An American diplomat who pressed for free trade and international institutions
On November 26, 1941, he delivered the Outline of Proposed Basis for Agreement Between the United States and Japan to the Japanese ambassador.
Cordell Hull was a Democratic politician and diplomat who helped shape U.S. free-trade policy and a multilateral international order. He promoted lower trade barriers and the Good Neighbor policy in the 1930s, while often working in tension with Franklin D. Roosevelt, who retained final control over foreign policy. In the 1941 negotiations with Japan, Hull delivered the November 26 Outline of Proposed Basis for Agreement, the last major diplomatic document before the Pacific War. Afterward, his work for the United Nations earned him the 1945 Nobel Peace Prize.
Career timeline
1893–1897Member, Tennessee House of Representatives
1907–1921U.S. Representative
1921–1924Chairman, Democratic National Committee
1923–1931U.S. Representative
1931–1933U.S. Senator from Tennessee
1933–1944United States Secretary of State
1945Delegate, United Nations Conference on International Organization
Roosevelt's "assistant president" who, as Secretary of State, designed the Potsdam reparations compromise
After Byrnes took the oath as Secretary of State, Truman said, "Jimmy, kiss the Bible." Byrnes did so, then handed it back to the President and told him to kiss it too. Truman did, as the room laughed.
James F. Byrnes was a Democratic politician from South Carolina who, as senator, steered New Deal legislation through Congress; as director of war mobilization, earned the nickname "assistant president"; and as Truman's Secretary of State, designed the reparations framework at Potsdam. At Potsdam, Byrnes negotiated the compromise with Molotov whereby each occupying power would extract reparations from its own zone, while the USSR would receive 15% of western-zone industrial equipment in exchange for food and raw materials and an additional 10% without payment. Passed over as Roosevelt's running mate in 1944 and later sidelined by Truman as their relationship soured, Byrnes returned to elective politics as governor of South Carolina, where he championed "separate but equal" schooling against desegregation.
Career timeline
1911–1925U.S. Representative, South Carolina
1931–1941U.S. Senator, South Carolina
1941–1942Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
1942–1943Director, Office of Economic Stabilization
Carter's National Security Advisor who drew the Soviet Union into the Afghan trap
That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap… The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war.
Polish-born American political scientist and strategist, National Security Advisor under President Jimmy Carter (1977–1981). He drove the human-rights campaign against the Soviet Union, normalization with China, and the Camp David Accords, and articulated the Carter Doctrine committing U.S. force to the Persian Gulf. On July 3, 1979, he signed the finding authorizing covert aid to the Afghan mujahideen while warning Carter it could induce Soviet intervention; in 1998 he called it an 'excellent idea' that drew the USSR into 'its Vietnam war,' fueling the debate over whether the U.S. deliberately trapped the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. After the Cold War, his book The Grand Chessboard (1997) championed Eurasian geostrategy and NATO expansion, exerting a lasting influence on American statecraft.
Career timeline
1977–1981National Security Advisor
1973–1976Director, Trilateral Commission
1966–1968Member, Policy Planning Council, State Department
1960–1972Professor, Columbia University; Director, Research Institute on Communist Affairs
