Prisoner's Dilemma by William Poundstone

Author:William Poundstone [Poundstone, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-76378-5
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2011-05-25T04:00:00+00:00

After the speech, there were fireworks—literally and figuratively. Within hours, the world was asking: Who is Francis Matthews?

FRANCIS MATTHEWS

The same question had been asked little more than a year before, when Truman nominated Matthews as Secretary of the Navy. Matthews was a successful Omaha attorney who, at age sixty-two, had never held a major public office.

Matthews had been raised in humble circumstances in the Midwest and Mississippi. His father ran a country store in Albion, Nebraska. After his father’s death, his mother used the insurance proceeds to buy a farm. Matthews built up a law practice and had a number of business interests, including part ownership of an Omaha radio station, a loan company, and building supply firms.

Matthews was a joiner. He was Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, a member of the Rotary Club, a major benefactor of Father Flanagan’s Boys Town, and a director of the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Camp Fire Girls. He became active in the Democratic party of Nebraska. If there was one distinguishing quality of his personality, it was his deep religious convictions. Matthews was such a devout Catholic that he built a chapel in his home and prayed there daily. In 1944 he had an audience with Pope Pius XII, who designated him Secret Papal Chamberlain with Cape and Sword. That honor entitled him to serve on the Vatican staff should he ever desire to do so.

In 1946, Truman appointed Matthews to the President’s Committee on Civil Rights. The same year Matthews, a member of the national board of the United States Chamber of Commerce, chaired a committee on communism. This group produced and distributed pamphlets with titles such as Communist Infiltration in the United States, Its Nature and How to Combat It. One publication charged that “forces within the State Department” were supporting the Chinese communists and claimed that “a real service to the community could be rendered if the secret stories of Yalta and Tehran could be made public.”

Despite the fact that this pamphlet was critical of both the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, it did not appear to lessen Matthews’s influence with the White House. During the 1948 Democratic convention, Matthews quelled an “abandon Truman” move by Nebraska delegates. The twelve electoral votes were greatly needed, and Truman did not forget the favor. During the campaign, Matthews also became friendly with Louis Johnson, the Truman fund-raiser who would be appointed Defense Secretary.

Matthews was Truman’s third choice for the job of Secretary of Navy. The President had preferred Jonathan Daniels, son of Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of the Navy. Daniels wasn’t interested. A second choice, Judge Robert Quinn of Rhode Island, was vetoed by Secretary of Defense Johnson. Matthews confessed to surprise at being chosen for the post. “I didn’t lift a finger to get it,” he told the press. Matthews had never been in the armed forces. During the war, he had toured the British Isles, supervising Catholic relief work and supposedly investigating the religious needs of fighting men. He was no less a landlubber than his Nebraska residence implied.

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