Pedro del Valle

Pedro Augusto del Valle (August 28, 1893 – April 28, 1978) was a United States Marine Corps officer who became the first Hispanic to reach the rank of lieutenant general. His military career included service in World War I, the Banana Wars, and in World War II, the Battle of Guadalcanal and the Battle of Okinawa (Commanding General of the 1st Marine Division).

Early years Del Valle was born on August 28, 1893, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, when the island was still under Spanish colonial rule. His father was Dr. Pedro del Valle, who served as inspector general for the colonial government during the Spanish–American War. In 1900, two years after the war, the del Valle family moved to Maryland. His uncle, Dr. Francisco del Valle, a surgeon, stayed in Puerto Rico and served as Mayor of San Juan from 1907 to 1910. The del Valle family became U.S. citizens as a result of the Jones–Shafroth Act of 1917 which gave a United States Citizenship with limited rights to all the Puerto Ricans born on the island. He received his primary and secondary education in Maryland.

On June 17, 1911, after he graduated from high school, del Valle received an appointment by George Radcliffe Colton, who served from 1909 to 1913 as the U.S. appointed governor of Puerto Rico, to attend the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He graduated from the academy in June 1915 and was commissioned a second lieutenant of the Marine Corps on June 5, 1915.

Military career Following the graduation, del Valle participated in the expeditionary duty in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in 1916. Del Valle commanded the Marine detachment on board the in the North Atlantic during World War I. He became a close friend of antisemitic propagandist James True and distributed "subversive" literature from George Deatherage’s Knights of the White Camellia and William Dudley Pelly's Silver Shirts.

World War II

In March 1941, del Valle became the commanding officer of the 11th Marine Regiment (artillery). Upon the outbreak of World War II, del Valle led his regiment and participated in the Guadalcanal campaign, providing artillery support for the 1st Marine Division. In the Battle of the Tenaru, the firepower provided by del Valle's artillery units killed many assaulting Japanese soldiers before they ever reached the Marine positions. The attackers were killed almost to the last man. After the battle he was awarded the Legion of Merit.

Major General Alexander Vandegrift, impressed with del Valle's leadership recommended his promotion and on October 1, 1942, del Valle became a brigadier general.

On April 1, 1944, del Valle was the commanding general of the Third Corps Artillery, III Marine Amphibious Corps, which participated in the Battle of Guam. He was awarded a gold star in lieu of a second Legion of Merit.

In late October 1944, he succeeded Major General William H. Rupertus as commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, being personally greeted in his new command by Colonel Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller. At the time, the 1st Marine Division was training on the island of Pavuvu for the invasion of Okinawa. He subsequently led the division throughout the campaign. Del Valle was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal

The "very surprising and unpatriotic utterances" del Valle had been making since 1941 led however to three separate investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of Naval Intelligence and the War Office's Military Intelligence Department. Colonel Housewitz, an aide to Marine Corps General Clifton B. Cates, stated that although del Valle had formerly been "a very important figure in military circles", he was now "more or less an embarrassment to the Marine Corps as a result of his loudly voiced antisemitic statements."

Postwar After World War II ended, del Valle was ordered back to Headquarters Marine Corps, where he was named Inspector General, a position which he held until he retired from the United States Marine Corps on January 1, 1948.

On February 19, 1946, New Mexico Senator Dennis Chavez and del Valle held a meeting with President Harry S. Truman in the White House, in which Chavez recommended del Valle for the position of governor of Puerto Rico. Local Puerto Rican politicians, such as Luis Muñoz Marín, opposed the naming of del Valle in favor of Jesús T. Piñero; to which del Valle eventually asked President Truman to withdraw his name among those considered for the position.

Personal life and death After retiring from the Marine Corps, del Valle worked as a representative of ITT in the company's office in Cairo. After some time with the company he was named president of ITT for all South America in Buenos Aires, a position that he held until 1951.

del Valle was married to Katharine Nelson (1890–1983). He died on April 28, 1978, in Annapolis, Maryland, and was buried at the United States Naval Academy Cemetery and Columbarium. In 2018, he was posthumously inducted to the Puerto Rico Veterans Hall of Fame.

Defenders of the American Constitution In the early 1950s, believing that the United States was in danger of a communist threat, del Valle tried to convince the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense to form a vigilante minuteman group. He also believed that the CIA should operate behind Russian and Chinese lines. After his ideas were turned down, he decided to form his own group.

On July 24, 1953, del Valle met with Colonel John H. Coffman, Colonel Eugene Cowles Pomeroy, Brigadier General Bonner Fellers, and Major General Claire Chennault to form the Defenders of the American Constitution (DAC). The DAC believed in a "one-worldist conspiracy" led by New York Jewish financiers who controlled international communism, and described their goal as the defense of "the US constitution against enemies and encroachments, both foreign and domestic."

After del Valle's death at age 85, the DAC ceased to exist. The American scholar William C. Baum wrote that del Valle displayed all of the signs of a deeply paranoid personality, leading him to conclude that del Valle was "not part of an authentic conservative tradition of thought in America" as he expressed "...abnormal amounts of anger and frustration" in his writings and he had "more in common with the character of General Jack D. Ripper in the memorable film Dr. Strangelove than with those with a considered commitment to the tenets of modern conservative thought".

Publications Diary and reports of the U.S. naval observer of Italian Operations in East Africa: March 1937, 1937 Roman Eagles Over Ethiopia, 1940 Guam, the Classical Amphibious Operation, 1944 Massed Fires on Guam, 1944 Semper fidelis: An autobiography, 1976

Military awards Lieutenant General Pedro del Valle's decorations and awards include: