When Dulles finished his long speech, Watson declined to even acknowledge it had taken place. Departing from his usual toastmaster effusiveness, Watson simply introduced the next speaker, the American Secretary of Agriculture. Minutes later, Watson tried to counteract Dulles’ comments by exhorting his fellow entrepreneurs to support the ICC gathering in Germany. “At our meeting in Berlin,” urged Watson, “we hope to see as many of you people as possibly can get over because it is of great importance to your country that you be there and assist us in carrying on that meeting.”95
Watson reviled any detraction of Germany. One typical comment to the Associated Press, reported in the New York Times, used some of the same formulations Hitler defenders themselves had so frequently invoked. “Mr. Watson scoffed at the possibility of another world war,” said the Times. “‘World peace,’ he [Watson] declared, ‘will result when the nations of the world concentrate on their own problems and set their individual houses in order.’”96
When challenged, Watson would insist, “I’m an optimist.” Those among friends and family who knew him best later tried to excuse his behavior as “naive.”97 But there was none shrewder than Watson. He calculated his words like a carpenter: measure twice, cut once.
Watson confessed his feelings shortly thereafter in a draft letter to none other than Reich Economics Minister Schacht. “I have felt a deep personal concern over Germany’s fate,” Watson wrote, “and a growing attachment to the many Germans with whom I gained contact at home and abroad. This attitude has caused me to give public utterance to my impressions and convictions in favor of Germany at a time when public opinion in my country and elsewhere was predominantly unfavorable.”98
Moreover, Watson knew war was imminent. So did Heidinger. In October 1936, long before the intellectual showdown with Dulles, Heidinger sent a memo to IBM NY detailing plans to build bomb shelters for Dehomag in case war broke out. “The authorities have approached us,” reported Heidinger, “with demands that sufficient care should be taken to protect our plant and operations against air attack. In view of the fact that we are located close to a railway station, such demands seem justified… in the interest of the safety of the lives of the workers and employees… we believe we should recommend immediately the setting up of air raid shelters…. Something must surely be done immediately.”99
With metric specificity, Dehomag’s memo called for two massive bomb shelters, each large enough for 950 people or a mass of machinery, as well as an underground tunnel linking factory buildings at the Lichterfelde complex. The bomb shelters were later approved by Watson.100 Thus IBM assured that Hitler’s punch card capability would be protected from Allied strikes, even if those included American bombers.
Thomas Watson was more than just a businessman selling boxes to the Third Reich. For his Promethean gift of punch card technology that enabled the Reich to achieve undreamed of efficiencies both in its rearmament program and its war against the Jews, for his refusal to join the chorus of strident anti-Nazi boycotters and isolators and instead open a commercial corridor the Reich could still navigate, for his willingness to bring the world’s commercial summit to Berlin, for his value as a Roosevelt crony, for his glitter and legend, Hitler would bestow upon Thomas Watson a medal—the highest it could confer on any non-German.
The Merit Cross of the German Eagle with Star was created for Thomas Watson to “honor foreign nationals who made themselves deserving of the German Reich.” It ranked second in prestige only to Hitler’s German Grand Cross.101
Watson was honored. At the next ICC Congress, he would not only be installed as president of the ICC, he would be decorated by der Fuhrer. Working with Goebbels as stage manager, Watson would make the 1937 ICC conference in Berlin a commercial homage to Germany. Hitler in turn would make that event a national homage to Thomas Watson.
THE GREAT 24,000-ton oceanliner Manhattan brought ninety-five American executives and their families to Hamburg on June 24, 1937, where they refreshed and boarded trains for Berlin to attend the ICC gathering. As usual, Watson made arrangements for the State Department, its ambassadors, consuls, and other envoys to sail with the group or otherwise become abundantly visible. In Berlin, the Americans would join more than 2,500 delegates and others from forty-two other countries marshaled by Watson to make a strong showing. The group included 900 from Germany. The suites of the Hotel Adlon, Bristol, and Continental were waiting. The Adlon doubled as Watson’s nerve center for the Congress. Scenic tours were arranged for the after hours.102
Watson had already declared that after the Berlin gathering he would travel to Italy for a private meeting with Mussolini and that the next ICC conference scheduled for 1939 would be held in Tokyo, Germany’s Pacific ally. IBM had been cultivating a thriving business in Japan, helping that nation develop its air force and aircraft carriers.103
Greetings to the Berlin Congress were not only conveyed by Hull, but this time President Roosevelt himself issued an official, if innocuous, felicitation. Again, such communications emphasized Watson’s primacy as much as the event itself. “My hearty congratulations and warmest greetings on your election as President of the International Chamber of Commerce,” Roosevelt cabled the Adlon. “For many years, I have followed with interest your efforts to advance the work of this organization…. Your Congress in Berlin is taking place at a time when many serious problems call for wise and mature counsel…. On this very important occasion, I extend to you and to the participating delegations my best wishes for a successful conclusion to the deliberations.”104
On June 28, 1937, over a peaceful cup of tea served in dainty china cups atop elegant saucers, in a quiet corner of the Reich Chancellery, huddling over a small serving table and seated on cushy, floral armchairs, Watson and Hitler would finally talk. Sitting with them was a Hitler cohort and two other prominent Hitler supporters from the ICC convention. No one knows exactly what Hitler told Watson during their exchange. Watson paraphrased it later for the New York Times as, “There will be no war. No country wants war, no country can afford it.”105 But no one really ever knew the exact exchange between the men. Whatever Hitler did say, Watson was encouraged and entranced.
Later, the ICC thousands assembled at the German Opera House, which doubled as the Reichstag. Nazi flags fluttered monumentally from the balconies as a massive orchestra played Beethoven’s Lenore Overture #3. The New York Times reported, “At times… it seemed to be a purely National Socialist rally.”106
And then Adolf Hitler suddenly walked in. Dressed in his familiar brown party uniform, he made his way directly to the royal box festooned with a swastika flag. As he did, the familiar command crackled through the air: “Sieg!” 107
The assemblage of distinctive businessmen, including dozens from the United States of America, in the year 1937, gripped by the moment, awed by the occasion, imbued with the spirit, under the leadership of Thomas J. Watson, jumped to their feet amid roars, cheers, and wild applause, reached for the sky in a loyal salute and chanted back “Heil!”108 Watson lifted his right arm halfway up before he caught himself. Later, a colleague denied to a reporter for the New York Herald that Watson’s gesture was a genuine salute.109