Massive Guilt

IN ASSIGNING wartime guilt, it is often difficult to determine who initiated and oversaw policy decisions. However, in the case of McCloy, the evidence indicated clearly that he was in a position of responsibility for his actions. During World War II, McCloy, as Assistant Secretary of War, "single handedly obstructed" requests to bomb the railroads leading to these policies. As assistant Secretary of War, he oversaw the concentration camps in Germany. More egregiously, contrary to popular belief, McCloy did not merely rubberstamp the decisions of the Advisory Board for Clemency for War Criminals. According to the Landsberg report, written by McCloy himself in 1951, McCloy commuted the sentences of 10 of the 15 prisoners sentenced to death, and substantially reduced the sentences of others. In explaining his actions, McCloy cited such reasons as "lack of primary responsibility, age, and limited participation" of the convicted criminals. In the case of Alfred Krupp, who was charged with collaborating with the Hitler government in the use of slave labor, McCloy overruled the board's sentence of 12 years and confiscation of all property for Krupp, changing it to time already served and no confiscation--because confiscation, to quote McCloy's Landsberg report, is "generally repugnant to American concepts of justice." Krupp was not even obliged to compensate the surviving slaves.

Finally, McCloy, who played a role in the internment of Japanese during the war, testified early this November before a federal commission that the Japanese-Americans interned in detention camps during World War II are not entitled to compensation. McCloy, according to the New Republic account, said that everyone was a little put out by the war, which "caused disruption in all our lives." In view of such a record, the Kennedy School should honor someone other than John McCloy.