Henry H. Fowler

Henry Hammill Fowler

Fowler's grave in Alexandria, Virginia

Henry Hammill Fowler (born September 5, 1908 in Roanoke , Virginia , † January 3, 2000 in Alexandria , Virginia) was an American Democratic politician and Treasury Secretary of the United States under President Lyndon B. Johnson .

Studies and professional career

Yale University and New Deal Time

After visiting the Roanoke College in Salem 's son graduated from a locomotive driver from 1929 to 1932 to study law at the Law School of Yale University , which he in 1932 with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) graduated. In 1933 he also earned a doctorate in law (JSD) at Yale. He then worked as a lawyer before he became legal advisor to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1934 . As such, he was instrumental in ending a four-year legal battle over the creation of this major project during the New Deal under President Franklin D. Roosevelt . In the course of his work he rose to the position of deputy legal advisor of the TVA in 1939 and was also chief advisor to a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor .

World War II and Korean War

Between 1941 and 1944 he was deputy legal advisor to the Office for Production Management and, most recently, the War Production Board . In this capacity he also worked in the United Kingdom and Germany in 1944 and 1945 .

During the Korean War , Fowler returned in 1951 after working as a lawyer in the civil service and was in the government of Harry S. Truman as head of the National Production Administration (1951 to 1952) responsible for mobilizing the troops. In the following two years of war he was also head of the administration for defense production, director of the office for defense mobilization (1952 to 1953) and a member of the National Security Council .

After the inauguration of the Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower , he worked again as a lawyer.

Promotion to finance minister

Undersecretary of State

Between 1958 and 1961 he was a member of the US Government's Money and Credit Commission, and from 1960 to 1961 he was also a member of the National Committee on Government Finances of the private Brookings Institution . At the same time he was a member of the Advisory Board of the Democratic Party.

Following the election of John F. Kennedy as President of the United States, Fowler was named Under Secretary of the Treasury on February 3, 1961 . As such, he was particularly responsible for relations with Congress . He held this office after the assassination of Kennedy under his successor Lyndon B. Johnson until April 10, 1964. In particular, during his tenure, he devised a $ 11.5 billion tax cut program . After his resignation, he worked as a senior partner in a law firm in Washington, DC .

Treasury Secretary under President Johnson

Signature of Fowler on US $ banknotes

On April 1, 1965, he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Johnson to succeed C. Douglas Dillon . In the cabinet , he was a loyal employee of the president during the crisis that had arisen as a result of the Vietnam War . This led to increasing inflation and problems with the budget balance . In August 1967 he began his efforts to raise taxes by 10 percent. In June 1968, a Senate conference approved these plans. Between 1967 and 1968 he also took part in the international negotiations for the introduction of Special Drawing Rights . This artificial unit of currency , which is not traded in the foreign exchange markets , was finally introduced in 1969 by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Ultimately, he organized a two-step 1968 Gold System by So called it paper gold a special reserve asset created by the decreasing exchange rate to support the US dollar. On December 20, 1968, he resigned one month before the end of President Johnson's term and was replaced by the previous Under-Secretary of State Joseph W. Barr . The government budget under Fowler was the last balanced budget for the next 30 years.

After his resignation, he switched to the investment bank Goldman Sachs as the main partner on January 2, 1969 .

Web links

• Biography and portrait on the US Treasury Department homepage
• Henry H. Fowler in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)
• Biography in rulers.org
• "A Parcel of Appointments" , article in TIME magazine from January 20, 1961
• TIME Magazine Cover: Henry H. Fowler, September 10, 1965
• Interview from June 20, 1989
• Henry H. Fowler in the database of Find a Grave (English)