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Paul Lionel Edwards Helliwell papers, 1942-1944, Date accessioned: 2020-05-04

 

Summary

Creator:
Helliwell, Paul Lionel Edwards, 1914-1975
Extent:
1 folders
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], [Box and Folder number], Paul Lionel Edwards Helliwell papers, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. https://purl.lib.fsu.edu/fa/02-98-0762

Background

Scope and content:

This collection relates to Paul Lionel Edwards Helliwell who served as a captain in the U.S. Army assigned to Military Intelligence, G-2 1616, Office of Strategic Services (OSS), in the Middle Eastern and Far Eastern Theaters (Egypt, Iran, and China) during World War II. The collection contains Helliwell's original diary and a transcribed copy. He records his participation in security at the Tehran conference with impressions of Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin.

Biographical / historical:

Paul Lionel Edwards Helliwell was born on September 7, 1914 in Brooklyn, New York. He joined ROTC at an early age and was appointed Second Lieutenant upon graduation. He joined the G-2 intelligence group under the USMAFIME early in the war and spent time in Cairo and Tehran, where most of his journal was written. Later, he would become an OSS chief in China in 1944, eventually becoming the chief of the Far East Division of the Strategic Services Unit of the War Department during thre post-war (the SSU itself a precursor to the modern CIA). During this time he met with Ho Chi Mihn and negotiated an arms deal to start an Indochinese rebellion against the occupying Japanese. Eventually, Helliwell would form a small law firm, Bouvier, Helliwell, and Clark, join the CIA, become an analyst on the Far East, and have ties to mafia and international crime, allegedly helping to fund the Bay of Pigs invasion. He also was associated with Myer Lansky. Helliwell passed away on December 24, 1976.

Custodial history:

Transferred from the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience to FSU Libraries Special Collections & Archives in July 2022.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open to researchers.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], [Box and Folder number], Paul Lionel Edwards Helliwell papers, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. https://purl.lib.fsu.edu/fa/02-98-0762

Location of this collection:
116 Honors Way
Tallahassee
FL
32306-2047
USA