John J. McCloy

John McCloy
McCloy in 1950
Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations
In office
1953–1970
Preceded byRussell Cornell Leffingwell
Succeeded byDavid Rockefeller
American High Commissioner for Occupied Germany
In office
September 21, 1949 – August 1, 1952
PresidentHarry Truman
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byWalter J. Donnelly
2nd President of the World Bank Group
In office
March 17, 1947 – June 30, 1949
Preceded byEugene Meyer
Succeeded byGene Black
United States Assistant Secretary of War
In office
April 22, 1941 – November 24, 1945
PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S. Truman
Preceded byRobert P. Patterson
Succeeded byHoward C. Petersen
Personal details
Born
John Snader McCloy

(1895-03-31)March 31, 1895
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedMarch 11, 1989(1989-03-11) (aged 93)
Cos Cob, Connecticut, U.S.
Political partyRepublican[1]
Spouse
Ellen Zinsser
(m. 1930; died 1986)
Children2
EducationAmherst College (BA)
Harvard University (LLB)
Awards Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction (1963)

John Jay McCloy (March 31, 1895 – March 11, 1989) was an American lawyer, diplomat, banker, and presidential advisor. He served as Assistant Secretary of War during World War II under Henry Stimson. In this capacity he dealt with German sabotage and political tensions in the North Africa Campaign. He was both the prime mover of Japanese internment and one of the few high-ranking Federal bureaucrats to advocate against the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[2] After the war, he served as the president of the World Bank, U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Warren Commission, and a prominent adviser to all presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan.

McCloy is best remembered as a member of the foreign policy establishment group of elders called "The Wise Men", a group of statesmen marked by nonpartisanship, pragmatic internationalism, and aversion to ideological fervor.

  1. ^ "John Jay McCloy: 2nd World Bank President, 1947-1949." World Bank. Retrieved 2022-06-15.
  2. ^ Manchester, William (1990). The glory and the dream: a narrative history of America, 1932-1972. New York: Bantam Books. p. 299. ISBN 978-0-553-34589-6.