Paul V. McNutt

Also known as: Paul McNutt

Definition

Paul Vories McNutt (July 19, 1891 – March 24, 1955) was an American politician and diplomat whose career ran from the governorship of Indiana to the two posts that bookended Philippine independence: he served two terms as United States High Commissioner to the Philippines (1937–1939 and 1945–1946) and then became the first United States Ambassador to the Philippines, an office he held from July 4, 1946 to March 22, 1947. He signed for the United States both of the founding instruments of the postcolonial relationship — the Treaty of Manila of July 4, 1946, by which the United States relinquished sovereignty over the Philippines, and the Military Bases Agreement of March 14, 1947. (Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt, Wikipedia — Treaty of Manila, FRUS 1947 — Military Bases Agreement)

Before his Philippine service, McNutt was the 34th Governor of Indiana (January 9, 1933 – January 11, 1937), the first administrator of the Federal Security Agency (1939–1945) and chairman of the War Manpower Commission (1942–1945), the wartime agency created with him and abolished when he left. He died in New York City on March 24, 1955, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. (Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt, Wikidata — Q887892)

Identities

Source	Identifier	URL
Wikipedia	Paul V. McNutt	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_V._McNutt
Wikidata	Paul V. McNutt (Q887892)	https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q887892
DBpedia	Paul_V._McNutt	https://dbpedia.org/page/Paul_V._McNutt
ProductOntology	N/A	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	McNutt, Paul V. (Paul Vories), 1891-1955 (LCCN n91001130)	https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n91001130
MeSH	N/A	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A	N/A
Google Scholar	Paul V. McNutt High Commissioner Philippines Treaty of Manila 1946 Military Bases Agreement 1947 Indiana governor Federal Security Agency War Manpower Commission Quezon Jewish refugees	N/A
ConceptNet	N/A	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A	N/A

Also Known As

Paul McNutt

Examples and Analogies

The twin signatures: McNutt’s pen ran across both the instrument that ended American sovereignty and the one that extended American military presence — like a landlord who signs the deed transferring the house on the same desk where he leases back the garage for ninety-nine years. (Wikipedia — Treaty of Manila, FRUS 1947 — Military Bases Agreement)
The bookended commissioner: his two High Commissioner terms — 1937–1939 and 1945–1946 — sit on either side of the Japanese occupation, like a caretaker who locks the gate before the storm and returns to hand over the keys. (Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt)
The humanitarian detour: the refugee episode he conducted with Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon — quietly bypassing the U.S. State Department to admit about 1,300 Jewish refugees fleeing fascist Europe to the Philippines — shows a ceremonial post used as a lever for a non-ceremonial purpose. (Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt)

Usage Scenarios

1. Researching the Mechanics of Philippine Independence

Historians of the July 4, 1946 transition work through McNutt’s signatures: the Treaty of General Relations signed with President Manuel Roxas, the U.S. Senate consent of July 31, 1946, President Truman’s August 14, 1946 signature, Philippine ratification on September 30, and entry into force on October 22, 1946 — the record this wiki’s Treaty of Manila entry documents in full. (Wikipedia — Treaty of Manila)

2. Studying the United States Bases System

Analysts of the 1947–1992 American military presence in the Philippines begin with the Military Bases Agreement that McNutt signed with Roxas at Manila on March 14, 1947 — a 99-year grant recorded as TIAS No. 1775 and registered with the United Nations — the instrument this wiki’s Military Bases Agreement entry follows through its 1966, 1979, and 1988 amendments to its 1991 expiry. (FRUS 1947 — Military Bases Agreement)

3. Examining Wartime Manpower Administration

Scholars of the American home front cite McNutt’s double tenure — Federal Security Administrator from July 12, 1939 and War Manpower Commission chairman from April 18, 1942, both ending September 14, 1945 — as a case of consolidating New Deal machinery for war mobilization, with the commission created for him and abolished when he departed. (Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt)

4. Tracing Refugee Policy in the Commonwealth

Researchers of rescue before the Holocaust study the McNutt–Quezon arrangement that admitted roughly 1,300 Jewish refugees to the Philippines, an episode of immigration diplomacy conducted around the State Department’s own restrictions. (Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt)

Strategies

Turn supervision into partnership: in a Commonwealth already self-governing under the Tydings–McDuffie Act — a post contemporaries described as mostly ceremonial — McNutt worked with, rather than over, President Quezon, cooperating on refugee policy even while the two governments disagreed in Washington. (Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt)
Convert commission into embassy: when independence arrived, McNutt succeeded himself — High Commissioner on the morning of July 4, 1946, first Ambassador by day’s end — preserving institutional memory through the change of sovereignty. (Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt)
Sign the settlement and its shadow together: the 1946–1947 sequence — independence treaty first, bases agreement nine months later — kept the political question of sovereignty separate from the military question of bases, the diplomatic architecture the two treaties embodied. (Wikipedia — Treaty of Manila, FRUS 1947 — Military Bases Agreement)
Carry the relationship into private life: after leaving Manila in 1947 he chaired the Philippine-American Trade Council and served as a director of several Manila firms, extending the bilateral tie into commerce. (Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt)

Security and Safety Measures

Bases away from cities: in negotiating the Military Bases Agreement, the Philippine side — with McNutt signing for the United States — secured the commitment that no operating base would be located in or near a major population center, a siting safeguard for Philippine civilians around the installations. (FRUS 1947 — Military Bases Agreement)
Sovereignty guarantees in the hand-over: the Treaty of Manila’s protocol settled the judicial transition and continuing obligations from the 1898 Treaty of Paris, closing legal loose ends that could otherwise have endangered persons and property after independence. (Wikipedia — Treaty of Manila)
Wartime manpower controls: as War Manpower Commission chairman McNutt administered the allocation of American labor — military recruitment, industrial staffing, agricultural labor — the home-front machinery that kept the armed forces and war production supplied. (Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt)
Refugee protection: the admission of about 1,300 Jewish refugees to the Philippines under the McNutt–Quezon arrangement remains a documented protective action taken within restrictive immigration law. (Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt)

Historical Context

McNutt was born on July 19, 1891, in Franklin, Indiana. Elected governor in the 1932 Democratic landslide, he served from January 9, 1933 to January 11, 1937, barred by the state constitution from seeking reelection; he had earlier led the American Legion as its national commander. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him High Commissioner to the Philippines on April 26, 1937 — the second person to hold the post created when the Commonwealth replaced the governor-generalship — where he worked with President Quezon and privately doubted that early independence was wise, believing the small country could not defend itself. (Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt)

Returning to Washington, he became the first administrator of the Federal Security Agency on July 12, 1939, overseeing New Deal programs from the Civilian Conservation Corps to Social Security; the agency later served as cover for the secret War Research Service (1942–1944), and from April 18, 1942 he simultaneously chaired the War Manpower Commission. President Harry S. Truman sent him back to Manila as High Commissioner on September 14, 1945 to preside over the final approach of independence. (Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt)

On July 4, 1946, McNutt signed the Treaty of General Relations for the United States and Manuel Roxas for the Philippines — the instrument that relinquished U.S. sovereignty, recognized the Republic, and entered into force on October 22, 1946; that same day he became the first U.S. Ambassador to the islands. On March 14, 1947, at Malacañang, he and Roxas signed the Agreement Concerning Military Bases, granting the United States a 99-year term over named base sites, accepted by the Philippines on January 21, 1948. McNutt left the embassy on March 22, 1947, succeeded by Emmet O’Neal, and practiced law in New York and Washington; he briefly chaired the board of United Artists in 1950, chaired the Philippine-American Trade Council, and died in New York City on March 24, 1955 after a final voyage to the Philippines. Indiana University’s Paul V. McNutt Quadrangle is named for him. (Wikipedia — Treaty of Manila, FRUS 1947 — Military Bases Agreement, Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt)

Challenges and Controversies

The Independence Timetable

McNutt’s documented doubts about early independence — his view that the Philippines could not defend itself — placed him at odds with the fixed Tydings–McDuffie schedule and with Filipino leadership’s insistence on the July 4, 1946 date; as High Commissioner in the late 1930s he represented a supervising power that was simultaneously scheduling its own departure. (Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt)

The Bases Settlement

The Military Bases Agreement McNutt signed became the most contested Philippine–American instrument of the twentieth century: its 99-year term, the American jurisdiction it entrenched, and the parity-era economics that accompanied it fed decades of nationalist criticism that the independence he also signed was qualified by the bases he retained — a debate that ended only with the Philippine Senate’s 1991 rejection of the bases treaty. (FRUS 1947 — Military Bases Agreement)

A Commission with Little Power

Contemporaries and historians noted that the High Commissioner’s post was “mostly ceremonial” under Commonwealth self-governance, and that the War Manpower Commission he chaired “carried little real power” — a record of offices whose titles outran their authority, relevant to any assessment of his responsibility for the policies administered under them. (Wikipedia — Paul V. McNutt)