The Invisible Characters: Joseph Atherton Richards; Townsend's Hawaiian Connection

Long-time Townsend Brown inquirer Jan Lundquist – aka 'Rose' in The Before Times – has her own substantial archive to share with readers and visitors to this site. This forum is dedicated to the wealth of material she has compiled: her research, her findings, and her speculations.
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Jan Lundquist
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The Invisible Characters: Joseph Atherton Richards; Townsend's Hawaiian Connection

Post by Jan Lundquist »

Those missionaries and merchants who were the first Haoles to settle in Hawaii, became the most wealthy, influential, and powerful families in the islands. They would ultimately succeed in pushing the state into the Union in 1959. (They would have been Caroline quality, Paul).

Descendant Joseph Atherton Richards, (b. 1894) would hold positions as an owner, officer, or director in companies producing pineapples, sugar cane, and electricity. He served in the Army in WW I. In 1942, he joined the OSS as an Army Lt. Col and served that organization at the highest level

He also appears to have had a long career with the CIA:
Creators: National Security Council. Central Intelligence Agency. 9/18/1947-12/4/1981; Joint Chiefs of Staff. Office of Strategic Services. 6/13/1942-10/1/1945; National Intelligence Authority. Central Intelligence Group. (1/22/1946 - 9/18/1947); War Department. Office of the Assistant Secretary of War. Strategic Services Unit. 9/1945-10/19/1946

Series: Personnel Files of the Office of Strategic Services
When WWII ended, there was a pressing need to find some way to integrate and manage the flood of information from the services and from former OSS networks A couple of organizational structures were tried before the CIA became the annointed solution in 1947 and the record tells us that Atherton was involved iteration.

According to this site []https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/joseph-atherton-richards/ "Richards was tasked in the “Economics Branch” and was authorized to conduct research bearing on “the economic problems of the United States during and following the termination of the war emergency”. They also discussed “the possibilities of economic warfare organization.” (CIA)"

This clicks for me, with George's memory of an afternoon in the garden of what he & Linda called the "Atherton house", meaning that Jo and Townsend were living in a home in the ultra exclusive enclave of Atherton, CA next door to Menlo park and Stanford U. I don't know of any direct relationship between the two Athertons, nor even if J. Atherton ever visited . But SIL George most definitely recalls hearing an older gentleman tell Townsend about some sort of [economic warfare] experiment, to remove all the cash from a South American town and study the effects.

For another take on Atherton and the OSS
Joseph Atherton Richards.png
America's Information Wars: The Untold Story of Information Systems in America’s Conflicts and Politics from World War II to the Internet Age Illustrated Edition by Colin B. Burke (Author) Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; Illustrated edition (March 6, 2018)

I had always wondered how Townsend got hooked up with the sugar cane operations that provided him with cover for what he was doing at the far edge of the islands. Somehow or another, I think Atherton helped to set that up.

Jospeh Atherton Richards slipped quietly from this world, in 1974, saying in his will 'I direct that I be cremated at that my ashes be blown to the winds at sundown from the crest of Puu Aiea, Kahua Ranch, without any accompanying ceremony'." https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/191 ... n-richards
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Re: The Invisible Characters: Joseph Atherton Richards; Townsend's Hawaiian Connection

Post by natecull »

"Richards was tasked in the “Economics Branch” and was authorized to conduct research bearing on “the economic problems of the United States during and following the termination of the war emergency”. They also discussed “the possibilities of economic warfare organization.”
As I understand it, there was a lot of fear in the late days of WW2 about what would happen to the US economy when all the soldiers returned home and sought civilian work again. Would there be a mass unemployment crisis and a new Depression? It seems like that scenario didn't happen, so looking back now we don't think much about that branch of the timeline -- but it probably didn't not happen by accident.

Nate
Going on a journey, somewhere far out east
We'll find the time to show you, wonders never cease
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