A Catholic Cold War: Edmund A. Walsh, S.J., and the Politics of American Anticommunism

Chapter 1: Edmund A. Walsh: Bostonian, Jesuit, Activist, and Educator

1 Edmund A. Walsh Bostonian, Jesuit, Activist, and Educator ‘‘New Occasions, New Duties’’ Few historians would deny that 1919 was among the most tumultuous and eventful years in American history. Having emerged victorious from the First World War, the United States stood as a major power on the international scene. But when President Woodrow Wilson attempted at Versailles to establish a more equitable world order than had existed in 1914, America’s allies, wanting revenge for four years of carnage and bloodshed, rejected his Fourteen Points in the treaty signed in Paris on June 28, and imposed heavy penalties on the German people. At home, Congress voted down American participation in the League of Nations. The majority of the American people , exhausted from the war effort, economic recession, and social unrest, desired a ‘‘return to normalcy.’’ By 1919, however, it was less feasible for the nation to ignore its international obligations. Economic growth, especially in foreign trade, had rapidly accelerated since 1865. The Spanish-American War led to overseas territorial expansion. Indeed, already in 1917, when Congress declared war on Germany, the die had been cast. Wilson’s arrival in Paris in February 1919 signified the way of the future for the United States. America was on the world scene to stay and would have a significant role to play. Both professionally and intellectually, Americans were ill prepared to assume such a role. The U.S. Foreign Service would not be established until 1924, with the Rogers Act. For most of the nation’s history , diplomacy had not been considered a career that involved preparation. Important posts were often rewards for political support, and recent college graduates worked in lower-level positions before choosing a career elsewhere. Few colleges and universities offered courses on international law, and international relations had not yet emerged as an academic discipline.1 2 A CATHOLIC COLD WAR In the postwar period, the responsibilities of American diplomats expanded significantly. International trade, largely unsupervised by the government before the war, was afterward subjected to increased supervision. American businessmen abroad increasingly sought diplomatic assistance—to make contact with local officials, to advise on the wording of business contracts, and to familiarize themselves with the local culture. New responsibilities implied a need for training in several areas: international law, foreign trade, and foreign languages and cultures. Yet, before 1919, American higher education offered no programs for foreign service training.2 On November 25, 1919, however, an event took place on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., that bore directly on filling the growing need for trained diplomats. Administrators, faculty , and students gathered in Gaston Hall for an event unique in the history of the 130-year-old Jesuit university. The audience was by no means typical for an academic gathering. In attendance were diplomats , representatives from the State and Commerce Departments, and members of the business community. The ceremony’s purpose was to formally inaugurate the School of Foreign Service into the university.3 The seeds for the school’s establishment were planted seventeen months earlier. In June 1918, newly appointed University President John B. Creeden, S.J., made the initial proposal to the Board of Regents . The proposal was accepted, but it was agreed that implementation could not begin until the war ended. The following February, the School of Foreign Service began a provisional semester in Healy Hall with sixty students. Over the next few months, the school received hundreds of inquiries and applications. The school’s directors were able to recruit an impressive faculty from a wide variety of backgrounds, one unique among Catholic colleges and universities. By the time the inauguration took place, significant progress had been made toward a permanent endowment.4 The main speaker at the inauguration was the school’s organizer and first regent, the Reverend Edmund A. Walsh, S.J. Ordained in 1916, Walsh had joined the Georgetown faculty in May 1918 at the age of thirty-two. That fall, he worked in the War Department as an inspector for the Student Army Training Corps, a program designed to mobilize higher education’s resources for the war effort. Rejoining EDMUND A. WALSH: BOSTONIAN, JESUIT, ACTIVIST, AND EDUCATOR 3 the faculty in December, Walsh established the foreign service school two months after his return. He began his speech by denoting the most important lesson Americans had learned from the war, the realization...