Secret Kept

The letter, on stationery of the Chief of Staff's Office, bore a bold heading: TOP SECRET. FOR MR. DEWEY's EYES ONLY. Candidate Thomas E. Dewey, his curiosity piqued, read rapidly through the first two paragraphs:

I am writing you without the knowledge of any other person except Admiral King (who concurs) because we are approaching a grave dilemma in the political reactions of Congress regarding Pearl Harbor.

What I have to tell you below is of such a highly secret nature that I feel compelled to ask you either to accept it on the basis of your not communicating its contents to any other person and returning this letter or not reading any further and returning the letter to the bearer.

Tom Dewey looked up from the typewritten page. As he did, the word cryptograph, a few paragraphs below, flashed into his vision like a red traffic light. He made his decision quickly, folded the letter, handed it back. Colonel Carter W. Clarke (in mufti), who had flown from Washington to Tulsa to catch up with Tom Dewey's campaign, went back, his mission uncompleted.

"You Have My Word." It was September 1944. The campaign train rolled up through the Midwest, returned to Albany. A few days later, Tom Dewey received another visit from Colonel Clarke.

The Colonel, again in civilian clothes, handed over another letter from General Marshall. The General had changed his mind somewhat:

I am quite willing to have you read what comes hereafter with the understanding that you are bound not to communicate to any other person any portions on which you do not now have or later receive factual knowledge from some other source than myself. . . . You have my word that neither the Secretary of War nor the President has any intimation whatsoever that such a letter has been addressed to you. . . .

The Locked File. This time Tom Dewey read on. As he turned the pages, he became the first man outside the high command to know the full story of "Magic" and what it was accomplishing in the war against the Japs (see above). The letter closed with a plea:

I am presenting this matter to you, for your secret information, in the hope that you will see your way clear to avoid the tragic results with which we are now threatened in the present political campaign.

Tom Dewey locked the letter in his files, went back to his electioneering. Though he had known before that the U.S. had cracked the Jap code, had suspected that this information cast grave doubts on Franklin Roosevelt's role before Pearl Harbor, he held his tongue. The War Department's most valuable secret was kept out of the campaign.

Meeting at a Funeral. Recounting this story at the Pearl Harbor hearing last week, General Marshall recalled that he and Tom Dewey had never discussed the matter in person until they met at Franklin Roosevelt's funeral last April: "I asked Mr. Dewey to come with me to the War Department and I showed him current Magic showing Japanese movements. His attitude was friendly and gracious."

Had Marshall ever told Franklin Roosevelt of the letters to Dewey? Said Marshall: "The President died without knowing of it."

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