabotageing the French industrial war effort before the fall of France? No? The Luftwaffe running on Russian oil and their crews eating Russian grain throughout the Battle of Britain? No?

 

These are facts, but not the sort you'll often find watching TV documentaries (God help us) or looking at photographs in Time/Life coffee table books on WWII or listening to the phony posturings of a stuffed shirt like Colin Powell.

 

Finally and most importantly, what would've happened had that cad Roosevelt not entered the war?

 

Anyway, if you follow the "source" link throughout, you'll find some stuff quite unlike the pasted puff piece of the post.

 

And for a quietly reasoned look at Bingham see:

 

http://isurvived.org/2Bingham-IV_Case/00-BIV-invitation2debate.html

[Flashermac]

I have never really understood why Britain and France declared war on Hitler for attacking Poland, but did NOT declare war on Stalin for doing the same thing. Afraid of their own domestic communist parties maybe??? I remember Len Deighton's book "Blitzkrieg" had some fascinating pics of Hitler's soldiers getting along famously with Stalin's, swapping cigarettes and taking photos together right after their joint victory over Poland.

 

 

<< Finally and most importantly, what would've happened had that cad Roosevelt not entered the war? >>

 

 

Most likely Britain would have achieved some sort of "peace" with Hitler, who then would have fought it out with Stalin on the Eastern Front. Odds are Stalin would have won through sheer numbers -- and overrun everything right up to the English Channel. ::

[Flashermac]

p.s. Interesting link. The first one makes it sound like governments are doing this on their own. The second tells you it is Bingham's son who is trying to make it happen. Not quite the same thing ...

[Julian2]

"Finally and most importantly, what would've happened had that cad Roosevelt not entered the war?"

 

We can theorise on that indefinitly, in Europe the German Army was a shadow of it's former self by D Day. The serious troops were getting their arses kicked in Russia and the elite Afrika Corp were safely behind barbed wire in North Africa. The Brits and the Commonwealth would have probably sorted it out eventually, it would have taken a little longer and Russia could have had all of Germany.

In the Pacific, well Roosevelt had little choice there. The Japs were hoping to knock America out with a single blow, they were fairly finely stretched by that stage, with millions of troops doing occupation duty in mainland Asia. In the end they ran out of raw materials and couldn't replace lost ships and planes leaving the skies and seas to the Americans and their allies. Internal bickering didn't help either, Yamashita, the Tiger of Malaya, possibly the best general of the Pacific theater was virtually sacked for being too popular and didn't reappear till the final year of the war. The atomic bomb probably shortened it by years, and remember that the Manhatten project was an international team of scientists. One, Sir Mark Oliphant, was later Governor of my home state of South Australia.

[Nervous_Dog]

The site saying he doesn't deserve it bases it's claim that he was doing his duty, yet it also says he was transfered for doing his duty.

 

That dont add up

 

The journo in the story plays a part in a interesting book about a jew who became a muslim and suported mussilini before and during WW2

 

DOG

[Flashermac]

Basically, it seems like Bingham did help refugees (Jews and non-Jews) to escape occupied France. He deserves praise for that. But his son is trying to make his father's role much bigger than it actually was.

[Nervous_Dog]

agree, however the lobby group against him seem to go as far against him as his son goes for him.

 

DOG

[McBif]

Flashermac said:

I have never really understood why Britain and France declared war on Hitler for attacking Poland, but did NOT declare war on Stalin for doing the same thing. Afraid of their own domestic communist parties maybe??? I remember Len Deighton's book "Blitzkrieg" had some fascinating pics of Hitler's soldiers getting along famously with Stalin's, swapping cigarettes and taking photos together right after their joint victory over Poland.

 

 

<< Finally and most importantly, what would've happened had that cad Roosevelt not entered the war? >>

 

 

Most likely Britain would have achieved some sort of "peace" with Hitler, who then would have fought it out with Stalin on the Eastern Front. Odds are Stalin would have won through sheer numbers -- and overrun everything right up to the English Channel. ::

 

Well, France and Britain had signed that treaty with Poland specifically in response to the German threat. Hitler gambled and was surprised that they followed through, especially considering Chamberlain was still PM. The declaration against Hitler was practically a declaration against his ally Stalin as well.

 

Don't forget later on in the Finnish war, the allies seriously considered sending troops to fight the Red Army there, and were actually in the process of shipping a few units (after much dithering) when Finland surrendered after a gallant effort.

 

I think it was five days after the German invasion of Poland that the Red Army poured in (as per the secret protocols of the Ribbintrop-Molotov pact) and occupied over a third of the country (along with the Baltic states).

 

I think you're right that Churchill would've had to make some sort of arrangment with Hitler, but only after Russia was knocked out. As it was, old Hitler couldn't believe Churchill wasn't prepared to talk. Hitler told his Generals that England would have to make a deal after they conquered Russia.

 

But as for Russia beating Germany without Western aid, I don't think it would've happened. I'm no fan of National Socialism, but I've got a healthy respect for German warmaking skills, or at least for the skills they had in the 20th century.

 

I believe for every German soldier killed in the East, they killed 5 Russian soldiers. Against Western allied armies it was 2 to 1 in Germany's favour. We shall never see their like again, thank God.