| Robert Alexis McClure | |
| Birth Date: | 4 March 1897 |
| Death Place: | Fort Huachuca, Arizona |
| Placeofburial: | Fairmount Cemetery, Madison, Indiana |
| Branch: | Philippine Constabulary United States Army |
| Serviceyears: | 1916-1917 (Philippine Constabulary) 1917-1957 (U.S. Army) |
| Rank: | Major General |
| Unit: | Office of Psychological Warfare |
| Battles: | World War I World War II Korean War Cold War |
| Awards: | Distinguished Service Medal (2) Legion of Merit (2) Bronze Star Medal |
| Alma Mater: | Kentucky Military Institute |
| Children: | 2 |
Robert Alexis McClure (March 4, 1897 - January 1, 1957) was an American general, psychological warfare specialist, and is considered the father of U.S. Army Special Warfare.
Robert McClure was born in Mattoon, Illinois, the oldest child of George H. McClure and Hattie J. Rudy. The family moved to the Madison, Indiana, area, in the wake of his parents’ divorce in 1907. Following his mother's remarriage to Frank Eckert, McClure grew up on a farm a short distance from the Kentucky border with Indiana in 1911. McClure attended school in Madison until transferring to the Kentucky Military Institute in Lyndon, Kentucky, graduating in 1915.
After his graduation, McClure joined the Philippine Constabulary in August 1916 as a 3rd Lieutenant. During his service in the counter-insurgency force, McClure accepted a commission as an Infantry 2nd Lieutenant in the Regular Army on August 9, 1917, four months after the American entry into World War I, with the 31st Infantry Regiment stationed at Fort William McKinley, Philippine Islands. McClure subsequently served in Tianjin, Republic of China, as part of the 15th Infantry Regiment in 1918.[1] The unit was responsible for securing rail access between the port of Qinhuangdao, Tianjin and Tongzhou.
In 1920 following the WWI draw-down, Captain McClure briefly returned to the Philippine Islands, stationed in Manila with the 27th Infantry Regiment. With the continuing draw-down and realignment of forces, McClure received reassignment.
Upon his return to the United States in 1920, McClure was assigned to the 19th Infantry Regiment located at Camp Sherman, Ohio, where he served as the post exchange officer.[2] Being an Army officer that relished working in an operational context, McClure reportedly despised this assignment.
McClure received orders in 1922 to Fort Benning, GA, where he served as an Infantry instructor assigned to the 29th Infantry Regiment. McClure's capability as an expert horseman proved an asset to the Infantry School, and for a time he was an instructor for horsemanship at Fort Benning, leading the military base in several wins in Georgia horse show competitions.[3]
While serving in the 29th, Captain McClure became the commander of the regimental headquarters company, describing to his hometown newspaper as "the most desirable assignment I have had."[4]
In between leadership assignments, McClure graduated from the U.S. Army's Infantry School in 1925 and the Cavalry School's Troop Officers Course in Fort Riley, Kansas, in June 1926. Major General Robert H. Allen, Chief of Infantry recognized Captain McClure's graduation from the Cavalry School as an infantry officer stating, "It is of real importance to the Infantry, and to the service."[5]
McClure graduated the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1932, and subsequently taught as a professor of Military Science and Tactics at Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Georgia. In 1936, Captain McClure was selected to attend the Army War College located in Washington, D.C. Post graduation, Lieutenant Colonel McClure taught at the Infantry School and War College in addition to serving as the executive officer under General John Dewitt and General Phillip Peyton at the War College. In July 1940, he was assigned to G-1 of the Fourth Army, headquartered at the Presidio of San Francisco, California.
When the United States declared war on the Empire of Japan on December 8, 1941, McClure was serving as military attaché to the American embassy in London. He was later given the additional duty of military attaché liaison to all of the European governments in exile in 1942. With these additional responsibilities, promotions came quickly: he became a brigadier general in March 1942, only nineteen months after his promotion to lieutenant colonel in August 1940.
Later that same year, McClure was appointed by Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower ("Ike") to chief of intelligence for the European theater of operations. In preparation for Operation TORCH, Eisenhower next tapped McClure to head the creation of a new organization. U.S. psychological warfare capabilities had been mothballed following the closure of WWI. The PSYWAR framework Colonel Heber Blankenhorn and his team built to fight the Central Powers in the Great War, had been nearly forgotten through attrition and atrophy following the post-WWI drawdown. The entity, known as the Allied Forces Information and Censorship Section (INC) was the foundation on which the U.S. psychological warfare capabilities in WWII were built. Writing to his wife Marjory in December 1942 from "somewhere in Africa," McClure stated:
Brigadier General McClure was given the task of consolidating several military functions into a cohesive unit: public relations, censorship and psychological warfare; with, in McClure's own words "a slop over into civil affairs" included. The INC included an amalgamation of military and civilian personnel from the U.S. Office of War Information (OWI); the Office of Strategic Services (OSS); the British Political Warfare Executive (PWE); and the U.S. Army.
McClure was appointed director of the newly created Psychological Warfare Division of SHAEF in 1944. With the end of the war in Europe he was responsible for the Information Control Division which controlled broadcasting and newspapers in Germany during the early stage of the occupation.
After the invasion of Korea in 1950, the Office of the Chief of Psychological Warfare was formed in Washington, D.C., headed by McClure. During his tenure, the Psychological Warfare Center was established at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which centralized the newly formed Psychological Warfare School and 10th Special Forces Group at a single location.
In 1952, McClure was assigned to Iran as chief of three U.S. Military Missions, where he played a role in the 1953 d'état.[6] He retired from the Army in 1956 and died of a heart attack soon after at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
During his 39 years of military service to the United States, Major General McClure received a number of military awards, including some foreign decorations.
Here is his ribbon bar:
| 1st Row | Army Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster | Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster | Bronze Star Medal | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd Row | American Defense Service Medal with Foreign Service Clasp | American Campaign Medal | European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with 3 Service Stars | ||||||||||||||
| 3rd Row | World War II Victory Medal | Army of Occupation Medal with Germany Clasp | National Defense Service Medal | Order of the British Empire, Commander | |||||||||||||
| 4th Row | Legion of Honor, Officer (France) | Croix de guerre 1939–1945, with Palm (France) | Order of the Crown, Officer (Belgium) | Order of Leopold II, Commander (Belgium) | |||||||||||||
| 5th Row | Order of the Crown of Italy, Grand Officer | Order of Glory, Knight of First Class (Tunisia) | Order of Ouissam Alaouite, Knight (Morocco) | Order of the Brilliant Star, 2nd Class with Rosette (China) | |||||||||||||
| 6th Row | Military Order of Merit, (Iran) | Polonia Restituta, Officer (Poland) | Order of the Lion and the Sun, Grand Officer (Iran) | Order of the Crown, Grand Officer (Iran) | |||||||||||||