Description:

National Security
Washington, DC, ca. 1947-1948
Interesting Archive of Military Officer Education Just After World War II
Archive

NATIONAL SECURITY. Archive of Photographs, Typescripts, and Printed Ephemera, ca. 1947-1949. Approximately 8 photographs, 363 pages of typescript material, and 171 pages of printed materials.

This collection of documents from the early years of the National War College offers an intriguing portrait of interagency cooperation and education of senior military and civilian personnel as the United States emerged from World War II and became enmeshed in the Cold War.

Dr. Rudolph A. Winnacker, a German-born American with a doctorate in European history from Harvard University, was a civilian faculty member of the National War College in the autumn of 1948, and much of this archive details what was taught and discussed during that semester.

Begun in 1946 as an outgrowth of the World War II-era Army and Navy Staff College, the National War College graduated its first class, after ten months of training, in June 1947. The National War College was designed to bring together officers from the different branches of the military with civilian leaders, usually from the State Department and Central Intelligence Agency but also sometimes the Treasury Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, to discuss and learn about issues in national security through a series of readings, lectures, and seminar discussions.

Contents and Highlights
- R. A. Winnacker, Reference Material for Conference on First Semester, 1948-1949
This folder includes a variety of documents related to the National War College, including biographies of civilian faculty, and eight group photographs of participants, three of which include Winnacker.

- National Service Legislation. Office of the Under Secretary of War, January 30, 1945. Restricted. 28 pp., 9" x 13".
This comb-bound booklet includes information on production capacities, including current weaknesses and forecasts; manpower needs, including "Women as a Source of Additional Labor"; experience of other countries; and a summary conclusion that "every citizen has an obligation to perform personal service in wartime when and where he or she can best be used.... We must have national service legislation."

- National War College / Washington, D.C. / 1947-48 Information and Regulations, 17 pp. + 2 maps, 8" x 10".
This typescript, stapled document provides information about the National War College in Washington, D.C. The mission of the college was "to prepare selected ground, air, and naval officers for the exercise of command and the performance of joint staff duties in the highest echelons of the armed services" and "to promote the development of understanding between the high echelons of the armed forces and those other agencies of government which are an essential part of a national war effort." (p3)

- Source Material on the National Security Program / January 1947 / War Department
This comb-bound compilation of materials provides information on the War Department Program for National Security. It includes speeches by Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson, Under Secretary Kenneth C. Royall, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, General George C. Marshall, and others from 1946, publications on the National Guard, Universal Military Training, and relevant Congressional legislation.

- Various loose documents, including a personnel roster of the Historical Division of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, June 20, 1949; memoranda to Winnacker and others; a tentative schedule of speakers for the National War College from August to December 1948, including Lieutenant General Leslie R. Groves, Dean Acheson, George F. Kennan, Kermit Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, and George C. Marshall (Winnacker spoke on Italy on November 9); evaluations of the success of the First Semester program and suggestions for improvement, December 1948; correspondence to and from Winnacker; and a syllabus for a course on international affairs from the National War College first semester of 1948.

Rudolph A. Winnacker (1904-1985) was born in Dusseldorf, Germany, and came to the United States as a child, growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1928 and received a doctorate from Harvard University in 1933. He taught modern European history at the universities of Michigan (1931-1936) and Nebraska (1936-1941). He moved to Washington, D.C., in 1941 and joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. During World War II, he served with the OSS in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. After the war, he joined the War Department, where he prepared a history of the Office of the Secretary of War during World War II. In 1949, he transferred to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, retiring from that office in 1973. From 1949 to 1970, Winnacker was responsible for preparing the annual report that the secretary submitted to the President and Congress. He was also responsible for a history of the Soviet Union's entry into the war against Japan in 1945 and oversaw the declassification of the Pentagon Papers, the department's official history of the war in Vietnam.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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