Lee H. Hamilton

Lee H. Hamilton

Lee Herbert Hamilton (born April 20, 1931 in Daytona Beach , Florida ) is an American politician . Between 1965 and 1999 he represented the state of Indiana in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Lee Hamilton attended Evansville public schools . He then studied until 1952 at DePauw University in Greencastle . In 1952 and 1953 he continued his studies at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main . After a subsequent law degree at Indiana University and his admission to the bar in 1956, he began to work in this profession.

Politically, Hamilton joined the Democratic Party . Between 1960 and 1963 he was treasurer of his party's youth organization in Bartholomew County . He then headed this organization in 1963 and 1964. In the 1964 congressional elections , Hamilton was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the ninth constituency of Indiana , where he succeeded Earl Wilson on January 3, 1965 . After 16 re-elections, he was able to complete a total of 17 legislative terms in Congress by January 3, 1999 . During this time, the end of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement as well as the Watergate affair fell . The 25th , 26th and 27th amendments to the Constitution were also ratified at that time. From 1985 to 1987, Hamilton headed the Intelligence Committee ; from 1987 to 1989 he was chairman of the special committee that investigated the illegal arms trade with Iran . He then took over the chairmanship of the Joint Economic Committee between 1989 and 1991 . Between 1993 and 1995, Hamilton was chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee . In 1998 he renounced another candidacy.

Between 2002 and 2004, Hamilton was deputy chairman of the commission of inquiry into the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and thus jointly responsible for its 2004 9/11 Commission Report . For this he received the Four Freedoms Award in 2005 . He later served as vice chairman of the Baker Commission , which was installed by Congress in 2006 to provide an independent assessment of the situation in Iraq and recommendations for future strategies and actions. In 2008, Hamilton supported Barack Obama's presidential campaign . Seven years later, Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom . He has also been an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2006 .

In 1989 he was awarded the Lucius D. Clay Medal .

Web links

Commons : Lee H. Hamilton  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Lee H. Hamilton in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)