FINAL WARNING: Setting the Stage for World War II
1949, his brother, Henry Forrestal, decided to take his brother for a ride
into the country. That same day, James Forrestal, jumped from the
16th floor of the hospital. Found on a third floor projection, the cord of
his bathrobe was tied around his neck, and the hospital released a
statement that he committed suicide, even though there was not
enough evidence to prove that he had.In 1951, his diaries were published by Viking Press, but they were
heavily censored by the White House, the Pentagon, and Walter Millis,
of the New York Tribune, so the full story could never be known. His
family priest, Monsignor Maurice S. Sheehy said: “Many, many times in
his letters to me, Jim Forrestal wrote anxiously and fearfully and
bitterly of the enormous harm that had been; and was unceasingly
being done, by men in high office in the United States government,
who he was convinced were Communists or under the influence of
Communists, and who he said were shaping the policies of the United
States government to aid Soviet Russia and harm the United States.”To this day, Forrestal continues to be labeled as being insane, and the
cause of his death remains unknown.Towards the end of 1949, three men visited the office of Sen. Joseph
McCarthy to show him an FBI report detailing the Communist
penetration of the State Department and other government spy
networks. On February 9, 1950, in a speech before the Ohio County
Women’s Republican Club of Wheeling, West Virginia, he said: “I have
in my hand 57 cases of individuals who would appear to be either card-
carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party, but who
nevertheless are still helping to shape our foreign policy.” A Special
Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was
established to investigate where there were disloyal people employed
at the State Department. However, instead of investigating the
accusations, they investigated McCarthy, and a wave of anti-McCarthy
sentiment swept the country. On September 23, 1950, McCarthy
revealed what would happen because of the Yalta Conference in 1945:
“Here was signed the death warrant of the young men who were dying
today in the hills and valleys of Korea. Here was signed the death
warrant of the young men who will die tomorrow in the jungles of
Indochina (Vietnam).”