Advising Ike: The Memoirs of Attorney General Herbert Brownell

by Herbert Brownell, John P. Burke

Overview

In this enlightening volume, Herbert Brownell, the man Dwight D. Eisenhower said would make an outstanding president, recounts his achievements and trials as the GOP's most successful presidential operative of the 1940s and 1950s and as Attorney General at a crucial time in American history.

Instrumental in getting Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for office and wielding considerable influence over many of the president's decisions, Brownell had to make many tough and controversial recommendations. In his memoirs he recalls his relationship with the president and the difficult issues confronting them—civil rights, McCarthyism, illegal aliens, anti-trust laws, national security vs. individual rights.

"I am often amused when people pine about going back to the 'quiet days' of Eisenhower," writes Brownell, who served during an administration that faced not only the wrath of segregationists and Communist witch-hunters but also the resolution of an increasingly unpopular war in Korea and a new definition of American-Soviet relations following Joseph Stalin's death. Particularly difficult, but among the high points of the Eisenhower administration for Brownell, were the painstaking gains made in the area of civil rights. Despite personal attacks by the opposition on his integrity, he tenaciously supported and enforced the Supreme Court's decision in Brown vs. the Board of Education and Little Rock desegregation.

Going beyond the years he spent on Eisenhower's cabinet, Brownell describes the events and people that have influenced his colorful life, including those from his early years in Nebraska, his apprentice years in New York as he joined the opposition to Tammany Hall, his stints as chairman of the Republican party and manager of Thomas Dewey's two unsuccessful presidential campaigns, his 62-year private law career, and his extensive world travels.

Brownell's memoirs, filled with history, anecdotes, personal observations, and subtle humor, reveal a highly intelligent and modest man who achieved great accomplishments—developing the first Civil Rights act since Reconstruction, preserving national security while protecting individual rights—by doing what he thought was right, not by being politically correct.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700605903
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	05/03/1993
Pages:	426
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Foreword, by John Chancellor

Acknowledgments

1. Early Years

2. Entering Politics

3. Working with Tom Dewey

4. The Election of 1948

5. Enlisting Eisenhower

6. The Battle for the Nomination, 1952

7. Election and Transition to the Presidency

8. At the Helm of Justice

9. Appointing a new Chief Justice

10. Further Reshaping the Federal Judiciary

11. Building the Foundations of Equality

12. Enforcing Equality

13. Dealing with the Dilemma of Internal Security

14. Protecting the Presidency: McCarthy and Bricker

15. Changing the Constitution: The Twenty-Fifth Amendment

16. Measuring the Man: Eisenhower as President

17. Further Serving the Presidency: Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan

18. Practicing Law

19. Bar Association Activity

20. Winding Down

Appendix A. Eisenhower’s Letter to Brownell, March 18, 1952

Appendix B. United States Supreme Court Order in Brown v. Board of Education

Appendix C. Southern Manifesto

Appendix D. Brownell Opinion to Eisenhower on Little Rock School Desegregation

Appendix E. Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States

Index

Photographs follow page 86

Editorial Reviews

"Herbert Brownell’s memoirs read like a mystery novel as he describes some of Eisenhower's most exciting moves and the motives behind them. Historians and others alike will find rich lodes in this book."—Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the United States, 1969–1986

"A fascinating firsthand account of the Eisenhower years written by a man who knows more about those years than anyone alive."—William P. Rogers, former U.S. Attorney General and Secretary of State

"Brownell’s contributions to America go far beyond his years at the Justice Department. He memorably re-creates the Nebraska of William Jennings Bryan and George Norris and the Manhattan of Al Smith and Fiorello La Guardia. His accounts of Tom Dewey’s unsuccessful campaigns and of the much happier effort to nominate the Eisenhower-Nixon ticket are invaluable. It’s only fitting that the man who served in many ways as the conscience of the Eisenhower administration should help us to understand both the man and his era as never before."—Richard Norton Smith, director of the Hoover Presidential Library and author of Thomas E. Dewey and His Times

"The presidential Republican party of this era could aptly be named the ‘Brownell Party’ rather than the ‘Dewey’ or ‘Eisenhower Party.’ These recollections are particularly important because in Brownell’s day—before the opening up of political processes to more ‘outsider’ influences—the role of internal party brokers and strategists like him was crucial."—Robert F. Burk, author of The Eisenhower Administration and Civil Rights

"Herbert Brownell was a superb Attorney General who played a major role in this country’s difficult journey to eradicate legally sanctioned racism. His extraordinary memoirs demonstrate that a competent and fair Attorney General, even with a conservative president, can be a major factor in assuring equal justice for all Americans."—A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Chief Judge Emeritus, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

From the Publisher

A modest, upright man and an anti-ideological Republican, Brownell, as he emerges in this book written with University of Vermont political scientist Burke, portrays the more casual and genteel politics of the past. Readers will agree with John Chancellor's observation that ``the trouble with people like Herbert Brownell is . . . there are not enough of them.'' Born in Nebraska in 1904, Brownell went from Yale Law School to a legal and political career in New York City. After a stint as a state legislator, he managed Thomas Dewey's successful New York gubernatorial campaign in 1942 and proceeded to work on the presidential campaigns of Dewey and Eisenhower. As Attorney General, Brownell moved to de-politicize and professionalize his department. He claims that Eisenhower made no deal with Earl Warren regarding the Supreme Court appointment, describes how he convinced Eisenhower to participate in the Brown desegregation case and maintains that the president's caution on civil rights ``may have been ultimately more productive'' because the problem ``was not amenable to quick remedy.'' Beneath Eisenhower's ``benevolent demeanor,'' Brownell argues, ``was a knowledgeable and astute political mind.'' Photos not seen by PW . (May)

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