James B. Donovan

James Britt Donovan (February 29, 1916 – January 19, 1970) was an American lawyer and United States Navy officer in the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency), ultimately becoming General Counsel of the OSS, and an international diplomatic negotiator.

Donovan is widely known for negotiating the 1960–1962 exchange of captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers and American student Frederic Pryor for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, and for negotiating the 1962 release and return of 9,703 prisoners held by Cuba after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. was born on February 29, 1916, in the Bronx borough of New York City, to Harriet (née O'Connor), a piano teacher, and John J. Donovan, a surgeon. His brother was New York state senator John J. Donovan Jr. Both sides of the family were of Irish descent. He attended the Catholic All Hallows Institute. In 1933, he began his studies at Fordham University, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1937. He wanted to become a journalist but his father convinced him to study law at Harvard Law School, beginning in autumn of 1937, where he completed his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1940.

Donovan was the presenter of visual evidence at the trial. While he prepared for the trials he also worked as an advisor for the documentary feature The Nazi Plan.

In 1950, Donovan became a partner in the New York-based law office of Watters and Donovan, specializing in insurance law.

Release of Gary Powers In 1957, Donovan defended the Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in what was known as the Hollow Nickel Case after many other lawyers refused. He later brought in Thomas M. Debevoise to assist him. Abel was convicted at trial, but Donovan was successful in persuading the court not to impose a death sentence. He appealed Abel's case to the Supreme Court, which in Abel v. United States was rejected by a 5–4 vote. Donovan's argument was that evidence used against his client had been seized by the FBI in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Chief Justice of the United States Earl Warren praised him and publicly expressed the "gratitude of the entire court" for his taking the case. negotiated with Soviet mediators to free captured American pilot Francis Gary Powers. Donovan successfully negotiated for the exchange of Powers, along with American student Frederic Pryor, for the still-imprisoned Rudolf Abel, whom Donovan had defended five years earlier.

This negotiation and preceding events were dramatized by the 2015 historical thriller Bridge of Spies, by Steven Spielberg.

Involvement in Cuba

In June 1962, Donovan was contacted by Cuban exile Pérez Cisneros, who asked him to support the negotiations to free the 1,113 prisoners of the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. Donovan offered pro bono legal service for the Cuban Families Committee of prisoners' relatives. By the end of the negotiations, July 3, 1963, Donovan had secured the release of 9,703 men, women and children from Cuban detention. Donovan was once again teamed up with CIA lawyer Milan C. Miskovsky on these negotiations. In 1968, Donovan was appointed president of Pratt Institute. He died of a heart attack on January 19, 1970, in Brooklyn's Methodist Hospital in New York, after being treated for influenza.

Personal life

In 1941, Donovan married Mary E. McKenna, who was also an Irish American. The couple had a son and three daughters, and lived in Brooklyn, New York, while also maintaining seasonal residences in Spring Lake on the Jersey Shore, New Jersey, and Lake Placid, New York State, where Donovan is buried alongside his wife and daughter. He was a rare book collector, golfer, tennis player and gin rummy player. A collection of his papers is held at Stanford University's Hoover Library & Archives.

In popular culture The story of the Abel trial and defense, followed by the negotiation and prisoner exchange, was the basis for the book Strangers on a Bridge: The Case of Colonel Abel and Francis Gary Powers, written by Donovan and ghost writer Bard Lindeman, which was published in 1964. Several similar works would come later, but Strangers was the definitive work and was widely critically acclaimed. The book was re-released by Simon & Schuster in August 2015. In 1967, Donovan published his second book, Challenges: Reflections of a Lawyer-at-Large.

James Gregory played Donovan in the 1976 TV movie Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident, based on Powers' biography (written with Curt Gentry). Lee Majors played Powers. In 2006, Philip J. Bigger published a biography of Donovan, Negotiator: The Life and Career of James B. Donovan.,

Honors In October 2016, Fordham University inducted Donovan into its Hall of Honor in conjunction with its Dodransbicentennial, the 175th anniversary of the school, in a mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral with Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who was also named a founder of the school. Fordham was founded by Archbishop Hughes, who is an ancestor of Donovan.

Works Donovan, James Britt (1964). Strangers on a Bridge, The Case of Colonel Abel. Atheneum. Donovan, James B. (1967). Challenges: Reflections of a Lawyer-at-Large. Atheneum, with a preface by former Dean of Harvard Law School, Erwin Griswold. Bigger, Philip. (2005). Negotiator: The Life and Career of James B. Donovan. Lehigh University Press.