William P. Rogers
William P. Rogers | |
---|---|
55th United States Secretary of State | |
In office January 22, 1969 – September 3, 1973 | |
President | Richard Nixon |
Preceded by | Dean Rusk |
Succeeded by | Henry Kissinger |
63rd United States Attorney General | |
In office October 23, 1957 – January 20, 1961 | |
President | Dwight Eisenhower |
Preceded by | Herbert Brownell |
Succeeded by | Robert F. Kennedy |
4th United States Deputy Attorney General | |
In office January 20, 1953 – October 23, 1957 | |
President | Dwight Eisenhower |
Preceded by | Ross L. Malone |
Succeeded by | Lawrence Walsh |
Personal details | |
Born | William Pierce Rogers June 23, 1913 Norfolk, New York, U.S. |
Died | January 2, 2001 Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. | (aged 87)
Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse |
Adele Langston (m. 1937) |
Children | 4 |
Education | Colgate University (BA) Cornell University (LLB) |
Signature | |
Military service | |
Branch/service | United States Navy |
Rank | Lieutenant Commander |
Unit | USS Intrepid |
Battles/wars | World War II |
William Pierce Rogers (June 23, 1913 – January 2, 2001) was an American politician, diplomat, and attorney. A member of the Republican Party, Rogers served as the 4th Deputy Attorney-General of the United States (1953–1957) and as the 63rd Attorney-General of the United States (1957–1961) in the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, and as the 55th Secretary of State (1969–1973) in the administration of Richard Nixon.
Rogers was a close confidant of Nixon, but National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger overshadowed Rogers and eventually succeeded him as Secretary of State in September 1973.[1] At the time of his death in 2001, Rogers was the last surviving member of Dwight D. Eisenhower's cabinet.
Early life and education
Rogers was born June 23, 1913, in Norfolk, New York.[1] After the death of his mother, the former Myra Beswick, he was raised during his teen years by his grandparents in the village of Canton, New York. He attended Colgate University, where he was initiated into the Sigma Chi fraternity. He then attended Cornell Law School, where he was an editor of the Cornell Law Quarterly.[2] He received his LL.B. in 1937, graduating fifth in his class of 47[3][4] as a member of the Order of the Coif, passing the New York bar in the same year.[1]
Career
After serving about a year as an attorney for a
Rogers entered the Navy in 1942, serving on the USS Intrepid, including her action in the Battle of Okinawa. His final rank was lieutenant commander.[citation needed]
After the war, Rogers joined the United States Congress as a
On August 17, 1948, Senator Homer S. Ferguson, chairman of a Senate subcommittee on expenditures in the executive department, stated by speech and letter that the Office of the United States Attorney General had approved its espionage investigation that had started with Elizabeth Bentley on July 28. Ferguson denied that his subcommittee "has in any way interfered with any criminal prosecution." Ferguson's letter explained that counsel William P. Rogers had consulted with the Attorney General's assistants on June 9. He stated that Rogers had "advised them of our purpose and the procedure planned to be followed, the witnesses who were to be called and the questions they would be asked." That evening, Attorney General Tom C. Clark wrote a letter that contradicted Ferguson as to whether and when Ferguson's committee had "cleared" its public hearings with him.
Clark's letter stated it was "incorrect" that by June 9, 1948, Fergusons' subcommittee had told his office about its intention. Instead, the USAG had heard of the subcommittee's intentions as those public hearings started on July 28. Clark wrote, "It is difficult to say how much damage the efforts to arrive at a sound basis for prosecution in the espionage case has been done by the open hearings." The story broke in newspapers next day.[5]
In 1950, Rogers became a partner in a
Rogers advised Nixon in the slush fund scandal, which led to Nixon's Checkers speech in 1952.[citation needed]
1953–1957: Deputy Attorney General
Rogers joined the Administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower as Deputy Attorney General in 1953.
As Deputy Attorney General, Rogers had some role in or insight into the process that led to the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for espionage.[6]
As deputy attorney general, Rogers was involved in the
1957–1961: Attorney General
Rogers served as Attorney General from 1957 to 1961. He remained a close advisor to Vice President Nixon throughout the Eisenhower administration, especially during Eisenhower's two medical crises. Rogers became attorney general upon the resignation of his superior,
In 1959, Martin Luther King Jr. hailed Rogers for advocating the integration of an elementary school in Alabama that had excluded the children of black military personnel.[9]
1961–1969: Hiatus
After the Eisenhower the administration, Rogers returned to his law practice, now renamed to Rogers & Wells, where he worked until his early eighties. He played an important role in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan a 1964 case before the Supreme Court.
From 1962 to 1963, Rogers was head of the Federal City Council, a group of business, civic, education, and other leaders for the economic development in Washington, DC.[10][11]
1969–1973: Secretary of State
Rogers succeeded
Nixon had selected an ambitious political science professor from Harvard, Henry Kissinger, to be his national security adviser who soon emerged as his main adviser on foreign affairs.[13] Nixon selected Rogers to be the secretary of state because he knew nothing of foreign affairs and was unlikely to assert the interests of the State Department.[13] On Nixon's Inauguration Day, 20 January 1969, Rogers was handed a lengthy volume containing a summary of the world's major issues written by the State Department's leading experts in order to brief him for his new job, leading him to remark in surprise: "You don't expect me to read all this stuff, do you?"[14] Rogers's ignorance of foreign policy issues and his unwillingness to assert the interests of his department duly led to the State Department pushed to the sidelines under his stewardship with the major decisions taken by Kissinger with no input or even the knowledge of Rogers.[13]
Kissinger later said of Rogers, "Few secretaries of state can have been selected because of their president's confidence in their ignorance of foreign policy."[15]
In February 1969, Nixon began to discuss plans to bomb the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese bases just over the border in Cambodia, which Rogers felt was unwise, warning that such an bombing offensive might damage the peace talks in Paris.[16] On 16 March 1969, Rogers attended a meeting at the White House where Nixon discussed Operation Menu, the plans to bomb Cambodia in secret.[17] Though the State Department's experts stated that the main source of weapons for the Viet Cong was the Ho Chi Minh Trail coming down from North Vietnam via Laos, not Cambodia, Rogers had not read their assessments.[17] At the 16 March meeting, Rogers offered the most tepid opposition to the plan to bomb Cambodia, which began the next day.[17]
One of his notable aims was to initiate efforts at a lasting peace in the Arab–Israeli conflict by the so-called Rogers Plan on 3 December 1969. Throughout his tenure, however, his influence was curtailed by Nixon's determination to handle critical foreign policy strategy and execution directly from the White House through his national security adviser Henry Kissinger.
On the night of 21 February 1970, Kissinger first met in secret with the North Vietnamese diplomat Le Duc Tho in a house in Paris suburb, opening a new set of talks that were independent of the official peace talks in Paris.[18] Kissinger only first informed Rogers of the secret talks in Paris parallel to the official talks in February 1971, a year later.[19] On 23 March 1970, Rogers told the press that the United States had the utmost respect for the "neutrality, sovereignty and independence" of Cambodia, stating categorically there no plans to invade Cambodia.[20] In the same press conference, Rogers stated: "We don't anticipate that any request will be made" for help from the new Lon Nol government.[21] Unknown to him, Nixon and Kissinger were already discussing plans to invade Cambodia.[22] On 30 April 1970, the United States invaded Cambodia.
On October 15, 1973, Rogers received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Nixon. At the same ceremony, his wife, Adele Rogers, was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal.
Later life
Rogers led the investigation into the explosion of the space shuttle
Rogers worked at his law firm, now renamed Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells after a 1999 merger, in its Washington office until several months before his death.[citation needed]
Personal life
Rogers married Adele Langston (August 15, 1911 – May 27, 2001), a fellow law student whom he had met at Cornell. They had four children.[1]
William P. Rogers died of congestive heart failure, at the Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, on January 2, 2001, at the age of 87.[1] Rogers was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Legacy
In 2001, the Rogers family donated to Cornell Law Library materials to reflect the lives of William and Adele Rogers, mostly from 1969 to 1973.[25]
Publications
Articles
- “U.S. Foreign Policy: A Discussion with Former Secretaries of State Dean Rusk, William P. Rogers, Cyrus R. Vance, and Alexander M. Haig, Jr.”. International Studies Notes, Vol. 11, No. 1, Special Edition: The Secretaries of State, Fall 1984. JSTOR 44234902(pp. 10–20)
Sources
- The Presidency Project
- Karnow, Stanley (1983). Vietnam: A History. New York: Viking Books.
Notes
- ^ New York Times. Retrieved December 25, 2008.
William P. Rogers, a suave and well-connected Republican lawyer who was secretary of state under President Richard M. Nixon and attorney general in the Eisenhower administration, died on Tuesday in Bethesda, Md. He was 87. Mr. Rogers lived in Bethesda and worked in the Washington office of the law firm of Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells, where he was senior partner, until becoming ill several months ago. He suffered from congestive heart failure, his family said.
- Washington Post Company. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
- ^ Rhoades, Frank H.T. (Spring 2003). "Tributes to William and Adele Rogers". Cornell International Law Journal. 36 (1). Ithaca, New York: Cornell Law School. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
- Cornell Law Quarterly. 22 (1). Ithaca, New York: Cornell University: 84. Fall 1936.
- ^ "Clark and Ferguson Differ on 'Clearance' for Public Spy Probe". Washington Evening Star. August 8, 1948. p. A5.
- ^ Roberts, Sam (June 26, 2008). "Spies and Secrecy". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
Shortly before he died, I interviewed William Rogers. He was the deputy attorney general when the Rosenbergs were executed. I guess, I said to him, the government got what it wanted: the Rosenbergs were indicted, convicted and executed. No, he replied, the goal wasn't to kill the couple. The strategy was to leverage the death sentence imposed on Ethel to wring a full confession from Julius — in hopes that Ethel's motherly instincts would trump unconditional loyalty to a noble but discredited cause.
- ISBN 978-9993049630.
- ^ Cobb, pp. 267–268.
- ^ King, Martin Luther Jr. (November 19, 1959). "To William P. Rogers" (PDF). Stanford, California: Stanford University.
- Washington Post Company. October 1, 1963. p. B1
- Washington Post Company. September 30, 1970. p. D9.
- ^ Karnow 1983, p. 578 & 587.
- ^ a b c d Karnow 1983, p. 587.
- ^ Karnow 1983, p. 587-588.
- ^ Brauer, Carl (November 1988). "Lost in Transition". The Atlantic. Washington DC: Emerson Collective. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
- ^ Karnow 1983, p. 5591.
- ^ a b c Karnow 1983, p. 591.
- ^ Karnow 1983, p. 623.
- ^ Karnow 1983, p. 624.
- ^ Karnow 1983, p. 605-606.
- ^ Karnow 1983, p. 607.
- ^ Karnow 1983, p. 607-608.
- ^ Burr, William, ed. (December 22, 2016). "National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 575: Reagan's Nuclear War Briefing Declassified". The National Security Archive, George Washington University.
- ISBN 0-393-02659-0.
- ^ http://library.lawschool.cornell.edu/WhatWeHave/SpecialCollections/Rogers.cfm materials