No Time for Glory: The Story of a Dismissed Legend

By D.M. Foy

This is an incredible story of a once obscure social welfare workers rise from a deathbed and subsequent catapult into a position of worldwide power and influence. Harry Hopkins was an improbable hero living on borrowed time at the epicenter of world chaos during World War II. By means of exceptional cunning, sustenance, valor, and patriotism, his achievements and services alter the course of history during the mid-twentieth century. His noble quest for the plight of the poor, the weak, and the hungry are surpassed only by a passion to defeat the tyrannical daring to live only to die for altruistic causes of country and humanity.

These events of intrigue mined from archives of faded footnotes, when mended in chronological order and held to the light of a new era reveals the tribulations of a forsaken legend. No Time for Glory

This in hope of preserving from decay the remberance of what men have done;

Of preventing great and wonderful actions from losing their meed of glory;

And withal to put on record what were their grounds of feud.

Herodotus... 440 BC

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 28, 2004
• ISBN: 9781468536270

D.M. Foy

Donald Foy was born and bred on Chicago’s southside during the Depression years. A typical youth educated, enlightened, employed, and like many of the era prematurely aged by the incertitude of the encroaching World War II.  This was a time replete with historical subterfuge.  The influence of a Manhattan social welfare worker of the times grew from mere curiosity into an obsession to unravel the mystic of the shadowy Harry Hopkins. The mystery and drama are unveiled in his first book… “No Time for Glory.” Donald and his wife live outside Chicago near their four children and five grandchildren.

Book preview

2004 D.M. Foy. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/30/2017

ISBN: 978-1-4208-0336-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-3627-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2004097443

Table of Contents

1Chief Apostle of the New Deal

2 The New Secretary of Commerce…

3 Guest of Honor…

4 Chicago Convention …

5 London Bound…

6 Baptism by Fire…

7 Business As Usual…

8 Four Plus One…

9 Close Encounter…

10 The Act of Lend Lease –

11 The Sun climbs Slow, How Slowly…

12 London Encore…

13 Mission to Moscow…

14 Low Road to Scotland…

15 High Road to Archangel…

16 Moscow Maneuvers…

17 The Kremlin…

18 The Sole Voice of Russia….

19 Dictates of War…

20 Clandestine Junket…

21 Battle Royal…

22 Rendezvous with Destiny …

Notes

Photo Credits

"A great American is gone from us today. A strong, bright, fierce flame has burned out a frail body. Few know better than I, the services Harry Hopkins rendered to the world cause… that extraordinary man, who played, and was to play, a sometimes decisive part in the whole movement of the war.

He was a true leader of men, and alike in ardor and in wisdom in time of crisis, he has rarely been excelled. His love for the causes of the weak and the poor was matched by his passion against tyranny, especially when tyranny was for the time triumphant. To dynamic, compulsive and persuasive force he added humor and charm in an exceptional degree.

We do well to salute his memory…. We shall not see his like again."

Sir Winston Churchill

January 29, 1946

Nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.

Luke, 8:17

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The Story of a Dismissed Legend

Herein lays an obscure shadowy figure of a man, an expiring government welfare official teetering on the edge of life… hardly a candidate for any future distinction. Nevertheless, with unflagging perseverance this half-dead, New York social worker, born and bred in humble environs of Sioux City, Iowa arises from his deathbed and proceeds to mingle with and affect Kings and Queens, Presidents and Prime Ministers, Dictators and Warlords of the world. Dramatic covert missions and back channel politics course his rapid rise to positions of international power and influence. The zenith of his life story occurs in a time window when collapsing world economies give birth to a maelstrom of radical political ideologies. It is an epoch of demagogues whose dictatorial rule and festering despotism ignites mankind’s greatest conflagration– World War II. Our protagonist forgoes his fleeting life in the very epicenter of world chaos. His intrepid powers of cunning, sustenance, valor, and meritorious services alter the very fabric of world history during twelve years of the Twentieth Century. Destiny paves a long perilous road but fortitude, cunning, and unbridled patriotism are his drivers… via Washington, London, Scotland, Moscow, Cairo, Algiers, Teheran, Ireland, Quebec, Yalta, Rome, Paris, and Berlin. He travels not as a common tourist but as the personal representative of the President of the United States dispatched on secret missions into distant war-torn areas of the globe. He flies in the face of death dodging barrages of artillery-fire from enemy warships over territories of Nazis, Communists, and Fascists. His mission and objective: to meet and weld together the major powers of the world for the purpose of victory over transgression. Harry’s political skills as a broker of people, humanitarian, statesman, covert warrior, and fiery patriot catapult him to unprecedented global influence. His is not a legacy of fame, fortune, or glory but rather a noble pursuit for causes of the weak, the poor, and a fierce passion for confronting the tyrannical…. A life absolutely dedicated to the service of his country.

Mindful that truth is often stranger than fiction; we respectfully offer you the remarkable story of the unheralded Harry L. Hopkins.

1

Chief Apostle of the New Deal

On New Years Eve, the last bone chilling morning in the grievous year of 1937, Rochester, Minnesota’s thermometers register twenty below zero. Wind-blown snow is piled knee-deep in front of the Mayo Clinic on First Street. Inside— somewhere within the solitude of the venerable hospital there drifts the dulcet sound of Bing Crosby’s baritone voice crooning a popular ‘Depression Era’ song– "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"

It’s the doing of an ornery male patient with a portable radio in room 210. The medical chart hung on the bedrail identifies one, Harry L. Hopkins– Medical Prognosis Unknown!

U.S. mail lies scattered atop the untouched breakfast tray next to the hospital bed.

An opened letter is visible. It reads: December 29, 1937

Mr. Harry Hopkins… You have done more to help our Great President to help the poor people of my race than any other man in America, and I pray God that you will be spared to live many years to come… Joseph E. Clayton ¹

Only two months have passed since his wife Barbara died of cancer and was buried in Rock Creek Cemetery. After the funeral service, ever thoughtful, his friend Eleanor Roosevelt graciously offered to protect and care for his motherless five year-old daughter, Diana, if he should ever be hospitalized.

Still in a state of bereavement, sedated and hardly conscious, Harry finds himself flat on his back in hospital room 210, minus two-thirds of his forty-seven-year-old stomach after exploratory surgery for cancer. His main concern since the death of his wife is the well being of his little daughter. Also, God permitting, he must find someway to assist his mentor, his best friend, the President of the United States– Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

They say it was the biggest landslide vote since Monroe in 1820 reelected Roosevelt last year. If Roosevelt gave one more speech he would have carried Canada! Then somehow, circumstances and sentiment changed. Although all welcomed the new ‘Social Security Act’ and the newly legislated ‘Fair Labor Standards Act’ with its shortened forty-hour workweek, time-and-a-half overtime, and a minimum wage of forty cents per hour…. Serious labor disputes turned into sit-down strikes; a further recession tipped the stock market once more to new lows during 1937. Another economic setback looms on the heels of the ninth year of the Great Depression.

On top of this, counter conservative Supreme Court Justices challenge the constitutionality of Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ legislation further straining his fifth year in office as clearly reflected by declining Gallup Polls. Bad enough, that Time Magazine’s odds-on favorite ‘Man of the Year 1938’ is Germany’s Adolph Hitler…. Even, Colonel McCormick’s Chicago Tribune shamelessly went and published a cartoon illustrating ‘The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse: Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and… ROOSEVELT’!

Harry’s health being tenuous at best, forces him to seek out influential help to wangle a sanctioned release from the hospital. Reluctant doctors concede… but only on the condition that he carries with him a satchel full of life sustaining drugs. Earlier, the president wrote and cautioned him not to rush the recovery process: "Take at least till late spring before returning. Joe Kennedy’s sounds like an ideal spot for peace and quiet and recuperation. Diana is well cared for…we had great fun at Christmas. She is a lovely child and Eleanor is with her at Jimmy and Betsy’s farm in Massachusetts. They’re all having a grand time. Do keep us in touch with where you are and how you are, and take good care of yourself."²

Harry sets out for a month of leisure in the warmth of Palm Springs, Florida, and to plan for the future. But first he stops off in New Orleans where he had spent several years of his youth working on the staff of the American Red Cross. He had originally accepted the job after being rejected by the Army, Navy and Marines for a detached retina during the war in 1917.

He spends some quality time in New Orleans visiting an old friend of real means, and mutual interests, John Hertz, founder of the Chicago Yellow Cab Company and Hertz Rent-a-Car. Harry having a fondness for thoroughbred horses and a weakness for two-dollar long-shot wagers, always enjoys touring the home track of Hertz’s stable of race horses, including his new sleek million- dollar Kentucky Derby winner, ‘Reigh Count’. John tells him of how one day, he watched a feisty racehorse in a dead heat duel for the lead, reaches over and bites the other horse’s ear. Impressed by the animals’ aggressive will to win, he bought the colt and they both are still on a long winning streak. Hertz, after being asked, tells Harry how Joe Kennedy senior’s stock manipulation of his Yellow Cab Co. common stock years ago gave him some grief but failed to abate his business successes… eventually he bought the company back. ³

Still sight seeing in New Orleans a week later, he recalls Doc Walters’s somber warning: Complete rest or else! Harry travels east along the Gulf of Mexico and further south… stopping at the iron-grilled front gate of Joe Kennedy’s palatial Spanish-styled mansion on North Ocean Boulevard in balmy Palm Beach, Florida. Back in 1934 Kennedy landed the job as first chairman of the Security Exchange Commission. Harry knows the president is planning now to offer the prestigious ambassadorship of England to Joseph Kennedy. He’s going to replace Ambassador Bingham stricken with Hodgkin’s disease. At the invitation of Kennedy, Harry stays on as a houseguest until the day that the new Ambassador to the Court of St. James sets sail for London in March of 1938.

After a miserable half round of golf on a hot Palm Springs course, Harry finds the solace of a cool clubhouse lounge more his kind of game. Off in a quite corner, Harry takes the time to write a letter to David his eldest and married son about his improving health. David and two younger brothers Robert and Stephen were borne by Harry’s first wife Ethel, whose marriage of seventeen years to him ended in divorce years ago. He hardly finishes his writing when a feminine voice calls out his name. A glamour queen befitting the Great Gatsby greets him with open arms. A patently sophisticated, thirty