On July 14, 1940, William Donovan stood on the pier fronting New York harbor and waited to board the Pan Am flying boat named the Lisbon Clipper for a flight that would take him to Portugal and then to London, his ultimate destination.
Donovan—a former college football star (Columbia, class of 1905), highly placed Republican lawyer, recipient of the Medal of Honor for his heroic service in World War I, a schoolmate of Franklin D. Roosevelt at Columbia University—called his wife Ruth and told her that he would be leaving that day for a trip to Europe. He did not tell her why he was going, only that it was on “private business” and that he wouldn’t be gone long. Ruth Donovan knew not to question her husband too much on his business dealings; even if she asked, he probably wouldn’t have told her anything. Among the passengers on board were two members of the French Purchasing Commission and Charles Goetz on a Portuguese arms mission.
