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Babbitt, Theodore (Second World War correspondence)
2019.195.w.r
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Contributing Institution:
Center for American War Letters Archives
Title: Theodore Babbitt Second World War correspondence
source:
Babbitt, Lydia D.
source:
Babbitt, Sarah M.
Creator:
Babbitt, Theodore, LtCol, 1897-1984
Identifier/Call Number: 2019.195.w.r
Physical Description:
0.01 Linear feet
(1 folder)
Date (inclusive): 1943 April 18 - 1946 May 09
Abstract: This collection contains eight letters from LtCol. Theodore Babbitt, USA to his sister Eleanor Babbitt during the Second World
War. Also included is one photocopied obituary for Babbitt.
Language of Material:
English
.
Container: WWII 153
Container: 11
Container: 1
This collection is open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of the Theodore Babbitt Family, donated by Lydia D. and Sarah M. Babbitt.
This collection is arranged in chronological order.
Lieutenant Colonel Theodore "Ted" Babbitt, United States Army (2/17/1897 - 2/17/1984) was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado
to Kurnal R. and Lucie Cullyford Babbit, an immigrant who had been naturalized by marriage. He had two sisters, Eleanor and
Genevieve. Kurnal was a lawyer and they lived with three Irish and English servants in the house in Manhattan, New York. Theodore
graduated from Collegiate School and St. Paul's School in New Hampshire and then attended Yale University and served with
the National Guard at the Mexican border.
By 1918 he graduated from Yale and joined the Army during the First World War. He served at Camp Devens, Massachusetts beginning
January 6, 1918 and with 147 Field Artillery, then joining 1st Battalion 3 Officers Training Camp, 1st Training Battery in
May as a private first class. He was discharged to accept commission as 2nd Lieutenant in July and assigned to 116 Field Artillery,
serving time at American Expeditionary Force Camp Hill in Virginia and overseas until March 1919. He was honorably discharged
in April and moved home.
Babbitt went on to graduate from Harvard Law School in 1922 before returning to Yale for a doctorate in 1932. During that
time he met Margaret "Peg" Fisher and they lived together while he worked as a lawyer in Manhattan before marrying on June
17, 1922 and enjoying their honeymoon in France. They then made their home in Connecticut where they lived with a nurse and
servant, having three sons; Theodore F., Thomas C., and Samuel F., all of whom he took on a trip to Marseilles, France in
1932. He was associate professor of Spanish and assistant dean of freshman at Yale from 1925 until 1941. In that year he joined
the Army once again and served with the Foreign Liaison branch in the Pentagon and Washington, D.C. as a lieutenant colonel
before deploying as assistant military attaché in Tangier, Morocco and later Ankara and Istanbul in Turkey.
After the war, Babbitt served with the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C. from 1947 to 1951 and as an intelligence
officer with the Federal Civil Defense Administration until retiring in 1964. He received the Legion of Merit, the Army Commendation
Medal, the Mexican Border Medal, the Order of the British Empire from Great Britain, the Order of Military Merit from Brazil,
Medal of Merit Czechoslovakia, the Polonia Restituta from Poland, the Order of Haakon VI from Norway, the Order of the Cloud
and Banner from China and the Order of the Condor and the Andes from Bolivia. He enjoyed memberships in several social clubs,
was secretary of his class at Yale, including participating with the Eli Society Orchestra and the Whiffenpoofs at Yale.
Theodore Babbitt passed away in his home after a brief illness on his birthday in 1984 and is interred at Grove Street Cemetery
in New Haven, Connecticut.
All information either from the donor provided obituary or Ancestry.com (passenger manifests, census, etc.)
[Item title / description; Box "n" / Folder "n"], Theodore Babbitt Second World War correspondence (2019.195.w.r), Center
for American War Letters Archives, Chapman University, CA.
For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this
collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.
This collection contains eight letters from LtCol. Theodore "Ted" Babbitt, GSC, USA to his sister Eleanor Babbitt in Thomaston,
Connecticut during the Second World War. Also included is one photocopied obituary for Babbitt.
LtCol. Babbitt's correspondence include a letterhead on all but one letter, with his title and location, beginning with the
Pentagon and each were censored by himself and include a censor stamp with his name and signature on the envelope. He discusses
some of his work, though not in tremendous detail since he worked with intelligence materials, as well as his locations and
locals while overseas, and he asked about Eleanor's children, his wife Margaret "Peg" Babbitt and their sons, one of whom
recently joined the Army.
The correspondence begins on April 18, 1943 with a letter from the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. by mentioning a move to the
International Zone in Spanish Morocco, asking if Eleanor had been there on her African travels. He met with General Escudero
of Chile and a Colonel Johnny Castle. He served as Military Attaché in Tangier, Morocco but did not expect to stay long so
he never hunted for an apartment, opting to stay at the Minzah Hotel. He explained that Tangier was "dead commercially" because
of the war, noting that the everyone stays away from the Germans and Italians who patronize their own bars, usually dictated
by the nationality of the owner. In this regard, he jokes, the Swiss have lost all of their business by virtue of staying
neutral in the war. He hopes to go to Fez, Tetuan, and Marrakesh soon for goods and presents since they are more bustling.
While still in Tangier, Babbitt had an abdominal surgery and stays to recover before an expected move. He told Eleanor about
the cultural diversity of the area, including the lower and higher classes of each group: the Spanish, the "wild" Arabs and
the French Arabs, and how the Allied forces seem like an elite class due to paying no taxes and having all they could need
in gas and food.
On October 3, 1944 he wrote from Ankara, Turkey where he was moved to serve as Assistant Military Attaché to Brigadier General
Joseph E. Harriman, and shortly as Acting Air Attaché in place of Colonel Frederick A. Pillet who was assigned that station.
He sort of laments the fact that events had moved the war away from that area and questions what they are doing there, especially
with respect to the "inhospitable" Turkish who do not like foreigners and refuse any attaché to enter a military base. There
was a reduction in staff and constantly "rumors of the wildest sort." He continues, "I gather that is the normal state of
things here, given the uncertain equilibrium of the Balkans even in peace time." He stayed at the Hotel Park Palas but this
time began an apartment search.
Christmas day 1944 Babbitt wrote a letter mentioning a Christmas Eve party that was thrown by the Ambassador to Turkey, Laurence
Steinhardt, to whom he referred as "His Nibs," a mock title for those who think themselves important. Steinhardt left shortly
after to London where he took the job as Ambassador to the government of Czechoslovakia. At this time, he asks about an arm
operation that Peg had, though he expects everything will be alright. He also is hoping that his son Tommy will be able to
leave Italy and visit him in Turkey soon, though he has no high hopes of that (he eventually did).
On April 7, 1945 there is an elaborate discussion of a mustache bet with the Counselor in the Polish embassy, officated by
the man of the same title in the French embassy, and what Peg would think of it (he won and expects Peg will hate it but he
had one when they married). By October 14, Babbitt moved to Istanbul, keeping his same role. He met with some men that came
into town on official business, including Colonel Grant Mason who it turned out knew Eleanor. He also mentions a plane coming
in from Bucharest, which was sort of exciting because not much comes in "from behind the steel curtain."
In his last letter, dated May 9, 1946, he mentioned that his son Tommy had made it out to see him and they really enjoyed
their time together, as well as everyone else enjoying his company. He then goes on a lengthy tirade about the disorganization
of the United States government and military after the war:
"You sound, as always, very busy, but thank Heaven, there is no longer the undercurrent of weariness which used to peek through your letters during the war years. Not that there is much difference except for the actual fighting, as far as I can see from here. In fact, we seem to be demonstrating pretty clearly to all the world that it is only when under the most severe pressure that our famed efficiency and know-how works at all, and that when it is released we revert to the most extreme selfishness and indifference, unable or unwilling to see that even from the purely materialistic point of view, we lose business now and in the future, as well as the immense stock of goo will with which we finished the war. Just how the hell can anyone trust us to fulfil our obligations when we are putting on such a miserable demonstration of futility, obscurantism, and inability to make up our minds what we want? I have never been so pessimistic about the future of the country in my life. We seem to be great only in war, which is not an encouraging trait."
There are no restrictions on the use of this material except where previously copyrighted material is concerned. It is the
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Subjects and Indexing Terms
Correspondence -- World War, 1939-1945
World War (1939-1945)
Diplomatic and consular service
Military
Babbitt, Lydia D.
Babbitt, Sarah M.