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William P. Rogers
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William P. Rogers
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 Deputy Attorney General of the United States and then Attorney General of the United States in the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, and as the Secretary of State in the administration of Richard Nixon.
Rogers was an ally of Nixon, but National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger overshadowed Rogers and eventually succeeded him as Secretary of State in September 1973. At the time of his death in 2001, Rogers was the last surviving member of Eisenhower's cabinet.
Rogers was born June 23, 1913, in Norfolk, New York. 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, where he graduated from high school in 1930. 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. He received his LL.B. in 1937, graduating fifth in his class of 47 as a member of the Order of the Coif, passing the New York bar in the same year.
After having served about a year as an attorney for a Wall Street law firm, he became an assistant district attorney in 1938 and was appointed by District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey to a 60-man task force aimed at routing out New York City's organized crime.[citation needed]
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 committee counsel. While serving on a Senate committee, Rogers examined documentation from the House Un-American Activities Committee's investigation of Alger Hiss at the request of Representative Richard M. Nixon. He advised Nixon that Hiss had lied and that the case against him should be pursued.[citation needed]
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.
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William P. Rogers
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 Deputy Attorney General of the United States and then Attorney General of the United States in the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, and as the Secretary of State in the administration of Richard Nixon.
Rogers was an ally of Nixon, but National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger overshadowed Rogers and eventually succeeded him as Secretary of State in September 1973. At the time of his death in 2001, Rogers was the last surviving member of Eisenhower's cabinet.
Rogers was born June 23, 1913, in Norfolk, New York. 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, where he graduated from high school in 1930. 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. He received his LL.B. in 1937, graduating fifth in his class of 47 as a member of the Order of the Coif, passing the New York bar in the same year.
After having served about a year as an attorney for a Wall Street law firm, he became an assistant district attorney in 1938 and was appointed by District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey to a 60-man task force aimed at routing out New York City's organized crime.[citation needed]
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 committee counsel. While serving on a Senate committee, Rogers examined documentation from the House Un-American Activities Committee's investigation of Alger Hiss at the request of Representative Richard M. Nixon. He advised Nixon that Hiss had lied and that the case against him should be pursued.[citation needed]
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.
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