Gray's Relationship With President Franklin Roosevelt
As a Roosevelt family member, Gray wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt, as well as Eleanor Roosevelt a number of dry verses and remarks to the President, sometimes humorous and sometimes scathing in his opinions of De Valera and Irish policy towards the War.
| “ | Since that time there is no record of his having done what was generous or noble or wise, only what he believed served 'the 'Cause'... he regarded himself as 'The Cause'... What was good for de Valera became good for Ireland. There was no honest view other than his... he dedicated himself to justifying his mistakes and making them stand in history as not being mistakes... | ” |
Senior lecturer in U.S. Foreign Policy, Timothy J. Lynch, has observed that 'his animus towards his host nation made Gray atypical of American ambassadors in Dublin'.
During WWII Gray was completely at odds with the OSS in Ireland. The OSS was getting good cooperation from the Irish, but Gray insisted otherwise. Literally, Gray was relying on seances being conducted at the embassy residence, according to T. Ryle Dwyer, author of "Behind the Green Curtain: Ireland's Phoney Neutrality During World War II."
Gray donated many of his personal papers to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library before his death, including extensive correspondence.
Read more about this topic: David Gray (ambassador)
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