Goodfellow was born and raised in Brooklyn, which was an independent city and was not yet a borough of New York City.[2] For five summers as a child, he spent time in the wilderness of the Adirondacks, learning how to ride a horse and camp in the woods.[6]
He graduated from Public School Number 122.[6] He also studied at the Commercial High School, and under private tutors.[6]
Goodfellow entered the newspaper business at the age of fourteen as a copyboy, and was a seasoned reporter before graduating high school.[6]
By the year 1916, aged 24, Goodfellow had been in the journalism business for a decade, and most of that time was at The Brooklyn Times, except for six months at the Brooklyn Eagle and a year at the Evening Mail.[7][6]
Mexican Border War
The Brooklyn Times sent him to the Mexican border to be a war correspondent during the Mexican Border War, where he also wrote for The New York Times and the Evening Mail.[8] As was standard for all war correspondents at the time, Goodfellow took a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant, and each of his reports from the war were made in his role as an officer and under the authority of the Army.[6]
When the Times sent him to the border, they stated in their paper that he was:
"...without superior as a gatherer of facts and a chronicler of events... He is a Brooklyn man who knows the borough as few know it."[9]
As to the manner of his reporting, Goodfellow, while embedded with the First Cavalry and the Fourteenth Infantry in McAllen, Texas, wrote reports from the field that were sometimes extremely humorous, but always detailed, such as the following observation on a friendly fire situation:
“…Lieut. Dudley B. Howard, of Company C, of the frolicsome Fourteenth, came within handshake of sudden death yesterday. For several minutes he was under a spray of bullets from a company of Texas militia who were at target practice. A sharp order from the commanding officer stopped the firing, and the marksmen rested while Lieut. Howard stalked majestically down the field to the canal leading the mangy old mascot goat.
‘It is for a christening we are bound,’ he explained to his horror-stricken officers, ‘and those exuberant Texans thought they would give us a baptism of fire. Do you think they were trying to get my goat?’ ” [10]
— M. Preston Goodfellow, July 08, 1916, Brooklyn Times
Goodfellow's wife, Florence, was an active member of women's groups, such as the Committee for Brooklyn Women's Day at the New York World's Fair.[11]
During this time, he was also the President and Director of the Brooklyn Publishing Company, the B.D.E. Broadcasting Company, and B.D.E. Properties Corporation, and the Tri-County Publishing Corporation.[7][12]
On 1 August 1938, after a workers' strike organized by the Newspaper Guild, Goodfellow sold his stake in the Brooklyn Eagle to Frank D. Schroth.[8][13] He formed his own business, "M.P. Goodfellow and Co."
Early World War II and the intelligence community
1941 Interwar Years
In the Summer of 1941, Goodfellow was recalled back into active service, now a Major in the US Army, he was reassigned to G-2 in Washington, DC.[2][14] While stationed at G-2, Goodfellow encountered William Donovan (Wild Bill), who discussed with Goodfellow the idea of an entirely new civilian structure to be responsible for strategic operations, and Goodfellow approved. The two men were quick friends.[2]
Reports conflict on when Goodfellow first met John Grombach, but by all accounts, Goodfellow thought very highly of him at this time.[15]
At this time, Goodfellow was already responsible for the deployments of soldiers and marines to the Far East, North Africa, and Europe to monitor the unfolding situation of the Axis powers.[14] Men that Goodfellow and his staff at G-2 were in strategic planning command of undercover deployments include;
Lieutenant Colonel Warren J. Clear to the Far East and the Philippines (who narrowly escaped the Japanese invasion in a submarine, and had to recall his mission report from memory after his plane was shot down)[17]
Goodfellow took a much more involved role in building Donovan's brainchild, the Office of the Coordinator of Information, and in September 1941, Goodfellow officially assumed Liaison status between Donovan and the G-2.[2][14]
In October 1941, Goodfellow became the Director of the newly established Special Activities/Goodfellow (SA/G), replacing the duties of Robert Solberg at COI.[22][2] Another unit called Special Activities/Bruce (SA/B), was led by David K. E. Bruce.[2][14]
US enters World War Two
In December 1941 with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States officially entered the war, providing for Goodfellow and Donovan the opportunity to deploy uniformed soldiers, no longer having to rely entirely on undercover operations.[14] Goodfellow, Bruce, and Donovan collaborated to create the first Operational Groups (OGs), which were special warfare guerrilla units, then still under the auspices of the structure of the COI.[23][2] They selected Camp X, a training camp run by the Special Operations Executive (SOE), to be the site where these early operators would train.
In January 1942, Goodfellow was instrumental in negotiating with the National Park Service to dedicate swathes of land as three new training camps for members of SA/G and SA/B, and developing the training curriculum for OSS operators and officers.[2] Primarily, Goodfellow used a team of War Department inspectors to condemn the properties, and then approached NPS with a deal: OSS would only pay a dollar a year in lease, if they agreed to keep the place clean while they were occupying it.[24]
In February 1942, Goodfellow recruited Garland H. Williams from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics as Director of Training.[14] Williams used his SOE training experience at Camp X as a model for his curriculum.
On 23 February 1942, Goodfellow was placed in charge of the newly activated COI Service Command, and a staff of 51 officers.[14]
Goodfellow created a mission that would be called Detachment 101, which was "the first American unit ever assembled to conduct guerrilla warfare, espionage and sabotage behind enemy lines," and in April 1942, Donovan activated the unit.[25]
Radio stations and John Grombach
Goodfellow and John "Frenchy" Grombach were good friends from New York before the war.[26] Goodfellow had been given a directive by Donovan to establish a communications network for COI.[26] Grombach was in the Radio business before the war, which gave him an intricate knowledge of the inner workings of radio station operations.[26] Goodfellow recruited Grombach into the COI to help him establish the network.[26]
Grombach was indispensable to Goodfellow in building this network.[26] Together, they built a radio intelligence program of collection, decryption, and analysis for the COI in Washington.[26] Later, they expanded to a larger center in New York.[26] Grombach established the Foreign Broadcast Quarterly (FBQ), which was the front alias for the communications center, and COI purchased NBC's Long Island radio station.[26]
Donovan grew distrustful of Grombach.[26] In one memo addressed to Goodfellow, Donovan wrote "...do not use Grombach!" [26] In another memo, Donovan wrote: "I am disturbed by this talk of Grombach... It is clearly not evident to you, but I am told by all sides that he talks too much."
It was true that there were leaks of FBQ's operation within the government.[26]
Donovan had caught wind of three things: that Grombach was planning to build a Black Chamber in New York, that Grombach had married a woman without vetting her for security clearance before giving her an assistant director role in the FBQ, and that Grombach had already been recruited by Donovan's rival General George Strong and the State Department to help build a competing agency to COI within the Military Intelligence Service that would come to be called The Pond.[26]
Donovan had Grombach dismissed from COI in May 1942, beginning Grombach's spiral of hatred and distrust toward Donovan and the COI, but Goodfellow would still continue to occasionally use him as an undercover operative throughout the war.[26]
The FBQ, however, was also dismantled in May when Donovan's rivals convinced President Roosevelt to order the COI to relinquish control over any communications efforts and propaganda. This abruptly forced the dissolution of the COI.[26]
In August 1942, Goodfellow officially left his duties at G-2, and transferred to COI, now finally able to dedicate all of his efforts into the new agency and Special Operations.[2] Prior to this, he was simultaneously Chief of the Contact and Liaison Section of G-2, Director of SA/G, and G-2 liaison to OSS.[14]
Around this time, with Huntington being named as a Director of SO, the original staff of Goodfellow's SO and the staff of Huntington's SO formed what official reports called a "bitter rivalry."[14] The rivalry between the two units persisted when Huntington was deployed to Europe.[14]
At this point in the war, the OSS Assessment Unit had not yet been established, and recruiting for the organization was performed irrespective of assignment.[14] Goodfellow was a prolific recruiter, but the exact number of persons he recruited into the agency is still unknown.
Memos to Donovan that were declassified by the CIA in 2023 read:[14]
"Two kinds of men then recruited by Goodfellow –
Those with quality of initiative to carry on individual missions.
Those chosen because they had the physical and psychological stamina to act as members of guerrilla forces."
Officers and operators recruited into OSS by Goodfellow at this time include;
In December 1942, when the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued the 'Golden Directive,' it fundamentally reorganized the SO; it was no longer authorized to operate in the Western Hemisphere, and the OGs were to come under the direct control of Theatre Commanders while deployed.[14]
The OGs were split away from the SO, and granted OSS Branch status under the newly established Operational Group Command (OG).[14] *Note that the abbreviations "OG" and "OGs" refer to two different organisms: OGs were the Operational Groups that comprised the OG.*
Goodfellow was advanced from Director SO to the position of Assistant Director for the entire OSS for the remainder of the war.[14]
Goodfellow's son, M. Preston Goodfellow Jr, interrupted his attendance at Dartmouth in 1943, and served as a bombardier in the 5th Air Force in New Guinea and Australia.[27] It is unknown if Goodfellow kept tabs on his son during the war.
Korean War years and controversial relationship with Syngman Rhee
British historian Max Hastings wrote that Goodfellow provided Rhee with the passport that allowed him to return to Korea.[28]
Goodfellow organized South Korea's democratic Council, becoming a key figure in the building of the country's new government.[30]
Goodfellow said:
"We’ve got to turn over to the Koreans as soon as possible the job of self-government... The Koreans are ready for self-government... provincial elections should be held as soon as possible..."[30]
Hodge said of the situation with Rhee and Goodfellow:
"Recommend that someone in Washington get hold of Rhee and talk frankly to him about the dangers of his apparent line of action. Mr. Preston Goodfellow... has complete confidence of Rhee.... Rhee is nuisance in that he wants everything done his own impractical way..."[31]
He left the country in 1946.
Goodfellow continued to act as Special Adviser to President Syngman Rhee in the 1950's, advising him on tungsten purchasing, banking decisions, nuclear power status, and more.[3] Goodfellow helped in the effort to organize the former President's exile in the United States.
^History Project, Strategic Services Unit, Office of the Assistant Secretary of War, War Department (1976). "War Report of the (Office of Strategic Services)"(PDF). Washington D.C.: Walker and Company.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
