Lucius D. Clay

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Lucius D. Clay
April 23, 1897 - April 16, 1978

Place of birth	Marietta, Georgia
Place of death	Chatham, Massachusetts
Allegiance	United States Army
Years of service	1918 - 1949
Rank	General
Commands	Military Governor
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Distinguished Service Medal(2) Legion of Merit Bronze Star Medal

Lucius Dubignon Clay (April 23, 1897 - April 16, 1978) was an American general and military governor best known for his administration of Germany immediately after World War II.. Deputy to General Eisenhower, 1945; deputy military governor, Germany (U.S.) 1946; commander in chief, U.S. Forces in Europe and military governor, U.S. Zone, Germany, 1947-49; retired 1949. Clay is considered the "father" of the Berlin Airlift (1948-49)

Clay was born in Marietta, Georgia, the sixth and last child of Alexander Stephens Clay, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1897 to 1910, and a direct descendant of the statesman Henry Clay. Lucius Clay graduated from West Point in 1918 and held various civil and military engineering posts during the 1920s and 1930s, including teaching at West Point, directing the construction of dams and civilian airports, and by 1942 rising to the position of the youngest brigadier general in the Army. All the while he acquired a reputation for bringing order and operational efficiency out of chaos.

Clay did not see combat but accumulated the Legion of Merit in 1942, the Distinguished Service Medal in 1944, and received the Bronze Star Medal for his action in stabilizing the French harbor of Cherbourg, abandoned by German forces immediately after D-Day and critical to the flow of war material. In 1945 he served as deputy to General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The following year, he was made Deputy Governor of Germany during the Allied Military Government.

He heavily influenced United States Secretary of State, James F. Byrnes, September 1946 speech in Stuttgart. The speech; "Restatement of Policy on Germany" marked the formal transition in U.S. occupation policy away from the Morgenthau Plan influenced policy of economic dismantlement of Germany and towards a policy of economic reconstruction.

From 1947 to 1949, he was the Military Governor for the U.S. Zone in Germany, and in that capacity commissioned Lewis H. Brown to research and write "A Report on Germany," which served as a detailed recommendation for the reconstruction of post-war Germany, and served as a basis for the Marshall Plan. Clay was promoted to lieutenant general on 17 April 1945 and to general on 17 March 1947.

On June 25, 1948, one day after the Soviets imposed the Berlin blockade, Clay gave the order for the Berlin Airlift. This was an act of defiance against the Soviets, an incredible feat of logistics (at one point cargo planes landed at Tempelhof every four minutes, twenty four hours a day), a defining moment of the Cold War, and a demonstration of American support for the citizens of Berlin.

Clay is remembered as a hero for ordering and maintaining the airlift, which would ultimately last 324 days, through May of 1949. He resigned his post days after the blockade was lifted. After Clay retired from the military, he went into politics and served several presidents. In 1954, he was called upon by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, to help forge a plan for financing the proposed Interstate highway system. He had previous experience in 1933 with managing and organizing projects under the New Deal, and later became one of Eisenhower's closest advisors. During the Berlin Wall crisis in 1961, President John F. Kennedy asked him to be an advisor and to go to Berlin and report on the situation.

Among many other honors, Clay was given a ticker-tape parade upon his return to the United States on May 19, 1949. He appeared on the cover of Time Magazine three times. One of the longest streets in West Berlin was named Clayallee in his honor, as was the Clay Headquarters Compound, which was located on the street. It held the headquarters of the Berlin Brigade, U.S. Army Berlin (USAB), and the U.S. Mission in Berlin. Marietta, Georgia named one of its major streets Clay Street in honor of his work in creating what is now Dobbins Air Force Base there. While now called South Marietta Parkway (State Route 120 Loop), it still carries memorial signs at each end dedicating the highway to him.

Clay lies buried in West Point Cemetery. At his grave site is a stone plate from the citizens of Berlin that says: "Wir danken dem Bewahrer unserer Freiheit" (We thank the defender of our Freedom).

Clay's son, General Lucius D. Clay Jr., held the positions of commander-in-chief of the North American Air Defense Command, the Continental Air Defense Command, and the United States element of NORAD, and was also a commander of the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Defense Command.

[edit] Awards and decorations

[edit] References

Jean Edward Smith. Lucius D. Clay: An American Life New York: Henry, Holt & Company, 1990.
Jean Edward Smith. The Papers Of General Lucius D. Clay Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1974.