McCone, John A. (John Alex), 1902-1991

John A. McCone (1902-1991) was a graduate from the College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, in 1922. He began his long career as a riveter and boiler-maker for the Llewellen Iron Works in Los Angeles. He eventually became superintendent of this company. In 1937, after holding various executive positions with Consolidated Steel Corporation, he organized his own firm, Bechtel-McCone, a major designer and producer of petroleum refineries and power plants throughout the United States and other parts of the world. In World War II McCone became President and Director of the California Shipping Corporation. After the war he took over the Joshua Hendy Iron Works and served as director and then chairman until 1969 when he became chairman of Hendy International Company. McCone saw his first federal government service as a member of President Truman''s Air Policy Commission in 1947. His work on this commission focused on military aspects of air policy. In 1948 he served as a special deputy to Secretary of Defense James Forrestal and in 1950 and 1951 held the post of Under Secretary of the Air Force. At that time he urged President Truman to establish an embryonic missile program under an individual with firm control over the effort. This proposal later earned McCone praise from the New York Herald Tribune as "a prophet with honor." McCone first met General Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1947, beginning a long and close personal relationship. As a member of the Air Policy Commission, McCone discussed military aircraft problems with General Eisenhower. Later, as Under secretary of the Air Force, McCone assisted in obtaining high ranking Air Force officers for General Eisenhower''s SHAPE staff, including General Lauris Norstad. McCone also discussed a nuclear capability for NATO with General Eisenhower. When Eisenhower became President he offered McCone the position of Secretary of the Air Force. McCone did not accept this offer but in 1954 did serve as a member of the Wriston Commission which recommended certain reforms of the United States Foreign Service. In 1958 McCone accepted the chairmanship of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). As Chairman of the AEC McCone devoted much time to grappling with problems associated with nuclear testing and, specifically, trying to negotiate a nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviet Union. McCone opposed the moratorium on atmospheric tests imposed by President Eisenhower in 1958 in the absence of a treaty. He saw his responsibility as Chairman of the AEC as being to oversee the development of weapons as sophisticated as necessary for military use and believed that the test moratorium would retard this development. He strongly believed in writing into any treaty with the Soviets firm provisions for verification and inspection to safeguard against covert testing. Although representatives of the United States, Soviet Union, and United Kingdom conducted nuclear test negotiations at Geneva, Switzerland through outmost of McCone''s tenure as Chairman, the negotiations foundered largely on the issue of inspection and no treaty on atmospheric testing was signed until 1963.When McCone became Chairman of the AEC he inherited a bad relationship between certain members of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy and his predecessor, Lewis Strauss. McCone tried to improve working relations with the Committee and adopted a policy of providing intelligence briefings on Soviet nuclear capabilities to the Committee. Other issues with which McCone dealt as Chairman included the question of public versus private power, cooperation with foreign countries on peaceful uses of atomic energy, and the safety of nuclear power facilities. On occasion the President sought McCone''s advice on matters other than atomic energy, such as the space budget. McCone regularly attended National Security Council and Cabinet meetings. McCone''s government service did not end when President Eisenhower left office in 1961. Later that year President John F. Kennedy picked him as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, a post which he held until 1965 when he returned to private business.

From the description of McCone, John A. (John Alex), 1902-1991 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration). naId: 10679378

Business executive, government official.

From the description of Reminiscences of John Alex McCone : oral history, 1971. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122376671

Born Jan. 4, 1902 in San Francisco, Calif. and an engineering graduate from the University of California, Berkeley in 1922, John A. McCone began his career as a riveter and eventually became a major West Coast industrialist who made his fortune in engineering, shipbuilding, and shipping. He also served in several high positions within the government under five presidents, most notably as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout his life, McCone participated in a number of civic, philanthropic, educational, and medical associations and received many awards and honoraria. McCone died on February 14, 1991 at the age of 89.

From the description of John A. McCone papers, 1904-1991 (bulk 1978-1989). (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 84160868

Biographical Information

John Alex McCone was born in San Francisco, California on January 4, 1902. He attended public schools in Los Angeles and graduated in 1922 from the University of California at Berkeley with a B.S. Degree in Engineering (Magna cum laude). He married Rosemary Cooper in 1938. Mrs. McCone died in Washington, D.C. in 1961. He then married Mrs. Paul Pigott (Theiline), widow of a Seattle industrialist in 1962. Mrs. Pigott McCone died in 1990.

McCone began his industrial career in 1922 as a riveter in Los Angeles at Llewellyn Iron Works which merged with Consolidated Steel Corporation in 1929. By 1933 McCone was executive vice president of Consolidated.

In 1937 he left the steel business to join Stephen D. Bechtel in organizing a new engineering firm and served as the President and Director of the Bechtel-McCone Corporation. The company expanded into shipbuilding and aircraft production during World War II. McCone's other wartime efforts included the formation of the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation for the production of merchant ships. He also assisted in establishing and serving as President and Manager of the California Shipbuilding Corporation (CALSHIP) in Los Angeles, one of the principle wartime shipyards that build a total of 467 ships. He served as Director of both Marinship Corporation and Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation. Through Pacific Tankers and Standard Oil Company he operated an extensive fleet of oil tankers for the U.S. Navy in the Pacific. After the war McCone moved into overseas shipping as President of Joshua Hendy Corporation as well as Chairman of Pacific Far East Line, Inc. a steamship company.

McCone's official service with the U.S. government dates from 1947 when he was appointed by Harry S. Truman to the Air Policy Commission. The following year he was named a special deputy to James Forrestal, the Secretary of Defense. In May 1950 President Truman appointed McCone as the Under Secretary of the Air Force, where he served until his resignation in October 1951 to return to private business.

In June 1958 President Dwight D. Eisenhower nominated McCone as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, where he served until his resignation on January 1961. Eights months later on September 1961, McCone was recalled by President John F. Kennedy to serve as the sixth Director of Intelligence and Chairman of the U.S. Intelligence Board. McCone established the Central Intelligence Agency's credibility with the White House by being the first to warn of Soviet plans to build missile bases in Cuba. After Kennedy's assassination, McCone carried on as Director of the CIA under President Lyndon B. Johnson and was against the decision to commit massive military forces to the war in Vietnam. McCone's service as the chief intelligence officer of the nation thus played a role in two of the principal events in United States post-World War II history. When President Johnson refused to increase support to government intelligence efforts under the CIA, McCone resigned in August 1965 and returned to California as chairman of the board of Joshua Hendy Corporation and Hendy International Company.

In 1965 Governor Edmund G. Brown appointed McCone chairman of the California Governor's Commission on the Los Angeles Riots, often referred to as the "McCone Commission". The riots errupted on August 11, 1965 as a hostile crowd gathered near the Watts district during the arrest by a Caucasian police officer of an African American man charged with driving under the influence. As the racial tensions excellerated, the crowd grew increasingly violent and destructive and resulted in six days of rioting before being subdued. The Commission prepared a chronology of events, description of the disorders and a study of underlying causes, then made recommendations to alleviate conditions in the minority group areas. Besides the Commission report, a tangible result was the construction of the Martin Luther King, Jr. County Hospital and Drew Medical School.

Throughout his career, McCone served on various corporate boards including California Bank of Los Angeles, International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT), Pacific Car and Foundry Company (PACCAR), Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company of California, Standard Oil Company of California, Trans World Airlines (TWA), United California Bank, and Western Banking Corporation. He also continued to serve in Washington, D.C. on various commissions and special missions through the 1970s and 1980s.

McCone also participated in a number of civic, philanthropic, educational, and medical associations such as the California Institute of Technology, Don Bosco Technical Institute, House Ear Institute, Jules Stein Eye Institute, Music Center of Los Angeles County, Loyola University of Los Angeles, Monterey Institute of International Studies, Stanford Research Institute, University of Southern California, and the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

Among his many awards are the Hoover Medal (1960), the William J. Donovan Medal (1982) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1987) along with his numerous honorary degrees.

At the age of 89, McCone died of cardiac arrest on February 14, 1991.

From the guide to the John A. McCone papers, 1904-1991, (bulk 1978-1989), (The Bancroft Library)