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Charles W. Thayer (February 9, 1910 – August 27, 1969) was an American diplomat and author. He was an expert on Soviet-American relations and headed the
Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the State media, state-owned news network and International broadcasting, international radio broadcaster of the United States, United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international br ...
.


Early years

Charles Wheeler Thayer was born in
Villanova, Pennsylvania Villanova is a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It straddles Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County and Radnor Township in Delaware County. It is located at the center of the Philadelphia Main Line, a series of Philadelphia suburbs l ...
,George W. Baer, ''A Question of Time, The Origins of U.S.-Soviet Diplomatic Relations: The Memoirs of Roy W. Henderson'' (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1986), 309 the son of George Chapman Thayer, a shipbuilding engineer, and Gertrude May Wheeler Thayer. He attended St. Paul's School and the U.S. Military Academy, where he played polo, and graduated in 1933. He served for a few months as a cavalry lieutenant.


Career

Thayer went to the Soviet Union to study Russian and won a position at the newly-opened American Embassy in Moscow, first as personal secretary to Ambassador William Bullitt (a friend of Thayer's father) and then as Embassy Secretary. He taught a group of Russian cavalrymen to play polo so the Americans and Soviets could play "a hard-fought, clean, friendly match", and an embassy official recalled his "youthful exuberance" and "ready wit". His sister Avis Howard Thayer visited him during his Moscow posting and met
Charles E. Bohlen Charles "Chip" Eustis Bohlen (August 30, 1904 – January 1, 1974) was an American diplomat, ambassador, and expert on the Soviet Union. He helped shape US foreign policy during World War II and the Cold War and helped develop the Marshall Pla ...
, with whom Thayer shared an apartment. She later married Bohlen, who served as American Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1957.Baer, 310 In 1937, Thayer became a Foreign Service officer, after passing his exams. In 1942, he was appointed ''chargé d'affaires'' in
Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into #Districts, 22 municipal dist ...
, Afghanistan in 1942. He was assigned for a time to the
Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
(OSS), a forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in Belgrade. Thayer served in London on the European Advisors Committee which drafted the German terms of surrender at the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. He attended the Naval War College for a year at the end of the war. After the war, Thayer headed the OSS in Austria and served in 1946 on the Joint United States-Soviet Commission on Korea. He played a key role in developing the secret Office of Policy Coordination, later merged into the CIA, to counter and destabilize the Soviets (including its clandestine recruitment of former Nazis and collaborators for paramilitary operations). Returning to the State Department, Thayer served briefly as consul general in
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
before returning to the United States to direct the Department's International Broadcasting Division (later known as the
Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the State media, state-owned news network and International broadcasting, international radio broadcaster of the United States, United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international br ...
) in 1948-49. He developed an antagonistic relationship with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover when he complained publicly that the FBI's slow processing of security clearances was hampering the Division's staffing. Hoover's investigation of Thayer's secretary revealed that she had borne his child. The FBI pursued an investigation (although he did not require a security clearance from the FBI), and found he had "communist sympathy" and was "undoubtedly a homosexual". Hoover failed in two attempts (in 1949 and 1950) to persuade other government agencies that Thayer posed a security risk. Thayer married Cynthia Dunn Cochrane, a divorcée and the daughter of James Clement Dunn, U.S. Ambassador to Italy,''The New York Times''
"Mrs. C.D. Cochrane", July 25, 1949
accessed February 1, 2011
on March 28, 1950. He was fluent in Russian, French, German, Spanish, Serbian, Italian, Bulgarian, Slovene, and Persian.


Resignation

Thayer held consular positions in Germany from 1949 to 1953. Beginning in 1950, when Thayer was serving as political liaison officer in the Bonn embassy, several anonymous letters denounced him to Senator
Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarth ...
and his Senate allies as a Communist sympathizer with a history of financial profiteering and sexual immorality both homosexual and heterosexual. He was being protected, according to one of the anonymous sources, by allies in the State Department, especially his brother-in-law,
Charles E. Bohlen Charles "Chip" Eustis Bohlen (August 30, 1904 – January 1, 1974) was an American diplomat, ambassador, and expert on the Soviet Union. He helped shape US foreign policy during World War II and the Cold War and helped develop the Marshall Pla ...
. Senate investigators used these letters and other documents obtained from a variety of government security investigations to target a series of government officials, starting with the forced resignation of
Carmel Offie Carmel Offie (September 22, 1909 – June 18, 1972) was a U.S. State Department and later a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official. He was dismissed from the CIA in 1950 after an arrest a few years earlier brought his homosexuality to the atte ...
from the CIA in May 1950. The evidence against Thayer collected by Senate investigators was based on "hostile gossip and speculation by Thayer's enemies, and premised on guilt by association." They learned, for example, that during his OSS service "Thayer was waited on regularly by a native Yugoslav waiter named Marko, who was a known homosexual." Thayer's marriage to Maria Petrucci, the daughter of an Italian diplomat, lasted less than two years, which one informant attributed to homosexuality, though she later denied this. Thayer was a friend of Alexander Kirk, a Foreign Service officer with a homosexual reputation who had retired in 1945, and others. Much of the impulse behind the investigations of political and sexual irregularities reflected resentment of the foreign policy establishment, their elite backgrounds, cosmopolitanism, and association with bohemians and the politically unorthodox. Senate pressure forced the State Department to review Thayer's status. He returned from Germany to testify that "he had never performed a homosexual act." Though cleared, he remained under surveillance by the State Department's security division.Dean, ''Imperial Brotherhood'', 112 When Thayer was moved to a new post in Munich and Senator
Pat McCarran Patrick Anthony McCarran (August 8, 1876 – September 28, 1954) was an American farmer, attorney, judge, and Democratic politician who represented Nevada in the United States Senate from 1933 until 1954. McCarran was born in Reno, Nevada, atte ...
demanded a full report on his "experience, qualifications, moral character, and loyalty," the State Department waited a month to respond with a glowing report, which included no qualifications. McCarthy renewed and expanded his attacks following Republican gains in the 1952 elections when the new Secretary of State,
John Foster Dulles John Foster Dulles (, ; February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American diplomat, lawyer, and Republican Party politician. He served as United States Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959 and was briefly ...
, decided to co-operate with Senate investigators. Finally, at the end of March 1953, after much bureaucratic infighting, Thayer was forced to resign in order to win Senate confirmation of his brother-in-law, Charles Bohlen, as Ambassador to Russia. The ''
Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. Hist ...
'' regretted his departure and expressed concern that the effect on government operations of a "wave of McCarthyism ... must be devastating".


Later years

Thayer moved to Majorca to live inexpensively beyond the reach of Senate subpoenas. He found some employment opportunities blocked and blamed State Department security officials, though the FBI was responsible. He joked in his diary that "under Stalin you went to Siberia, under Hitler to Dachau or Buchenwald but under McCarthy to Majorca, which counts as progress."Dean, ''Imperial Brotherhood'', 143 He tried without success to have his State Department file amended to make it clear that he resigned because he had a heterosexual affair while married. To support Thayer, his father-in-law, James Dunn, refused an appointment as Ambassador to Brazil. Thayer wrote but did not publish an autobiographical novel based on his experiences as a victim of
McCarthyism McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origin ...
and the purge of homosexuals from government service. In 1959, he accompanied
W. Averell Harriman William Averell Harriman (November 15, 1891July 26, 1986), better known as Averell Harriman, was an American Democratic politician, businessman, and diplomat. The son of railroad baron E. H. Harriman, he served as Secretary of Commerce un ...
, who was reporting for a newspaper syndicate, on a 6-week tour of the Soviet Union, Thayer wrote several works reflecting his experiences in government service: * ''Bears in the Caviar'' (1951) * ''Hands Across the Caviar'' (1953) * ''Unquiet Germans'' (1957) * ''Diplomat'' (1959) * ''Moscow Interlude'' (1962) * ''Guerilla'' (1963) * ''Checkpoint'' (1964) He also wrote a book about his mother, ''Muzzy'' (1966). Thayer and his wife, Cynthia, had a son, James. In retirement Thayer and his wife lived half the year in Villanova and half the year outside of Munich.Baer, 311 He later divided his time between homes in Philadelphia, United States, and
Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...
, Austria. Thayer died during a heart operation in Salzburg on August 27, 1969.''The New York Times''
"Charles Thayer, Soviet Expert, 50", August 29, 1969
accessed January 26, 2011
He was interred at the Church of the Redeemer Cemetery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.


Notes


Sources



U.S. Vice Consul in Moscow 1937–1940; U.S. Vice Consul in Berlin 1937–1938; U.S. Vice Consul in Hamburg 1939–1940; U.S. Vice Consul in Kabul 1943; U.S. Consul General in Munich 1952–1953 {{DEFAULTSORT:Thayer, Charles Wheeler 1910 births 1969 deaths Burials in Pennsylvania Writers from Pennsylvania United States Military Academy alumni American diplomats Victims of McCarthyism Voice of America people