Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt, Jr.
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Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt, Jr. (February 18, 1918 – May 31, 1990), the first child of Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt and grandson of US President, Theodore Roosevelt, was a soldier, scholar, linguist, authority on the Middle East and a career CIA officer. He served as chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's stations in Istanbul, Madrid and London. Roosevelt had a speaking or reading knowledge of at least twenty languages.
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[edit] Early life
Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt Jr. was born in Boston on February 18, 1918. He graduated from Groton School and then went to Harvard, where he graduated in the class of 1940. While an undergraduate, he was chosen as a Rhodes Scholar, but was not able to accept because of the outbreak of World War II in Europe. His first job was working for a newspaper in Seattle, Washington.
[edit] World War II
During the war, he became an Army intelligence officer. He accompanied U.S. troops in their landing in North Africa in 1942 and soon began to form views on the French colonial administration and the beginnings of Arab nationalism. Later in the war he was a military attache in Iraq and Iran.
[edit] Post-war work in the CIA
In 1947, Roosevelt joined the Central Intelligence Group, the immediate forerunner of the CIA. From 1947 to 1949, he served in Beirut. On that and on all of his subsequent assignments abroad, he was listed in official registers as a State Department official.
From 1949 to 1951, he was in New York City as head of the Near East section of the Voice of America. From 1951 to 1953, he was station chief in Istanbul. From 1953 to 1958, he had several jobs at CIA headquarters in Washington, DC. In 1958, he was made CIA station chief in Spain. From 1962 to 1966 he held the same job in London. He finished his CIA career in Washington, DC where he retired in 1974.
[edit] Post-CIA retirement
After retiring from the CIA in 1974, Roosevelt became a vice president of Chase Manhattan Bank and director of international relations in its Washington office. Well known in Washington social circles in his own right, he was particularly active on the diplomatic circuit during the Reagan administration, when his wife, Selwa Showker `Lucky' Roosevelt, was the Chief of Protocol with the rank of Ambassador from 1982 to 1989.
In 1988, Roosevelt published a memoir called For Lust of Knowing: Memoirs of an Intelligence Officer, in which he adhered so strictly to this oath to keep the CIA's secrets that he did not even identify the countries where he had served. And although he was happy to tell interviewers that they could figure it out from his entry in `Who's Who in America,' he also was quick to explain that some Americans have forgotten what an oath is and that he would not break his even if the government told him to.
Throughout Roosevelt's life, he pursued an interest in languages. A Latin and Greek scholar when he was a boy, he had a speaking or reading knowledge of perhaps 20 languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Swahili and Uzbek.
[edit] Marriage and family
Roosevelt married the former Katherine W. Tweed in 1940 and they had one son, Tweed Roosevelt born in 1942. That marriage ended in divorce in 1950. Roosevelt later married Selwa "Lucky" Showker Roosevelt, who was the Chief of Protocol with the rank of Ambassador from 1982 to 1989. They were married for 40 years.
Since Archie, Jr. was a career government officer and frequently stationed overseas, his son, Tweed, spent a number of periods living with Archie, Jr's father, Archie, Sr.. As Archie, Sr. lived quite close to Theodore Roosevelt's home in Oyster Bay, Sagamore Hill, young Tweed had the opportunity to stay overnight in the home and eat meals on Sundays and holidays with his great-grandmother, Edith Carow Roosevelt. So even though Tweed was born twenty years after TR's death, he partook of many experiences with TR's immediate family and learned first hand from them about the 26th President. Tweed even had the chance to fire some of TR's rifles and pistols. He would later learn that many of his grandfather's habits, traits and traditions were based on his experience as TR's son. In the forward to a National Geographic book on the adventures of Theodore Roosevelt with accounts of TR's experience taken from TR's own writings, Tweed wrote of these early childhood experiences and their effect on his life and outlook. [1]
[edit] Passing in 1990
Mr. Roosevelt died on May 31, 1990, of congestive heart failure. He is buried in the Roosevelt family plot at Young Memorial Cemetery, Oyster Bay, New York.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Brandt, Anthony, editor (2005). “Forward by Tweed Roosevelt”, The Adventures of Theodore Roosevelt (in his own words). National Geographic Adventure Classics, IX. ISBN 0-7922-9346-0.
