Edmund A. Walsh

Who was Edmund A. Walsh?

Fr. Edmund Aloysius Walsh, S.J. was an American Jesuit Catholic priest, author, professor of geopolitics and founder of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, which he founded in 1919–six years before the U.S. Foreign Service itself existed–and served as its first regent.

He directed the Papal Famine Relief Mission to Russia in 1922, which also succeeded in securing for the Vatican the Holy Relics of St. Andrew Bobola.

Later, Walsh worked on behalf of the Vatican to resolve long-standing issues between Church and State in Mexico in 1929, and negotiated with the Iraqi government to establish an American College in Baghdad in 1931.

After the Allies' victory in World War II, Walsh served as Consultant to the U.S. Chief of Counsel at the Nuremberg Trials. During that task, he interrogated the German geopolitician General Karl Haushofer to determine whether or not he should stand trial for war crimes, eventually finding that Gen. Haushofer ought not stand trial.

Strongly anti-Communist, it is alleged that Walsh was the man who first suggested to Senator McCarthy that he use this issue in order to gain political prominence. Walsh vigorously promoted anti-Communism thought throughout his career.