Donovan and Stephenson were first introduced to one another at the King Cole Bar and returned for weekly drinks for the duration of the war. On June 13th, 1942 the COI was rebranded as the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to reflect Donovan’s sense of the strategic importance of intelligence and clandestine operations in modern war.Įven though Astor did not become spy chief, his hotel played host to Donovan and his counterpart at MI6, William Stephenson, Britain’s top man in the Western Hemisphere. His role as spy chief began July 11, 1941, when he was appointed Coordinator of Information. In the job I shall do my very best.” Those results did not materialize, and Astor was ultimately passed over for William, “Wild Bill” Donovan, the Columbia football star and brilliant lawyer who had returned from service in World War I as the most decorated soldier in the American Expeditionary Force.ĭonovan is also the only person in American history to be awarded all four of the nation’s highest decorations, including the Medal of Honor.
My appreciation of your entrusting to me this very considerable responsibility can be better demonstrated through the results obtained than by writing letters. He wrote to Roosevelt April 3, 1941, “From now on, it is up to me. But, World War Two was a larger conflict than any that had come before, and it called for a revolution in American intelligence: The United States would need a consolidated spy service to defeat the Nazi war machine.įor a while it looked like Vincent Astor would lead that service, for he knew the import of the role he had already been granted and was grateful for it. Prior to the Second World War, the FBI, Military, and State Department were all involved in intelligence work because the nation had no Central Intelligence Agency. In 1941, Roosevelt went so far as to have him commissioned as a commander in the US Navy, and appointed him coordinator of all intelligence operations undertaken by the FBI, the Military and the State Department in the New York Area. As the Nazi grip on Europe tightened, Astor was drawn even more deeply into clandestine affairs. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum/ Forward with Rooseveltīy 1938, Roosevelt trusted Astor’s eye for intel to such a degree that the President asked his friend to take a yacht cruise around the Pacific and report on Japanese military, naval and air force installations in the Marshall Islands. Vincent Astor and FDR entertain the Duke and Dutchess of Kent, Lord and Lady Clifford of the Bahamas. That rarefied world provided the perfect entrée into the nation’s spy service: As a lifelong friend of Franklin Roosevelt, Astor simply made a habit of passing dispatches from The Room to the President throughout the 1930s. Bruce, and Winthrop Aldrich traded international and financial intrigue. In that clandestine club, titans of finance, captains of industry, and society swells including Kermit Roosevelt, Nelson Doubleday, David K. Vincent Astor began trading in secrets as early as 1926 when he founded “The Room” in his townhouse at 34 East 62nd Street.
When John Jacob Astor died on the Titanic, his son, Vincent, a spy, inherited his holdings, including the St. But in addition to complimentary turndown service, the Astors had a penchant for clandestine service. Officially, the Astors were real estate tycoons, building luxury hotels throughout the city including the Astor House Hotel, the Waldorf-Astoria, the Knickerbocker Hotel and what is now the Sherry Netherland.