"Wild" Bill Donovan, Super Spy Extraordinaire

This is Mrs. Sauer American stories we tell stories about everything, including your story.

Send our American stories.com. Some of our favorite joining us. Newman, great-grandson of the founder of the oldest family owned premium cigar company in the United States tell us the story of cigars in America used to with the story. Most people don't realize that the United States has a rich cigar tradition that dates back to the 1600s. The first crop of cigar tobacco was planted in the Virginia colony in 1612 and at the time of our American independence. Every colony grew tobacco in many of our founding fathers such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were tobacco farmers 100 years ago. Tim was a cigar capital of the world temple was known as cigar city and there were hundred 50 large cigar factories just like ours.

Here in Tampa that made more than 500 million cigars by hand each year just in Tampa the duties of comparison today there are approximately 300 million premium handmade cigars sold in the United States each year, there made in Central America and the Caribbean.

100 years ago one half times that amount was made just inside the city limits of Tampa. But in the 60s 70s 80s and 90s. Many of these factories here in Tampa close and one by one they moved their production overseas to developing countries, primarily because the women make cigars.

It's so labor-intensive the laborsaving of having overseas productions really help them lower their costs to be more efficient. So, one by one we realize the other factors were closing that suddenly my family I had the last cigar factory left in the cigar city of Tampa and were very proud to be here very proud to continue the American cigar tradition, but doing so is at an added cost labor is more expensive materials are more expensive but we think it's worth it to keep the American cigar making tradition alive. We will cigars today. Just like my great-grandfather did hundred years ago.

The process hasn't changed one bit.

It's slow is labor-intensive because we are doing with nature.

Every single cigar is different. Generally speaking, it takes about three years and 300 pairs of hands to handcraft a single cigar.

The process starts in the farms.

Beautiful farms there. Here United States are in Connecticut, Pennsylvania here in Florida as well. The growth beautiful cigar tobacco the same way for generations.

Farmers plant the seeds in a greenhouse and transplant them into the field and after about 60 days. The plans protocol thick and beautiful and green and lush in each sleeve is picked off those plans and hung in a bar where the tobacco naturally will it dries out loses humidity. It cripples a and from that point the tobacco was taken down leaf by leaf put into details and incentive to be fermented naturally and all were doing with these natural leaves that are tobacco that are grown is the big putting them in the piles put them in the big piles about a thousand pounds each and add a little bit of water and mother nature combines the water with the tobacco and the leaves get warm as they get warm.

The natural ammonia in the leaves releases from the tobacco is left is a beautiful aroma and taste of natural tobacco leaves a process of natural fermentation is slow.

It takes roughly 8 months.

Simply letting the leaves sit in a pile turning the pilot every eight days sleeve and even fermentation. And finally we get to have leaves that are thin that are simply that are smooth that are beautiful that we can then gently roll into cigars. The cigar rolling process is really interesting.

I like to compare the wine because we make cigars just like the great winemakers made blends of red wine but we do is cigar makers as we take different leaves run different plans and different farms in different years and we blend them together to create unique and different taste than a single tobacco plants grown on a farm, you have 4050 60 different braided tobacco because families are longer summer shorter summer thinker summer center leaves near the top of the plant get more son for more nutrients today that there they taste stronger.

The leaves of the bottom are a sinner and have fewer nutrients and data they burn better and so is our job as cigar makers to understand these natural variations in leaves that are grown, blend them together harnesses natural variation and create unique lens that consumers like none of this is written down there no school for cigar making there no rulebooks.

It's simply a tradition as it passed down from generation to generation to generation.

We are working very hard to maintain and great job as always by Joey Brady is that story production Herb is always in a special thanks to Drew Newman whose great-grandfather was the founder of the oldest family owned cigar company in the United States. By the way, be sure to visit the JC Newman factory they'll reload with your family to the Tampa region if you're ever in the area, vacationing, or pick your on your way to Disney when you're passing through their some great exhibits and loads of activities for your family to enjoy the story of American cigars is told to us by June, the great grandson of the oldest cigar maker in the country on our American story books. If you love the stories we tell about this great country and especially the stories of America's rich past. Know that all of our stories about American history from rewards innovation culture and faith are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College Place for students study all the things that are beautiful life and all the things that are good in life. If you can get the Hillsdale pills will come to you with their freedom. Terrific online courses go to Hillsdale.edu to learn more and we continue with our American story. While Bill Donovan was one of America's most exciting and secretive generals man Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt made his ops by World War II, while Bill was the director of the office of strategic services, the country's first national intelligence agency is known as the founding father of both the CIA and the military special operations forces along with being credited as the father of psychological and cyber warfare you to tell the story is Douglas Waller is the author of the bestseller, while Bill Donovan, the spymaster who created the OSS in modern American espionage.

Let's take a listen while Bill Donovan.

He slept five hours or less a night speed read about three books a week. He was an excellent ballroom dancer. He loved to sing Irish songs infected go to Broadway by Appalachia sheet music so I can memorize the words he didn't smoke rarely drank enjoy fine dining although attended add to the weight he spent lavishly had no concept for a dollar. In fact, when he was roaming the world visiting is different OSS stations. He was always bombing dollars in the recorder's office the HR with him because he never to pay money with. He was away, but he never laughed out loud. He never told a dirty joke he never showed anger instead he let it boil inside of.

He was also rate initially handsome. Had these bright blue eyes. Women found absolutely captivated his life also was filled with a lot of personal tragedy.

His daughter died in an automobile accident college. His daughter-in-law died of a drug overdose.

One of his granddaughters when she was four years old, died when she accidentally swallowed silver polish and a lot of sadness in his life.

He was born on New Year's Day, 1883 in Buffalo New York for Irish first Lord he thought he might want to become a priest in every Irish Catholic family was always assumed that one of the sons will become a priest and Donna thought that was to be him realize later on they wasn't cut out to be a man of the cloth he went to Columbia University was a star quarterback on the football team as a senior year until he got hobbled by a chief tackled by a Princeton lineman. He then went to Columbia Law school, Franklin Roosevelt also attended the law school at that time that Roosevelt later like to say that he and Donovan roll buddies law school and Donovan set odds a bunch of baloney.

Roosevelt was on a much higher social strata than imported from Buffalo, he returned to Buffalo after law school. Set up a law practice married one of the richest women in town.

World War I he led a battalion for the with the 69th Irish Regiment.

Very famous regiment affected in a movie on Jimmy Cagney played Donovan was awarded the Congressional medal of honor for heroism in battle during world war one, the chaplain of the 69th Irish red Regiment, a guided Father Francis Duffy said Donovan was the only man he had ever met in his life who actually enjoyed combat.

It really did, he would write home to his wife Ruth that going out on combat missions was like going out trick-or-treating at night. Also during World War I is when he got his nickname.

While Bill, he was a very rigorous almost a brutal trainer was meant as he realized they were going to be going into a meatgrinder of combat in World War I, which they did so before they actually wanted action in France. He had him running over Hillandale and over obstacle courses under Bob wire and everything.

Finally, they ought the entire battalion collapsed in front of Eddie stood up there all Johnny and said well you know what the heck the matter with you. I'm 35 years old carrying the same packet you are. You don't see me out of breath from somewhere in the back it's soldier shouted out, he never figured out who were not as wild as you are Bill. From that day on, while Bill Donovan stuck. He claimed he didn't like that nickname because it ran counter to the cool, calm, quiet spider energy wanted to project but his wife Ruth said he really didn't like to be called while Bill, he returned to New York.

A hero, he became an assistant to the Atty. Gen. on the Coolidge administration during the roaring 20s. His goal at that point was to become Atty. Gen. of the United States and he thought Herbert Hoover, who succeeded Calvin Coolidge had promised him that position. In fact, Hoover had been promised in the Atty. Gen. ship, but this is the late 1920s the Ku Klux Klan is a very powerful political movement in this country and it was up in arms of the idea of a Roman Catholic becoming Atty. Gen. of the United States. Donovan as any prominent figure in Washington also made his share of enemies.

There is a prominent Republican Senate Democrats about the block his nomination. Hoover reneged on the promise until the day he died. Donovan never forgave Herbert Hoover for denying him the Atty. Gen. ship in 1932, he decided to dip his toe into politics once more, he ran for governor of New York is idea then was to become the first Irish Catholic president of the United States and the governorship of New York was an ideal steppingstone for the presidency many respects, it may still be today. Keep in mind 1932 Franklin Roosevelt was running for his first term in office and he had been governor of New York. Donovan ran against a guy named Herbert Lehman was Roosevelt's lieutenant governor. He ended up running as much against Roosevelt as he did against Lehman said some pretty nasty things about FDR on the campaign trail 1.8. She was Roosevelt a big quote crafting another time he choose to Roosevelt being a Hyde Park faker as Roosevelt claimed he was a simple farmer from Hyde Park. Donovan said that was a bunch of baloney. Roosevelt for his part, sent out surrogates on the campaign trail to take the shots at Donovan effect Elinor hit the trail and went after Donovan on different issues now. The reason I give you some of this back story is. It's amazing then that Franklin Roosevelt made Donovan his top spymaster very senior position, considering all the nasty things.

These two guys said about each other New York politics.

Fast-forward to 1940 going in 1941 Roosevelt is building up the nation's defenses. He's preparing the nation for war that he can see on the horizon. Donovan even though it was a conservative Republican. He believed the new deal was a communist plot to take over America. He too also thought that the nation needed to build itself up for war so you had to very canny savvy politicians here saw common cause in working with each other. The summer of 1940, Roosevelt sends Donovan to England basically just answer very simple question. Can Britain survive this war is a guy be occupied by Nazi Germany, and this is a question that Roosevelt didn't really have a clear answer to. He didn't have a good read on Winston Churchill either later on they would become very very close at that point he didn't know who this monster really was, so he sat Donovan over Donovan was given access to the top levels of the British government which is extra time unusual because here's an Irish American going over in the British government strictly Churchill's office didn't know where this guys going to be an Anglophile or an Anglophone turned out Donovan was a committed Anglophile came back to Washington with a bag full of secret documents and answered Roosevelt's question, which was yes, Britain could survive the war, but it's going to need a considerable amount of material aid from the United States, which eventually came in the form the lend lease at the end of 1940, the beginning of 1941 Roosevelt sent Donovan the second mission this time not only to England to collect material, but also to tour the Balkans, the Middle East and Eastern Europe again to gather up intelligence. There, but also to deliver a very private message strictly to Balkan leaders and that was that I view about and later were sitting on the fence in this war and many of them were at this point.

Just keep in mind that Franklin Roosevelt does not intend to let Great Britain lose this conflict.

So if you're trying to decide which side you want to be on. Keep in mind the winning side of the Allied side. Churchill was delighted with the message that Donovan conveyed in the region. He sent a cable to Roosevelt saying that Donovan had been a heartwarming flame and you been listening to Douglas Waller tell the story of Wilde will Donovan and what a wild story. It is born poor in Buffalo Columbia you and law school and then right into the middle of World War I where he becomes a medal of honor recipient and describes himself as enjoying combat politics follows and then the second world war and the life of espionage. When we come back more of this remarkable story while Bill Donovan story here on our American story, and we continue with our American stories and with the story of while Bill Donovan telling that story is Douglas Waller and author of the bestseller, while Bill Donovan. Let's pick up where we last left off. Churchill also supplied a British plane to take Donovan around to the different countries and British escorts officers to open doors for also to keep an eye on the report back to London and make sure he stayed on message.

One of those escort officers was Ian Fleming James Bond novel, the State Department, though, wasn't so pleased with this trip because here you had somebody with no official government standing in either the US government for the British government strong-arming Balkan leaders behind closed doors.

In fact, at one point senior State Department ace discussed the possibility whether Donovan should be prosecuted for violating the Logan act, which makes it a crime for a private citizen and associate on behalf of the US government. Roosevelt, however, was only too happy to have Donovan out there freelancing is keep in mind 1940 going and 41 Roosevelt has no foreign intelligence service to speak of. There were tiny foreign espionage units in the Navy in the Army, but there were large dumping grounds for poor performing officers. Roosevelt is facing a very tough reelection fight for an unprecedented third term is running as Wendell Wilkie's very strong candidate.

Roosevelt was actually seriously worried there's no lose that race. Here he is making major foreign policy decisions overseas largely blind to what lay ahead of them overseas. In fact, it worried him so much of times that he would become physically ill when Donovan returns from those two European trips. That's when our spy story begins in July 1941, Roosevelt signed an executive order. It made Donovan his coordinator of information.

A year later the organization be redesignated the OSS, the office of strategic services but it started out as a coordinator of information was just a one page document is signed very vaguely written. It said Col. Donovan, which had been as World War I right will collect information of national security interests for me. I will do other unspecified jobs affected document was so vague that members of Roosevelt cabinet scratch their heads wondering what in the heck is Franklin doing here appointing this Republican Wall Street lawyer who had been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate for the GOP to this nefarious position in the administration doing all kinds of unspecified things. Donovan said that he began his organization really from -0 which is really the case. Young man with one guy, which was himself in the beginning he was like a player in a pickup basketball game. Looking for agents and operations anywhere he could find them.

So for example the Phillips lamp company, they may lamp so lamps worldwide are still in business. Donovan arrays privately with the Phillips lamp company that one salesman went overseas tickly in the occupied countries, they would report back to the OSS on anything they saw that might be of interest or military value. The Eastman Kodak company.

My day and they made brownie cameras back then the Eastman Kodak company had thousands of camera clubs around the country. Donovan arrange for those camera clubs to send him photos that tourists are taken when they were overseas on vacation particularly militarily important sites. Donovan had a project codename cigar where he secretly had ticket agents for Pan Am stations throughout Africa that would report back to him. Whenever bear Gestapo agents moved in the airports or came in or came out on different flights.

He cooked up all kinds of wild schemes when he was OSS directories open to really any idea that crossed his desk. He kept $2000 in his desk drawer at all times. That was to pay for informants for information when it was roaming around Washington applicant find the CIA director. They keep in two grand in his desk. He had a research and development chief guy name Stanley Lovell who was a very famous New England inventor in his own right and he was the guy who created all the spy gadgets for Donovan. Donovan used columnist Prof. Moriarty at Sherlock Holmes character Stanley Lovell built things like the miniature cameras that spies use the pistols with silencers pencil like explosive devices that can be used to detonate charges or for discrete assassinations. Donovan was also very very interesting truth drugs and how they might be able to be secretly administered to an unwitting official to get him to spill the beans on different secrets.

One time they decided to test the truth drugs out on a New York mobster guy named little Augie.

There was an OSS officer who had been a New York City cop would busted little Augie a number of times and eventually befriended the gangster one day he invited little log Augie up to his apartment.

Person smokes and a chat laced within the cigarettes was a truth drugs tetra hikers cycling and so little Augie starts puffing away waste outside getting a silly grin on his face and chuckling and telling the officer about working for Lucky Luciano and all the mob Gypsies carried out in all the Congressman's bribe course little Augie secrets were safe.

Donovan he could bring the trial I would give away the truth. Drugs yell that all other kind wild ideas. They would posted. Roosevelt, one of them was that he propose that Roosevelt would have a button that is desk that he could punch at any time and it would put them in instant radio communication with every radio in America so that way if the Japanese bombed Los Angeles of the Germans attacked New York Roosevelt alert everybody.

Roosevelt ignore that idea.

But Roosevelt was a spy aficionado in his own right, ever since he was a teenager he always enjoyed subterfuge and intrigue and keeping secrets.

In fact, Roosevelt sent ideas to Donovan that were kind of off-the-wall to one of them was that you know fats that fly there with 50s bats with incendiary devices time around them and fly over Japan brought the bats of the plane and the bats would fly under the paper and wood homes in Japan leaves the incendiary devices would often burn down Japan. Idea someone had written Elinor with the idea she passed along Franklin Frankel thought was cool. David to Donovan so Stanley Lovell and his guys went out to the Midwest somewhere.which of these bats fitted in with incendiary devices took him up in a plane dropped another plane. Guess what happened.

The bats I'll sink like stone.

There was no I didn't way that I do work but Roosevelt didn't mind the failures and Donovan was willing to try anything in addition to being the father of the modern CIA. Donovan is also the father of modern special operations if you go to Tampa Florida to their headquarters in the US special operations command they have in the main foyer in a glass case. Donovan's uniform there and a lot of memorabilia from Donovan loved his commanders and he and he were talking, that soft purr and say you know I know this is a dangerous mission. But if I could I would go with you and he actually meant I could get the kind of a joke within OSS circles.

You know about Donovan coming put his arm around an agent. This is an easy enough I could go with you. I would that meant you were headed for trouble. Fact at one point he went to Roosevelt said no I'd like to command you division the gorillas of the Philippines. MacArthur didn't think too highly that idea and you been listening to Douglas Waller tell the story of wild Bill Donovan, particularly his exploits along with Roosevelt around World War II and the formation of the OSS in the end the modern precursor to the CIA and when we come back more of this remarkable story while Bill Donovan story here on our American story, and we continue with our American stories and with Douglas Waller, author of while Bill Donovan spymaster who created the OSS and modern American espionage. Let's pick up where we last left off is also considered the father will we call today. Modern information warfare things like psychological operations and cyber warfare in Donovan's day though it was done with technology that was really pretty crude and was called morale operations back then and use it consisted mainly of newspapers, leaflets, radios and rumors. So for example, Donovan's agent spread rumors and International Paper's New York Times, Associated Press, or whatever that top Nazis were fleeing Germany and going to hide out in Argentina does not leave the German army high and dry. Another another side ops plan. They tried out was Stanley Lovell's had a group of scientists concoct a set of female hormones and if they could find Hitler's vegetables and injected in their it would make his mustache falloff and given a falsetto voice which of course would be a real bummer for the fear, Donovan turned out to be a horrible manager for years. He ran the OSS he violated every rule. He teaches Harvard business school of Public administration school and at one point his own senior aides there tried to oust Donovan by then Larson of Coos to smell 100 being Larson himself squashed like a bug but to add to his credit, though he was a very charismatic leader. He rarely ever issued an order or command, it was usually always a request in his agents would follow loyally and blindly, and eventually Donovan built a spy organization of over 10,000 espionage agents research analyst commandos and support staff scattered in OSS stations all over the world. They mounted a number of covert operations for the torch invasion of North Africa in November 1942, did a lot of analysis of the Vichy French defenses. There for the Army invading in.

Interestingly, they had little operations going on in Asia, Douglas MacArthur, the commander of the Southwest Pacific theater and the OSS from this theater didn't want have anything to do with that extensive operations before and after the Normandy landing in France is research analyst did considerable amount of analysis, topographic analysis of the beaches and remedy for the invading armies.

He had an economist and staff and picked out bombing targets for half Arnold's eighth Air Force.

He had hundreds of commandos and spies that dropped into occupied France for and after the invasion. On many very dangerous missions. Donovan himself also like to go in on every Allied landing which horrified and said a senior staff because the last place you want your top spymaster with all those secrets in his head is at the front where he might be captured and be very very valuable prize for the other side. Gen. George Marshall, the Chief of Staff of the Army thought he had Donovan prohibited going in on the Normandy landing inserted Dwight Eisenhower landed European forces Donovan though managed to talk his way aboard a Navy heavy cruiser and land at Utah Beach.

The second day after the first way gets to the beach and the Germans.

Messersmith flies by space the beach yesterday dive under the Jeep for cover, dust himself off, then walks inland about three or 4 miles, looking for some of his operatives find what he thought he just going to look for. He gets pinned down by a German machine gun nest is with another eight he reaches into his jacket pocket to pull out his L pill that's a potassium cyanide capsule every OSS agent Karen Ciampa now and tell yourself incidents of torture realized though that he left his L pill at Claridge's Hotel in London fact, he had as a radio London soon as I got back to the beaches he was worried you made my coming there mistaken for an aspirin. It took Donovan almost 2 years to really build up a spy organization to get into this fight that sounds like a long time to keep in mind took the U.S. Army on the set amount of time so unprepared will worry for World War II. Like any other intelligence agency. Donovan also had his intelligence failures. One of the most notable ones was a vessel case. Donovan thought he had a silver bullet agent planted inside the Vatican was supplying him with verbatim transcripts of papal conversations that pious was Pope Pius was having with now I'm senior Vatican and envoys all around the world, but also with foreign diplomats at the Vatican, including the Japanese ambassador there turned out vessel was an Italian pornographer with a very vivid imagination and real talent for concocting dialogue and snickered. Donovan's organization. He had ferocious feuds with J Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI who were thought Donovan's organization was the biggest collection amateurs he ever seen, and truth be told, it was a collection of amateurs again. Now, in any war generals and admirals on the same side will fight among themselves.

There's always fierce bureaucratic battles.

World War II was no exception. But in the case of Donovan. The bear bureaucratic battles became even more ferocious because conventional generals and admirals just didn't understand what this guy was me.

When Donovan started talking about little log the sex hormones for Hitler. They thought it. The guy was deranged.

Donovan would also show up to Pentagon meetings usually late immaculately tailored his generals uniform he bought from Wessels in New York and on the uniform he would have someone on it. Just as medal of honor as a not-so-subtle reminder to all the generals and admirals in the room with their Rosa written all that fruit salad that he had the only one that really counted out in the field, though he could be what one of his aides said was incorrigible. He civilian he would show up in his fatigues. All rental look like you just got out of bed. Sometimes he would be wearing the paisley ascot with again as a reminder to everybody around him. This was an unconventional guy and he was running an unconventional unit. Eventually Donovan couldn't overcome his political enemies he had drafted a plan for postwar Central intelligence agency, CIA after the war he wanted to lead that agency. Walter Truax can who was a reporter for the McCormick Patterson newspaper chain Truax hand got leaked to him a copy of Donovan's secret plan to set up a postwar CIA and he published the entire plan in the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Times hair curled in a New York paper on the same day along with a very inflammatory story accusing Donovan of wanting to set up a quote Gestapo -like organization that was going to spite not only on people overseas, but Americans at home. Back then, if you accused any organization of being Gestapo like that about Santa politically and it did with Franklin Roosevelt basically shelved the plan.

On September 20, 1945 Truman's is after the wars over Truman shuts down the OSS and parcels out its functions to the Pentagon and the State Department not Truman was not deaf and dumb to the dangers that lay ahead of them overseas uses pretty savvy president he could see he was going to see the Cold War rolling out, he realized he needed foreign intelligence service.

He doesn't want to have dominance over OSS to be any part of that 1947, Truman organizes the Central intelligence agency as part of the Defense Department act. Donovan wanted to lead that CIA 1947. In fact, he had surrogates lobby Truman to make him CIA director Truman when you have a part of that tickly after Donovan said some mean things about Truman on the campaign trail presidents usually don't forget that stuff that set about 1953. Eisenhower becomes president, a fellow Republican like Donovan I could thought Donovan fine works in Europe. Donovan thought he had his best chance to be CIA director then instead though Eisenhower points Allen Dulles CIA director and a terrific job on the production by Greg Tingle. Special thanks to Douglas Waller is the author of the bestseller, while Bill Donovan spymaster who created the OSS and modern American espionage. Pick it up at your local bookstore or wherever you get your books online.

By the way, while Bill Donovan died at the age of 76 from complications of vascular dementia.

In February 1959 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC. Shortly before his death he was visited by Pres. Eisenhower later told a friend that Donovan was the last euro. Upon learning of his death, the CIA sent to able station chief.

It read quote the man more responsible than any other. The existence of the Central intelligence agency is best story of while Bill Donovan on our American story to do something to positively think of private Christian education, looks like