Thomas J. Dodd

Thomas J. Dodd

Thomas Joseph Dodd (born May 15, 1907 in Norwich , Connecticut , † May 24, 1971 in Old Lyme , Connecticut) was an American politician of the Democratic Party . From 1953 to 1957 and from 1959 to 1971 he sat for the US state Connecticut in the US House of Representatives and in the US Senate .

Early life

Dodd was born in Norwich, Connecticut, to Abigail Margaret and Thomas Joseph Dodd, a building contractor. His grandparents were all from Ireland . At the beginning of his school days he attended Saint Anselm College , a Catholic college in New Hampshire . In 1930 he completed his studies in philosophy at Providence College from. In 1933 he finished a law degree at Yale University . A year later he married Grace Murphy. The marriage resulted in 6 children, including the future US Senator Chris Dodd and the later diplomat Thomas J. Dodd, Jr.

In 1933 and 1934 he worked as a special agent for the FBI . From 1935 he represented the National Youth Administration in the state of Connecticut. From 1938 to 1945 he served a total of 5 ministers of justice as personal assistant. For this reason, he was not intended for military service. From 1945 to 1946 Dodd was then used in the war crimes trials in Nuremberg , Germany. During this time he served on the staff of the US Chief Prosecutor Robert H. Jackson . In the summer of 1946 he was named by Jackson as the acting chief prosecutor, since Jackson himself returned to the United States. In October 1946 Dodd also returned to the USA. After his return from Nuremberg, Dodd received several medals, including the Czechoslovak Order of the White Lion . He practiced as a lawyer in Hartford from 1947 to 1953 .

congress

Dodd was elected to the US House of Representatives for the first time in 1952 as the Democratic Party candidate. There he represented Connecticut's 1st Congressional District . In 1954 he was re-elected. In 1956, he ran for the Senate seat held by Prescott Bush . Bush was able to prevail. Dodd's candidacy in 1958, however, was successful, from 1959 he represented the state in the US Senate as one of the two Senators from Connecticut.

In 1961, Dodd visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a senator to get an idea of ​​the civil war that was raging there. During his tenure he also campaigned for stricter gun law. These efforts culminated in the Gun Control Act of 1968, which he helped draft .

In 1967, Dodd was officially reprimanded by the Senate. He had diverted campaign donations that he had raised for his successful re-election in 1964 to private accounts and spent the money. Because of this, he was no longer nominated by the Democrats for re-election in 1970. Dodd then ran as an independent candidate, but could not, as well as the Democratic candidate Joseph Duffey, prevail against the Republican Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. Dodd finally resigned from Congress in 1971.

Death and posthumous work

Just months after his election defeat, Dodd died of a heart attack .

In his native Norwich, the Thomas J. Dodd Memorial Stadium was named after him. In 2003 the University of Connecticut named the Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights after him.

Web links

• Thomas J. Dodd in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Thomas J. Dodd in the database of Find a Grave (English)