James Harbord

James Guthrie Harbord
General James G. Harbord
Born	(1866-03-21)March 21, 1866 Bloomington, Illinois
Died	Rye, New York
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1889–1922
Rank	Lieutenant General
Commands held	2nd Division (Army) 4th Marine Brigade
Battles/wars	Mexican Revolution *Mexican Border Service World War I Battle of Château-Thierry Battle of Belleau Wood
Awards	Distinguished Service Medal

James Guthrie Harbord (March 21, 1866 – August 20, 1947) was a Lieutenant General in the United States Army and President and Chairman of the Board of RCA.

Harbord was born in Bloomington, Illinois, and raised in Bushong, Kansas and Manhattan, Kansas. He graduated from Kansas State Agricultural College in 1886, and thereafter worked as an instructor at the college for two years. In 1889, he enlisted in the Army, and in 1891 he received a commission.

Army career

Harbord's first overseas experience came as a member of the occupation army in Cuba after the Spanish–American War. On January 21, 1899, during an extended leave, he married Emma Yeatman Overshine, daughter of Brigadier General Samuel Ovenshine. In 1901, he was promoted to Captain and transferred from Cuba, where he has served initially as quartermaster and commissary for the 10th Cavalry, and later as aide-de-camp and adjutant general of the department of Santiago and Puerto Principe. After serving briefly in the Secretary of War office, he requested and received transfer to duty in the Philippines with the 11th Calvary. He then served as Assistant Chief of the Philippine Constabulary from 1903 to 1909 and again from 1910 through 1913. By late April 1914 he was commanding the unit defending the California border at Calexico. In 1916, he was on the Mexican border with General John J. Pershing, pursuing Pancho Villa.

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Harbord went to France as General Pershing's chief of staff, which won him a promotion to Brigadier General. Throughout the war he continued to work closely with General Pershing. In June 1918, he was given command of the Fourth Marine Brigade, which was serving as part of the Army Second Infantry Division, and then on July 15, briefly given command of the Division itself. He commanded the Marines during the Battle of Château-Thierry and the Battle of Belleau Wood. In August 1918, Harbord was recalled from the front and put in charge of troop and supply movement. Following the war, he was promoted to Major General and awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

In August 1919, President Woodrow Wilson sent a fact-finding mission to the Middle East, headed by General Harbord, to investigate the feasibility of the Balfour Declaration, which supported the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, taken from the Ottoman Empire during the war. Harbord was also to report on Turkish–Armenian relations in the wake of the Armenian Genocide. Upon returning to the United States, Harbord wrote the Conditions in the Near East: Report of the American Military Mission to Armenia, which was a summary of the expedition that provided various details of the mission. The report includes maps, statistics, and a historical analyses of the country and its population. In addition to such details, Harbord collected evidence and information regarding the massacres of Armenians and was an eyewitness to them. Harbord's report stated that "the temptation to reprisals for past wrongs" would make it extremely difficult to maintain peace in the region. The final conclusion of the report was the inclusion of Armenia in the possible American mandate for Asia Minor and Rumelia since a mandate for Armenia alone was not deemed feasible under these conditions.

Radio Corporation of America

In 1922, Harbord retired from the Army to become President of the Radio Corporation of America. While Harbord was President of RCA, the corporation undertook a number of significant moves. In 1926, RCA began television broadcasts and formed NBC. In 1928, RCA was one of four corporations that jointly formed RKO Pictures. Finally, in 1929, RCA acquired the Victor Talking Machine Company (maker of the famous "Victrola") and became RCA-Victor. In 1928, Harbord took a leave of absence to campaign for Herbert Hoover for President, and in 1930 he officially retired from the position, allowing David Sarnoff to assume the office.

Harbord remained as Chairman of the Board for RCA until 1947, finally retiring shortly before his death. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Partial bibliography

• Leaves From a War Diary (1931)
• The American Army in France 1917-1919 (1936)

See also

• Witnesses and testimonies of the Armenian Genocide

External links

• Short biography of Harbord
• James Gutherie Harbord, Lieutenant General, United States Army, Arlington National Cemetery profile.