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William Harding Jackson
William Harding Jackson (March 25, 1901 – September 28, 1971) was an American civilian administrator, New York lawyer, and investment banker who served as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Jackson also served for several months under President Dwight D. Eisenhower as Acting United States National Security Advisor from 1956 to 1957.
William Harding Jackson was born on March 25, 1901, on the Belle Meade Plantation, in Belle Meade, Tennessee, near Nashville, Tennessee. He was named after his father William Harding Jackson (1874–1903), who died when he was two years old. His mother was Anne Davis Richardson (1877–1954). (After her husband's death, she married Maxwell Stevenson of Hempstead, New York).
Jackson attended the Fay School in Boston and St. Mark's School, an Episcopal Preparatory school in Southborough, Massachusetts. He received his undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree (B.A.) from Princeton University (1924) and his LL.B. from Harvard Law School (1928).
In 1928, Jackson joined the New York law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. In 1929 he became an Associate of Beekman, Bogue & Clark. Following the stock market crash of 1929, Jackson moved to the business and financial interest law firm of Carter, Ledyard & Milburn, where he became a full partner in 1934.
During World War II, Jackson served in the United States Army (6 March 1942 – 7 July 1945) as an intelligence officer, graduating from the Army-Air Force (USAAF) Air Combat Intelligence School at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He was assigned as an A-2 Assistant Intelligence officer, HQ 1st Bomber Command at 90 Church Street in New York (close to his law office), which immediately became the USAAF Anti-Submarine Command. Jackson was the principal author (along with investment banker Alexander Standish and Harold B. Ingersoll) of the USAAF Bay of Biscay Intelligence Estimate, calling for the attack on Nazi U-boats at their source on the coast of France. This was a significant turning point for the Battle of the Atlantic.
After graduation from Harrisburg in June 1942, Jackson was promoted to Major and brought into the War Department by Secretary Henry L. Stimson, where he became General Staff (Chief of Secret Intelligence reporting to General George C. Marshall from the European Theater of Operations (ETO) at COSSAC headquarters) with the cover title Chief of G-2 intelligence for First Army Group (FUSAG). After training on the Enigma codes at Bletchley Park, UK, he became the senior ULTRA Special Counter-Intelligence Units (SCIU) team leader for all US armies in the ETO.
Jackson achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was assigned by Gen. Hap Arnold to the planning staff of Brig. Gen. Harold George, who had just taken over the USAAF Air Transport Command (ATC). He was listed as the Adjutant General for the ATC European Wing that ferried more than 7,000 U.S. aircraft to Britain during WW II. He received recognition for work rebuilding or expanding air fields in the United Kingdom for American aircraft and creating an expanded communications network for top secret secured communications (again, with Standish and Ingersoll). By summer of 1943, he was given the 'cover title' Assistant Attache for Air, stationed at the US Embassy under Ambassador Gil Winant near Grosvenor Square, next to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Shortly thereafter he was promoted to full colonel and appointed G-2 intelligence chief at FUSAG headquarters in London's West End to work on Operation Bodyguard, the massive deception plan to make the Nazis believe the D-Day assault (Operation Overlord) would come from Scandinavia in the north and at Pas-de-Calais under the command of Gen. George S. Patton, at the narrowest point of the English Channel. He worked closely with Gen. T. J. Betts, Deputy G-2 Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) and then Colonel Edwin L. Sibert (G-2) at Headquarters, 1st Army located in Bristol.
After the successful D-Day feint, Jackson was made head of all OSS X-2 Special Counter-Intelligence Units (SCIU) in the ETO, traveling with Twelfth Army Group's forward EAGLE TAC headquarters to Luxembourg on General Omar Bradley's staff. During the "Battle of the Bulge" in Dec-Jan 1945 (in addition to his duties with ULTRA and SCIU teams), on January 1, 1945, during the middle of heated battle, Jackson was named Deputy G-2 for all U.S. armies at Twelfth Army Group.
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William Harding Jackson
William Harding Jackson (March 25, 1901 – September 28, 1971) was an American civilian administrator, New York lawyer, and investment banker who served as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Jackson also served for several months under President Dwight D. Eisenhower as Acting United States National Security Advisor from 1956 to 1957.
William Harding Jackson was born on March 25, 1901, on the Belle Meade Plantation, in Belle Meade, Tennessee, near Nashville, Tennessee. He was named after his father William Harding Jackson (1874–1903), who died when he was two years old. His mother was Anne Davis Richardson (1877–1954). (After her husband's death, she married Maxwell Stevenson of Hempstead, New York).
Jackson attended the Fay School in Boston and St. Mark's School, an Episcopal Preparatory school in Southborough, Massachusetts. He received his undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree (B.A.) from Princeton University (1924) and his LL.B. from Harvard Law School (1928).
In 1928, Jackson joined the New York law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. In 1929 he became an Associate of Beekman, Bogue & Clark. Following the stock market crash of 1929, Jackson moved to the business and financial interest law firm of Carter, Ledyard & Milburn, where he became a full partner in 1934.
During World War II, Jackson served in the United States Army (6 March 1942 – 7 July 1945) as an intelligence officer, graduating from the Army-Air Force (USAAF) Air Combat Intelligence School at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He was assigned as an A-2 Assistant Intelligence officer, HQ 1st Bomber Command at 90 Church Street in New York (close to his law office), which immediately became the USAAF Anti-Submarine Command. Jackson was the principal author (along with investment banker Alexander Standish and Harold B. Ingersoll) of the USAAF Bay of Biscay Intelligence Estimate, calling for the attack on Nazi U-boats at their source on the coast of France. This was a significant turning point for the Battle of the Atlantic.
After graduation from Harrisburg in June 1942, Jackson was promoted to Major and brought into the War Department by Secretary Henry L. Stimson, where he became General Staff (Chief of Secret Intelligence reporting to General George C. Marshall from the European Theater of Operations (ETO) at COSSAC headquarters) with the cover title Chief of G-2 intelligence for First Army Group (FUSAG). After training on the Enigma codes at Bletchley Park, UK, he became the senior ULTRA Special Counter-Intelligence Units (SCIU) team leader for all US armies in the ETO.
Jackson achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was assigned by Gen. Hap Arnold to the planning staff of Brig. Gen. Harold George, who had just taken over the USAAF Air Transport Command (ATC). He was listed as the Adjutant General for the ATC European Wing that ferried more than 7,000 U.S. aircraft to Britain during WW II. He received recognition for work rebuilding or expanding air fields in the United Kingdom for American aircraft and creating an expanded communications network for top secret secured communications (again, with Standish and Ingersoll). By summer of 1943, he was given the 'cover title' Assistant Attache for Air, stationed at the US Embassy under Ambassador Gil Winant near Grosvenor Square, next to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Shortly thereafter he was promoted to full colonel and appointed G-2 intelligence chief at FUSAG headquarters in London's West End to work on Operation Bodyguard, the massive deception plan to make the Nazis believe the D-Day assault (Operation Overlord) would come from Scandinavia in the north and at Pas-de-Calais under the command of Gen. George S. Patton, at the narrowest point of the English Channel. He worked closely with Gen. T. J. Betts, Deputy G-2 Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) and then Colonel Edwin L. Sibert (G-2) at Headquarters, 1st Army located in Bristol.
After the successful D-Day feint, Jackson was made head of all OSS X-2 Special Counter-Intelligence Units (SCIU) in the ETO, traveling with Twelfth Army Group's forward EAGLE TAC headquarters to Luxembourg on General Omar Bradley's staff. During the "Battle of the Bulge" in Dec-Jan 1945 (in addition to his duties with ULTRA and SCIU teams), on January 1, 1945, during the middle of heated battle, Jackson was named Deputy G-2 for all U.S. armies at Twelfth Army Group.