Clayton Lawrence Bissell: Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|United StatesUS Air Force general (1896–1972)}}

|rank = [[File:US-O8 insignia.svg|25px]] [[Major general (United States)|Major generalGeneral]]

|awards=[[Distinguished Service Cross (United States)|Distinguished Service Cross]]<br />[[Distinguished Service Medal (U.S. Army)|Distinguished Service Medal]] (23)<br />[[Silver Star]]<br />[[Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)|Distinguished Flying Cross]]<br />[[Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom)|Distinguished Flying Cross (U.K.)]]<br />[[Air Medal]]

[[Major general (United States)|Major General]] '''Clayton Lawrence Bissell''' (July 29, 18931896 – December 24, 1972) was an [[air officer]] in the [[United States Army]] and [[United States Army Air Forces]] during [[World War I]] and [[World War II]].

Bissell graduated from [[Valparaiso University]], Indiana, in 1917 with a degree of doctor of laws.<ref name="aerod">{{cite web |url=http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/bissell.php |title=Clayton Lawrence Bissell |website=www.theaerodrome.com |access-date=11 February 2010}}{{SemiBareRefNeedsTitle|date=May 2022}}</ref> He enlisted in the Aviation Section, Signal Reserve, August 15, 1917, and was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Aviation Section, Signal Reserve, January 12, 1918.<ref name="afbio">{{cite web|url=http://www.af.mil/AboutUs/Biographies/Display/tabid/225/Article/107747/major-general-clayton-lawrence-bissell.aspx |title=Major General Clayton Lawrence Bissell > U.S. Air Force > Biography Display |publisher=Af.mil |date= |accessdate=2014-05-29}}</ref>

He was ordered to Washington, D.C., in June 1920, for service as chief of the Tactical Operations Section in the office of Air Service. He was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Air Service, Regular Army, July 1, 1920. In December 1920, he went to [[Langley Field]], Virginia, where he graduated from the [[Air Corps Tactical School|Air Service Field Officers School]] in June 1921. He then remained at Langley Field as flight commander of the [[14th Bombardment Squadron]], and later became an instructor inat the [[Air CorpsService TacticalField Officers School]].<ref name="afbio" />

In November 1921, heBissell was ordered to Washington for duty in the office of the Chief of the Air Service, as assistant to Brigadier General [[Billy Mitchell|William Mitchell]], serving in that capacity for four years.<ref name="afbio" /> On August 3–4, 1922, he completed an overnight 450-mile round trip between [[Bolling Air Force Base|Bolling Field]], District of Columbia and [[Mitchel Air Force Base|Mitchel Field]], Long Island. Flying a [[Airco DH.4|DH-4B]] biplane with a new navigational compass, Bissell left Bolling before 10 PM and landed on Long Island at 12:35 AM after using visual cues to navigate around a thunderstorm near [[Trenton, New Jersey]]. Navigating a straight compass return course, he left Mitchel at 2:15 AM and landed in D.C. at 4:25 AM.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1922/08/05/archives/army-aviator-flies-450-miles-at-night-lieutenant-bissell-makes.html |title=Army Aviator Flies 450 Miles At Night: Lieutenant Bissell Makes Round Trip Between Washington and New York. |date=August 5, 1922 |page=10 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2024-10-18}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/145993366 |title=Night Flight By Army Plane Makes A Record: Lieut. Bissell Finds Way to New York, and Returns, Using Newly Invented Compass. |date=August 5, 1922 |page=4 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=2024-10-18|id={{ProQuest|145993366}} }}</ref> During this tour of duty, heBissell was also one of the pilots involved in the controversial ''[[Ostfriesland]]'' bombing that was the crux of Mitchell's [[court-martial]].<ref name="aces" />

He was an instructor at the [[Air Corps Tactical School]] at Langley Field, from September 1926 to August 1931, when he was assigned to the [[Command and General Staff School]] at [[Fort Leavenworth]], Kansas, as a student. He graduated in June 1933, and two months later was assigned to the Army War College at Washington, D.C. He graduated in June 1934 and then entered the Chemical Warfare School at [[Edgewood Arsenal]], Maryland. In July 1934, completing the course there a month later.<ref name="afbio" />

A month later he became assistant chief of air staff for intelligence at Air Force Headquarters in Washington. In January 1944, he was assigned to the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence on the War Department General Staff, and served in that capacity during the last two years of World War II. He was the Army member of Joint Security Control and on the Joint Intelligence Committee and the U.S. Army member of the Combined Intelligence Committee. He also served as the Army head of psychological warfare and as head of the War Department historical program.<ref name="afbio" /> After the death of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], Bissell briefed [[Harry S. Truman]] on the existence and status of the [[Manhattan Project]].<ref name=NYT_obit/>

In his role as General [[George Marshall]]'s assistant chief of staff for intelligence, he is known for having ordered the suppression of evidence that the Soviets were responsible for the [[Katyn massacre]] of Polish officers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/winter99-00/art6.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613112054/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/winter99-00/art6.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 13, 2007 |title=The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field&nbsp;— Central Intelligence Agency |publisher=Cia.gov |date= |accessdate=2011-02-21}}</ref> While a prisoner of the Germans, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel {{Ill|John H. Van Vliet|de}} spent some time at the site of the Katyn massacre, and concluded from what he saw that the Soviets were responsible for the atrocity. On May 22, 1945, immediately upon his arrival in Washington, D.C., after being freed from captivity, Van Vliet filed a personal report with Bissell indicating what he had found. Bissell classified the report Top Secret in order to minimize its circulation, and later the report disappeared from archives.

In 1950, Van Vliet recreated his wartime report <ref>[https://www.warbirdforum.com/vanvliet.htm "Colonel Van Vliet on the Katyn massacre"]. (reprint of "Subject: The Katyn Case" letter from Lt. Col. John H Van Vliet Jr. to Major General F. L. Parks)</ref> In 2014, a copy of Van Vliet's 1945 Paris disposition was discovered.<ref>[https://www.foxnews.com/world/newly-discovered-us-witness-report-describes-evidence-of-1939-katyn-massacre "Newly-discovered US witness report describes evidence of 1939 Katyn massacre"]. [[Fox News]]. December 7, 2015.</ref>

{{Portal|World War I|World War II|Biography}}

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{{USGovernment|sourceURLarchive-url=[https://web.archive.org/web/20040212062254/http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?bioID=4700]|archive-date=2004-02-12|url=http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?bioID=4700|agency=United States Air Force}}

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