Up for auction a VINTAGE! "Central Intelligence Agency" William Harding Jackson Hand Signed 3X5 Card.

ES-4214

William Harding Jackson (March

25, 1901 – September 28, 1971) was a U.S. civilian administrator, New York lawyer, and

investment banker who served as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Jackson

also served briefly under President Dwight D. Eisenhower as United States

National Security Adviser 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, Bobue & 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 1st Army Group (FUSAG). After training on

the Enigma codes at Bletchley Park, UK, he

became the senior ULTRA 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. 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 1st Army Group (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 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 12th

Army Group's forward EAGLE TAC headquarters to Luxembourg on General Omar Bradley's staff.[6] 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 12th Army Group. Decorations—For

service to his country and the people of Europe, Jackson was awarded the Bronze

Star, the Legion of Merit with 1-OLC, and the

Belgian Croix de Guerre. He is believed to be the only US Army

officer below the rank of general to receive both the French Legion of

Honor and Croix de Guerre with Palm.