Henry L. Stimson
Henry Lewis Stimson (September 21, 1867 – October 20, 1950) was an American statesman, lawyer, and Republican Party politician. Over his long career, he emerged as a leading figure in U.S. foreign policy by serving in both Republican and Democratic administrations. He served as Secretary of War (1911–1913) under President William Howard Taft, Secretary of State (1929–1933) under President Herbert Hoover, and again Secretary of War (1940–1945) under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, overseeing American military efforts during World War II.
Henry L. Stimson
Eugene Allen Gilmore (Acting)
Henry Wise
October 20, 1950 (aged 83)
Huntington, New York, U.S.
Mabel Wellington White
The son of the surgeon Lewis Atterbury Stimson and Candace C. Stimson (née Wheeler, daughter of Candace Thurber Wheeler) Stimson became a Wall Street lawyer after graduating from Harvard Law School. He served as a United States Attorney under President Theodore Roosevelt and prosecuted several antitrust cases. After he was defeated in the 1910 New York gubernatorial election, Stimson served as Secretary of War under Taft. He continued the reorganization of the United States Army that had begun under his mentor, Elihu Root. After the outbreak of World War I, Stimson became part of the Preparedness Movement. He served as an artillery officer in France after the United States entered the war. From 1927 to 1929, he served as Governor-General of the Philippines under President Calvin Coolidge.
In 1929, President Hoover appointed Stimson as Secretary of State. Stimson sought to avoid a worldwide naval race and thus helped negotiate the London Naval Treaty. He protested the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, which instituted the Stimson Doctrine of nonrecognition of international territorial changes that are executed by force. After World War II broke out in Europe, Stimson accepted President Franklin Roosevelt's appointment to return as Secretary of War. After the U.S. entered the war, Stimson, working very closely with Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, took charge of raising and training 13 million soldiers and airmen, supervised the spending of a third of the nation's GDP on the Army and the Air Forces, helped formulate military strategy, and oversaw the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bombs. He supported the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During and after the war, Stimson strongly opposed the Morgenthau Plan, which would have deindustrialized and partitioned Germany into several smaller states. He also insisted on judicial proceedings against Nazi war criminals, which led to the Nuremberg trials.
Stimson retired from office in September 1945 and died in 1950.
Secretary of War (1911–1913)[edit]
In 1911, President William Howard Taft appointed Stimson as Secretary of War. Stimson continued the reorganization of the army that had begun by Elihu Root, which improved its efficiency prior to its vast expansion in World War I. In 1913, Stimson left office following the accession of President Woodrow Wilson.
Nicaragua and Philippines[edit]
In 1927, Stimson was sent by President Calvin Coolidge to Nicaragua to negotiate an end to the Nicaraguan Civil War. Stimson wrote that Nicaraguans "were not fitted for the responsibilities that go with independence and still less fitted for popular self-government."[16] He opposed independence for the Philippines for the same reason after he had been appointed Governor-General of the Philippines, an office that he held from 1927 to 1929.[17]
Secretary of State[edit]
Stimson returned to the cabinet in 1929, when U.S. President Herbert Hoover appointed him US Secretary of State. Both served until 1933. Stimson lived in the Woodley Mansion in Washington, D.C., where he remained through 1946.
Shortly after being appointed as the new Secretary of State, Stimson shut down the Cipher Bureau (U.S. cryptanalytic service, later known as the "Black Chamber") in 1929. According to the NSA's Center for Cryptologic History, Stimson likely dissolved the bureau for budgetary reasons.[18] But he also considered intercepting diplomatic communications unethical, reputedly saying: "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail."[19][20] By the advent of World War II in 1940 it appears Stimson had changed his mind, at least as to the ethics of codebreaking.[21]
In 1930 and 1931, Stimson was the Chairman of the U.S. delegation to the London Naval Conference of 1930. In the following year, he was the Chairman of the U.S. delegation to World Disarmament Conference in Geneva. The same year, the United States issued the "Stimson Doctrine" in response to Japanese invasion of Manchuria. It stated that the U.S. refused to recognize any situation or treaty that limited U.S. treaty rights or was brought about by aggression.
On 5 October 1931, the League received a strongly-worded letter from U.S. Secretary of State Stimson urging it to assert all its pressure and authority towards regulating its action in relation to Japan, and informing the League that the U.S., through its diplomatic representative, will endeavor to reinforce what the League does.[22]:473 The fact that Stimson's statement was bombast is indicated by the course of events in 1937 when, upon a full-scale invasion of China by Japan, the U.S. did nothing.[23]:154
Returning to private life at the end of the Hoover administration, Stimson was an outspoken advocate of strong opposition to Japanese aggression.
Anecdote[edit]
Theodore H. White noted that Stimson had known and served under more Presidents than any other American citizen of his era. According to White, a short time before Stimson died, he had been asked by a friend which of the many Presidents that he had been acquainted with "had been the best." After a few moments of reflection, Stimson indicated his answer to the query depended on what was meant by "the best." He said that if it meant the most efficient man to hold the office, the answer was William Howard Taft. If, however, the question meant the greatest president, the answer was "Roosevelt," but Stimson could not decide whether the first name would be Theodore or Franklin. Stimson said both "understood the use of power" but as well "knew the enjoyment of power."[68]
Legacy[edit]
Mount Stimson in Montana's Glacier National Park is named after Stimson, who in the 1890s hiked and assisted George Bird Grinnell in surveying the area and later supported creating the park.
The Henry L. Stimson Center, a private research institute in Washington, DC, advocates what it says is Stimson's "practical, non-partisan approach" to international relations.[71]
The Benjamin Franklin-class ballistic missile submarine USS Henry L. Stimson (SSBN-655) was commissioned in 1966.
Stimson's name graces the Henry L. Stimson Middle School in Huntington Station, Long Island; a residential building on the campus of Stony Brook University; as well as a dorm at his alma mater Phillips Academy.
Stimson is also commemorated by the New York City Bar Association, where he served as president from 1937 to 1939, with the Henry L. Stimson Medal. The medal is awarded annually to outstanding Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
In popular culture[edit]
Stimson has been portrayed in nearly a dozen movies and television shows about World War II and its aftermath, including Manhattan (2014–2015), Truman (1995), Truman at Potsdam (1995), Fat Man and Little Boy (1989), Day One (1989), War and Remembrance (1988), Race for the Bomb (1987), Churchill and the Generals (1981), Oppenheimer (1980), Oppenheimer (2023), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), and The Beginning or the End (1947).
In the alternate history short story "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" by Lawrence Watt-Evans contained in the 1992 alternate history anthology Alternate Presidents by Mike Resnick, Stimson succeeded Hoover (who defeated Roosevelt in 1932 after Al Smith ran as a third party candidate and split the Democratic vote) as president in 1936, defeating Roosevelt. He once again defeated Roosevelt in 1940.
