Benjamin V. Cohen

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Benjamin V. Cohen
6th Counselor of the United States Department of State
In office
September 14, 1945 – July 31, 1947
PresidentHarry S. Truman
Preceded byR. Walton Moore
Succeeded byCharles E. Bohlen
Personal details
Born(1894-09-23)September 23, 1894
Muncie, Indiana
DiedAugust 15, 1983(1983-08-15) (aged 88)
Washington, D.C.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Chicago
Harvard Law School
OccupationLawyer
Known forKey member of Franklin Roosevelt's brain trust

Benjamin Victor Cohen (September 23, 1894 – August 15, 1983), a member of the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, had a public service career that spanned from the early New Deal to after the Vietnam War.

Education

Cohen earned Bachelor of Philosophy (1914) and Juris Doctor (1915) degrees from the University of Chicago, and a Doctor of Juridical Science (1916) from Harvard Law School.[1]

Early career, Brain Trust, New Deal

Cohen was a

1919 Paris Peace Conference.[3] Cohen practiced law in New York from 1921 to 1933.[3] During this period Cohen worked with the National Consumers League to draft and enact minimum wage, child labor, and worker hours legislation that would survive a challenge in the Supreme Court.[4]

Cohen first appeared on the national scene as a member of President

Truth In Securities Act
. Later that year Cohen was assigned to work on railroad legislation.

Much of Cohen's work during the

P.G. Wodehouse's novel, Quick Service.[6]

World War II and postwar

In 1941, before the United States entered World War II, Cohen helped write the Lend-Lease plan. Cohen also assisted in the drafting of the 1944 Dumbarton Oaks agreements leading to the establishment of the United Nations. In 1945 Cohen served as the United States' chief draftsman at the Potsdam Conference.[7]

In 1942, The New York Times published a letter by Cohen and the co-author Erwin Griswold decrying the United States Supreme Court's Betts v. Brady ruling that poor criminal defendants had no right to an attorney. Two decades later the issue again came before the Supreme Court in the Gideon v. Wainwright case. The attorneys for Clarence Earl Gideon, the person accused of a crime, concluded their brief to the Supreme Court with a lengthy quotation from the Cohen/Griswold letter. This time, the Supreme Court ruled that the government must appoint attorneys for criminal defendants who cannot afford an attorney.[8]

In 1944, Cohen became one of the drafters of the

Charles W. Yost. In 1945, the two once more worked together at the Berlin Conference, on the Potsdam Agreement
.

In 1948 Cohen advised both the United States and the new

President Johnson to request the United Nations consider proposals to end the Vietnam War.[11]

Jordan A. Schwarz noted, "Although no government lawyer was as respected as Cohen, he never had a prominent position in government because of his palpable Jewishness."[12]

Personal life

Born in Muncie, Indiana on September 23, 1894,[13] Cohen was considered to be humble and private; he never married.[14] [1]

Cohen was the uncle of Selma Jeanne Cohen, a prominent dance historian.[15]

Characterizations

  • "Cohen was known for his slouching posture, sloppy dress, absentminded table manners – and for a skill at drafting legislation that was generally reckoned the best in the United States."[16]
  • He "looked and talked, as a friend wrote, 'like a Dickens portrait of an absent-minded professor.'"[17]

Works

References

  • Caro, Robert A. (2002),
    ISBN 0-394-52836-0
  • Lash, Joseph P. (1988), Dealers and Dreamers, New York: Doubleday,
    ISBN 0-385-18716-5
  • Lewis, Anthony (1964),
    ISBN 0-679-72312-9
  • ISBN 0-674-54345-9
  • ISBN 0-87131-167-4

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Cohen, Benjamin V. | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  2. ^ Lash, p. 16
  3. ^ a b Louchheim, p. 336.
  4. ^ Lash, chap. IV
  5. ^ Gold Dust Twins. Cover
  6. ^ "We're like Cohen and Corcoran. One of those beautiful friendships." Chapter 9.
  7. ^ Mee (book club edition), pp. 102, 219 & 223.
  8. ^ Lewis
  9. ^ "Counsel to the President," the memoirs of Clark Clifford with Richard Holbrooke, published in 1991 Archived 2010-06-13 at the Wayback Machine (visited 9/3/09)
  10. ^ Caro, pp. 949-51 & 1008.
  11. ^ Chicago Tribune, "Give Viet Cong Voice In Peace Talks - Cohen" (October 27, 1967).
  12. ^ Schwarz, Jordan A (1994). The New Dealers. Vintage Books. p. 144.
  13. ^ ""Benjamin V. Cohen," Ball State University".
  14. ^ "An Inventory to the Benjamin V. Cohen Papers. 1902-1982 (bulk 1919-1935). Manuscript Collection No. 65". collections.americanjewisharchives.org. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  15. ^ See Selma Jeanne Cohen Papers b. 3 f. 20.
  16. ^ Mee (book club edition), p. 219
  17. ^ Caro, p. 949

Further reading

Biography

Lasser, William, Benjamin V. Cohen: Architect of the New Deal (Yale University Press: 2002)

Magazines & Journals

Other

  • Benjamin V. Cohen Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
  • Benjamin V. Cohen Papers, Zionist Archives, New York

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Benjamin_V._Cohen&oldid=1223148148"