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WINSTON LORD
President

April 19, 1985

The Honorable Henry A. Kissinger
Suite 1021
1800 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006

APR 26 1985

Dear Henry:

We have been working you very hard at the Council in recent
weeks and, speaking both personally and institutionally, I am very
grateful.

We were all pleased with the McCloy birthday dinner and your
eloquent remarks toward the end provided a fitting and moving tribute.
You expressed an interest in seeing a transcript of the evening and I
enclose one. We are not circulating this, so I would appreciate your
treating it with some discretion.

The next day you presided over the meeting with Helmut Schmidt
-- I thought you were especially effective in the meeting before dinner!

Finally, we all very much appreciated both the efforts you made
to come to our Vietnam Conference and the observations you offered. I
thought you struck a nice balance between your own views concerning that
period and the implications you draw for our current and future policies.

On a personal note, let me add that I am particularly pleased
that in my final phase here you have participated fully and effectively
once again in Council activities.

Thanks again for all that you have done.

WL/lt

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McCloy Birthday Dinner

CFR - April 3, 1985

## David Rockefeller

Thank you, Helmut, for that really wonderful contribution of a great European statesman analyzing and interpreting the role that Jack McCloy has played, not only in this country, but in the world. Our next and final scheduled speaker is Henry Kissinger, who is going to talk to us about Jack's bipartisan service to the nation. I can think of nobody who needs an introduction less, although I must say the last time that kind of an introduction was given to him, he complained rather bitterly because he said there was no one who enjoyed a long one more. But this evening I'm going to let it stand, and, Henry, we're grateful to you for being with us. (Applause)

## Henry Kissinger

When I was appointed National Security Adviser, I took cognizance of an article my colleague, John Kenneth Galbraith, had written to the effect that John McCloy was the head of the American Establishment, and so I thought it would be prudent to get in touch with him. We met at the Harvard Club and we didn't really know each other very well. He said, "Kissinger, you are not really fully an American." He said, "I've got some advice for you. You take your vacations in Colorado." And, he said, "I'm going to find a deputy for you who will be no further east than Cleveland. You will hear from me as to who this deputy should be." I heard from Jack, but I wasn't about to make my life easy. So I didn't hire that deputy, who is now chairman of Aetna, and would never have made it had he joined my staff. Instead I hired three other fellows who left within six months but have been writing books about me ever since (indeed, whose memory of events has improved with their distance from them). At any rate, that taught me, right off the bat, that one disregards Jack McCloy's advice at one's peril.

A few years later I was Secretary of State and I thought I needed Jack's advice. I called him up and asked him whether he could come to see me at 6 o'clock that evening. He said, "Of course." He came and spent a couple of hours with me. It was only several weeks later, by accident, that I found out that it was his 80th birthday and that he was missing his 80th birthday party. It would never have occurred to Jack McCloy, when a President or a Secretary of State called him, to ask whether maybe another time would be equally convenient. Jack McCloy has been a great public servant.

A few years ago I gave a speech somewhere during the days when the Shah of Iran was denied entry to this country. I said it was somewhat dishonorable to treat an old ally like a flying Dutchman looking for a port of call. Now that comment received two lines on page 28 or so of The New York Times. I received a phone call from McCloy. He said, "You were exaggerating, weren't you, Henry?" I said, "No, it happened to be true." "Well," he said, "this is an outrage. I'm going to take this over." And, he took it over and the Administration then in office was not given any rest. He took the problem over because Jack McCloy has a deep sense of the honor of America and the responsibility of our country to its friends.

I tell these three stories because it is very difficult to explain what John McCloy has meant to this country. He has lived for 40 percent of our history. He has served this country for one quarter, or more than one quarter, of its entire history. He was brought up in a period when fundamental values were taken for granted and when men were still at peace with themselves. He served in a period that was extremely complicated; a

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period when America lost its innocence and had to come to grips with a future that it had never experienced. He has been an adviser to Administrations, a High Commissioner in Germany and a friend of our leaders during periods when they could get relatively little guidance from our isolationist past and when they were assaulted by a perfectionism which used every American inadequacy as an excuse for withdrawing from this world. Jack McCloy, at 90, has remained naive about the future of America. He has not been a cynic or a skeptic. For him there was no question that American idealism could overcome its challenges. His role in Germany was not a technical one of reconstruction but a spiritual one of reconciliation. And when one is trying to explain what John McCloy has meant to a whole series of decision makers, one can quote Helmut Schmidt's comments about his good sense, about his fairness and his decency. But one must also mention that, for all of us who have been in office, even when we didn't ask John McCloy's views, we could do a lot worse than to ask ourselves, "What would John McCloy do in these circumstances?" This country has a tendency to believe that all of its policies can be periodically reassessed. We like to pretend that we can reinvent history every four or eight or twelve years. John McCloy has never had that illusion nor has he thought that we could simply construct a future by projecting forward our present.

In the spirit of Jack McCloy's great contribution to German-American relations, I would like to sum up what I believe he has meant to the dignity, to the honor and to the ultimate unity of this country in a quote from a great German, Bismarck, which I have translated from a rather poetic but extremely complicated text, partially paraphrased:

> The great events of history do not come upon us with a regularity of a railroad timetable. On the contrary, history advances in spurts and then with irresistible force. Only those paralyzed by their own cleverness identify statemanship with fishing in troubled waters. In fact, all that it is given to the stateman to do is to listen prayerfully whether he can dimly perceive the footsteps of God amidst the flux of history. Then grasp a tiny corner of God's cloak as he goes by and let oneself be swept along for the greatest distance possible in that tiny moment of recognition."

John McCloy, I believe, heard the footsteps of God as he went through history. And those of us who were either not humble enough, or whose ears were not so sharp, at least had the great privilege of knowing that if we followed in the footsteps of John McCloy, we were almost certainly on the way to doing God's work. Thank you. (Applause)

### David Rockefeller

Thank you, Henry, for a very eloquent interpretation of Jack's role in this country and elsewhere. All of us, of course, want to hear from Jack himself, but before we do so, I'd just like one other person to speak and that is his son, John.

### John McCloy, Jr.

Before I came here this evening I had no intention of saying anything. I think if I'd thought of saying anything before this august body, I'd have run like a rabbit. I've been through a number of celebrations for Dad's birthday in the last few days and have heard many extraordinary things about my father,

WINSTON LORD
President

April 19, 1985

APR 26 1985

Dear Henry:

The next day you presided over the meeting with Helmut Schmidt — I thought you were especially effective in the meeting before dinner!

Warm regards,

WL/1t

John J. McCloy 90th Birthday Dinner

April 3, 1985

David Rockefeller

Ladies and gentlemen, and perhaps more importantly friends and admirers of Jack McCloy. The Council on Foreign Relations has had for many years and continues to have in its membership among the most outstanding opinion leaders in the field of international affairs in the United States. I suspect that if all of us in this audience and many other audiences were to describe who would be the first citizen of the Council, there'd be little debate but that it is Jack McCloy. (Applause)

Jack has had an active public career that began with World War I. He has held posts in both the public and private sectors. He has been adviser to nine presidents -- I find that to be a rather impressive thing and not many people could equal it. And this evening it is our privilege to be able to celebrate Jack McCloy's 90th birthday. I'd like to suggest that we all rise. Jack, Happy Birthday. (Applause)

I would have to admit that this is not Jack's first birthday celebration. In fact, there have been quite a number of others, some of which you may have read about. One rather impressive one took place yesterday when President Reagan held a reception in Jack McCloy's honor in the Rose Garden of the White House. I think one of the most touching things about that was that the President of Germany, Mr. Von Weizsacker, came to Washington as a private citizen just to attend that particular occasion, as did the Mayor of Berlin. This gives some indication of how a lot of people, including those in this room, feel about this remarkable man. There are three other gentlemen, all of them of great distinction, who are going to talk about Jack McCloy's life, but it's my privilege to say just a few words about Jack's contributions to the Council on Foreign Relations, where I was honored some 15 years ago to succeed him as Chairman. I have to say, Jack, on that score, that I considered it one of my greatest claims to fame, if I have any, to have succeeded you as Chairman, both here and also at the Chase Manhattan Bank. Now that I've retired from the Bank, I have a little bit more time and I'm hoping that there may be a few other organizations that you may be willing to retire from. If you are, I'd like to succeed you for a third time.

Well, now let me give just a very brief rundown of some of Jack's involvements at the Council on Foreign Relations. This is statistically so impressive that I'm going to have to read some of these remarkable achievements. Jack became a member of the Council in 1939; he was a Director from 1953 to 1972, or in other words, for 19 years. He was Chairman of the Board for all but the last two years -- 1953 to 1970. He was elected the first Honorary Chairman of the Council and Director Emeritus in 1970. We're very pleased indeed that he will continue in that role, hopefully for many years to come.

There are a good many notable achievements that took place at the Council during Jack's term as Chairman of the Board. The Military Fellowship Program, which I think has been one of the very successful programs of the Council, was started in 1963. The International Affairs Fellowship Program was established

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in 1966. And a special study of Soviet-American relations conducted from 1953 to 1955 was under the personal chairmanship of Jack McCloy. The study resulted in the 1956 publication of the Council book, *Russia and America: Dangers and Prospects*, that was written by Henry Roberts. Two major study projects in 1962 and 1966 were the Atlantic Policy Studies, which resulted in 10 published books, and the United States and China in World Affairs, which resulted in another 8 published books. Successful completion of a $5 million campaign fund, which was the first that the Council undertook, was started and completed under Jack's regime as Chairman of the Board, and he played a very major role in raising those funds. The Studies Program is one of the programs that I think the Council is most proud of. There were 23 groups since 1948 in which Jack participated, including his chairmanship in 1953-54 of the U.S.-Soviet Relations group. In 1985 the John J. McCloy Study Group on Eastern Europe is the first of a series of groups which will be annually designated in his honor, and I understand that one of the first meetings of that group took place yesterday.

Jack has been a speaker at 13 meetings of the Council. I wonder if there are any other members of the Council who could equal that record. He's presided, and this is even more impressive to me, at 115 meetings of the Council. And as you can see, he continues to attend Council meetings regularly. All of these things are pretty impressive. He's been very involved as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of *Foreign Affairs*, which certainly is a crown jewel of the Council, and he's been a member of that Board since 1953. He's been author of three articles and, I'm happy to say, in the last couple of years he's spent quite a little time at the Council working on his memoirs, which I think could be of major importance as a record of American diplomatic history. In that regard, Shep Stone, who's to be one of our distinguished speakers here this evening, has played a very important part in working with Jack in pulling these records together. How lucky we are that we in the Council are able to persuade him to work in the preparation of those memoirs. I suspect that if we hadn't pushed him just a little bit, and Winston Lord played an important part in that, he, in all of his modesty, might not have done anything about it. But with the nudging of friends, he has done what I think all of us feel is very important. We're looking forward to reading those documents.

In recognition of Jack's contribution to the Council, I would like now to present him a plaque which is to be hung under his portrait, which is right over there on my right. It reads as follows:

John J. McCloy, Chairman of the Council, 1953-1970, in gratitude for his profound contributions to the Council and to the Nation from his many friends on the occasion of his 90th birthday, March 31, 1985.

You'll note that we didn't quite make it because there were others who got there ahead of us, but we're dating it the true date. The plaque is right under here. It's heavy and we won't ask you to hold it, but here it is and from here on for many years to come, that will be hung under your portrait, Jack.

I also have a second presentation because, in many of the smaller groups that have been held at the Council in which Jack McCloy has played such a major role over the years, there's always been a table lecturn, and the one that we've had, as many of you will remember if you've participated in those programs, has been bulky and solid and you couldn't see through it and it

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obscured the view of the participants. I would have to say that once again Winston Lord has done something I think very constructive and helpful. We've obtained a new lecturn which is made of plexiglass so that you can see through it. Maybe you could bring that up ... it has a silver inlay in front of it, as you can see here, which says:

John J. McCloy. Statesman, Patroit, Friend.

Council on Foreign Relations, 31 March 1985

And here it is. I think it's quite handsome. Jack, we're convinced that this will be a useful addition to the Council for a great many years to come. (Applause) So your inspiration will be continued.

Before introducing our distinguished speakers, I'd like to mention one other thing -- how very beneficial to the Council the endowment fund, which was created several years ago in Jack's name, has been in sponsoring activities every year at the Council, both in the Meetings Program and also the Studies Program. As I mentioned earlier, only yesterday that study group on Eastern Europe took place here, and of course we're enormously honored that tomorrow activities will be continued under Jack's name with one of our distinguished speakers this evening, Helmut Schmidt.

Let me now call on three individuals who have played a very important role in their own right but who also have been warm friends and admirers of Jack McCloy. The first of them is Shep Stone, who perhaps is one of Jack's closest friends, who's served in a number of capacities at The New York Times, with the High Commission in Germany and with the Ford Foundation, and who's come over here especially this evening to say a few words about the personal qualities of Jack and to tell us all how he sees Jack as a very remarkable human being. Shep...

## Shepard Stone

David, many thanks. Jack, Council friends, and our friends from Germany who are here tonight. Over the years, over perhaps 35 or 40 years, I've had the privilege of sitting next to Jack at dinners and luncheons where he has been praised, admired, honored, sometimes almost sanctified. Once, I remember, after somebody I think had called him America's Great Proconsul, he whispered to me, "You know, I feel that they're putting a Roman toga around me or about me, or whatever you do with Roman togas, with all the silver on it." I think all of us in this room know that too much praise can erode the character, even the sturdy character and the great American that Jack McCloy is. So, coming over the ocean, I thought, what could I say and what should the subject of this discourse or oration here tonight. Based on 35 years of research in the highest American and German standards of reflection, I've decided to call this little talk: The Truth About John J. McCloy. Don't worry, Jack. It's going to be tough on the way but in the end it's going to be all right. And, of course, to be logical, I decided (and I guess I have only 8 or 10 minutes) to do this in the following way:

* First, how do you get to meet and know Jack McCloy?

* Two, McCloy and national security.

* Three, McCloy as a negotiator and a man of incredible timing.

* Four, I think is McCloy as a hunter and fisherman. (You see, all these hang together very well.)

* And five, McCloy, the man of culture and the head of the American Establishment. I think, as a friend, this is going to do Jack a lot of good.

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Now, how do you get to meet Jack McCloy? One day in 1949, I was acting Sunday editor of *The New York Times*, The great Sunday editor, and he was great, but somewhat abrasive -- some of you may have known him -- Lester Markel, was off on his annual trip to Europe and I was in charge. My secretary came in one Friday morning, which is kind of a busy day when you're putting out the Sunday paper (I should say in my day the Sunday paper only weighed six pounds, instead of what it weighs today, but that's beside the point) and said, "Have you ever heard of a man named McCloy? He's on the telephone." My secretary never read *The New York Times*; she came in every day with the *Daily News* (I'm sorry, Johnny). And I said, "Yes, I have heard of him. His picture was on the front page a few days ago. He's been made High Commissioner for Germany." I got on the phone and (I'm a pretty good reporter so I'm telling you the facts here) the first thing I heard was, "Stone, my name is McCloy." (You could almost see, he didn't have it in those days, his jaw jutting out...you see it over there.) "My name's McCloy and I have to go to Germany." I said, "Yes, Mr. McCloy, I read the papers." He said, in that sort of kind, generous way, "Scotty Reston tells me that you're supposed to know something about Germany." I thought that was a nice introduction. I said, "Well, I've been there." "Well," he said, "can you come down and have lunch with me? I'd like to talk to you." I said, "No, it's Friday, I have to stay uptown." He said, "OK, I'll come uptown. Where can we meet?" Well, obviously, Sardi's, because that's the back entrance to *The New York Times*, or it used to be.

So he came up and I'll never forget that luncheon; I've got all the statistics down straight. The first thing he did was order six oysters. At the end of that he said, "Say, these are good, I'll have six more." Now, I didn't have an expense account in those days so I was watching this carefully. I still remember what the lunch cost and I thought it was the biggest bill I'd ever known up to that time -- and, for your information, it was $11.49 for my luncheon with McCloy. By the way, he's still owes me that luncheon. For two hours, he asked me questions about Germany and people which I tried my best to answer. And then he got up and said, "Thank you. Goodbye." and that was the end of that.

A few weeks later I was up in Vermont with the family on holiday when the telephone rang (we had an old crank telephone). The operator down at South Londonderry, Vermont, said, "Mr. Stone, Mr. Stone, Germany's on the telephone!" I said, "Germany's on the telephone?" She said, "And I'm excited. This is my first trans-Atlantic call." Well, at the receiver again: "Stone, this is McCloy. I want you to come over here for 90 days as a consultant." I said, "Well, Mr. McCloy, I have a job on *The New York Times*." "Oh," he said, "I've just talked to Arthur Sulzberger, the publisher, and he's granting you the 90 days." "But," he said, "Stone, if that isn't good enough for you, I'll have Harry Truman call you up." (Jack, this is all true, and I want you to put every word in your memoirs.) I said, "No, that's all right." So I went over for 90 days, and this man made such an impression on me and working with him was such a remarkable experience that I stayed for the full three years and I never went back to *The New York Times*. That's a fairly long way of telling you how to get to know John J. McCloy, but I thought you might want to hear it ... and it cost me $11.49.

Now let me tell you about McCloy and national security. We all know the great things he's done for the country and its security, whether it was the Cuban Missile Crisis or Germany and the transformation of a former enemy into a partner, and what he did as the Assistant Secretary of War. Since that's

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known, I'll just tell you something which is one footnote to national security. Every day, or at least three times a week, as some of you know, he would get messages from Washington marked "Eyes Only" or "Top Secret" or "Magic" or something like that. During the day he was too busy running Germany to read such papers, so he'd take them home at night in his battered briefcase, which was torn, and had no lock on it. These were all signed "Acheson" or something of that kind. At night, after dinner, we'd sit around; he'd never show them to me but he did reveal the contents to me, and I wasn't cleared. We'd talk about it and then at 11 o'clock he'd throw them all out in the center of the room and call his German butler, Willie (who was, by the way, an excellent counterpart of P. G. Wodehouse's characters), and he'd say, "Willie, gather up that stuff and put it in my briefcase so that I can have it for tomorrow morning." If Willie was the fellow I think he ought to have been, probably wasn't, he probably got on the telephone around midnight and called up Adenauer (at that time Helmut Schmidt was too young to communicate such messages to), and this is why probably Adenauer felt that he knew what the future of American foreign policy was. What he didn't know was that the next morning Jack McCloy would go into his office, and say to Pat Dermody, his secretary, "Get Acheson on the phone." I would hear this occasionally, and he would say, "Say, Dean, what nonsense was this that was sent last night signed by you? I'm not going to pay any attention to it." I think Dean must have said, "Listen, Jack, you don't believe I read the things that go out from this place under my name, do you?" (You must have had that experience, Henry.) He said, "Listen, Jack, you're running Germany and you just tell me what you're doing so I can report to the boss over in the White House." So this is the way, as I say, Adenauer was confused because the opposite was done of what was in the "Eyes Only" telegram, and national security was therefore preserved.

McCloy as negotiator. There were these meetings down on the Rhine during the great work of turning over sovereignty to Germany. Some of these meetings would go on all night long and you'd see the sun rising up over the Rhine, over some of those hills and ruins that most of you know at the Metropolitan Opera when you go to see Richard Wagner's "Ring," if you ever do. We would sit there and he would sometimes, as would the rest of us, doze during these wearying negotiations. Somehow, whenever there was a really important point that Adenauer or somebody would make, McCloy would just, "I don't know, just get alive and, like a cannonball, answer the Chancellor. I only tell you this because I want you all to beware: if you think he's asleep, that's when he's at his most dangerous."

McCloy and his sense of timing. By the way, you know that timing is not only timing in what you're doing in negotiating. But timing sometimes is where you are and what you don't do because you're clever enough not to be there. Well, I remember one Sunday afternoon when we were relaxing for five hours that he'd given us free (he was down skiing in Bavaria). He called me up and told me what a wonderful weekend it had been skiing and how the last schuss had been marvelous. I said, "Well, see you tomorrow." He said, "No, I meant to tell you, on the last schuss I sprained my ankle or broke my knee, or both, but at any rate, I'm in the hospital." "And," he said, "I have a visitor tomorrow morning whom I'd like to have you see in my place." The visitor was a man named Westbrook Pegler. Now those of you who are old enough to have read the Hearst Papers will know what a gracious and gentle character Westbrook Pegler was. Next morning, I was in the office and Mr. Pegler came in to see me and, here I'm reporting accurately, he said, "Stone, I see you used to work for a Red outfit called *The New York Times*. And now you're working for this Red outfit called the State Department." He really did say that. Well, I was furious and because I was not a regular Foreign Service

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Officer and I'd been earning about $10,500 on the *Times* and Jack was only paying me $9,500, so I thought why not go back to the *Times*? I said, "Mr. Pegler, you're a disgrace to the newspaper profession." "Oh," he said, "really." He walked out and four weeks later (this is all true) there began to be in the Hearst newspapers -- about 175 of them then -- articles about this dreadful Eastern Establishment and these Rockefellers and Achesons and McCloys and Mrs. Roosevelt, and my name was put in there. Up to that time I was utterly unknown, although I was better known in 1952 than either Henry Kissinger or Helmut Schmidt. And look what's happened since. Westbrook Pegler, in printing those articles and those attacks, helped make me. My conclusion is that McCloy's sense of timing helps you to become famous. I'm very grateful to him for what he helped me to do.

McCloy as a hunter and fisherman. President Roosevelt wanted him to be the first High Commissioner and Military Governor of Germany. He turned it down then, but when President Truman offered him the job four years later he took it and I think I can reveal the reason. I think that by that time hunting and fishing had been so well-developed in Germany that it made it very attractive for Jack to go over there because he is a great hunter and fisherman.

McCloy as a man of culture. Kings and presidents and high commissioners usually make speeches to the people on New Year's Eve, and Jack, who is jealous of Mrs. McCloy's German, decided he was going to speak in German. He delivered some excellent speeches in German over RIAS and other stations on New Year's Eve. The response, because the content was really marvelous, was excellent. I've never revealed to him that in responding, many of the letter writers, Jack, thought you were speaking English with a somewhat broken accent. I just wanted you to know that.

Finally, Mrs. McCloy, one of the greatest women I have ever met, and Mrs. Stone and I would drag the High Commissioner up to Berlin and take him to opera. He would always have to sit in the major box where everybody could see him. I remember one night we saw Richard Strauss' *Rosenkavalier*. In the first act, as you know, there's a lot of nonsense going on where the lovely countess is fooling around in a bedroom with Octavian, the young soldier, who, of course, is a soprano anyway, but she's dressed in men's clothes. Jack did not get very interested in that. But the minute Baron Ochs came on stage -- and you know Baron Ochs looked like a hunter -- Jack got excited and he enjoyed the *Rosenkavalier* ever since.

Finally, you know Jack McCloy has often been called the head of the American Establishment, but I'll reveal to you who really was. I remember one day at the house when Jack came in. Mrs. McCloy said, "Jack, you may be the head of the American Establishment to people," looking at me rather sneeringly, "such as Shep and others, but so far as I'm concerned your suit isn't pressed. You go up and change it, because we have 800 people coming in 10 minutes for a reception." So, now you know who the head of the American Establishment was.

In conclusion may I say, seriously, I have had the privilege of working for almost 40 years with Jack McCloy. It has been an incredible experience. In those years he has given me his friendship, and, all I can say is that apart from my family, the friendship of Jack McCloy has been the great satisfaction of my life. (Applause)

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David Rockefeller

Thank you, Shep. You've spoken so eloquently and so movingly, I'm sure
that all of us would have liked to have been able to express all of the things
that you have, because in our own different ways we felt them. Our next
speaker is a man who has been here at the Council many times although, because
he's not a U.S. citizen (and that's a requirement for membership in the
Council), he's not a member. But Helmut Schmidt has played such an
extraordinary role in the world, is so much admired by many of us in this
country, is a great friend of this country but also an honest critic, and is
somebody who, I think more than anyone that I can think of from Europe, could
express an understanding and appreciation of how the world and Germany see
Jack McCloy's contribution. Helmut, may I ask you to say a few words.
(Applause)

Helmut Schmidt

Thank you very much, David. Ladies and gentlemen, I have read that a
couple of years ago Mr. McCloy was called the most influential private citizen
in America. And also I have read that my friend, former President Gerald
Ford, has spoken of Mr. McCloy's never-ending dedication to outstanding public
service. I do understand these statements to be true but it certainly does
not fall into my competence, speaking as a foreign guest from Germany tonight,
to underline these two statements. Particularly so because Jack McCloy's
service was, of course, mainly rendered toward his own nation and country.
But in serving his own nation and country he, for a couple of years, also has
intensively rendered outstanding service to my countrymen in West Germany and
Berlin and he has never ceased to give advice to Germans, also to offer
proposals and criticisms and also to give advice and counsel to people inside
the United States on Germany and Germany's rather complex post-war situations
and development.

I was in the office of Chancellor, Mr. McCloy, when you celebrated your
last round birthday, five years ago. At that occasion, I wrote officially,
among other things, that you may very legitimately claim a place in German
history. We, those Germans who have been your contemporaries over so many
decades after 1945, would see to it that German historiography gives credit to
your important and unique role in establishing a morally healthy, open society
in Germany and also a viable economic and governmental structure. You have
been called sometimes, and very accurately so, the architect of West Germany's
transformation from an occupied nation to a sovereign state, and this indeed
is true. It reminds me of a story that I once read about Abraham Lincoln.
When a reporter asked Lincoln, "Why try to make friends with your enemies?
You should destroy them." And Lincoln answered in a gentle way, "Am I not
destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?" This is exactly what you
did.

I am speaking today totally in a private capacity but also certainly on
behalf of an uncountable number of Germans who are thankful to you from the
bottom of their hearts. I realized when I walked into this room (belatedly
together with Bill Bundy) that there are quite a few Germans present tonight,
like Eric Warburg, like Professor Biedenkopf, like Hans Leussink, and I would,
of course, have included you, Shep, if you had not spoken up for yourself,
although you still theoretically are an American. On behalf of many, many
Germans whom I can't name altogether, I wish to say that what you did for
Germans was exactly what Lincoln meant, namely, destroying white-hot enmity by
making friends of former foes. If Adenauer were still alive tonight and also

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Wilhelm Kaisen in Bremen, or Ernst Reuter in Berlin, or Max Brauer in Hamburg, or Wilhelm Hoegner in Bavaria, they all would tonight testify that I'm speaking the truth. And they would, from their very personal experience with you, extol your help and your accomplishments much more aptly than I can, having just reached the juvenile age of 30 when you took up the office of American High Commissioner in my country.

Three years later, in 1952, you had written in an article, and I quote: "Today Germany is demonstrating what I believe is the sincere will for association with the West. If she is not allowed to enter a European-Atlantic Community with its responsibilities, safeguards and ties, she will go the old way of independent nations, perhaps seeking other associations, and friends will face far greater dangers. Inside the European Community is the best hope for ending, once and for all, the old Franco-German rivalry. One thing is certain, there can be no European Community, there can be no sound collective defense system, there can be no solid hope for the future of Western Europe unless France and Germany work out a solid rapprochement." End of a quotation out of a very long article of Mr. McCloy's in 1952.

Today, more than 30 years later, your teaching obviously has been understood by the French and the German nations alike. When they take public opinion polls every once in a while in France asking the question of the French nation: "Who is our best friend?" about 66 percent of the French answer, "It's the Germans." And when you take the same public opinion poll once a year in Western Germany, about 75 percent of West Germans give the answer, "It's the French." The French say it's the Germans; the Germans say it's the French. For this marvelous development Adenauer and de Gaulle laid the foundations and afterward one was able to carry on the development which would have seemed absolutely impossible over almost one-and-a-half centuries, and especially so after Hitler's war.

Let me tell you that my greatest satisfaction, during my own limited public service to my country since 1949, is over the close cooperation and friendship with France under Giscard d'Estaing's leadership. As great a satisfaction stems from the fact that we were able to bring that about between France and Germany and still, at the same time, deepen our friendship and cooperation with the United States and the American nation, of which so many old friends of my country are present here tonight. I trust that we have worked in your spirit, Mr. McCloy, as well as in Jean Monnet's spirit. Our thankfulness to you stems from our consciously inheriting that spirit from you and from our following your advice.

Marion Countess Donhoff, my co-publisher at *Die Zeit*, said about you sometime ago, and let me quote this in German: "Handelt es sich darum für ein compliziertes Problem: eine Losung zu finden, dann lautet McCloy's erste Frage gewöhnlich: 'What makes sense?' Und seine zweite Frage: 'What is fair?' Geht es aber darum ein Sachverhaltnis zu strukturieren, Ordnung in ein gedankenlosliches Kaos zu bringen, dann gibt es neimand der dieses so leicht, so selbstverständlich, und auf so überzeugendeweise zu tun versteht, wie John J. McCloy." This is how I perceive your service to your former German enemies and your present and future friends in Germany. You always have made great sense, you always have been very, very fair, always remaining an American patriot, but at the same time, always also remaining a very, very reliable friend. I thank you, Sir, in the highest admiration and on behalf of many, many of my countrymen, I wish you all the best in the future. (Applause)

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## David Rockefeller

## Henry Kissinger

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### David Rockefeller

### John McCloy, Jr.

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all of which I'm sure are true. On the other hand, there has not been much or
anything said from the family side, and I won't try to attest to or try to
convince any of you that he has done the things that he has done; you know
those better than I do. On the other hand, there are some members of the
family who, unfortunately, are not here tonight -- my sister, who is ill,
fortunately only very briefly; but my mother, somewhat sadly or lengthily --
who would equally claim this evening that most of Dad's accomplishments were
thanks to my mother and her guidance. She would obviously, as would my
sister, be very warmed by all that's been said. I think I can say that there
are none of you that know him as I do -- as a son. If I get emotional, excuse
me. He is, in addition to all that has been said of him, the most remarkable
father I think that any of us here in this room could possibly have. He
wasn't always around, but when you needed him, you never had to look -- he was
there. He had his hand on your elbow and led you through all the vicissitudes
of growing up and getting married.

I can remember one time when I was having some real troubles in school.
My grandfather, to whom I was very devoted, had just died and I was trying to
figure out how to get through all those exams. I returned to my room and
there was Dad saying, "Come on, I've got a room at the Princeton Inn and I'm
going to get you through these exams." When I returned from my Comprehensives
to tell Dad that I really thought I'd done a pretty good job, he wasn't there;
he was back in his office. During those hours, days, there were three or four
of them, he was there. I'm sure my sister would echo that; my mother as
well. My wife, of course.

In addition, he's probably one of the most remarkable grandfathers that
any two children could have. I am fortunate enough to be the father of his
two grandsons who know him as -- I suppose, he wouldn't just be "Granddad" or
"Pappa" or whatever -- he is known to them as "Big Pappa." Everything about
Dad to all of us is BIG, as a family. All I can is I'm sure many of you in
various degrees and for various reasons will join me in saying, "Dad, we love
you very much." (Applause)

## David Rockefeller

Thank you, Johnny. What you've said was a very important addition to
this evening's meeting. I think it's true that all of us in this room feel a
sense, not only of admiration, but of love for Jack McCloy and we want to hear
from you, Jack.

## John McCloy

Thank you very much. I don't know how you respond or how you are
expected to respond to these comments that have been made. I see so many
friends around, including of course the Germans, whom I'm very happy to see
here tonight, but I see others that know so much, just as well as I do, that
these accolades are not really justified. They sound very nice and very
warming but I must say I don't know quite how to respond to the fact that
you've come to this place, which is sort of another home of mine. I find I
was here for so many years, and I attended and presided over all those
meetings; I didn't recall that there were as many as that. I must have been
around here amongst you longer than I should have been. I should have retired
long before that 17 years of directorship, and chairman and president of this
Council. But it has been a sort of an alter-home of mine and I've felt that
it has, over the years, represented a sort of continuity -- an important

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continuity -- in the welfare of the country from the days when it was started. I see some of the portraits around here, some of the people who really were in at the beginning. As Dean Acheson rather presumptuously said at the creation, what a continuity of service this institution has really rendered to the welfare of the country. I'm very, very happy and very fortunate and very pleased and satisfied that I should have been called on as many times as I have to try to assist in some mission or other. I hope the record has been creditable. Altogether, it's had its pluses and its minuses. After we recover from this plethora of comments about my service and you go home and sober up, you'll have to think that, well, maybe he did do a creditable job or, as Mark Twain used to say, "He did his damndest; the angels do no better."

About tonight several people have come to me and said, "Tell us some of the incidents that you had in your career that you think are outstanding."
Well, it's been quite a long career. As I said to someone that came to me the other day who said, "McCloy, do you realize...have you ever stopped and thought that you've come within a short number of years of being just as long lived as the country itself is." That was rather an awesome kind of an admonition to give me and I said, "No, but I'll think about it awhile and see how I respond to it." I came to the conclusion that I was pretty long in the tooth. As I said to the President yesterday at the White House when he was good enough to have me there for this reception in observance of a big-numbered birthday, I had served in two World Wars. The first, in a sort of a modest, combat role and the second, as the Assistant Secretary of War. That goes back for a long time because, you've heard me say this on several occasions, one man with whom I served in World War I had fought the Indians on the plains. So short, Mr. Chancellor, is the lifetime of this country. And he was on speaking terms with Cump Sherman (he used to refer to him as "Cump" -- William Tecumseh Sherman) -- the other fellow, the great Indian fighter, was also a great Civil War hero. I said that to the President the other day. I said, "If you talk to me about how old I am, I must acknowledge I'm rather sensitive about my age. But you must take great pleasure in the fact that, compared to me, Mr. President, you're just a spring chicken." He seemed to accept that, and with some pleasure, I thought.

I was trying to think of something that I might say that would be sort of illustrative of my experience. I thought I might just indulge a little bit, because I think I really ought to make it clear how old I am by reminiscing a bit because reminiscing is such a sign of age. I'll try to tell you about an episode that was quite acute in my administration in Germany. I was then the High Commissioner and Dr. Adenauer had been just elected Chancellor. The story was that he'd been elected Chancellor by one vote, and that was his vote. You referred, Mr. Schmiut, to the rapprochement between France and Germany. I had something to do with that, I think, in the sense that I'd known Jean Monnet very, very well. I'd known him when he lived over here and had been his lawyer. He used to preach this concept of the unity of Europe like a Cardinal would preach Christ crucified -- it was a real passion with him. I took him around to meet Adenauer one time. They hadn't met before. I listened to Monnet so many times, and I thought it was important that Adenauer should meet this man because he had this concept of the unity and interdependence of France and Germany. I was always rather impressed with Dr. Adenauer and his historical sense and tradition. Adenauer was really a Holy Roman Emperor. He believed Aachen and the Holy Roman Empire was just the day before yesterday with him, he had a concept of the Rhine and he treated the holy Roman empire as a great achievement of German history. Perhaps the most

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important cultural aspect was that he was a Rhinelander. We used to have to push him up to Berlin, which I was trying to defend at that time, where we had to show the flag. Whenever he had to leave the Rhineland (I forget what the analogy is, but Anteus, who was lifted off the ground), if he once moved out of the Rhineland, he didn't feel at home. He was a great man, as you pointed out, Mr. Chancellor. This elimination of irredentism that occurred after every war was, I think, largely due to the fact that he did have that concept and, of course, this was the concept that my friend, Jean Monnet, had and the two of them made it rather almost fantastic to think that there'll be another civil war started with irredentism that existed between those two countries. So there was a major contribution.

Someone mentioned tonight the fact that the new President of Germany was over here, Weizsacker. He has been very fortunate, I think, Henry, that the Germans have had such a fine succession of presidents of the Federal Republic. The sequence began with Heuss, who was a teacher, an academician, but who gave a sense of self-respect to the new Germany. He coined a very important phrase (he was a coiner of phrases too, he was something of a writer). He always spoke of the "Widerstand" as the gift to Germany's future. Because, as he pointed out, it had come from so many different sources. The resistance to Hitler, although the "Hitlerzeit" was in everybody's mind and seemed to be so extensive, by reason of the sanctions it was so difficult for people to communicate, but after all from practically every sector of the German society, there was a representation in the so-called "Widerstand" -- the men, the women. Many of you can mention, Schlabrendorff, for example, or any number of others. Amongst the women, Frau Strunck, up in Berlin, and a number of others that one could recount, whether it was the clergy or the laity, the Roman Catholics or the Protestants. Old man Heuss, who was a real representative of the moral authority of the Federal Republic, pointed out that the segments of the wide society of Germany were represented in the "Widerstand" and it was indeed, in my judgement, a gift to Germany's future.

To prove how old I am, let my try to reminisce a bit about on episode that certainly had me breathing hard. The Chancellor, Dr. Adenauer, who had been, as I say, elected Chancellor by one vote and everybody said it was his vote, came down to the first meeting of the High Commission. We thought this was an occasion that really justified some observance and we tried to think about what type of sovereignty we could return to the Chancellor on his visit -- a symbol of the new status.

We made a certain date for the Chancellor and I happened to be in the chair of the High Commission that day (we rotated our chairmanship). I happened to be in the chair when my orderly or some messenger came in and said, "Mr. McCloy, Dr. Adenauer is outside." We were on the Petersburg and it was cold. It was raining and it was up on the hillside there, you know where that is. I said, "Well just bring the Chancellor in and put him in this room and let him have some refreshments and we'll be with him in just a minute." He went out and it wasn't very long before he came back in again and said, "The Chancellor is out there but he won't come in until you come out and give him a proper welcome." I thought, "Here we go. We're going to have a problem right at the very outset of the setting up of the new Republic." Bob, I don't remember whether you were there then or not, but anyway, I did everything I could to speed up everything and sign the papers and get them out. Then I rushed out into the doorway to greet him properly and appropriately.

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You know, Adenauer looked like an Indian chieftain; everything about him was austere and reserved. I could see he was a mad as could be and was standing over there. He had his whole staff lined up behind him, Blankenhorn, und so weiter -- all were there and they were all ready for a real conflict. The reporters were all around, I thought we were going to have a rough time. And the snowflakes began to come down -- there may be some people here that were there at that time. And there was the Chancellor sitting up there, austere as can be, with the flakes falling around his face.

I came out and I said -- why I said it, I don't know -- but it suddenly occurred to me because I was thinking fast as to how we were going to overcome this situation. I said, "Mr. Chancellor, I know what you're thinking about." He was in no mood for flippancies at that point, and he had, as I say, his whole staff standing there in high dudgeon with the snowflakes coming down. I said, "I'll bet you're thinking of the scene at Canossa." He stopped for a minute; it was perfectly clear he was thinking, "Well, what does this whippersnapper, this young (however old I was at the time) know about the scene at Canossa?" I think that he didn't believe that any American had thought about it. That was the time, of course, that Gregory VII kept Henry II out under the snow. Well, it broke the ice. He tried to look very severe, I don't know if there's anybody here who remembers that, but that was an occasion when I was perspiring rather heavily because I could see all the newspapers talking about this terrible scene. Well, I'd just hit the right note and he was taken aback, I guess the saying is, because the fact that any whippersnapper American posing as High Commissioner should know anything about the scene at Canossa was enough to break the ice. That's one reminiscence that I have, and I felt very fortunate that we got through that episode.

I'm, of course, warmed by this turnout tonight, the number of people and the things that have been said about my service. I like to think that a good many former leaders of our country have, from time to time, sought my advice in connection with various missions and whatnot. As I say, I hope the record is a creditable one. I like the thought that has been brought up tonight that I seemed to try to figure out what was fair and just at critical stages in our history. Not only in the history of Germany and the city of Berlin, but the United States, Germany and the whole free world. How much confronts us. We know pretty well we're going to have just as vexatious, just as difficult, just as harassing problems in the generations to come as we've had in the past. We're going to need the finest form of decision-making process that we know how to create.

I hope that we're going to be able to meet those crises and those vexatious problems as we've met them in the past. The contributions that we've made I think have been creditable in terms of bringing about the preservation of peace and the welfare of mankind, but the best is none too good and we've got to continue, as I see it, to polish up our decision-making process so that it is always there. I place a great deal of emphasis upon the necessity and advisability of a bipartisan type of approach to these questions because it's going to be hard enough as it is, but with bipartisanship I think we do get a more penetrating, a more satisfactory and a better deserved decision-making process. If I could only distill out of my experience something that would really be a guideline to the future process of our decisions, I'd be very happy. Some reference has been made to the fact that I'm trying to write something and I've been dictating into a good many tapes something of my experiences over the years. I hope to be able to distill out of it a guideline to the future situation.

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An evening such as this is inspiring to me. I was very touched by the fact that Mr. Weizsacker, the new President of the Republic, was here yesterday to pay me his respects on my birthday. And as I've said on several occasions, I think how important and how fortunate it has been that the presidents of the Republic has been of such quality as we have seen in the past. When I come to a meeting like this, naturally I'm warmed and inspired. And I don't want to detain you any longer than to say how much I appreciate the thought and the courtesy and the instincts that have brought so many people out here to say such laudatory -- somewhat too laudatory -- things about me. I am warmed by the turnout and the fact that I have had this association with the Council on Foreign Relations, David, for such a long time. It is all very, very warming, very satisfying. I know some of the things that have been said are a little on the exaggerated side, but I accept them and am warmed by them and I thank you very, very much. (Applause)

David Rockefeller

Jack, your leadership and your inspiration have meant a great deal to this country and to the Council over a great many years. We're counting on many other birthday celebrations in the future and may you always come back to us. Thank you very much. The evening is adjourned.