John J. McCloy
John McCloy | |
|---|---|
McCloy in 1950 | |
| Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations | |
| In office 1953–1970 | |
| Preceded by | Russell Cornell Leffingwell |
| Succeeded by | David Rockefeller |
| American High Commissioner for Occupied Germany | |
| In office September 21, 1949 – August 1, 1952 | |
| President | Harry Truman |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Walter J. Donnelly |
| 2nd President of the World Bank Group | |
| In office March 17, 1947 – June 30, 1949 | |
| Preceded by | Eugene Meyer |
| Succeeded by | Gene Black |
| United States Assistant Secretary of War | |
| In office April 22, 1941 – November 24, 1945 | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman |
| Preceded by | Robert P. Patterson |
| Succeeded by | Howard C. Petersen |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Snader McCloy March 31, 1895 |
| Died | March 11, 1989 (aged 93) Cos Cob, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Party | Republican |
| Spouse |
Ellen Zinsser
(m. 1930; died 1986) |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Amherst 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 high-ranking bureaucrat. 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 the prime mover of Japanese internment, as well as a high-ranking Federal bureaucrat who opposed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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 was one of a group of important foreign policy advisers whose activities are detailed in the 1986 book The Wise Men, by Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, who describe McCloy as "the most influential private citizen in the United States".