Jeyms Forrestol The first US Secretary of Defense, jumped out of the window shouting “The Russians are coming!”. Date of Birth: 15.02.1892 Country: USA

Biography of James Vincent Forrestal

James Vincent Forrestal was the first United States Secretary of Defense. He served as the Secretary of the Navy and the first Secretary of Defense from September 17, 1947, to March 28, 1949. Forrestal was an active proponent of creating battle groups and their accompanying aircraft carriers. However, his plans for constructing new ships were rejected by the newly created United States Department of the Air Force in 1947, which believed that military operations should be supported by land-based aviation. The conflict between Forrestal and the Air Force is believed to be the primary cause of his mental illness and subsequent suicide. A year after his death, the Korean War proved the importance of aircraft carriers in modern warfare. In his honor, a new class of aircraft carrier, the USS Forrestal (CVA-59), was named after him.

Forrestal was born in Mattewan (now Beacon), New York. His father was an Irish immigrant involved in politics. After completing school in 1908, he worked for three newspaper publications: the Matteawan Evening Journal, Mount Vernon Argus, and Poughkeepsie News Press.

In 1911, he enrolled in Dartmouth College but transferred to Princeton University the following year. During his senior year, he worked as an editor for The Daily Princetonian, the student newspaper. After college, Forrestal joined the firm William A. Reid and Company (later known as Dillon, Read & Co.). When the United States entered World War I, Forrestal joined the military and eventually became a naval aviator, training in the Royal Flying Corps of Canada. In the last year of the war, he transferred to the Office of Naval Operations in Washington, D.C., where he completed his training and became a lieutenant junior grade. After the war, Forrestal worked as a publicist for the Democratic Party in New York, supporting candidates at both the state and federal levels. Among the politicians elected with his assistance was Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1923, Forrestal returned to Dillon, Read & Co., and in 1937, he became the company's president. Forrestal was known for his workaholic nature and cold, dismissive attitude toward his family. An example of this was when his eight and six-year-old sons called him while he was working in London. They had missed their flight to Paris, but Forrestal told them to figure out their own way to reach him in London. His wife Josephine (married in 1926) also suffered from his temperament and developed mental health and alcohol problems. On June 22, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Forrestal as a special assistant and, six weeks later, nominated him as the Undersecretary of the Navy. Forrestal later proved to be a capable leader, aligning the industry with wartime needs.

On May 19, 1944, when his immediate superior, Frank Knox, died of a heart attack, Forrestal became the Secretary of the Navy. He oversaw the Navy's actions in the final year of the war and facilitated demobilization. Forrestal was initially opposed to the idea of consolidating all U.S. military departments but still participated in the development of the National Security Act of 1947, which established the National Military Establishment. On September 19, 1947, Forrestal became the first Secretary of Defense.

The 18 months he spent as Secretary of Defense were challenging for the United States. Communist parties came to power in Czechoslovakia and China, West Berlin was under blockade, and the creation of Israel led to war in the Middle East. Additionally, struggles between the different departments within the defense establishment and reduced funding from President Harry Truman added to the difficulties. Forrestal was particularly concerned about the growing Soviet influence. Due to a mental crisis, he was removed from his position on March 28, 1949, and placed in the National Naval Medical Center five days later. Officially, it was announced that he suffered from "nervous and mental exhaustion," but his attending physician, Captain George Raines, diagnosed him with depression. During his illness, there were rumors that he repeated, "The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming. They are everywhere. I have seen Russian soldiers." Journalist Drew Pearson attempted to attribute paranoia to Forrestal based on these rumors, but no such diagnosis was ever made.

The main cause of his problems likely stemmed from the mismatch between his position and his character. As a generally reserved person who claimed to thrive in darkness and uncertainty, he found himself under the scrutiny of journalists such as Pearson and Walter Winchell.

Forrestal appeared to be recovering when he suddenly died on May 22. His body was found on the roof of the third floor, beneath the kitchen windows of the 16th floor across from his room. Several hours later, the county coroner declared it a suicide. An excerpt from Sophocles' tragedy "Ajax" was found in his suicide note. The handwriting in the note was compared to Forrestal's handwriting by the Navy, confirming its authenticity.

The results of the investigation, unofficially published on May 31, 1949, were officially released on October 12, 1949, and provided only a brief description of the facts. It stated that Forrestal's death resulted from a fall from the 16th floor but did not indicate the cause of the fall. This ambiguity led to various conspiracy theories. From the beginning, there were doubts about the suicide theory, fueled by the fact that the Navy did not release the investigation protocols. In 1966, Cornell Simpson's book "The Death of James Forrestal" developed and analyzed these doubts, but it did not gain widespread readership. In 2004, the Navy's unpublished research, informally known as the Wilcats Report (headed by Admiral Morton D. Willcutts, the director of the National Naval Medical Center overseeing the investigation), strengthened the doubts. It suggested that the excerpt from Sophocles' tragedy may not have been written by Forrestal and reported the presence of glass shards in his bed.

Possible candidates for Forrestal's killers ranged from Soviet agents to individuals within the U.S. government who did not want him to disclose information about UFOs. Forrestal himself suspected surveillance by Israeli intelligence agencies. It later emerged that surveillance did occur because Israel feared that the U.S. would secretly make a deal with Arab countries. In 1946, according to British intelligence reports, a planned assassination attempt on the British Foreign Secretary by the Irgun organization failed, and it is possible that Forrestal helped them succeed.