TRUMAN SMITH PAPERS
2 linear feet, 8 linear inches (6 LGA-S boxes)
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Truman Smith was born on August 25, 1893 and earned degrees from Yale and Columbia.
After serving in the 4th Infantry Regiment during the First World War he was a Berlin military attaché from 1920 to 1924. Smith formed valuable friendships with highly placed officers such as Adolf von Schell and Defense Minister von Blomberg. When he was on the faculty at Ft. Benning, he convinced George C. Marshall to invite several of them to attend the school. In return, Smith and his assistant attaches were invited to German officer schools.
He was the first American to interview Adolf Hitler. He was again assigned as Berlin military attaché from 1935 to 1939 and reported on Germany's rearmament. In May 1936 Smith arranged to have Charles Lindbergh inspect the German aircraft industry and the reorganized Luftwaffe. Lindbergh was allowed to make five inspection trips. He toured factories, inspected aircraft, visited tactical units, discussed tactical and strategic concepts with officers, and flew a Messerschmitt Bf 109.
Lindbergh returned to the United States in 1939 and promoted military preparedness and American neutrality. He opposed revisions to the Neutrality Act of 1937 which might reduce defenses and lead to war. People supporting US intervention in World War II denounced Lindbergh and Smith and their reports dismissed as defeatist propaganda. A later assessment by intelligence specialist Ivan D. Yeaton suggested they were "The finest example of intelligence reporting that I have ever seen".
Army intelligence asked Smith in 1953 to prepare an account of his activities in Berlin and assess Lindbergh’s assistance. Smith was given special access to G 2 files and wrote his report “Air Intelligence Activities.”
Truman Smith died on October 3, 1970.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
The papers contain three eyewitness accounts of life in Germany in the 1930's: Air Intelligence Activities; Smith’s autobiography, Facts of Life; and Katherine Smith’s autobiography, My Life. Facts of Life talks about George C. Marshall. Smith served under Marshall from 1928 to 1932 as an instructor of military history and tactics at the famous infantry school at Ft. Benning. My Life describes Katherine’s efforts to get service wives to become proficient in German so they could glean intelligence from the conversations at the parties held by the Smiths.
Smith's earlier years of service are reflected in his letters to his wife from 1917-1919.
His report and notes concerning a visit to Munich in November 1922, including a personal interview with Hitler. There are articles on military developments which Smith prepared for syndication in 1941 1942 under the name Strategicus. Smith's evaluation of the new German army was recorded in a 1963 memorandum, "Estimate of the Combat Value of the German Army".
To assist in access, some folders have keywords or abbreviations added after the folder dates in parenthesis. Folders that have been scanned have the file name added in brackets at the end of the folder name. Requests for copies of the scans may be requested at hoover.library@nara.gov
SUBGROUP DESCRIPTIONS
Box Contents
1-5 SUBJECT FILES 1919-1975
Correspondence, memoranda, reports, and clippings concerning Smith's personal and professional life with particular emphasis on his intelligence gathering activities in Germany from 1935 to 1939. Arranged alphabetically by names or subject.
6 WRITINGS AND SPEECHES 1916-1967
Drafts and printed versions of Smith's writings and speeches. Arranged chronologically.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES CATALOG
RELATED MATERIALS
Berlin Alert: The Memoirs and Reports of Truman Smith (U55.S548 A33 LA)
There are Truman Smith Papers at the Hoover Institution and Yale University.
FOLDER LIST
SUBJECT FILES
Box Contents
1 Air Intelligence Activities – Office of the Military Attache, American Embassy, Berlin, Germany August 1935 April: With Special Reference to the Services of Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh
Correspondence, 1953-1964
Manuscript, 1956
Manuscript – Lindbergh Correspondence, May 31, 1955 [31-ts-b01-f03]
Manuscript – Lindbergh Corrections (2 folders)
Army – G 2 Division, 1941, 1943, 1952 and undated
Army – Lectures at Fort Benning, 1928-1932
Army – War College Monographs, 1932-1933
Clippings, 1939-1940
Correspondence, 1940-1972 (2 folders)
Faymonville, Philip R., 1968, 1970
2 Germany
Army Development, 1954-1956, 1963-1964 (2 folders)
Military Attaché - Activities of the Office of the Military Attaché, 1935-1939 [31-ts-b02-f03]
Military Attaché – Correspondence, 1935-1938 [31-ts-b02-f04]
Military Attaché – Reports
Austria, Apr 5, 1938
Czechoslovakia, May-Sep 1938
Europe as Seen from Germany, 1936, 1939 [31-ts-b02-f07]
Future of the Memel District, Oct 28, 1938 (Lithuania)
German Air Power, Nov 1, 1937 [31-ts-b02-f09]
German Army, 1937-1938 [31-ts-b02-f10]
German Foreign Policy, 1935-1937 [31-ts-b02-f11]
German Internal Political Situation, 1936-1938 [31-ts-b02-f12]
German West Front Fortifications, 1937-1938
Militarization of the Rhineland, Mar 1938
Oswald Pirow Meeting with Adolf Hitler, Dec 23, 1938 (South Africa)
Military Intelligence Reports
Expected Developments of April 1945 in the German Reich, circa 1945 [31-ts-b02-f16]
Estimate of Germany’s Present and Potential Capacity to Produce Airplanes, Sep 16, 1940 [31-ts-b02-f17]
General Strong’s Speech to Industrialists, Sep 27, 1943
Memorandum to General Miles Regarding Cessation of German Bombing of English Cities for Christmas, Dec 1940 [31-ts-b02-f19]
War Potential and Intentions of European Axis Nations, circa 1941 [31-ts-b02-f20]
Photographs, 1934 1935 and undated (photocopies)
Guatemala and Communism, 1952-1954
Hitler and the National Socialists: 1922-1924 by Truman Smith, 1960 (2 copies) [31-ts-b02-f24]
Hitler and the National Socialists: 1922-1924 – Correspondence, 1960-1961
Hoover Commission, 1948-1949
Hoover, Herbert, 1945-1964
3 Lindbergh, Charles and Ann Morrow
Clippings, 1927 1964
Correspondence, 1936-1975
Letter from Raymond Fredette to Katherine Smith and Articles on Lindbergh, 1977-1978
Lodge, John Davis, 1946-1962
Luce, Clare Booth, 1945-1964 and undated
Marshall, George C., 1957 1969
Russian Declaration of War on Japan – G 2 Report, 1951 1969
Smith, Katherine (Kaetchen), 1938, 1940-1941 and undated (2 folders, daughter)
Smith, Katherine (wife)
Letters to Daughter Katherine (Katchen) from Central America, 1952
My Life – Berlin, 1935-1939
4 My Life – The War Years, 1939-1946
Scrapbooks – Germany, 1933-1939 (4 folders)
Smith, Truman
Biographical Sketches, circa 1947 and undated
Clippings, 1939-1951 and undated
Army Service
Commendations, 1922-1948
Decorations, 1919-1948
Orders, 1932-1956
Personnel File, 1919-1946
Retirement Benefits, 1945-1974
5 Truman Smith: 1893-1946 – The Facts of Life – A Narrative with Documents, Typescript, undated (copies) [31-ts-b05-f01-partial]
Supporting Documents, 1919-1920, 1931-1945, 1955, 1963
Latin American Cruise Letter, Mar 30, 1964
Letters from France WW1 and American Forces in Germany, 1918-1919 (2 folders) [31-ts-b05-f05 and f06]
Letters from Germany to Daughter Katherine (Kaetchen), Sep-Oct 1963
Letters from the Mexican Border, 1916-1917
Speidel, Hans, 1948 1970
Taft, Robert A., 1945 1952
Trudeau, Arthur G., 1955 1962
Vietnamese War – Situation Assessment for Carter Clark, 1967 1968
Wedemeyer, A. C., 1947 1968
Wood, Robert E. and Mary., 1945 1969 and undated
WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
6 Articles by Strategicus for Army and Navy Journal
Printed with Clippings and Press Releases, 1941-1942
Typescripts, undated
La Abdicacion del Estado Mayor Aleman, Jan-Feb 1946 (Spanish)
Hitler’s Trick Gadgets, Unlimited, Feb 27, 1946
America’s Airpower Speech, Sep 30, 1946
Nazi Strategy – Army War College Lecture, circa 1947
Radio Debate with Norman Thomas, circa 1948 (disarmament, size of army)
The Rise of German Air Power, 1933 1939 – Air War College Lecture, circa 1948
Partial Text of Truman Smith’s Broadcast – Foreign Affairs Round Table, Mar 12, 1948
Testimony before the Senate on Universal Military Training, Apr 3, 1948
Letter to Editor of the Bridgeport Post on John Lodge, Apr 22, 1948
Hoover Report Speech to Republican Woman's Club of Greenwich, 1949
Declaration of Independence Speech, July 4, 1949
Foreign Policy Speech to Westport Woman's Club, 1950
Joseph Anthony Michela Article, July 1950
Thoughts on the Defense of Europe: Off the Record Speech, Dec 16, 1950
Europe in 1952 – Book Review of The Freeman: Europe Between the Acts by R. G. Waldeck, Dec 31.951
An American Views Post war Germany – Newspaper Columns, Sep-Oct 1955
Proposal for West Germany to Use the Virgin Islands for Military and Scientific Research, Feb 17, 1958
The Infamous Record of Soviet Espionage, Aug 1960 (Reader’s Digest)
Notes on a Lazy Winter February-March 1961, July 1961 (Jamaica, Haiti, Puerto Rico)
Critique of Miracle on the Marne by Lawrence Kamarck, Aug 22, 1961
A Summer at a Montana Dude Ranch, June 1962
Jungling as a Winter Sport, 1963 (Tikal, Guatemala, Peten Jungle)
Estimate of the Combat Value of the German Army, Dec 15, 1963
Not Much Rain in Spain, 1965 (vacation, Spain, Portugal)
A Visit to a Market – Typescript of Letter about a Trip to Tenochtitlan in 1520, undated (Mexico City)
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