November 28, 1944
Go Time
Olson spent the summer of 1944 ping-ponging between Time Inc.’s New York offices and the Republican and Democratic conventions, both of which were held in Chicago in July.
In June, D-Day had altered the course of the war in Europe. Paris was liberated in August. The end of the war was now a real possibility and like most journalists, Olson was eager for a chance to cover the Allied victory. But his role as Time’s senior editor covering U.S. at War, Business and Finance, kept him tethered to a desk.
FDR was expected to beat Dewey in November and would begin his fourth term as President in January 1945. As Election Day approached, Olson appealed to Henry Luce, complaining that he had been covering politics for far too long. “When the election is over, I think I want a change of venue. In five years at very much the same stand, I've ‘had it.’ ”
He added, “I wish from my very bones that I had gotten a chance to see the U.S. at War, for myself.”
His appeal worked. On Nov. 28, 1944, Charles Wertenbaker, the head of TIME’s Paris office, received an unexpected telegram from New York: “Olson, who has long asked for chance to travel abroad, now gets it. He’s to have foreign tour of duty for at least six months and is to visit London Paris Rome Cairo Chunking as a senior correspondent without portfolio or specific assignment.”
By early December, Olson was scrambling to get his papers in order. His Selective Service status was changed from 1-A to 2-A and his travel orders included an unusual clause: “The travel herein authorized is directed as necessary for the accomplishment of an emergency war mission.”
He began packing. He said goodbye to his wife Zembra and their two small children, Whitney and John, as they boarded a train bound for Salt Lake City. They would live with Zembra’s parents in Bear River, Utah for the next nine months.
Olson’s plans were ambitious. He hoped to cover the Churchill war debate in January 1945, and then “…move soonest to the fronts for about a five-week tour; then fun and games in Paris and France for three weeks; then the Italian front for two weeks; Rome, three weeks; then Belgrade and Bucharest if possible and Athens in the next three or four weeks; Cairo and Mideast tour, three weeks; Teheran and India tour including the Burma front to Chunking and the Nanning front, three or four weeks; Australia to MacArthur, three weeks; Navy task force, one month; and home the end of September.”
He was embarking on a great adventure, one that looked excellent on paper. But in actuality, following the front turned out to be far more disturbing than anything he ever could have imagined.
