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Lincoln MacVeagh Papers
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Lincoln MacVeagh was born October 1, 1890, in Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island, the son of Charles and Fanny Davenport (Rogers) MacVeagh. The family name, MacVeagh, stands out in the history of American statecraft. His father, Charles, was President Calvin Coolidge's Ambassador to Japan; his grandfather, Wayne MacVeagh, was Attorney General in President James A. Garfield's Cabinet and his great-uncle, Franklin MacVeagh, was President William Howard Taft's Secretary of the Treasury. MacVeagh graduated from the Groton School in 1909 and Harvard, magna cum laude, in 1913. He studied languages at the Sorbonne in 1913-14 and was fluent in German, French, Spanish, Latin and Classical Greek.
MacVeagh married Margaret Charlton Lewis, the daughter of a distinguished linguist, on August 17, 1917. She was a serious student of classical languages. Their daughter, Margaret Ewen MacVeagh, accompanied her parents on various tours of duty. Mrs. MacVeagh died on September 9, 1947. In May 1955, MacVeagh remarried Mrs. Virginia Ferrante Coats, daughter of Marchese and Marchesa Ferrante di Ruffano of Naples, Italy.
A member of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, Major MacVeagh served in the Artois, St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne campaigns and was cited by General of the Armies John J. Pershing in 1919 for "exceptionally meritorious services." After World War I, he became a director of the Henry Holt Company, a publishing firm, which he left in 1923 to found the Dial Press.
In 1933, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed MacVeagh Minister to Greece, he followed presentation of his credentials with a speech in classical Greek. After leaving Athens in June 1941, several months after the German Army overran Greece, MacVeagh was appointed the first United States Minister to Iceland. In 1942, he became Minister to the Union of South Africa and successfully coordinated the American wartime agencies there. In 1943, he was sent to Cairo as Ambassador to the exiled Greek and Yugoslav Governments, then returned to liberated Athens as Ambassador in 1944. His secret testimony on the danger of Soviet-supported extreme leftist movements in the Balkans before Congress in 1947 was considered an important factor in formulating what became known as the Truman Doctrine, and he urged the post-war Greek Government to pursue a democratic policy. In 1948, he was named Ambassador to Portugal, and he helped to obtain its admittance into the Atlantic Pact groups of nations. In 1952, President Harry S. Truman named him Ambassador to Spain.
MacVeagh conducted excavations beneath the Acropolis and made archaeological contributions to the National Museum in Athens. With his first wife, he wrote Greek Journey, a book for children.
He retired in 1953 as envoy in Madrid after having conducted successful negotiations for military and economic agreements between the United States and Spain. MacVeagh died on January 15, 1972, at a nursing home in Adelphi, Maryland at the age of 81. He was survived by his wife and daughter, Margaret (Mrs. Samuel E. Torne) of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Consists of papers of MacVeagh relating to his diplomatic career as minister to Greece (1933-1942), ambassador to the exiled Greek and Yugoslav governments in Cairo (1943-1944), and returning ambassador to Greece (1944-1947). Included are typed transcripts of portions of diaries covering much of this diplomatic period (1939-1945); dispatches and telegrams to the State Department (1933-1940) concerning primarily political and diplomatic events in Greece, such as General John Metaxas's dictatorship, and Yugoslavia; and copies of his correspondence with President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) from the National Archives and the Roosevelt Library.
The collection was a gift from Professor John O. Iatrides, Southern Connecticut State University, who published portions of the wartime diaries, diplomatic reports, and other official documents in a book which he edited. Princeton University Press published the book, entitled Ambassador MacVeagh Reports, Greece, 1933-1947 in 1980.
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This collection was processed by Jean Holliday in 1992. Finding aid written by Jean Holliday in 1992.
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People
Subject
Place
- Greece -- Foreign relations -- United States -- 20th century.
- Greece -- Foreign relations -- Yugoslavia -- 20th century.
- Greece -- History -- Occupation, 1941-1944.
- Greece -- History -- 1917-1944.
- Greece -- Politics and government -- 1917-1935.
- Greece -- Politics and government -- 1935-1967.
- United States -- Foreign relations -- Greece -- 20th century.
- United States -- Foreign relations -- Yugoslavia -- 20th century.
- Yugoslavia -- History -- Axis occupation, 1941-1945.
- Yugoslavia -- Foreign relations -- Greece -- 20th century.
- Yugoslavia -- Foreign relations -- United States -- 20th century.
- Publisher
- Public Policy Papers
- Finding Aid Author
- Jean Holliday
- Finding Aid Date
- 1998
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Collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
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Collection Inventory
No arrangement action taken or arrangement information not recorded at the time of processing.
Series 1: Diaries, 1939-1945, covers MacVeagh's tour of duties as Minister to Greece (with the omission of his tours in Iceland and The Union of South Africa), his term as Ambassador to the Greek and Yugoslav Governments-in-exile in Cairo and his return to Greece after liberation. These are photocopies of transcriptions as the original diaries remain the property of the MacVeagh family.
The diaries contain Lincoln MacVeagh's reflections on Greece under the Metaxas dictatorship of the late 1930s and during World War II, though there are two major gaps (June 7, 1941-November 22, 1943 and December 8, 1944-April 12, 1945). Within the early entries, MacVeagh discusses the turbulence of Polish refugees passing through Greece en route to France to join the Polish legations and rumors of Hitler's "deadly weapons." Turkish-Anglo-French mutual assistance pacts, as well as non-aggression pacts between Italy and France are recorded. Greek military actions, such as the May 1940 militarization of the Albanian frontier and Italy's attack on Greece in October 1940 are detailed, as well as the diplomatic maneuvers prior to and after those and other events. American efforts to provide humanitarian assistance through the Greek Red Cross are also discussed. The diary further records a conference between Anthony Eden and members of the Greek government on February 24, 1941, an interview between MacVeagh and Eden regarding British aid to Greece in the form of military planes and tanks, and MacVeagh's interviews with President Roosevelt in December 1943 (Cairo) and August 1944 (Washington, D.C.).
Other topics detailed by MacVeagh's diaries while in Greece include:
- Internal political eruptions and the formation of a new Greek Cabinet (which resulted when Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact with Greece);
- Ambassador John Van Antwerp MacMurray's telegram from Turkey delineating his ideas for Turkish neutrality;
- Vanderbilt Committee's assistance to Jewish soldiers stranded in Greece;
- German bombings and the evacuation of British troops by sea, including Prince Peter's journey to Crete;
- German capture of Athens and Greek resistance to occupation, including a radio broadcast from Allen Dulles on May 15, 1941 calling for "active participation in the war;"
- American efforts to aid the Greek wounded from Crete;
- Evacuation of the American diplomatic corps from Greece to Vienna in June 1941.
These diaries contain no entries from June 7, 1941 until November 23, 1943, during MacVeagh's service in Iceland and South Africa. Entries resume when MacVeagh and his family arrived in Cairo, the seat of the governments-in-exile of Yugoslavia and Greece.
Later entries contain numerous important political discussions with various diplomatic representatives regarding post-war plans for the Balkans, "the rise of the communist specter in the resistance movements" and the politics of exile, liberation and civil war.
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No arrangement action taken or arrangement information not recorded at the time of processing.
Series 2: Correspondence, 1932-1945, consists of letters from Ambassador MacVeagh to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Greek government, and others which discuss political situations in Greece and Yugoslavia. It is arranged chronologically.
Subjects and issues detailed in the correspondence include:
- MacVeagh's assistance in extraditing Samuel Insull, Sr., a Chicago utilities tycoon, who fled to Athens to avoid trial for financial misconduct (the collection contains copies of the Greek decision in the case);
- the complexities of Royalists versus Venizelist and anti-Venizelist factions in Greece;
- Prime Minister/Dictator General John Metaxas's introduction of "youth movements," censorship, and secret police in 1937;
- Adolf Hitler's absorption of Czechoslovakia and Austria and the resultant the Greco-Turkish treaty;
- Prime Minister Metaxas's discussion with MacVeagh concerning an alliance with the "Western Powers" and allies (Turkey and Great Britain);
- MacVeagh's reports of threats to Balkan peace including Metaxas's address at a 1940 Balkan Conference in Yugoslavia in which Metaxas discussed "outside attacks" and Italian troop movements to Albania;
- Colonel William J. Donovan's discussions with the King, Metaxas, and MacVeagh regarding the European/Balkan situation;
- the German conquest and occupation of Greece;
- MacVeagh's meeting with President Roosevelt on December 3, 1943 which contains no notes but letters to Roosevelt on December 5th, 13th and 22nd refer to a continuation of their discussion involving the King of Greece, guerrilla forces in Greece, and political leaders among the Greek and Yugoslavs-in-exile;
- an August 28, 1944 report to the President which discusses the economic and political problems involving Greece and Yugoslavia and the need for a British/American joint venture;
- ethnic differences within Yugoslavia and its internal impact;
- post-war territorial claims by the British and the Soviets;
- American policy regarding internal political affairs in Greece and Yugoslavia;
- Soviet involvement in Yugoslavia's civil war;
- clashes between British and Greek occur and MacVeagh's recommendation that the military phase of allied relief control be terminated in favor of United Nations relief.
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No arrangement action taken or arrangement information not recorded at the time of processing.
Series 3: Dispatches and Telegrams, 1933-1940. From 1933 until the end of 1940 when the war disrupted regular courier service between Athens and Washington, MacVeagh wrote dispatches covering many subjects involving Greek history, national character, political events, and relations with other countries, particularly Italy. This series contains dispatches and telegrams to and from the State Department arranged chronologically.
Specifically, dispatches detail the Insull Case, electoral law reform, and the power struggle between the Foreign Minister Dimitrios Maximos and Sophocles Venizelos, particularly the 1935 restoration of the Greek monarchy and the return of King George II. MacVeagh discusses Premier/Dictator John Metaxas curtailment of free speech and censorship, the organization of youth groups, the rise of anti-semitism, and the fortification of the Bulgarian and Yugoslavian borders, and the revolt against Metaxas' regime in Crete.
A report on "Greece in 1938" which summarizes the political problems in Greece, dated February 1939, and a similar summary for 1939, dated April 1940, are found in this series. Topics of interest include the 1939 Italian invasion of Albania, renewed fears of a Bulgarian invasion, British guarantees of Greek independence and territorial integrity, and Great Britain's $10,000,000 loan to Greece.
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