115 Facts About Lewis Strauss

Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss was an American businessman, philanthropist, and naval officer who served two terms on the US Atomic Energy Commission, the second as its chairman.

Lewis Strauss was a major figure in the development of nuclear weapons, the nuclear energy policy of the United States, and nuclear power in the United States.

President Dwight D Eisenhower's nomination of Strauss to become US Secretary of Commerce resulted in a prolonged, nationally visible political battle during 1959 and Strauss was not confirmed by the US Senate.

Lewis Strauss's family moved to Richmond, Virginia, and he grew up and attended public schools there.

Lewis Strauss was valedictorian of his high school class, but typhoid fever in his senior year made him unable to graduate with his class.

Lewis Strauss had planned to study physics, of which he developed an amateur's knowledge from reading textbooks, at the University of Virginia.

Lewis Strauss was quite successful in his sales efforts; over the next three years, he saved $20,000, enough money for college tuition.

However, Lewis Strauss's mother encouraged him to perform public or humanitarian service.

Accordingly, Lewis Strauss took the train to Washington, DC, and talked his way into serving without pay as an assistant to Hoover.

Lewis Strauss worked well and soon was promoted to Hoover's private secretary and confidant.

Besides the US food relief organizations, Lewis Strauss worked with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to relieve the suffering of Jewish refugees, who were often neglected by other bodies.

Lewis Strauss acted as a liaison between Hoover's organization and JDC workers in a number of Central and Eastern European countries.

Lewis Strauss had grown up in Virginia surrounded by the veneration of Southern military heroes from the "War Between the States", but a tour he took in summer 1918 to the devastated battlefields of Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood removed from his worldview any such glamorous or romantic notions.

In so doing, Lewis Strauss turned down an offer to become comptroller for the newly forming League of Nations.

Lewis Strauss returned to the United States and started at Kuhn Loeb in 1919.

Kuhn Loeb's major customers were railroads, and by the mid-1920s, Lewis Strauss was helping to arrange financing for new railroad terminal buildings in Cincinnati and Richmond and for the reorganizations of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and the Chicago, Milwaukee, St Paul and Pacific Railroad.

Subsequently, Lewis Strauss arranged the firm's financing for steel companies such as Inland Steel, Republic Steel, and Great Lakes Steel.

Lewis Strauss became a full partner in 1929, at which point he was making a million dollars a year, and he endured the Wall Street Crash of 1929 without significant financial damage.

On March 5,1923, Lewis Strauss married Alice Hanauer in a ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York.

Lewis Strauss was a New York native who had attended Vassar College and was a skilled equestrian and potter.

Lewis Strauss was a member of American Bankers Association and New York State Chamber of Commerce.

Hoover was a candidate for the Republican Party nomination in the United States presidential election, 1920; Lewis Strauss campaigned for him and attended the 1920 Republican National Convention on his behalf, but Hoover failed to gain significant support.

Lewis Strauss again worked for the this-time-successful campaign of Hoover in the United States presidential election, 1928, and was a member from Virginia that year of the Republican National Committee.

Over several years, Lewis Strauss engaged in activities designed to strengthen the Republican Party in Virginia and the South overall.

Lewis Strauss was committed to protecting the reputation of President Hoover; in 1930, on behalf of the White House, he conspired with two naval intelligence officers to illegally break into the office of a Tammany Hall follower in New York who was thought to hold documents that would be damaging to Hoover.

Lewis Strauss shared this antipathy with Hoover, who increasingly adopted an ideologically conservative, anti-New Deal viewpoint in the years following his defeat.

Lewis Strauss was active in Kuhn Loeb until 1941, although he resented restrictions imposed on investment banking by regulators in the Roosevelt administration and derived less enjoyment from the business.

Nonetheless, in his role as an investment banker Lewis Strauss had become vastly wealthy, and given his humble original circumstances he has been considered a self-made millionaire and a Horatio Alger tale.

Lewis Strauss was active in the Jewish Agricultural Society, for whom by 1941 he was honorary president.

Lewis Strauss did not view Jews as belonging to a nation or a race; he considered himself an American of Jewish religion, and consequently he advocated for the rights of Jews to live as equal and integral citizens of the nations in which they resided.

Lewis Strauss first made his concern known in early 1933, writing to President Hoover during the final weeks of Hoover's time in office.

Lewis Strauss attended a London conference of concerned Jews later that year on behalf of the American Jewish Committee, but the conference fell apart over the issue of Zionism.

Lewis Strauss was president of Congregation Emanu-El of New York, the largest such in New York City, for a decade, from 1938 to 1948.

Lewis Strauss was named to the presidency to replace Judge Irving Lehman, after having previously been chair of the temple's finance committee.

Lewis Strauss had first joined the board of trustees of the temple in 1929, during the time the congregation was absorbing the merger of Temple Beth-El.

Lewis Strauss succeeded in Washington's social and political world despite it being notoriously anti-Semitic at the time.

Lewis Strauss was proud of his Southern upbringing as well as his religion, and insisted his name be pronounced in a Virginia fashion as 'Straws' rather than per the usual Germanic form.

Lewis Strauss remained in the reserve as a lieutenant commander.

Lewis Strauss wanted to go into intelligence but was blocked, reportedly because the Director of Naval Intelligence, US Navy was prejudiced against Jews and because Strauss's contributions to B'nai B'rith had aroused suspicion on the part of FBI director J Edgar Hoover and others in the US intelligence community.

Lewis Strauss served as an operating room nurse's aide during this period.

Lewis Strauss organized a morale-boosting effort to award "E for Excellence" awards to plants doing a good job of making war materials.

In conjunction with Senator Harry F Byrd of Virginia, Strauss established the Office of Naval Research, which kept scientific research of naval matters under control of the Navy rather than civilian or academic organizations.

Lewis Strauss's contributions were recognized by the Navy and by 1945 he was serving on the Army-Navy Munitions Board, a role that concluded by the following year.

Lewis Strauss was on the Naval Reserve Policy Board starting in 1946.

Lewis Strauss rose in rank and influence due to a combination of his intelligence, personal energy, and ability to find favor in higher places.

Lewis Strauss was learning how to get things accomplished in Washington via unofficial back channels, something he would become quite adept at.

Lewis Strauss's mother died of cancer in 1935, his father of the same disease in 1937.

Lewis Strauss ultimately provided tens of thousands of dollars to this venture.

Lewis Strauss talked to scientists who had left Nazi Germany and learned about atom-related experiments that had taken place there.

In February 1940, Szilard asked him to fund the acquisition of some radium, but Lewis Strauss refused, as he had already spent a large sum.

Lewis Strauss had no further direct involvement with atomic energy developments during the war.

Lewis Strauss recommended a test of the atomic bomb against a number of modern warships, which he thought would refute the idea that the atomic bomb made the Navy obsolete.

Lewis Strauss's recommendation contributed to the decision to hold the mid-1946 Operation Crossroads tests, the first since the war, at Bikini Atoll.

In October 1946, in advance of the commission actually coming into being, Strauss was named by President Truman as one of the first five Commissioners, with David E Lilienthal as the chairman.

Lewis Strauss had been recommended for a position on the body by Vice Admiral Paul Frederick Foster, a long-time friend for whom Lewis Strauss had earlier provided contacts in the business world.

Lewis Strauss, who had briefly returned to work at Kuhn Loeb after the war, now exited the firm altogether in order to comply with AEC regulations.

Once there, Lewis Strauss became one of the first commissioners to speak in dissent from existing policy.

Lewis Strauss believed in a fundamental premise of the Cold War, that the Soviet Union was determined on a course of world domination; as such he believed in having a more powerful nuclear force than the Soviets and in maintaining secrecy about US nuclear activities.

When Lewis Strauss was rebuffed by the other commissioners, he went to National Security Council executive secretary Sidney Souers in order to bring the matter to President Truman directly.

Lewis Strauss was involved in the negotiations with Columbia University that led to a sale and leasing back of real estate associated with part of Rockefeller Center.

However Lewis Strauss felt the brothers treated him as a second-class asset and in turn he felt no loyalty towards them.

Once Dwight D Eisenhower secured the nomination Strauss contributed substantial monies towards Eisenhower's campaign.

Lewis Strauss was now one of the best-known advocates of atomic energy for many purposes.

In 1955 Lewis Strauss helped arrange the US participation in the first international conference on peaceful uses of atomic energy, held in Geneva.

In 1954, Lewis Strauss predicted that atomic power would make electricity "too cheap to meter".

Lewis Strauss was possibly referring to Project Sherwood, a secret program to develop power from hydrogen fusion, rather the commonly-believed uranium fission reactors.

Indeed, on the run-up to a 1958 Geneva conference on atomic power, Lewis Strauss offered substantial funding to three laboratories for fusion power research.

Lewis Strauss himself downplayed dangers from fallout and insisted that it was vital that a program of atmospheric blasts proceed unhindered.

However, Lewis Strauss contributed to public fears when, during a March 1954 press conference, he made an impromptu remark that a single Soviet H-bomb could destroy the New York metropolitan area.

The British asked the AEC for the report, but Lewis Strauss resisted giving them anything more than a heavily redacted version, leading to frustration on the part of Prime Minister Winston Churchill and other UK officials.

Internal debate ensued over the next several years within the Eisenhower administration over the possibility of an atmospheric test ban with the Soviet Union, with some in favor of trying to arrange one, but Lewis Strauss was always one of those implacably opposed.

Lewis Strauss would continue to minimize the dangers of Bravo fallout to the islanders of the atolls, insisting in his 1962 memoirs that they had been under "continuous and competent medical supervision" and that follow-up tests showed them to be in "excellent health [and] their blood counts were approximately normal".

Once that body was in place, Eisenhower began to directly receive a broader selection of scientific information; Lewis Strauss lost his ability to control scientists' access to the president and his influence within the administration began to recede.

Lewis Strauss met with Ernst David Bergmann, chairman of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission and a key early force in the Israeli nuclear program.

Oppenheimer subsequently was a leading opponent of moving ahead with the hydrogen bomb and proposed a national security strategy based on atomic weapons and continental defense; Lewis Strauss wanted the development of thermonuclear weapons and a doctrine of deterrence.

Oppenheimer supported a policy of openness regarding the numbers and capabilities of the atomic weapons in America's arsenal; Lewis Strauss believed that such unilateral frankness would benefit no one but Soviet military planners.

Lewis Strauss was offended by Oppenheimer having once engaged in adulterous relations.

Lewis Strauss had become aware of Oppenheimer's former Communist affiliations before World War II and questionable behavior during the war, and he began to think that Oppenheimer might even be a Soviet spy.

Lewis Strauss was suspicious of Oppenheimer's tendency to downplay Soviet capabilities.

Lewis Strauss was not alone in having his doubts; a number of other officials in Washington were suspicious that Oppenheimer might be a security risk.

Lewis Strauss's suspicions increased further with the discovery that in 1948 and 1949 Oppenheimer had tried to stop the long-range airborne detection system that Lewis Strauss had championed and that had worked in discovering the Soviet Union's first atomic weapon test.

At first Lewis Strauss moved cautiously, even heading off an attack on Oppenheimer by Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Lewis Strauss had the AEC staff compile a list of charges and surprised Oppenheimer with them in December 1953.

Lewis Strauss is often most strongly remembered as the driving force in the month-long hearings, held in April and May 1954, before an AEC Personnel Security Board that resulted in Oppenheimer's security clearance being revoked.

Lewis Strauss had access to the FBI's information on Oppenheimer, including his conversations with his lawyers, which was used to prepare counterarguments in advance.

Eisenhower wanted to reappoint him, but Lewis Strauss feared the Senate would reject or at least subject him to ferocious questioning.

Eisenhower offered him the post of White House Chief of Staff, to replace Sherman Adams, but Lewis Strauss did not think that it would suit him.

Eisenhower asked if Lewis Strauss would consider succeeding John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State, but Lewis Strauss did not want to preempt Undersecretary Christian Herter, who was a good friend.

Finally, Eisenhower proposed that Lewis Strauss become Secretary of Commerce, which Lewis Strauss accepted.

Lewis Strauss took office via a recess appointment, effective November 13,1958.

Lewis Strauss overstated the importance of his role in the development of the H-bomb, implying that he had convinced Truman to support it; Truman was annoyed by this, and sent a letter to Anderson undermining Lewis Strauss's claim, a letter that Anderson promptly leaked to the press.

Lewis Strauss attempted to reach Truman through an intermediary to rescue the situation, but was rebuffed and felt bitter at the lack of support.

Voting for Lewis Strauss were 15 Democrats and 31 Republicans; voting against him were 47 Democrats and 2 Republicans.

The numerous enemies that Lewis Strauss had made during his career took some pleasure from the turn of events.

Lewis Strauss himself was hurt by the rejection, and never fully getting over it, tended to brood over events past.

Lewis Strauss remained on good terms with President Eisenhower, and for several years in the 1960s Eisenhower and Strauss advocated construction of a nuclear-powered, regional desalination facility in the Middle East that would benefit both Israel and its Arab neighbors, but the plan never found sufficient Congressional support to move forward.

Lewis Strauss lived on a 2,000-acre farm, where he engaged in cattle breeding and raised prized Black Angus.

Lewis Strauss's funeral was held back in New York at Temple Emanu-El and there was a memorial service held in the capital at Washington Hebrew Congregation.

Lewis Strauss is buried in Richmond Hebrew Cemetery along with more than sixty other family members.

Alice Hanauer Lewis Strauss lived until 2004, when she died at age 101 in Brandy Station.

The Oppenheimer matter quickly became a cause celebre, with Lewis Strauss frequently being cast in the role of villain.

Lewis Strauss had his defenders as well, who saw the hero and villain roles as being reversed.

Lewis Strauss had been a quite prominent leader in Jewish causes and organizations throughout his life and this particular charge was fundamentally implausible.

Lewis Strauss was, on the one hand, a sociable person who enjoyed dinner parties and who was adept at prestidigitation; and, on the other hand, he gave the impression of intellectual arrogance.

Lewis Strauss could be warm-hearted yet seem at times like a stuffed shirt.

Scholar of the early Cold War period Ken Young studied the historiography of H-bomb development and scrutinized the role that Lewis Strauss played in trying to form that history to his benefit.

In particular, Young looked at the publication during 1953 and 1954 of a popular magazine article and book that promoted a highly distorted notion that the hydrogen bomb project had been unreasonably stalled, both before Truman's decision and after, by a small group of American scientists working against the national interest; that Lewis Strauss was one of the heroes who had overcome this cabal's efforts.

Along the same lines, historian Priscilla Johnson McMillan has identified archival evidence which suggests to some degree that Strauss was in collusion with William L Borden, the congressional staff member who after leaving that position wrote the November 1953 letter that triggered the Oppenheimer security hearing.

McMillan has made the evidentiary case that, following that letter, Lewis Strauss was likely behind Eisenhower's "blank wall" directive to separate Oppenheimer from nuclear secrets.

On July 14,1958, Lewis Strauss was presented with the Medal of Freedom, a civilian honor, by President Eisenhower.

Lewis Strauss received a number of honorary degrees during his lifetime; indeed his advocates during the Secretary of Commerce confirmation hearings gave twenty-three as the number of colleges and universities that had awarded him such honors.

Lewis Strauss served on boards of directors for several corporations, one of which was the United States Rubber Company.

Lewis Strauss was a trustee of the Hampton Institute, a historically black university in Virginia, as well as of the Memorial Hospital for the Treatment of Cancer and Allied Diseases in New York.

Lewis Strauss was a founding trustee of Eisenhower College, for which he had assisted in the planning and raising funds.

In 1955, Lewis Strauss received a silver plaque from the Men's Club of Temple Emanu-El for "distinguished service"; President Eisenhower sent a message to the ceremony saying the honor was well-deserved.