James H. Douglas Junior

James H. Douglas, Jr.

James Henderson Douglas, Jr. (born March 11, 1899 in Cedar Rapids , Iowa , † February 24, 1988 in Lake Forest , Illinois ) was an American politician who served both the US Secretary of the Air Force and the US Deputy Secretary of Defense was.

Life

After attending school, Douglas joined the US Army after the USA entered the First World War , where he last served as a second lieutenant at Camp Hancock in Georgia . He then studied at Princeton University , where he earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1920 . He then studied for a year at the University of Cambridge and then completed a postgraduate degree in law at the Law School of Harvard University , which he graduated in 1924. After his subsequent lawyer's approval in 1925 in the state of Illinois , he was a successful lawyer active and ran his own law firm in Chicago .

Between 1932 and 1933 he was Secretary of State in the Treasury ( US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury ) during the presidency of Herbert Hoover and thus a close associate of the then Treasury Secretary Ogden L. Mills . After retiring from this position, he joined the law firm Gardner, Carton and Douglas as a partner in 1934 .

In 1941, after the United States entered World War II , he returned to active military service as a major and was promoted to colonel at the end of the war . During this time he was mainly Deputy Chief of Staff of the Air Transport Command and most recently Chief of Staff of the Air Training Command and was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal for his services .

After retiring from active military service, he returned to Gardner, Carton and Douglas as a partner in 1945 .

In March 1953 he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Air Force ( US Undersecretary of the Air Force ). After Harold E. Talbott's resignation in August 1955, Defense Secretary Charles Erwin Wilson asked him if he wanted to succeed him as Secretary of the Air Force. He declined this appointment, chose to remain Deputy Secretary of the Air Force and instead recommended that Wilson appoint Donald A. Quarles , Secretary of State for Research and Development in the Department of Defense , as US Secretary of the Air Force.

After Quarles became Deputy Secretary of Defense in April 1957, Douglas succeeded him as US Secretary of the Air Force in May 1957, at a time when both the US Congress and the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower were making serious cuts in the personnel of the US Air Force called. However, shortly afterwards, due to the Sputnik satellite, which was brought into orbit by the Soviet Union, with reference to the security of the USA, he succeeded in averting these personnel cuts and receiving higher defense spending. He was also the first Air Force Minister to have experience as an Air Force officer.

On December 10, 1959, he resigned from his position as Secretary of the Air Force and instead became Deputy Secretary of Defense on December 11, 1959, as US Deputy Secretary of Defense. He held this office until the end of the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 24, 1961. He then worked again as a lawyer in Illinois. In 1961 he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by Eisenhower .

Web links

• Biography on the US Air Force homepage
• THE NEW YORK TIMES: James H. Douglas Jr. Dead at 88; Served Presidents and the Military (February 28, 1988)