Through their Western worldview : an analysis of the Office of Strategic Service’s Art Looting Investigation Unit

Abstract

This study analyzes the collective biographies and worldview of the members of the American Office of Strategic Services’ Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU) during and after the Second World War, with an emphasis on six of the unit’s members: James Sachs Plaut, Theodore Duncan Rousseau, Jr., Samson Lane Faison, Jr., Otto Wittmann, Charles Henry Sawyer, and John Marshall Phillips. This research demonstrates that the elite context in which these men were raised and educated cultivated within them a worldview that centered the United States as the leader of Western civilization and culture. This thesis illustrates that their common Ivy League educations and high-level cultural professions influenced the unit’s work throughout the war and reinforced their worldview. In returning to their civilian jobs, these men were at the forefront of American cultural institutions, where the idea that the United States was the guardian of Western culture again influenced their decision making. This worldview, and the consequences of their work, persist in the current American museum culture.