“The what?” Knox interrupted.
“The Office of Strategic Services. We have renamed the Office of Information. Didn’t you hear?”
“I heard something about it,” Knox said, and then picked up his coffee cup.
“As I was saying,” Roosevelt went on. “Donovan believes that the reason his people are being snubbed is that when Fleming Pickering was over there, he whispered unkind slanders in the porches of Douglas Mac Arthur’s ear. And General Pickering does work for you.”
“I don’t believe that Pickering would do that kind of thing,” Knox said, after a moment.
“I would rather not believe it myself,” Roosevelt said. “But I thought you could tell me what the friction is between Donovan and Pickering.”
Knox took another sip of his coffee before replying.
“I’m tempted to be flip and say it’s simply a case of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. There was some bad feeling between them before the war. Donovan represented Pickering’s shipping company in a maritime case. Pickering thought Donovan’s bill was out of line, and told him so in somewhat pungent terms.”
“I hadn’t heard that,” Roosevelt said.
“And then Donovan tried to recruit Pickering for the Office of Information. Pickering assumed, and I think reasonably, that he was being asked to become one of the Twelve Disciples.” When formed, the mission of the Office of Information was to analyze intelligence gathered by all U.S. intelligence agencies. Ultimately, data would be reviewed by a panel of twelve men, the Disciples, drawn from the upper echelons of American business, science, and academia, who would then recommend the use to be made of the intelligence gathered.
Knox looked at his coffee cup but decided not to take another sip. “When he got to Washington,” he resumed, “Donovan kept Pickering cooling his heels waiting to see him for a couple of hours, and then informed him that he would be working under one of the Disciples. This man just happened to be a New York banker with whom Pickering had crossed swords in the past.”
“So there’s more than one monumental ego involved?”
“I rather sympathized with Pickering about that,” Knox said. “Pickering himself is a remarkable man. I understand why he turned Donovan down. He believed he would be of greater value running his shipping company-Pacific & Far East Shipping is, as you know, enormous-than as a second-level bureaucrat here.”
“And then you recruited him?”
“Yes. And as you know, he did one hell of a job for me.”
“In the process enraging two of every three admirals in the Navy,” Roosevelt said softly.
“I sent him to the Pacific to get information I was not getting via the Annapolis Protection Society,” Knox said. “He did what I asked him to do. And he’s doing a good job now.”
“Donovan says that he cannot get the men he needs from The Marine Corps, because Pickering is the man who must approve the transfers.”
“And Marine Corps personnel officers have complained to the Commandant that Pickering is sending to Donovan too many good officers that The Marine Corps needs,” Knox replied.
“You don’t think Pickering whispered slanders in MacArthur’s ear when he was over there?”
“He doesn’t whisper slanders,” Knox said. “Flem Pickering doesn’t stab you in the back, he stabs you in the front. The first time I met him, he told me I should have resigned after Pearl Harbor.”
Roosevelt’s eyebrows went up. But he seemed more amused than shocked or outraged.
“Was that before or after you recruited him?” he asked, with a smile.
“Before. But, to be as objective as I can, I think it is altogether possible that when he and MacArthur were together, Bill Donovan’s name came up. If that happened, and if MacArthur asked about him, Pickering would surely have given his unvarnished opinion of Donovan; that opinion would not be very flattering.”
“Donovan wants his head,” Roosevelt said.
“I would protest that in the strongest possible terms, Mr. President. And I would further suggest, present personalities aside, that giving in to Donovan on something like this would set a very bad precedent.”
“Frank, I like Fleming Pickering. We have something in common, you know. Both of us have sons over there, actually fighting this war. And I am aware that the Commander-in-Chief tells Bill Donovan what to do, not the reverse.”