James B. Donovan

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James Britt Donovan (born February 29, 1916 in New York , † January 19, 1970 ibid) was an American lawyer and officer in the Navy .

He became known in particular as a negotiator for the United States in the exchange of the U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for the Soviet top spy Rudolf Abel and in the release of prisoners after the Bay of Pigs invasion .

Life

James B. Donovan was born in the Bronx in 1916 to a surgeon and piano teacher. After elementary school, he attended the Catholic All Hallows Institute as a secondary school. From 1937 he studied at Fordham University , where he obtained his bachelor's degree in English as a major. Although he initially aspired to a career as a journalist, he began at his father's request to study law at Harvard University , which he completed in 1940 with a Bachelor of Laws .

He finished his first work in a law firm in 1942 to move to the Office of Scientific Research and Development as Associate General Counsel . From 1943 to 1945 he was General Counsel in the Office of Strategic Services . In 1945 he was appointed assistant to the US chief prosecutor Robert H. Jackson to the Nuremberg trials in Germany. In the course of the preparation of the trial, he was involved as a consultant in the making of the documentary The Nazi Plan .

From 1950 Donovan was a partner in the New York law firm Waters and Donovan . In 1957 he defended the Soviet spy Rudolf Abel after numerous other lawyers had refused the mandate. Donovan lost the trial but was publicly praised by the Chief Justice of the United States Earl Warren for having accepted such a difficult case despite all hostility. From 1961 to 1963 Donovan was Vice President , then President of the New York Board of Education until 1965 .

In 1962, Donovan negotiated with the Soviet Union with the support of CIA employee Milan C. Miskovsky about the release of spy pilot Francis Gary Powers , which he finally obtained in exchange for Rudolf Abel, whom he had defended five years earlier in his trial. Donovan was also able to negotiate the release of the US student Frederic Pryor , who was arrested in East Berlin for alleged espionage .

In June of the same year Donovan was visited by the Cuban exile Pérez Cisneros and asked for his support in the negotiations for the release of the 1,113 prisoners of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion . Donovan agreed to work for the Cuban Family Members' Committee for free .

A few months later, Donovan made the first of a total of 11 trips to Havana. The relations between Cuba and the United States were after the invasion at an all time low. When he first met Fidel Castro , Donovan appeared very cool and formal. However, Donovan quickly won Castro's trust. The “Máximo Líder” also praised the American for bringing his firstborn son with him to Cuba during the negotiations, which was very unusual not only in view of the tense situation.

The CIA, the Donovan continued to focus on Milan C. Miskovsky in conjunction wanted to use this relationship of trust and Donovan convince Castro one contaminated with a fungal skin wetsuit and infested with tuberculosis regulators to pay (see also Operation Mongoose ), but what Donovan refused . Instead, he gave Castro his own diving equipment.

At Christmas 1962, Donovan finally managed to get the prisoners released in exchange for a delivery of $ 53 million in medicine and food. Donovan was able to convince Castro to accept the urgently needed exchange goods as a "gift" from America to the Cuban people. According to Donovan, the idea of ​​offering the Cubans medicines in exchange for the prisoners came because he could not relieve a painful bursitis with the medicines available in Havana.

Donovan was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal for his services . In the election to the United States Senate in 1962 , he stood for the Democratic Party in New York State , but lost to Republican incumbent Jacob K. Javits .

In 1964, Donovan's first book, Strangers on a Bridge, The Case of Colonel Abel was published . Challenges followed in 1967 : Reflections of a Lawyer-at-Large .

Donovan was President of the Pratt Institute for the last two years of his life . He died of a heart attack on January 19, 1970 in the Methodist Hospital in his native New York.

His marriage to Mary E. McKenna in 1941 resulted in a son and three daughters.

reception

In the 1976 television movie The Gary Powers Case , James Gregory played Donovan.

In 2006 Philip J. Bigger published a biography of Donovan under the title Negotiator: The Life and Career of James B. Donovan .

In 2015, Steven Spielberg filmed Donovan's role in his former client Rudolf Abel's prisoner exchange under the title Bridge of Spies - The Negotiator . The main role was played by Tom Hanks .

Works

  • Strangers on a Bridge, The Case of Colonel Abel. Atheneum, 1964, ISBN 978-1-299-06377-8 (in German as Der Fall des Oberst Abel , Scheffler, 1965)
  • Challenges: Reflections of a Lawyer-at-Large. Atheneum, 1967 (with a foreword by Erwin Griswold )

literature

  • Philip J. Bigger: Negotiator: The Life and Career of James B. Donovan. Lehigh University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-934223-85-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Donovan, James B. ( Memento of the original from June 17, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu, accessed June 17, 2014  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu
  2. ↑ Dr. James B. Donovan, 53, at nytimes.com, accessed on June 17, 2014
  3. ^ Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 1: Prosecution Counsel at avalon.law.yale.edu, accessed on June 17, 2014
  4. ↑ a b The Man Who 'Leap' Powers in: The Milwaukee Journal, February 16, 1962, p. 8
  5. ↑ The People of the CIA… Milan Miskovsky: Fighting for Justice at cia.gov, accessed on June 17, 2014
  6. ^ A b Donovan, James Britt in: Encyclopedia of the Kennedys: The People and Events That Shaped America. , Page 193, ABC-CLIO, 2012, ISBN 978-1-59884-538-9
  7. ↑ The agent's broker at spiegel.de, accessed on December 14, 2015
  8. ↑ a b US-Cuban Diplomacy, 'Nation' Style at thenation.com, accessed June 23, 2014
  9. ↑ a b c FBK Documentation No. 9 - Page 4 ( Memento of the original from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at fg-berlin-kuba.de, accessed on June 23, 2014  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fg-berlin-kuba.de
  10. ↑ How Metadiplomacy Works: James Donovan and Castro ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at cuba-l.com, accessed June 23, 2014  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cuba-l.com
  11. ↑ James Britt Donovan in: Der Spiegel 23/1963, page 82
  12. ↑ NY US Senate - November 06, 1962 at ourcampaigns.com, accessed June 17, 2014
  13. ↑ Dr. James B. Donovan, 53, dies; Laywer arrnged spy echange. (PDF) In: The New York Times. January 20, 1970, accessed December 2, 2019 .
  14. ^ Famed Lawyer for Spies Dead in: New Orleans States-Item, January 19, 1970
  15. ↑ Tom Hanks-Steven Spielberg Cold War Thriller Set for Oct. Retrieved June 16, 2015 from variety.com, accessed June 17, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Donovan, James B.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Donovan, James Britt (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer and officer in the US Navy
DATE OF BIRTH February 29, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH new York
DATE OF DEATH 19th January 1970
Place of death new York