Robert B. Anderson

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Portrait of Robert B. Anderson in the Treasury

Robert Bernard Anderson (born June 4, 1910 in Burleson , Texas , †  August 14, 1989 in New York City ) was an American businessman, Democratic politician , Secretary of the Navy and Treasury Secretary .

Studies and professional career

Anderson, who was originally a high school teacher , studied law at the University of Texas Law School at Austin from 1929 to 1932 . In 1932 he was admitted to the bar.

As early as 1933 he was appointed Deputy Attorney General of Texas by the first female governor of Texas , Miriam A. Ferguson , and a year later he was appointed tax commissioner of the state. In 1936 he was appointed chairman and executive director of the Texas Unemployment Commission. He held this office until he switched to the private sector in 1941.

There he became general manager of an oil company and a large ranch. He was then President of the Texas Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association from 1946 to 1951 . Between 1955 and 1957 he was President of Ventures Ltd.

Political career

Texas Representative and Eisenhower Secretary of the Navy

Anderson began his political career in 1932 when he was briefly elected to the Texas House of Representatives for the Democrats .

In 1952 he became an employee of the Army State Secretary Frank Pace . After the election of Dwight D. Eisenhower as US President , he was appointed Secretary of the Navy on February 4, 1953 . During his tenure, the last formal racial segregation in the United States Navy was repealed at Norfolk and Charleston naval bases . At the same time, he advocated technological progress within the Navy to maintain a flexible defense strategy. On May 3, 1954, he gave his position as Secretary of the Navy and was instead Deputy Defense Minister ( Deputy Secretary of Defense ). In 1955 he was awarded the US President's Medal of Freedom .

Eisenhower was so impressed by the talent of the young politician that he saw in him a future president. For this reason, he regarded him as one of his main candidates for the office of Vice President , if the previous incumbent Richard Nixon should renounce a new candidacy in the presidential elections in favor of being appointed Secretary of Defense . However, when Nixon decided to run for vice president again in 1955, Anderson resigned as deputy secretary of defense that same year.

Minister of Finance during Eisenhower's second term

Anderson's signature on US $ banknotes

Eisenhower, who still valued Anderson's skills, asked him to return to his cabinet . On 29 July 1957 he was then as successor to George M. Humphrey of Finance ( Secretary of the Treasury appointed). Trusted by Eisenhower and one of his closest advisors, Anderson continued his predecessor's fight against inflation by reducing public spending.

As the internal party nomination for the 1960 presidential election approached, Eisenhower urged him to run against Nixon, which Anderson refused. After Nixon was nominated for the Republican presidential nomination, he did not, contrary to Eisenhower's expectations, choose Anderson, but the ambassador to the United Nations, Henry Cabot Lodge , as his vice-presidential candidate.

Withdrawal from politics and conviction for tax offenses

After Nixon's defeat in the 1960 presidential election , Anderson withdrew from politics on January 20, 1961 and became a partner in a law firm and various oil companies.

When the flag dispute between the United States and Panama in the Panama Canal Zone arose in January 1964 , President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him special envoy to negotiate the settlement of the crisis. On April 3, 1964, diplomatic relations between the United States and Panama were resumed due to the mediation .

In 1987, the New York Supreme Court sentenced him to imprisonment for tax evasion and revoked his lawyer license. Anderson had maintained an unauthorized branch of the Commercial Exchange Bank of Anguilla in New York, which he founded in, through which several investors lost their savings in the mid-1980s.

In 1989, Anderson died of esophageal cancer .

The Anderson Hills in Antarctica are named after him.

Web links

Commons : Robert Bernard Anderson  - Collection of images, videos and audio files