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See the Collective Name Index to the Research Collection of Conservative and Libertarian Studies for a cross-referenced index to names of correspondents in this collection, if any, and 37 related University of Oregon collections, including dates of correspondence. See index instructions on use.
Pedro Augusto Del Valle was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico on August28, 1893. He was educated at public schools in the city of Baltimore and graduate from the Mercersburg Academy at Mercersburg, Pennsylvania in 1910. Del Valle entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and graduated with a B.S. degree in 1915, the same year in which he married Katherine Marchand Nelson. His professional training after his graduation for the Naval Academy included attendance at the Marine Corps School in 1928-1929, and the Army War College during 1937-1938.
Del Valle's career was in the United States Marine Corps where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant General and commanded the 1st Marine Division in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II. After the war, in 1946, he became Inspector General of the Marine Corps and Director of Personnel until his retirement in January 1948. Following his military service, Del Valle accepted a position as vice-president of International Telephone and Telegraph, and traveled, with Mrs. Del Valle, to twenty-six countries with periods of residence in Italy, Spain, and Argentina. In 1952, he retired from ITT in order to devote his energies to a defense of his beliefs in American ideals. The following year, in 1953, Del Valle, working closely with Colonel Matthew O. McKeon, Gordon Small, and Josephine Powell Beaty, organized the Defenders of the American Constitution (DAC).
Chartered in Washington, D.C. and dedicated to defend the ideals of patriotism, constitutionalism, and Christian society, the DAC was a non-profit, educational organization. Under its auspices, Del Valle produced two publications, Task Force and Alert. The former was a regular paper, which carried articles about national security, and constitutional matters, while the latter publication, usually a single sheet, attempted to clarify the specific context of actions by governmental agencies.
In addition to his work on behalf of DAC, Del Valle game active support to other conservative organizations such as the National Economic Council, Christian Crusade, National Youth Alliance, the Committee to Restore the Constitution, and Liberty Lobby. He died in 1978.
The collection consists primarily of correspondence. Since Del Valle received the majority of all correspondence of the Defenders of the American Constitution, it has been organized under his name without separate major working files for the organization itself. Also the correspondence had been divided into an outgoing section, organized chronologically and an incoming section, organized alphabetically. Deficiencies in the outgoing files occur in the periods 1952-1953, 1968-1969, 1971, and 1974. Those need to be remedied by reference to the papers of other officers of the DAC.
Incoming files of note include those from C. B. Baker of Youth Action; Sally Ballard of Citizens for America Committee; Josephine Powell Beaty of the DAC and other organizations; Ted Billings of the National Constitution; Olga Butterworth; Frank Capell of the Herald for Freedom; Willis Carto and Curtis Dall of Liberty Lobby; Imogene Cashmore; Richard Cotton of Conservative Viewpoint; M. Hendrix Davis, Jr., of the Texas Committee for the Constitution; Schuyler Ferris; Theodore Jackman; Charles P. Krause; Archibald Roberts of the Committee to Restore the Constitution; various directors of the Nations Economic Council; Thomas P. Serpico; and John C. Williams of the Texas Voters for the Constitution. The letters are inventoried as direct letters, copies, third part letters, and miscellaneous enclosures.
Articles and speeches by Del Valle and publication by the DAC, which are very incomplete, are organized at the end of the collection. Also included is a copy of Del Valle's autobiography, Semper Fidelis with an introduction by Curtis Dall.
The collection includes four portraits of officers, identified, and four images from a social gathering in a tropical location by Estudio Eldorado, 1940s. The military portraits are accompanied by a letter to General del Valle by Norman H. Jenkins, 1968, referencing political concerns.