Forrestal was taken home, but within a day the air force flew him to Hobe Sound, Florida, home of Bob Lovett (a future Secretary of Defense). Forrestal’s first words were “Bob, they’re after me.” He met with Dr. William Menninger, of the Menninger Foundation, and a consultant to the surgeon general of the army. Capt. George N. Raines, chief psychologist at the U.S. Naval Hospital at Bethesda, soon arrived. It is not exactly clear what transpired during Forrestal’s brief stay in Florida. One story from Pearson was that Forrestal had several hysterical episodes and made at least one suicide attempt, certain that the Communists were planning an imminent invasion. Menninger, however, explicitly denied that Forrestal had attempted suicide while in Florida. Forrestal did tell him that on the day before Menninger’s arrival, he had “placed a belt around his neck with the intention of hanging himself, but the belt broke.” Menninger, however, saw no marks on Forrestal’s neck or body. Nor did anyone find broken belts of any kind. Menninger considered it all a nightmare.
On April 2, 1949, “for security reasons,” Forrestal’s coterie flew him to Bethesda. During the trip from the air field to the hospital, Forrestal made several attempts to leave the moving vehicle and was forcibly restrained. He talked of suicide, of being a bad Catholic, and several times of those “who are trying to get me.” He was admitted to Bethesda under care of Raines, who diagnosed Forrestal’s illness as involutional melancholia, a depressive condition sometimes seen in people reaching middle age, often who saw their life as a failure. Upon arrival at Bethesda, Forrestal declared that he did not expect to leave the place alive. In a highly unusual decision for a possibly suicidal patient, Forrestal’s doctor was instructed by “the people downtown” (e.g., national security) to place him in the VIP sixteenth-floor suite. Meanwhile, Forrestal’s personal diaries, consisting of fifteen loose-leaf binders totaling three thousand pages, were removed from his former office and brought to the White House, where they remained for the next year. The White House later claimed that Forrestal had requested Truman to take custody of the diaries. Such a claim, frankly, is preposterous. Throughout 1948, Forrestal had become increasingly alienated from Truman. Prior to the election, he had even met privately with leading Republicans to help insure his future with the Dewey administration. Truman then abruptly fired him and replaced him with a man not even remotely qualified for the job. Forrestal’s diaries contained very sensitive information that Truman’s people wanted to know about. Presumably they had ample time to review them during the seven weeks of Forrestal’s hospitalization.
During Forrestal’s first week in Bethesda, he received a treatment called narcosis, essentially sedatives and tranquilizers. Throughout Forrestal’s time at the hospital, access to him was severely restricted. His wife (with whom he was not close), his two sons, Sidney Souers, Louis Johnson, Truman, and Congressman Lyndon Johnson each visited him once. Menninger visited twice. However, Forrestal was not permitted to see the several people he repeatedly called for: his brother, a friend, and two priests. Henry Forrestal, for example, had repeatedly tried to see his brother but was refused until he threatened to tell the newspapers and sue the hospital. He then visited his brother four times. Henry told Raines and the hospital’s commandant, Capt. B. W. Hogan, that James wanted to talk with a close friend, Monsignor Maurice Sheehy. Hogan acknowledged that the patient had requested this several times but said he still would not allow it. Indeed, Sheehy had tried seven times to see Forrestal, each time told his timing was “not opportune.” Sheehan, a former navy chaplain, argued several times with Raines and received the impression that Raines was acting under orders. Another priest, Father Paul McNally of Georgetown University, was also barred from seeing Forrestal, as was at least one other friend of the former Secretary.
By mid-May, observers and visitors agreed that Forrestal was improving. Henry said that his brother was “acting and talking as sanely and intelligently as any man I’ve ever known.” On May 14, 1949, Raines decided that he would leave Washington in four days to attend a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. After their last meeting on the morning of the eighteenth, Raines wrote that Forrestal was “somewhat better than on the corresponding day of the preceding week.” Forrestal continued in good spirits throughout all of the twentieth and twenty-first. He showed no signs of depression, was well dressed, shaved, and in good appetite.
