Harry Truman and Clark Clifford
Harry Truman was the first President to have a Chief of Staff. In those days, the position was known as Assistant to the President of the United States, and the first man to hold the office was a man named John Steelman. Steelman managed to keep a low profile however. A more prominent Truman adviser was the man who managed his successful presidential campaign of 1948, Clark McAdams Clifford.
Clark Clifford was born in Fort Scott, Kansas in December of 1906. He attended college and law school at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and practiced law in St. Louis from 1928 and 1943. He served as an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946, reaching the rank of captain and then serving as assistant naval aide and then naval aide to President Truman. Truman came to trust Clifford and the two men became friends.
After his discharge from the Navy in 1946, Clifford remained at Truman's side, serving as White House Counsel from 1946 to 1950. Truman quickly came to trust and rely upon Clifford's counsel. When Truman decided to run for election to the Presidency in his own right in 1948, he named Clifford to a key position in the campaign.
Clifford was a key architect of Truman's campaign in 1948, one in which Truman pulled off a stunning upset victory over Republican nominee Thomas Dewey. Clifford's strategy was to advise Truman to embrace a left-wing populist image in hope of undermining the impact on the race of third-party Progressive candidate Henry A. Wallace, who had served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Vice-President from 1941 to 1945. Clifford also believed that a strong pro-civil rights stance, while sure to alienate traditional Southern Democrats, would not result in a serious challenge to the party's supremacy in that region. Strom Thurmond's candidacy as a States' Rights Democrat attracted much of the pro-segregationist votes in the region, and so the strategy did not adversely affect Truman in his race with Dewey, while it helped him in northern areas which had high rates of migration of African-Americans who had moved from the south. Clifford's strategy helped Truman win the election in his own right and establish the Democratic Party's position in the Civil Rights Movement.
In his role as presidential adviser, one of his most significant contributions was his successful advocacy, along with David Niles, of prompt 1948 recognition of the new "Jewish state" of Israel. Truman took this position, over the strong objections of Secretary of State, General George Marshall. Earlier, in 1946, Clifford hand prepared the Clifford-Elsey Report for the president, with the input of senior officials in the Departments of State, War, and Justice, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Central Intelligence Group, and utilizing the expertise of George F. Kennan and Charles Bohlen. This top secret report outlined the varous ways in which the Soviet Union had gone back on its treaties and understandings with the Western powers. It was instrumental in shaping future U.S. relations with the Soviet Union.
In 1950, Clifford left the administration and practiced law in Washington, D.C., but he continued to advise Truman and other Democratic Party leaders. One of his clients was then Senator John F.Kennedy. In 1960, Clifford was a member of President-elect Kennedy's Committee on the Defense Establishment and in May 1961, Kennedy appointed Clifford to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which Clifford chaired from April 1963 until January 1968.
Clifford went on to serve and advise other Democratic Presidents including Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter. When Johnson became president in November 1963 following Kennedy's assassination, Clifford often served as an unofficial White House Counsel and sometimes took on short-term official projects, including a trip with General Maxwell Taylor in 1967 to Vietnam and other countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. He served as Secretary of Defense during the last year of Johnson's presidency.
In 1997, Clifford appeared in a PBS television documentary about President Truman. He died the following year, from natural causes in 1998 at the age of 91. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Clark Clifford was born in Fort Scott, Kansas in December of 1906. He attended college and law school at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and practiced law in St. Louis from 1928 and 1943. He served as an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946, reaching the rank of captain and then serving as assistant naval aide and then naval aide to President Truman. Truman came to trust Clifford and the two men became friends.
After his discharge from the Navy in 1946, Clifford remained at Truman's side, serving as White House Counsel from 1946 to 1950. Truman quickly came to trust and rely upon Clifford's counsel. When Truman decided to run for election to the Presidency in his own right in 1948, he named Clifford to a key position in the campaign.
Clifford was a key architect of Truman's campaign in 1948, one in which Truman pulled off a stunning upset victory over Republican nominee Thomas Dewey. Clifford's strategy was to advise Truman to embrace a left-wing populist image in hope of undermining the impact on the race of third-party Progressive candidate Henry A. Wallace, who had served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Vice-President from 1941 to 1945. Clifford also believed that a strong pro-civil rights stance, while sure to alienate traditional Southern Democrats, would not result in a serious challenge to the party's supremacy in that region. Strom Thurmond's candidacy as a States' Rights Democrat attracted much of the pro-segregationist votes in the region, and so the strategy did not adversely affect Truman in his race with Dewey, while it helped him in northern areas which had high rates of migration of African-Americans who had moved from the south. Clifford's strategy helped Truman win the election in his own right and establish the Democratic Party's position in the Civil Rights Movement.
In his role as presidential adviser, one of his most significant contributions was his successful advocacy, along with David Niles, of prompt 1948 recognition of the new "Jewish state" of Israel. Truman took this position, over the strong objections of Secretary of State, General George Marshall. Earlier, in 1946, Clifford hand prepared the Clifford-Elsey Report for the president, with the input of senior officials in the Departments of State, War, and Justice, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Central Intelligence Group, and utilizing the expertise of George F. Kennan and Charles Bohlen. This top secret report outlined the varous ways in which the Soviet Union had gone back on its treaties and understandings with the Western powers. It was instrumental in shaping future U.S. relations with the Soviet Union.
In 1950, Clifford left the administration and practiced law in Washington, D.C., but he continued to advise Truman and other Democratic Party leaders. One of his clients was then Senator John F.Kennedy. In 1960, Clifford was a member of President-elect Kennedy's Committee on the Defense Establishment and in May 1961, Kennedy appointed Clifford to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which Clifford chaired from April 1963 until January 1968.
Clifford went on to serve and advise other Democratic Presidents including Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter. When Johnson became president in November 1963 following Kennedy's assassination, Clifford often served as an unofficial White House Counsel and sometimes took on short-term official projects, including a trip with General Maxwell Taylor in 1967 to Vietnam and other countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. He served as Secretary of Defense during the last year of Johnson's presidency.
In 1997, Clifford appeared in a PBS television documentary about President Truman. He died the following year, from natural causes in 1998 at the age of 91. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.