Samuel Reber
Encyclopedia
Samuel Reber was a diplomat who spent 27 years in the Foreign Service of the United States, including several years with the Allied High Commission
for Germany. Threats by Senator Joseph McCarthy
to reveal a homosexual incident in his past forced him to resign quietly from the State Department in 1953. McCarthy later publicly alleged that Reber had been forced to retire because he posed a "security risk."
, New York
, to a military family. His father U.S. Army Signal Corps Colonel Samuel Reber (1864–1933) was an 1886 graduate of West Point
and his mother Cecelia Sherman Miles (1869–1952) was the daughter of a Lieutenant General. He attended Groton School
and graduated from Harvard University
in 1925, where he rowed on the eight-man crew.
, Liberia
, as secretary and consul and later chargé d'affaires from July 1929 to February 1931. When the Liberian government agreed to accept advice and oversight from the League of Nations
, Reber served as the U.S. representative on the League's commission.
He became third secretary of the U.S. delegation to the General Disarmament Conference
in Geneva beginning in February 1932. In 1935 and 1936, he served as technical adviser to the U.S. delegation at the London Naval Conference in 1935-36. He was next secretary of the U.S. embassy in Rome and then returned to the U.S. for three years.
He went overseas again for a short assignment in Martinique
, then in control of Vichy France
, to seek guarantees that French possessions, ships, and planes in the Caribbean would not be used by the Axis powers
. The French agreed to disarm their ships and the U.S. used these negotiations to underscore Pierre Laval
's weakness as head of the Vichy government and gain advantages from Vichy's need to avoid direct conflict with the U.S.
He next joined the Allied Military Mission to Italy and then the Allied Control Commission in Italy. He undertook a special mission to North Africa in 1943 on behalf of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
. In 1944, he went to Europe as the U.S. representative to the new French government with the rank of minister, and then to London.
He became a political officer on the staff of the Supreme Headquarters of the Allies in Paris. In 1946 he was political adviser to the U.S. delegation to the Council of Foreign Ministers Conference in Paris the next year was director of the State Department's Office of European Affairs.
Reber represented the State Department in negotiations among deputy foreign ministers for an Austrian peace treaty
in the years following World War II
. There, according to Life
, he "endured two years of Soviet insult and frustration." At one point he moved that the talks be suspended because of Russia's demands for control of Austrian oil industry resources. According to the New York Times, he "played a major role in shaping the Austrian Government."
Reber joined the staff of the Allied High Commission as a political adviser to John J. McCloy
, U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, in May 1950. He served in the post of U.S. Acting High Commissioner for Germany from December 11, 1952 to February 10, 1953. In this position he shared confidences with Konrad Adenauer
during ongoing negotiations about the formation of a European Defense Community. He shared his critical assessment of Winston Churchill
's 1953 thoughts of an alliance of Great Britain, the U.S., West Germany, and Spain: "The grand old man had apparently again drunk too much whiskey and felt himself back in the time of his ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough!" He later served as Deputy High Commissioner. In the spring of 1953, Roy Cohn
and David Schine
visited several German cities as investigators for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Reber provided them with an aide to make travel arrangements, but he refused to support them when they denounced Theodore Kaghan
, Deputy Director of the Public Affairs Division for the High Commissioner's office, for his radical past.
, who resigned after testifying before Senator Joseph McCarthy
's Senate Investigation Committee. Kaghan had mocked two of McCarthy's staff members, Roy Cohn and David Schine, as "junketeering gumshoes" when they toured Europe to investigate un-American publications held in the libraries of the United States Information Service
.
As part of the investigation of security risks in the upper echelons of the State Department prompted by McCarthy's charges of disloyalty and homosexuality, Reber was subjected to security interviews and a polygraph test on March 17 and 19, 1953. A senior investigator notified Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
that "Reber has made a lot of admissions" about homosexuality. The polygraph operator determined that Reber had never had sexual relations with other State Department personnel, so he was not asked to name others. The rationale for his forced resignation became widely known within diplomatic circles and helped intimidate others. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
, wrote to Adlai Stevenson that "The most eminent recent victim is, of all people, Samel Reber, who apparently is being forced out on a vague homosexual allegation, fifteen years old. And the thing is reaching the point where, as John Davies told me, the very fact of accusation makes a man, in the eyes of these thugs, a future risk....As some one said, we have passed beyond the Kafka phase, and are moving into Dostoievsky."
In April 1954, Reber's older brother, Major General Miles Reber, a West Point graduate, testified on the first day of the Army–McCarthy hearings. He had served as Chief of Army legislative liaison and then become commanding general of the Western Area Command in Europe. He thought McCarthy's attempt to influence the Army's assignment of Shine was unremarkable, but of Cohn's insistent phone calls he said here was ""no instance under which I was put under greater pressure." McCarthy responded by charging that Samuel Reber had attacked Cohn and Schine repeatedly and had them followed on their 1953 European investigation. The General denied any knowledge of such activity and said it would not have influenced him. McCarthy asked: "Are you aware of the fact that your brother was allowed to resign when charges that he was a bad security risk were made against him as a result of the investigation of this committee?" Senators objected. Time
reported: "General Reber sat in silence, gripping the edges of the witness table until his knuckles showed white. Finally, McCarthy, having made his point over radio and television, dismissed the entire question as unimportant, and grandly said he would withdraw it." Eventually the General replied: "As I understand my brother's case, he retired, as he is entitled to do by law, upon reaching the age of 50....I know nothing about any security case involving him."
in New York City. In 1958, the Federal Republic of Germany
awarded him its Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit.
Reber died in Princeton, New Jersey
, on December 25, 1971.
His brother Major General Miles Reber survived him.
Allied High Commission
The Allied High Commission was established by the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and France after the 1948 breakdown of the Allied Control Council to regulate and supervise the development of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany The Allied High Commission (also known...
for Germany. Threats by Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
to reveal a homosexual incident in his past forced him to resign quietly from the State Department in 1953. McCarthy later publicly alleged that Reber had been forced to retire because he posed a "security risk."
Family
Samuel Reber, Jr., was born on July 15, 1903, in East HamptonEast Hampton (town), New York
The Town of East Hampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, at the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. It is the easternmost town in the state of New York...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, to a military family. His father U.S. Army Signal Corps Colonel Samuel Reber (1864–1933) was an 1886 graduate of West Point
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
and his mother Cecelia Sherman Miles (1869–1952) was the daughter of a Lieutenant General. He attended Groton School
Groton School
Groton School is a private, Episcopal, college preparatory boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts, U.S. It enrolls approximately 375 boys and girls, from the eighth through twelfth grades...
and graduated from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1925, where he rowed on the eight-man crew.
Career
Reber joined the Foreign Service in May 1926 and the next year took up his first overseas assignment as Vice Consul in Lima, Peru. During a troubled period for the government of Liberia during which Western powers pressured it to prohibit slavery, contract labor, and the sale of children, Reber joined the U.S. embassy in MonroviaMonrovia
Monrovia is the capital city of the West African nation of Liberia. Located on the Atlantic Coast at Cape Mesurado, it lies geographically within Montserrado County, but is administered separately...
, Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
, as secretary and consul and later chargé d'affaires from July 1929 to February 1931. When the Liberian government agreed to accept advice and oversight from the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
, Reber served as the U.S. representative on the League's commission.
He became third secretary of the U.S. delegation to the General Disarmament Conference
World Disarmament Conference
The Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments of 1932-34 was an effort by member states of the League of Nations, together with the U.S. and the Soviet Union, to actualize the ideology of disarmament...
in Geneva beginning in February 1932. In 1935 and 1936, he served as technical adviser to the U.S. delegation at the London Naval Conference in 1935-36. He was next secretary of the U.S. embassy in Rome and then returned to the U.S. for three years.
He went overseas again for a short assignment in Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
, then in control of Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
, to seek guarantees that French possessions, ships, and planes in the Caribbean would not be used by the Axis powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
. The French agreed to disarm their ships and the U.S. used these negotiations to underscore Pierre Laval
Pierre Laval
Pierre Laval was a French politician. He was four times President of the council of ministers of the Third Republic, twice consecutively. Following France's Armistice with Germany in 1940, he served twice in the Vichy Regime as head of government, signing orders permitting the deportation of...
's weakness as head of the Vichy government and gain advantages from Vichy's need to avoid direct conflict with the U.S.
He next joined the Allied Military Mission to Italy and then the Allied Control Commission in Italy. He undertook a special mission to North Africa in 1943 on behalf of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
. In 1944, he went to Europe as the U.S. representative to the new French government with the rank of minister, and then to London.
He became a political officer on the staff of the Supreme Headquarters of the Allies in Paris. In 1946 he was political adviser to the U.S. delegation to the Council of Foreign Ministers Conference in Paris the next year was director of the State Department's Office of European Affairs.
Reber represented the State Department in negotiations among deputy foreign ministers for an Austrian peace treaty
Austrian State Treaty
The Austrian State Treaty or Austrian Independence Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state. It was signed on May 15, 1955, in Vienna at the Schloss Belvedere among the Allied occupying powers and the Austrian government...
in the years following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. There, according to Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
, he "endured two years of Soviet insult and frustration." At one point he moved that the talks be suspended because of Russia's demands for control of Austrian oil industry resources. According to the New York Times, he "played a major role in shaping the Austrian Government."
Reber joined the staff of the Allied High Commission as a political adviser to John J. McCloy
John J. McCloy
John Jay McCloy was a lawyer and banker who served as Assistant Secretary of War during World War II, president of the World Bank and U.S. High Commissioner for Germany...
, U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, in May 1950. He served in the post of U.S. Acting High Commissioner for Germany from December 11, 1952 to February 10, 1953. In this position he shared confidences with Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...
during ongoing negotiations about the formation of a European Defense Community. He shared his critical assessment of Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
's 1953 thoughts of an alliance of Great Britain, the U.S., West Germany, and Spain: "The grand old man had apparently again drunk too much whiskey and felt himself back in the time of his ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough!" He later served as Deputy High Commissioner. In the spring of 1953, Roy Cohn
Roy Cohn
Roy Marcus Cohn was an American attorney who became famous during Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigations into Communist activity in the United States during the Second Red Scare. Cohn gained special prominence during the Army–McCarthy hearings. He was also an important member of the U.S...
and David Schine
G. David Schine
Gerard David Schine, better known as G. David Schine or David Schine, was the wealthy heir to a hotel chain fortune who received national attention when he became a central figure in the Army-McCarthy Hearings of 1954 in his role as the chief consultant to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on...
visited several German cities as investigators for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Reber provided them with an aide to make travel arrangements, but he refused to support them when they denounced Theodore Kaghan
Theodore Kaghan
-Early years:Kaghan was born in Boston and graduated from the University of Michigan.At the University of Michigan he won several annual prizes given for undergraduate dramatic writing, including the top award in 1935 for a play called Unfinished Picture, later read but not performed by the Group...
, Deputy Director of the Public Affairs Division for the High Commissioner's office, for his radical past.
Resignation
Reber announced his retirement in May 1953, effective in July when he turned 50, just days after attending a party honoring a retiring senior official with the Commission, Theodore KaghanTheodore Kaghan
-Early years:Kaghan was born in Boston and graduated from the University of Michigan.At the University of Michigan he won several annual prizes given for undergraduate dramatic writing, including the top award in 1935 for a play called Unfinished Picture, later read but not performed by the Group...
, who resigned after testifying before Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
's Senate Investigation Committee. Kaghan had mocked two of McCarthy's staff members, Roy Cohn and David Schine, as "junketeering gumshoes" when they toured Europe to investigate un-American publications held in the libraries of the United States Information Service
United States Information Agency
The United States Information Agency , which existed from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to "public diplomacy". In 1999, USIA's broadcasting functions were moved to the newly created Broadcasting Board of Governors, and its exchange and non-broadcasting information functions were...
.
As part of the investigation of security risks in the upper echelons of the State Department prompted by McCarthy's charges of disloyalty and homosexuality, Reber was subjected to security interviews and a polygraph test on March 17 and 19, 1953. A senior investigator notified Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism throughout the world...
that "Reber has made a lot of admissions" about homosexuality. The polygraph operator determined that Reber had never had sexual relations with other State Department personnel, so he was not asked to name others. The rationale for his forced resignation became widely known within diplomatic circles and helped intimidate others. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr. was an American historian and social critic whose work explored the American liberalism of political leaders including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy. A Pulitzer Prize winner, Schlesinger served as special assistant and "court historian"...
, wrote to Adlai Stevenson that "The most eminent recent victim is, of all people, Samel Reber, who apparently is being forced out on a vague homosexual allegation, fifteen years old. And the thing is reaching the point where, as John Davies told me, the very fact of accusation makes a man, in the eyes of these thugs, a future risk....As some one said, we have passed beyond the Kafka phase, and are moving into Dostoievsky."
In April 1954, Reber's older brother, Major General Miles Reber, a West Point graduate, testified on the first day of the Army–McCarthy hearings. He had served as Chief of Army legislative liaison and then become commanding general of the Western Area Command in Europe. He thought McCarthy's attempt to influence the Army's assignment of Shine was unremarkable, but of Cohn's insistent phone calls he said here was ""no instance under which I was put under greater pressure." McCarthy responded by charging that Samuel Reber had attacked Cohn and Schine repeatedly and had them followed on their 1953 European investigation. The General denied any knowledge of such activity and said it would not have influenced him. McCarthy asked: "Are you aware of the fact that your brother was allowed to resign when charges that he was a bad security risk were made against him as a result of the investigation of this committee?" Senators objected. Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
reported: "General Reber sat in silence, gripping the edges of the witness table until his knuckles showed white. Finally, McCarthy, having made his point over radio and television, dismissed the entire question as unimportant, and grandly said he would withdraw it." Eventually the General replied: "As I understand my brother's case, he retired, as he is entitled to do by law, upon reaching the age of 50....I know nothing about any security case involving him."
Later years
Reber later served as Executive Secretary of Goethe HausGoethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut is a non-profit German cultural institution operational worldwide, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and relations. The Goethe-Institut also fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on German...
in New York City. In 1958, the Federal Republic of Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
awarded him its Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit.
Reber died in Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
, on December 25, 1971.
His brother Major General Miles Reber survived him.