Exposing the Third Reich: Colonel Truman Smith in Hitler’s Germany

19. The Road to German Rearmament

286 19 The road to german rearmament The move to Greenfield Hill was to begin for me a new life. —Truman Smith, 1945 I think the present outlook for the world is scarcely better than it was in 1939. —Truman Smith, letter to Hans Speidel, 8 March 1946 The Smiths’ 1945–1946 transition from active duty to retirement— again—was bridged by a year of sick leave at home in Connecticut. General Marshall’s appreciation of Truman’s decade of outstanding performance of duty in Berlin and Washington accounts for the unusually long leave. Marshall was fully aware that debilitating illness had brought Smith to the brink of exhaustion more than once during the war. He also respected the dignity Smith had demonstrated during the unfair 1939–1941 attacks on his integrity. Perhaps the long sick leave was unspoken compensation for the fact that Marshall was unable to get Smith a star. As a practical matter, Smith would not be entitled to full retirement benefits until he had thirty years of service in 1946. (See appendix J.) By mid-June 1945, Kay and Truman were settled in their home in Connecticut, this time permanently. During the period of his assignment in G-2 from 1942 to 1945, after Marshall’s telephone call brought him back to Washington, the Smiths maintained two households. Kay was grateful to Andrew and Anna Marie Arendt, Germans who had been in the United States for many years. The Arendts took care of the house in Fairfield as well as Tauila, the family dog, while the Smiths were in Washington.1 Andrew, the gardener and handyman, and Anna, cook and housekeeper, were held in high regard by their employers, not least for making the return to their permanent residence painless. (Enemies might have made political The road to german rearmament 287 hay at the Smiths’ expense had the national origin of their domestic staff been made public during the period of the America First brouhaha , but that did not happen.) One of Kay’s memoir entries made retirement sound like a German fairy tale: “In June we left Washington, our many friends of Army days, our happy Army life. We returned to Fairfield to make a new life, a quiet life, one no longer at the vortex of world affairs, but a happy one revolving around our dear daughter, her work, her marriage, her husband and then her two children, our dear granddaughters .” 2 She omits only the coda: And they lived happily ever after. Good husband, father, and grandfather though he was, Truman was not quite ready to limit his activities to tending roses and playing Papa Bear—and never would be. He plunged into this new phase of life with the intensity that characterized his entire professional life, renewing German friendships and connections, engaging in elective politics, responding to calls for his geopolitical and military expertise, serving on blue ribbon committees, debating on radio, writing about public affairs, and indulging his passion for travel. Ivy League, Regular Army, and northeastern establishment credentials gave him access to elites in and out of government and, hence, to insider information. His well-established roots and personal charm—”breeding” was still in the vocabulary of elites—enhanced his considerable speaking and writing skills. And he was a loyal friend. Fortunately, although he did not write much for publication while in retirement, he was a prolific—and very careful— letter writer. He never really retired. Smith’s major activities from 1945 to his death in 1970 fell into three broad categories. The first, unsurprisingly, was his continued interest in Germany. Initially, he supported old friends in devastated postwar Germany with basic needs, like food. That effort segued into keeping abreast of evolving political and military events there. In the 1950s, he would play an important role in Germany’s rearmament . His second major activity was engagement in domestic politics. Given his family history and his convictions, that was not at all unusual. He was conservative, well connected, fearful of FDR big government becoming permanent, and deeply concerned about America turning leftward. The way he came to a run for Congress illustrates how life is as much a matter of luck as planning. And, as 288 EXPOSING THE THIRD REICH Kay noted, personal matters, particularly family and travel, gave both of them great pleasure. As early as April 1945, while the war in Europe was still on, Smith...