Bonner Fellers

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Bonner Frank Fellers (1896 - 1973), was a U.S. Army officer who served during World War II as military attaché and psychological warfare director. He was a considered a protegé of General Douglas MacArthur.

In 1941, then-Colonel Fellers was Military Attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Egypt. He was assigned to monitor and report on British military operations in North Africa and the Middle East. As the representative of a very important friendly power, he was given full access to British activities and information. Fellers reported everything he learned to the U.S. His reports were especially prized by Army commander in chief General George Marshall.

Fellers' messages were sent by radio, encrypted in the "Black Code" of the U.S. State Department. The details of this code were stolen from the U.S. Embassy in Italy by Italian spies in September 1941; it was also broken by German cryptanalysts, who read "Black Code" messages.^[1]

Fellers' radiograms were intercepted and decrypted by the Germans. They were a treasure trove of valuable information to the Axis. The information was not only extensive and timely, it was also guaranteed authentic: the British would not be lying to their American friends.

Information from Fellers' messages alerted the Axis to British convoy operations in the Mediterranean Sea, including efforts to resupply the garrison of Malta. Information about the numbers and condition of British forces was provided to General Rommel, the famed German commander in Africa. He could thus plan his operations with reliable knowledge of what the opposing forces were. Rommel was so pleased with the intercepts that he referred to Fellers as "my bonnie fellow".^{[citation needed]}

Fellers was later condemned for this information leak. But he had been ordered to use the State Department code over his objections, and had been ordered by Marshall to report in great detail. Criticism of Fellers for this problem generally came from those who distrusted him because of his close association both before and during the war with MacArthur. Marshall never found any fault with Fellers or with his actions in Egypt.

General Eisenhower supposedly said to an English beauty who expressed admiration for Fellers, "Any friend of Bonner Fellers is no friend of mine!"^[2] If this story is true, it was due to Eisenhower's dislike of MacArthur and his associates. Eisenhower did not know Fellers well and had no basis for making such a remark.

In July 1942, Fellers was transferred from Egypt. His successor as Attaché used the U.S. military cipher, which the Germans could not read. At MacArthur's request and over the objections of both the State and War Departments, Fellers went to MacArthur's South-West Pacific command. Fellers was promoted to Brigadier General and served as the Chief of Psychological Operations under MacArthur.

After the war, Fellers played a major role in the occupation of Japan. He met with the major defendants of the Tokyo tribunal. According to historians Herbert Bix and John W. Dower, Fellers allowed them to coordinate their stories to exonerate Emperor Hirohito and all members of his family. ^[3][4] This was at the direction of MacArthur, now head of SCAP, who wanted no criminal prosecution of the Emperor and his family.

In October 1946, Fellers was demobilized by Eisenhower and returned to his permanent rank of colonel. He retired from the Army and worked for the Republican National Committee in Washington. ^[5]

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