MG McClure

PSYOP HISTORY

Major General Robert A. McClure

By Jared M. Tracy, PhD

From Veritas, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2011

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Major General (MG) Robert Alexis McClure, a persistent advocate for psychological warfare (Psywar) and unconventional warfare (UW) from World War II to the Korean War, is an icon in the history of U.S. Army Special Warfare. To honor his contributions over a thirty-nine year military career, the U.S. Army Special Operations Command named its headquarters building for him in January 2001, and the U.S. Special Operations Command inducted him into the Commando Hall of Honor in October 2010.1 The Psychological Warfare Center that McClure pushed the Army to establish in 1952 is today’s U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, the primary training center for Special Operations soldiers. This article highlights MG Robert A. McClure, the officer who most solidified the role of Psywar, Special Operations, and Special Forces in the U.S. Army.

Born in Mattoon, Illinois, on 4 March 1897, Robert A. McClure moved with his family as a young boy to a farm in Madison, Indiana, near the Kentucky border.2 He graduated from the Kentucky Military Institute, a preparatory school in Lyndon, Kentucky, in 1915. In August 1916, he accepted a commission as a lieutenant in the Philippine Constabulary, a militarized Filipino police force established by the U.S. Army after the Spanish-American War in 1898. Led by U.S. officers, its mission was to conduct counterinsurgency operations.3

An enthusiastic horseman, CPT McClure demonstrates his skills at an equestrian demonstration at Fort Benning in 1928.
An enthusiastic horseman, CPT McClure demonstrates his skills at an equestrian demonstration at Fort Benning in 1928.
Captain McClure with his wife, Marjory, and two sons, Robert and Richard.
Captain McClure with his wife, Marjory, and two sons, Robert D. (l) and Richard A. (r). Born in 1920, son Robert graduated from West Point in 1943 and retired as a colonel from the U.S. Air Force. Richard was born in 1924, graduated from West Point in 1947, and retired as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force.
15th Infantry Regiment DUI
15th Infantry
Regiment DUI

Accepting a Regular Army commission in August 1917, First Lieutenant (1LT) McClure did not deploy to France during World War I.4 He served with the 31st Infantry Regiment at Fort William McKinley, Philippine Islands, until November 1917 before transferring to the 15th Infantry Regiment in China. Since January 1912 that unit had been guaranteeing rail access to the port of Chinwangtao from Tientsin and Tongshau.5 Notable alumni of the 15th in China included future Generals (GEN) George C. Marshall, Joseph W. Stilwell, Earle G. Wheeler, Charles L. Bolte, and Matthew B. Ridgway.6

Post-WWI demobilization caused the Army to downsize significantly.7 In the smaller interwar Army, career officers formed close relationships as they moved from command to staff positions and to the service schools. Those professional bonds were beneficial as they established reputations though, as historian Alfred H. Paddock, Jr. points out, promotion in the peacetime Army was “excruciatingly slow.”8 Fifteen years as a lieutenant or captain was not unusual between the wars.

29th Infantry Regiment DUI
29th Infantry
Regiment DUI

In 1920, Captain (CPT) McClure returned to the Philippines to serve with the 27th Infantry Regiment “Wolfhounds” in Manila before reassignment to the 19th Infantry Regiment at Camp Sherman, Ohio, a training post for draftees in WWI.9 In January 1921 he became the Post Exchange officer.10 In October 1922 he escaped to the 29th Infantry Regiment at Fort Benning, Georgia, home of the Infantry School.11 The 29th gave practical demonstrations to large classes of officers on all phases of infantry training and field exercises. Commanding the regimental headquarters company, McClure described it as “the most desirable assignment I have had.”12

Interspersed with troop assignments was Army schooling.13 McClure graduated from the Infantry School in June 1925 and the Troop Officers Course at the Cavalry School, Fort Riley, Kansas, in June 1926. MG R.H. Allen, Chief of Infantry, extended his congratulations to CPT McClure for graduating from the Cavalry School as an Infantry Officer, calling it “of real importance to the Infantry and to the service.”14 McClure also completed the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1932 and the Army War College in Washington, D.C., in June 1936.15 Typical of outstanding students, he was selected to instruct at the Infantry School and War College after graduation. CPT McClure had also been a Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Georgia, between schools.16

29th Infantry Regiment DUI
A military liaison in London since 1941, BG McClure walks with British King George VI shortly before Operation TORCH, late-1942. McClure’s experience as Chief of the Information and Censorship Section, Allied Force Headquarters in North Africa and the Mediterranean, prepared him for his role as Chief, PWD/SHAEF from April 1944 through the end of the war.

The war in Asia and Europe would have a major impact on McClure. When the United States declared war on 8 December 1941, Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) McClure was serving as Assistant Military Attaché in London. There he interacted with Allied heads of state and senior military leaders. After becoming senior Military Attaché to the American Embassy in late-1941, he was assigned liaison duties with the “Governments in Exile” (Greece, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Holland, Belgium, and Norway). Rapid promotions accompanied those additional responsibilities (LTC to Brigadier General [BG] in nineteen months—August 1940 to March 1942).17 Then-LTC Albert C. Wedemeyer from the Plans Division in the War Department General Staff wrote to McClure’s wife: “[BG McClure] knows how to handle the people with whom he is associated, exercises great tact, and is a bundle of energy.”18

In preparation for the forthcoming Operation TORCH, Lieutenant General (LTG) Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed BG McClure as Chief, Information and Censorship Section (INC) of the Allied Force Headquarters in December 1942.19 The INC’s Psywar Branch “laid many of the foundations on which the [Psychological Warfare Division, Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces (PWD/SHAEF)] later [built] a much larger and more intricate structure.”20

From “somewhere in Africa,” McClure assumed responsibility for Allied publicity and censorship in the Mediterranean Theater.21 In a letter to his wife, Marjory, McClure wrote:

BG McClure, Chief of INC, confers with British censor COL Scott Bailey in January 1943 while others of the Censorship Branch inspect documents for sensitive information.
BG McClure (upper left), Chief of INC, confers with British censor COL Scott Bailey in January 1943 while others of the Censorship Branch inspect documents for sensitive information.

McClure led the INC until 13 November 1943 when GEN Eisenhower made him Chief of the Publicity and Psychological Warfare (P&PW) Division working for the Chief of Staff to the Supreme Commander. In February 1944 P&PW became a staff directorate, the G-6.23

On 13 April 1944 Eisenhower divided the G-6 into two separate divisions: BG Thomas J. Davis headed the publicity division and BG McClure headed the PWD/SHAEF.24 McClure coordinated propaganda efforts with the American Office of War Information (OWI), the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and the British Ministry of Information and Political Warfare Executive.25 As head of the PWD, the general coordinated airdrops of more than three billion leaflets over German military units and throughout the rest of Europe from June 1944 to May 1945. On the continent, mobile radio broadcast companies and Broadcasting Stations Operating Detachments provided loudspeaker and short-range radio support to advancing Allied units, complementing McClure’s strategic leaflet campaign.26

During WWII, the significant effect of Psywar was lost on many military officers. One senior officer in SHAEF thought that “tactical propaganda, that is, leaflets, loudspeakers [is] useless.”27 Even before the end of hostilities, BG McClure needed to emphasize that Psywar supplemented UW and conventional warfare.28 Having oriented the PWD toward occupation duties, BG McClure shifted entirely from Psywar to information control in May 1945.29 When SHAEF ceased to exist on 14 July 1945, the general became Chief, Information Control Division (ICD), U.S. Forces, European Theater.30 According to First Sergeant (1SG) Orlene M. “Jackie” Voelkl, Women’s Army Corps, the ICD “took over all of the [German] newspapers and the radio stations” while assuming its “new role in the de-Nazification of occupied Germany.”31

BG McClure and other staff members of the Information Control Division after the deactivation of the PWD/SHAEF in July 1945.
BG McClure and other staff members of the Information Control Division after the deactivation of the PWD/SHAEF in July 1945.
On behalf of the U.S. Military Government, BG McClure grants media operating licenses to Germans with conditions that broadcasts must not contain pro-Nazi or pro-Communist content.
On behalf of the U.S. Military Government, BG McClure grants media operating licenses to Germans with conditions that broadcasts must not contain pro-Nazi or pro-Communist content.

The ICD’s objectives were to shut down all “media of public expression in Germany”; take over operations of radio transmitters, newspapers, and other media; and eventually grant licenses “to carefully selected anti-Nazi, democratic-minded Germans.”32 McClure wanted to ensure that Germans rejected Nazism completely.33 He said, “We are not going to lose the peace by giving [media] licenses to racialists, Pan-Germans, Nazis and militarists so they can … attack democracy as Hitler did.”34 He believed that anti-Nazi, anti-Communist Germans should be directly involved in the re-orientation of Germany.35

Despite PWD/SHAEF’s effectiveness in WWII, the “ignorance, among military personnel, about psychological warfare, is astounding,” wrote BG McClure.36 He argued that the Army needed to retain its Psywar capability. Some senior officers agreed. MG Lyman Louis Lemnitzer, Chairman of the Joint Strategic Survey Committee in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, believed that the Army should “develop a psychological warfare capability for the future” and “provide future commanders and staff officers with [an] understanding and appreciation of this new weapon of warfare.”37 Still, the Army did not maintain Psywar as a peacetime capability.

BG McClure as the new Chief of the New York Field Office, Civil Affairs Division, 1947.
BG McClure as the new Chief of the New York Field Office, Civil Affairs Division, 1947. This office controlled the distribution of visual and print media to Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea after World War II.

Throughout the late-1940s, BG McClure diligently petitioned fellow senior officers to restore the Army’s Psywar capability.38 McClure’s repeated requests stalled because of GEN Eisenhower’s (Chief of Staff of the Army [CSA]) deference to James V. Forrestal, secretary of the newly created Defense Department. Nothing materialized, and Psywar faded away.39 In 1947 BG McClure became Chief of the New York Field Office, Army Civil Affairs (CA) Division under MG Daniel Noce. Among other responsibilities, the CA Division handled information operations conducted by military government units in occupied Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea.40 From the New York branch, BG McClure directed the “reorientation and reeducation” of those countries, much as he had done as head of the ICD in Germany immediately after the war.41

BG McClure organized the New York Field Office to oversee periodicals, films, radio broadcasts, books, and other forms of cultural expression in the occupied countries.42 In June 1948, McClure wrote to the New York Times editor:

McClure performed CA duties until January 1949 when he became Assistant Division Commander of the 4th Infantry Division, Fort Ord, California.44 Later that year the general assumed command of Vancouver Barracks, Washington. This old frontier post at “the western terminus of the Oregon Trail” had earlier been commanded by WWII Army Chief of Staff, GEN Marshall.45 While stationed in the American Northwest, BG McClure kept up his letter-writing campaign proselytizing Psywar.

The North Korean invasion of South Korea in June 1950 prompted Secretary of the Army Frank Pace and GEN J. Lawton Collins (CSA) to take action. MG Charles L. Bolte, the Army G-3 (Plans and Operations), temporarily recalled BG McClure to the Pentagon to discuss rebuilding a Psywar capability. At the urging of Secretary Pace, the G-3 created a Psychological Warfare Division (with McClure as its head) in September 1950.46

In January 1951, the PWD became a special staff element under the U.S. Army Chief of Staff. GEN Collins made BG McClure the Chief of the Office of Psychological Warfare (OCPW).47 Its mission was “to formulate and develop Psychological and Special Operations Plans for the Army … and to recommend policies for and supervise the execution of [Army] programs in those fields.”48 It consisted of Psychological Operations (or Propaganda), Requirements, and Special Operations (or Special Forces) Branches.

McClure meets with COL Ellsworth H. Gruber, commander of the 301st RB&L Group, CPT Leroy E. Peck, commander of the Reproduction Company of the 301st, and other Psywar officers in Germany in 1952.
McClure (third from left) meets with COL Ellsworth H. Gruber (third from right), commander of the 301st RB&L Group, CPT Leroy E. Peck (second from right with arms behind back), commander of the Reproduction Company of the 301st, and other Psywar officers in Germany in 1952.

As the most qualified active duty officer to rebuild U.S. Army Psywar, McClure’s first priority involved creating and fielding Psywar units. By the spring 1951 the Army staff had activated the 1st Loudspeaker and Leaflet (L&L) Company, the 2nd L&L, the 5th L&L, and the 1st Radio Broadcasting and Leaflet (RB&L) Group. It had also federalized the 301st RB&L, a reserve unit from New York.49 Second, Army officers and soldiers required schooling in Psywar. McClure established a special division within the Army General School (AGS) at Fort Riley, Kansas, for that reason. The first Psywar officers course graduated in June 1951, and class cycles continued until the establishment of the Psywar School at Fort Bragg in 1952.50

Third, Psywar units had to have the latest technology. The OCPW’s Requirements Division and later the Psywar Board conducted research and development. Those departments evaluated the latest commercial “off-the-shelf” radios, loudspeakers, and printing presses, and customized them for use by Army Psywar field units.51 The OCPW and the Psywar faculty at Fort Riley coordinated with the Gates Radio Company in Quincy, Illinois, to have students receive additional training on assembling, disassembling, repairing, and transporting radio towers. In a matter of months, BG McClure and his OCPW had overseen the activation of numerous Psywar units, established a training school for Psywar officers and soldiers at Fort Riley, and had procured the latest technologies for use by field units.

The war in Korea had made rebuilding the Psywar capability a priority. In addition, BG McClure recruited some WWII veterans with knowledge of guerrilla tactics to address Special Operations within OCPW’s Special Operations Branch. Individuals such as LTC Russell W. Volckmann and COLs Wendell Fertig and Aaron Bank developed plans and training methods for OCPW’s Special Forces Concept. Bank, a WWII OSS operator, was selected by McClure to command and train a Special Forces Group (SFG) when OCPW received approval to activate one.52 LTG Samuel V. Wilson, a WWII veteran of the OSS and Merrill’s Marauders, recalled that McClure “was an excellent judge of talent, chose good men to work for him, gave them their charge, and stepped back to watch them carry it out.”53 Another challenge faced McClure: the AGS lacked appropriate staffing and Fort Riley lacked the facilities to accommodate both Psywar and UW students and courses.

This situation prompted BG McClure to campaign in the Pentagon for a separate Army Psychological Warfare Center to teach students, develop Psywar and Operations doctrine for the Army, and to address unique equipment needs of Psywar and Special Forces. Departments were established for each and Fort Bragg, North Carolina, became the location for the school. The Army also granted authority to establish an entirely new unit, the 10th SFG. The Psychological Warfare Center, established in May 1952 and consisting of the Psywar School, the 6th RB&L Group, the Psywar Board, and the 10th SFG, proved to be BG McClure’s most lasting legacy to Army Special Operations.

By mid-1953, the 10th SFG had expanded from 9 to 1,700 men.54 Special Forces units grew throughout the 1950s and some Psywar units remained in the Army after the Korean War.55 Fort Bragg and Camp Mackall proved to be excellent training areas. BG McClure had made great advancements for the fields of Psywar and UW from 1950 to 1953. Army Chief of Staff GEN Collins then selected him for a new position based on his wartime diplomatic skills.

Among his many career commendations for overseas service, BG McClure is awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire from Field Marshall Lord Alanbrooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, for his efforts in North Africa and the Mediterranean theaters.
Among his many career commendations for overseas service, BG McClure is awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire from Field Marshall Lord Alanbrooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, for his efforts in North Africa and the Mediterranean theaters.

In March 1953, GEN Collins appointed BG McClure as Chief of the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG), Iran. Post-WWII instability and the Cold War had led to a tenuous situation in the Middle East. Soviet influence and access to oil were concerns.56 As Chief of MAAG, McClure advised the U.S.-friendly Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlavi, Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian armed forces.57 The general “formed close associations with the Shah and the Iranian senior military,” and U.S. intelligence reported that “the morale of the [Iranian] security forces has improved, and they can be expected to respond promptly.”58 The Shah awarded McClure the silver Homayoun Medal on 29 November 1953. In April 1955, the U.S. Army promoted him to major general. Soon after his promotion, the Chief of MAAG received the Iranian Merit Decoration.59 This was McClure’s final assignment.

MG Robert A. McClure
MG Robert A. McClure, Chief of the Military Assistance Advisory Group, Iran, 1953-1956.
Psywar Center DUI
Psywar Center DUI

The Psywar general retired in 1956 after thirty-nine years of service. Chief of Staff of the United States Army, GEN Maxwell D. Taylor, told McClure that “your efforts have added greatly to the effectiveness of the Army and to the security of America. You may well be proud of your record of service to the country.”60 Unfortunately, MG McClure suffered a fatal heart attack on 1 January 1957.61 LTG Samuel V. Wilson recalled McClure as “a quietly engaging, soft-spoken, good-humored, well-read and intellectually curious officer armed with strong moral character and a tenacious sense of purpose.”62 1SG Jackie Voelkl, McClure’s secretary at PWD/SHAEF and the ICD, remembered him as “a delightful man.”63

MG McClure is an ARSOF icon for several reasons. First, as head of the INC and PWD/SHAEF, he led the strategic Psywar efforts in North Africa and Europe during WWII. Second, as Chief of the ICD and the New York Field Office, he led the re-education efforts in occupied nations after the war. Third, after continuous efforts to reinstate U.S. Army Psywar, he finally did so as head of the OCPW during the Korean War. BG McClure orchestrated the activation and fielding of many Psywar units, the creation of a Psywar curriculum within the AGS at Fort Riley, and the establishment of the Psychological Warfare Center at Fort Bragg with separate training for Psywar and Special Forces. Finally, he had the foresight to convince the Army staff to slate manpower for SF. As such, MG Robert A. McClure was central to the origins of U.S. Army Special Warfare.

The author would like to thank COL (Ret.) Alfred H. Paddock, Jr., COL (Ret.) Robert D. McClure and his wife Betty Anne, 1SG Orlene “Jackie” M. Voelkl, Dr. Robert Smith at the Cavalry Museum, Fort Riley, and Janice Barnes at the Madison-Jefferson County Library for their assistance while researching this article.

MG Robert A. McClure Building

ENDNOTES

  1. Guest List for USASOC Headquarters Memorialization, 19 January 2001, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; Henry Cunningham, “Bragg names building for McClure,” Fayetteville Observer, 20 January 2001, sec. 3, B; U.S. Special Operations Command, Program for the Commando Hall of Honor Induction Ceremony, 27 October 2010, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. [return]
  2. Colonel (Ret.) Robert D. McClure, U.S. Air Force, son of Robert A. McClure, interview by Jared Tracy, 14 February 2011, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. [return]
  3. Philippine Constabulary, Student Officers’ Camp, Camp Wilhelm, “Record of Robert A. McClure,” Special Order #157, 1 August 1916, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; Richard L. Millet, The U.S. Development of Constabulary Forces in Latin America and the Philippines (Fort Leavenworth: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2010), 7-16. [return]
  4. W.H. Keith to GEN Joseph B. Leitch, 28 September 1918, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; Alfred H. Paddock, Jr., “Major General Robert A. McClure, USA” (unpublished biography), hereafter cited as Paddock, McClure biography; Career Chronology of MG Robert A. McClure, in Folder “Robert A. McClure: ‘Founding Father’ of Army SOF Memorializing,” USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC, hereafter cited as McClure, Career Chronology. When the United States declared war in April 1917, nearly all of the most experienced officers and NCOs from the 31st Infantry Regiment transferred stateside to train the growing U.S. forces.According to historian Karl H. Lowe, “By January 1918, the regiment had dwindled to 55 officers and 865 enlisted men, just enough to fully man one battalion [out of three in the regiment] … By April 1918, the 31st was one of only two U.S. infantry regiments left in the Philippines.” See Lowe, “The Birth of a Regiment: Manila, 1916-1918,” America’s Foreign Legion: The 31st Infantry at War and Peace, http://31stinfantry.org/documents/chapter%201.pdf, accessed 6 April 2011. [return]
  5. McClure, Career Chronology; Edward M. Coffman, “The American 15th Infantry Regiment in China, 1912-1938: A Vignette in Social History,” The Journal of Military History 58 (January, 1994), 57-58. [return]
  6. Coffman, “The American 15th Infantry Regiment,” 69; William Bell and others, Center of Military History, American Military History (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1989), 407. [return]
  7. Center of Military History, American Military History, 405-406. In the first full month of demobilization the Army released about 650,000 officers and men, and within nine months it demobilized nearly 3,250,000 without seriously disturbing the American economy. .. [By] the end of [1919] the active Army, reduced to a strength of about 19,000 officers and 205,000 enlisted men, was again a regular volunteer force. [return]
  8. Paddock, McClure biography; Alfred H. Paddock, Jr., “Robert Alexis McClure: Forgotten Father of Army Special Warfare,” Special Warfare: The Professional Bulletin of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, 12 (Fall 1999), 2; McClure, Career Chronology. [return]
  9. McClure, Career Chronology; Jim Malachowski, “The History of the 27th United States Infantry Regiment ‘Wolfhounds,’” http://www.kolchak.org/history/general/history_pg1.htm, accessed 6 April 2011. [return]
  10. In late-1921 the 19th Infantry was reassigned to the Presidio, San Francisco when the War Department announced that Camp Sherman, Ohio, Camp Devens, Massachusetts, Camp Grant, Illinois, Camp Pike, Arkansas, Camp Meade, Maryland, Camp Jackson, South Carolina, Camp Bragg, North Carolina, Camp Dix, New Jersey, Camp Travis, Texas, Camp Lewis, Washington, and Camp Knox, Kentucky were to be abandoned. G. Richard Peck, Images of America: Chillicothe, Ohio (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 1999), 103; “Army to Abandon Seven Big Camps,” New York Times, 27 July 1921, 6. [return]
  11. Fitzhugh Lee Minnigerode, “The Biggest Infantry Training School,” New York Times, 30 January 1921, sec. BR, 10; “Army to Abandon Seven Big Camps,” New York Times, 27 July 1921, 6. [return]
  12. Letter to the Editor of the Madison Courier by CPT Robert McClure, Madison Courier, 23 November 1923. In that letter McClure requested volunteers from his hometown, Madison, to join the company. [return]
  13. Center of Military History, American Military History, 409. [return]
  14. MG R.H. Allen to Robert A. McClure, 5 June 1926, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. [return]
  15. McClure, Career Chronology; Fort Riley Cavalry School, Commandants, Instruction, Personnel, Students of the Cavalry School since 1904 (undated), Box SD 126, “The Cavalry School (6), Lesson Plans/Instructor Outlines,” Fort Riley Cavalry Museum Archives. [return]
  16. Though his career prospects were uncertain, he and his wife, Marjory, made the best of military life.According to McClure’s eldest son, COL (Ret.) Robert D. McClure, his parents were equestrians.“In those days [the interwar period], every officer had to have a horse, regardless of the branch he was in,” he said.His parents enjoyed riding for leisure and had time to do so in his stateside assignments, especially since polo and horseshoes were also preferred extracurricular activities of U.S. Army officers in that time period. COL Robert D. McClure and Betty Anne McClure interview, interview by Jared Tracy, 22 February 2011, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. [return]
  17. Paddock, “Robert Alexis McClure,” 2-3; McClure, Career Chronology. [return]
  18. A.C. Wedemeyer to Marjory McClure, 21 May 1942, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. [return]
  19. Stanley Sandler, “Cease Resistance: It’s Good For You!”: A History of U.S. Army Combat Psychological Operations (published by author, 1999), 47. [return]
  20. PWD/SHAEF, The Psychological Warfare Division, Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force: An Account of Its Operations in the Western European Campaign, 1944-1945, http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p4013coll8/id/2857/rec/1 (accessed 29 June 2011), 6.Hereafter cited as PWD/SHAEF. [return]
  21. Paddock, “Robert Alexis McClure,” 2. [return]
  22. Letter quoted in Paddock, “Robert Alexis McClure,” 3. [return]
  23. PWD/SHAEF, 7. [return]
  24. “U.S. Forces in Britain Get a New Press Chief,” New York Times, 20 April 1944, 7. [return]
  25. Paddock, McClure biography; Paddock, “Robert Alexis McClure,” 2-3. [return]
  26. PWD/SHAEF, 10, 125.For more on the organization and operations of WWII Psywar, see Sandler, Cease Resistance, 49, 81; Twelfth Army Group, History: Publicity and Psychological Warfare, January 1943-August 1945 (unpublished), U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), Carlisle, Pennsylvania; Dixie R. Harris and George Raynor Thompson, United States Army in World War II: The Signal Corps: The Outcome (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1966), 108; Daniel Lerner, Sykewar: Psychological Warfare Against Germany, D-Day to VE-Day (New York: George W. Stewart Publisher, Inc., 1949), 55, 133; James Erdmann, Leaflet Operations in the Second World War: The Story of the How and Why of the 6,500,000,000 Propaganda Leaflets Dropped on Axis Forces and Homelands in the Mediterranean and European Theaters of Operations (Reproduced by Denver Instant Printing, 1969), 1-7; Orlene M. “Jackie” Voelkl (formerly Ijas), Women’s Army Corps, McClure’s Secretary, PWD/ICD, interview by Jared Tracy, 7 February 2011, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. [return]
  27. Lerner, Sykewar, xv. [return]
  28. Sandler, Cease Resistance, 82. [return]
  29. Robert A. McClure, Chief, Psychological Warfare Division/SHAEF, Press Release, 25 May 1945, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. [return]
  30. McClure, Career Chronology; “SHAEF Adds Names to Occupation List,” New York Times, 23 May 1945, 8. [return]
  31. Voelkl interview, 7 February 2011; Paddock, McClure biography. [return]
  32. PWD/SHAEF, 83. [return]
  33. Sandler, Cease Resistance, 125. [return]
  34. Gladwin Hill, “Allied-Soviet Unity Lacking on Germans’ Re-Education,” New York Times, 26 May 1945, 1. [return]
  35. PWD/SHAEF, 83;Voelkl interview, 7 February 2011. [return]
  36. Letter from McClure to Propaganda Branch, Military Intelligence Division, 13 January 1946, cited in Alfred H. Paddock, Jr., U.S. Army Special Warfare: Its Origins (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas), 42. [return]
  37. Letter from Lemnitzer to Lieutenant General John E. Hull, Operations Division, 22 August 1946, cited in Paddock, U.S. Army Special Warfare, 42. [return]
  38. Within a year U.S. Army forces had dropped from 1.9 million to 290,000 personnel.See “United States Army Europe History,” http://www.eur.army.mil/organization/history.htm (accessed 2 June 2011); Paddock, U.S. Army Special Warfare, 43-45. [return]
  39. Paddock, U.S. Army Special Warfare, 45-50. [return]
  40. Esther Pulis Corcoran, My Memoirs (unpublished, 1998), 26, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. An officer in the Women’s Army Corps, CPT Pulis was BG McClure’s assistant in the ICD and his Assistant Executive Officer in the New York Field Office. [return]
  41. Paddock, McClure biography. [return]
  42. Alfred H. Paddock, “The Psychological Warfare Center and the Origins of Special Warfare,” in Special Forces Association, Special Forces: The First Fifty Years: The United States Army Special Forces, 1952-2002 (Tampa: Faircount, LLC, 2002), 328; LTC Ray J. Laux, U.S. Army Civil Affairs Division, Functions of the New York Field Office, 16 December 1947, Folder “Civil Affairs Division,” Box 1, Robert A. McClure papers, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), Carlisle, Pennsylvania. [return]
  43. Robert A. McClure, “In the Editor’s Mail,” New York Times, 20 June 1948, sec. BR, 10. [return]
  44. Believing that McClure’s reassignment ended his role in Psywar and information operations, “one hundred members of the press and radio who participated in psychological warfare activities during [WWII]” honored him at ‘a testimonial dinner’ at the Pierre Hotel, New York City just prior to his transfer to the West Coast.“General McClure Honored,” New York Times, 7 January 1949, 16. [return]
  45. Press Branch, Office of Public Information, Department of Defense, biographical narrative of Major General Robert A. McClure, June 1956, in Folder “Robert A. McClure: ‘Founding Father’ of Army SOF Memorialized” USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC; “Fort Vancouver History & Culture,” http://www.nps.gov/fova/historyculture /index.htm (accessed 21 April 2011); “New National Monument Voted,” New York Times, 13 June 1948, 14. [return]
  46. Brigadier General Robert A. McClure, “Trends in Army Psychological Warfare,” Army Information Digest (February 1952), 11. [return]
  47. Paddock, McClure; Paddock, “Robert Alexis McClure,” 6-7. [return]
  48. Headquarters, Department of the Army, Special Regulation #10-250-1, 22 May 1951, cited in Memorandum for Commanding General, U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, 17 October 1989, Folder “Robert A. McClure: ‘Founding Father’ of Army SOF Memorializied,” USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, NC. [return]
  49. Paddock, “Robert Alexis McClure,” 7; Sandler, Cease Resistance, 216. The 1st L&L Company fell under the Psychological Warfare Division, EUSA, headed by Colonel K. K. Hansen; the 5th L&L Company was assigned to Third Army in Heidelberg; and the 301st RB&L Group fell under U.S. Army, Europe (USAREUR). [return]
  50. Army General School, Student Handbook (June 1951), 8, USAHEC. [return]
  51. OCPW, Notes for Army Research and Development Board Briefing (6 January 1953), 6-7, Box “Avedon, General PSYOP, 1952-1953,” USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. [return]
  52. Paddock, “Robert Alexis McClure,” 7-8. [return]
  53. Email from LTG Samuel V. Wilson to Alfred H. Paddock, Jr., 17 June 2003, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. [return]
  54. Paddock, “Robert Alexis McClure,” 7-8. [return]
  55. The 77th SFG was activated in 1953; in June 1956, cadre from the 77th SFG moved to Okinawa, Japan to form the 1st SFG; in 1960, the 77th SFG was re-designated the 7th SFG; in 1959-1960 the 1st and 7th SFGs had already begun advisory missions in Indochina; and in 1961 the 5th SFG was activated. [return]
  56. Central Intelligence Agency, “National Intelligence Estimate: Probable Developments in Iran Through 1953,” 13 November 1952, http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_0000014050/DOC_0000014050.pdf (accessed 1 June 2011), 7. [return]
  57. Stephen Ambrose and Douglas Brinkley, Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938 (New York: Penguin Books, 1997), 148-149. [return]
  58. Paddock, McClure biography; Paddock, “Robert Alexis McClure,” 9; McClure, Career Chronology. When people asked MG McClure later why he got along so well with the Shah, his family remembered him saying “I just treated him like I treated [my son] Bob.”COL McClure and Betty Anne McClure interview, 22 February 2011; Central Intelligence Agency, “National Intelligence Estimate: Probable Developments in Iran Through 1954,” 10 November 1953, http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_0000119711/DOC_0000119711.pdf (accessed 1 June 2011), 7. [return]
  59. Copies of citations in Folder “Awards from Iranian Government,” Box 1, Robert A. McClure papers, USAHEC. [return]
  60. Maxwell D. Taylor to Robert A. McClure, 29 May 1956, USASOC History Office Classified Files, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. [return]
  61. Paddock, McClure biography; Paddock, “Robert Alexis McClure,” 9. [return]
  62. Cunningham, “Bragg names building for McClure,” 20 January 2001. [return]
  63. Voelkl interview, 7 February 2011. [return]