Here's the article in two parts. Thought it would be easier to download/open this way. I scanned it at high res (sorry), so it will take a while to download and open. Please be patient.
Who was Harry Bingham and why is he getting a stamp?
A few months ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell gave a posthumous award for "constructive dissent" to Hiram (or Harry) Bingham, IV. For over fifty years, the State Department resisted any attempt to honor Bingham. For them he was an insubordinate member of the US diplomatic service, a dangerous maverick who was eventually demoted. Now, after his death, he has been officially recognized as a hero.
Bingham came from an illustrious family. His father (o n whom the fictional character Indiana Jones was based) was the archeologist who unearthed the Inca City of Machu Picchu, Peru , in 1911. Harry entered the US diplomatic service and, in 1939, was posted to Marseilles, France, as American Vice-Consul.
The USA was then neutral and, not wishing to annoy Marshal Petain's puppet Vichy regime, President Roosevelt's government ordered its representatives in Marseilles not to grant visas to any Jews. Bingham found this policy immoral and, risking his career, did all in his power to undermine it.
In defiance of his bosses in Washington , he granted over 2,500 USA visas to Jewish and other refugees, including the artists Marc Chagall and Max Ernst and the family of the writer Thomas Mann. He also sheltered Jews in his Marseilles home, and obtained forged identity papers to help Jews in their dangerous journeys across Europe. He worked with the French underground to smuggle Jews out of France into Franco's Spain or across the Mediterranean and even contributed to their expenses out of his own pocket. In 1941, Washington lost patience with him. He was sent to Argentina , where later he continued to annoy his superiors by reporting on the movements of Nazi war criminals.
Eventually, he was forced out of the American diplomatic service completely. Bingham died almost penniless in 1988. Little was known of his extraordinary activities until his son found some letters in his belongings after his death. He has now been honored by many groups and organizations including the United Nations and the State of Israel.
I met two wonderful people the other day, Jesse and Ellen Hopper, who are trying to start a new 82nd Airborne Chapter in our area (North Central Michigan), so I agreed to do a bit of advertising for them on our site and on the local site I run for our town of Alger, MI.
If you served or are presently serving with the 82nd Airborne Division and are interested in becoming a member of this chapter, please read the PDF file below.
Michigan presently has four chapters, three down state, and one in Western UP, leaving a very large area to enlist from. So help Jesse and Ellen form this new chapter.
Just sent the following note to a friend this morning. Had to share it with you because I made myself laugh out loud.
Yes, I am ACTUALLY writing today. Yes, writing my book. Of course I have been researching and compiling and making detailed notes, but I am writing paragraphs and saving them to my hard drive. This is it. This is the book.
Damn, I have to admit that it's scary. Real scary. It's as though I have just made a committment, signed a contract, made some sort of huge move. Hard to describe. It's like, this is it kiddo. Sink or swim. Do or die. Hmmm. Makes one think.
So.... here I sit and sigh. I'm really doing this I say to myself. It's no longer an idea, an infatuation, or synapse sparking in my brain. I'm going for it. Egad! I've never done anything like this. Can I do it? Ya, I can, but I feel like I'm jumping into another world or league of folks who are waiting to pounce on me! LOL!!!! I picture it like this; a floating panel of judges with long white beards and long flowing white robes looking down on me and saying in a booming chorus of voices, "So you think you can play with us? ha-ha-ha-ha!"
I have to do this to make myself laugh. Yes, I am smiling. This is fun, but scary. Yes back to that word. It's one thing to write about your own life, but to try and write about a group of men who experienced so much. Whew!
Well I'm not getting anything done by writing to you, but heck, it's an outlet and I guess that's worth something.
