Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt Jr. (February 18, 1918 – May 31, 1990), the first grandson of U.S. President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
, was a soldier,
scholar
A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...
,
polyglot
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...
, authority on the Middle East, and career
CIA officer. He served as chief of the
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
's stations in
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
,
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
and London. Roosevelt had a speaking or reading knowledge of at least twenty languages.
Early life
Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt Jr. was born in
Boston, Massachusetts
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, on February 18, 1918, the son of Grace Lockwood and
Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt. He graduated from the
Groton School
Groton School is a Private school, private, college-preparatory school, college-preparatory, day school, day and boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts, United States. It is affiliated with the Episcopal Church (United States), Episcop ...
and then went to
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, where he graduated in the class of 1940.
He was selected as a
Rhodes Scholar
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world.
Esta ...
as an undergraduate, but he was not able to accept the post due to the outbreak of World War II in Europe. Roosevelt first worked for a newspaper in
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...
.
World War II
During the war, he became an Army
intelligence officer
An intelligence officer is a member of the intelligence field employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a r ...
. He served as a "
Ritchie Boy" secret unit specially trained at
Fort Ritchie, Maryland
Fort Ritchie is a census-designated place (CDP) in Washington County, Maryland, United States, just south of the Pennsylvania state line. The population was 276 at the 2000 census. Fort Ritchie is a former U.S. military base that closed in Septe ...
. He accompanied U.S. troops in their landing in North Africa in 1942 and soon began to form views on the French colonial administration and the beginnings of
Arab nationalism
Arab nationalism () is a political ideology asserting that Arabs constitute a single nation. As a traditional nationalist ideology, it promotes Arab culture and civilization, celebrates Arab history, the Arabic language and Arabic literatur ...
. Later in the war he was a
in
Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
and
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
.
Post-war work in the CIA
In 1947, Roosevelt joined the Central Intelligence Group, the immediate forerunner of the
CIA. From 1947 to 1949, he served in
Beirut
Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...
. On that and on all of his subsequent assignments abroad, he was listed in official registers as a
State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...
official.
From 1949 to 1951, he was in New York as head of the Near East section of the
Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...
. From 1951 to 1953, he was station chief in
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
. From 1953 to 1958, he had several jobs at CIA headquarters in Washington, D.C. In 1958, he was made CIA station chief in Spain. From 1962 to 1966 he held the same job in London. He finished his CIA career in Washington, D.C., where he retired in 1974. Roosevelt was involved in coup plots in
Syria
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
and
Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
, but he was unable to replicate his cousin
Kim's
success in Iran.
Operation Straggle, 1956
Roosevelt met with National Security Council member
Wilbur Crane Eveland and former Syrian minister Michail Bey Ilyan in Damascus on 1 July 1956 to discuss a US-backed 'anticommunist' takeover of Syria. They made a plan, scheduled for enactment on 25 October 1956, in which the military would
take control of Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, and Hamah. The frontier posts with Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon would also be captured in order to seal Syria's borders until the radio stations announced that a new government had taken over under Colonel Kabbani, who would place armored units at key positions throughout Damascus. Once control had been established, Ilyan would inform the civilians he'd selected that they were to form a new government, but in order to avoid leaks none of them would be told until just a week before the coup.
The CIA backed this plan (known as "Operation Straggle") with 500,000 Syrian pounds (worth about $167,000) and the promise to support the new government.
[Blum, ''Killing Hope'' (1995), p. 87.] Although Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles (February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat who served as United States secretary of state under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 until his resignation in 1959. A member of the ...
publicly opposed a coup, privately he had consulted with the CIA and recommended the plan to President Eisenhower.
The plan was postponed for five days, during which time
Israel invaded Egypt. Ilyan told Eveland he could not succeed in overthrowing the Syrian government during a war of Israeli aggression.
On 31 October, John Foster Dulles informed his brother
Allen Dulles, the Director of the CIA: "Re Straggle our people feel that conditions are such that it would be a mistake to try to pull it off". Eveland speculated that this coincidence had been engineered by the British in order to defuse US criticism of the invasion of Egypt.
Iraq
In mid-1962, the
Kennedy administration
John F. Kennedy's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 35th president of the United States began with Inauguration of John F. Kennedy, his inauguration on January 20, 1961, and ended with Assassination of John F. Kennedy, his ...
tasked Roosevelt with making preparations for a military coup against Iraqi Prime Minister
Abd al-Karim Qasim, whose expropriation of the
concessionary holdings of the British- and American-owned
Iraq Petroleum Company and threats to invade
Kuwait
Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...
were considered a threat to U.S. interests in the
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...
. While the CIA had cultivated assets within the
Iraqi Ba'ath Party, a former CIA colleague of Roosevelt's has denied any CIA role in the
February 1963 Ba'athist coup that saw Qasim assassinated, stating instead that the CIA's efforts against Qasim were still in the planning stages at the time.
Post-CIA retirement
After retiring from the CIA in 1974, Roosevelt became a vice president of
Chase Manhattan Bank, and a director of international relations in its Washington office. In this position, he became an associate of the bank's chairman,
David Rockefeller
David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American economist and investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Bank, Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of ...
and accompanied him as an adviser on his regular travels to Middle Eastern countries.
Well known in Washington social circles in his own right, he was particularly active on the diplomatic circuit during the
Reagan administration
Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following his landslide victory over ...
, when his wife,
Selwa Showker "Lucky" Roosevelt, was the chief of protocol with the rank of ambassador from 1982 to 1989.
In 1988, Roosevelt published a memoir called ''For Lust of Knowing: Memoirs of an Intelligence Officer'', where he mentions his wartime service as an Army intelligence officer in Morocco, Iraq and Iran. He is much more circumspect in describing his time with the CIA, adhering so strictly to his oath to keep the CIA's secrets that he did not even identify the countries where he had served. And although he was happy to tell interviewers that they could figure it out from his entry in ''Who's Who in America'', he also was quick to explain that some Americans have forgotten what an oath is and that he would not break his even if the government told him to. Even still, evidence shows there was concern within the US government about the public knowledge of the contents of his book. President Ronald Reagan states in his diary that he was advised against holding a public White House reception for Roosevelt, so as to not promote his book. He does not state who specifically advised him on this matter.
Throughout Roosevelt's life, he pursued an interest in languages. A Latin and Greek scholar when he was a boy, he had a speaking or reading knowledge of perhaps 20 languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew,
Swahili, and
Uzbek.
Marriage and family
Roosevelt married the former Katharine W. Tweed (the daughter of
Harrison Tweed) in 1940 and they had one son,
Tweed Roosevelt born in 1942. That marriage ended in divorce in 1950. Roosevelt later married
Selwa "Lucky" Showker Roosevelt, who was the chief of protocol with the rank of ambassador from 1982 to 1989. They were married for 40 years.
Death and burial
Roosevelt died on May 31, 1990, of
congestive heart failure
Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to fill with and pump blood.
Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF typically pr ...
. He is buried in the Roosevelt family plot at
Youngs Memorial Cemetery
Youngs Memorial Cemetery is a small cemetery in the village of Oyster Bay Cove, New York in the United States of America. It is located approximately one and a half miles south of Sagamore Hill National Historic Site. The cemetery was chartered ...
,
Oyster Bay, New York
The Town of Oyster Bay is the easternmost of the three Administrative divisions of New York#Town, towns that make up Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, New York (state), New York, United States. Part of the New York metropolitan area, it is ...
.
See also
*
Archibald Roosevelt
*
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
*
Tweed Roosevelt
Notes
Further reading
*
External links
Obituary Tribute in the Congressional RecordArchibald B. Roosevelt, Jr. Papers at the US Library of CongressRoosevelt Civil War Envelopes Collection at Georgetown University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roosevelt, Archibald Bullock Jr.
Archibald Bullock Roosevelt Jr.
United States Army officers
Groton School alumni
United States Army personnel of World War II
Bulloch family
Harvard University alumni
20th-century people from Washington, D.C.
People of the Central Intelligence Agency
1918 births
1990 deaths
American people of Dutch descent
American people of Scotch-Irish descent
American people of Scottish descent
American anti-communists