2834) Conquerors - Roosevelt, Truman & Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945 & Story of Morgenthaus, Sr., Jr., and IIIrd

The Americans and the Turks got to know the first Morgenthau, Henry Sr. when he was appointed as the US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1913. Much has been written about the real estate developer and the supporter of Wilsonian doctrines as he was a close friend of the 28th President Woodrow Wilson, and who did much harm to the Turkish-American . . relations.

The book by Michael Beschloss (called by Newsweek as the leading Presidential historian), the Conquerors - Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941 - 1945, tells a great deal about the Morgenthaus and under the section called "The One Hundred Percent American", Beschloss tells about Henry Morgenthau Sr., who we know as a one thousand percent anti-Turk diplomat.

The Ambassador's son Henry Jr. was a very close friend of President Roosevelt who appointed him as the Secretary of Treasury and was involved in the World War II activities heavily. After dropping out of Cornell and moving to Texas, Henry Jr becomes interested in farming and returns to New York where he establishes the famous Fishkill Farms. This paves the way for Henry Jr. to become friends with the Franklin Roosevelt family who have an estate in Hyde Park. To the surprise of many, including Henry Morgenthau Sr, President Roosevelt appoints Henry Jr. as the Secretary of Treasury which he keeps for 12 years. In the book, a Republican makes a comment that "Roosevelt had managed to find "the only Jew is the world who doesn't know a thing about money." It is interesting to note that Woodrow Wilson appointed Henry Sr. who knew nothing about diplomacy as the US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, who was not shy to advocate the expulsion of Turks from Europe and even call his host nation "murderers." ((The Murder of a nation - a chapter from his book ''Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, 1918.)

The book states that during a discussion on what to do about the Germans after their defeat, Henry Jr. gives his father's WWI experience and states: "One morning, the Turks woke up and said, "We don't want a Greek in Turkey." They moved one million people out. They said to the Greeks, "You take care of them." The people lived. They got rehabilitated in no time. It seems inhuman. It seems cruel (p.104)"

This of course does not tell the whole story about the population exchange which was due to Greek invasion of Anatolia and agreed to between the two countries, which Henry Jr. does not mention, neither the moving in of five hundred thousand Turks from Greece to Turkey, and the author does not provide a clarification either. Such are the half truths of the Morgenthaus.

Henry Morgenthau Jr. prepares a report for President Roosevelt with a formal title, "Program to Prevent Germany from Starting a World War III", known later as the "Morgenthau Plan." Many people object to the report, including Winston Churchill, some even stating that "you can not indict the whole nation". That's exactly what the Morgenthaus other diplomats and even people in higher positions have done and indicted the whole Turkish nation and no one in the West has objected. When Truman becomes President following Roosevelt's death in office, he reads the Report but is not impressed with it. According to the book, in the years after Morgenthau's departure, Truman privately told cronies that Roosevelt's old friend was a "nut" and a "blockhead" who didn't "know shit from apple butter."

Than there is Henry III, the son of Henry Jr. who served in the US army and was in France during the World War II. Over the years he penned several articles supporting the Armenian genocide issue, including an article in the Boston-Globe, an affiliate of the New York Times and a postscript to the memoir of his grandfather, Henry Sr.

So much for the Morgenthaus but perhaps millions have read and reading his book including the Turkish translation that was released a few years ago.

Again my apologies but we need to study history of all nations not only of the Turks.

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Yuksel Oktay

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