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Thomas Finletter | |
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| 5thUnited States Ambassador to NATO | |
| In office March 2, 1961 – September 2, 1965 | |
| President | John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | Warren Randolph Burgess |
| Succeeded by | Harlan Cleveland |
| United States Secretary of the Air Force | |
| In office April 24, 1950 – January 20, 1953 | |
| President | Harry S. Truman |
| Preceded by | Stuart Symington |
| Succeeded by | Harold E. Talbott |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Thomas Knight Finletter (1893-11-11)November 11, 1893 Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | April 24, 1980(1980-04-24) (aged 86) New York City,New York, U.S. |
| Party | Democratic |
| Education | University of Pennsylvania(BA,LLB) |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | United States Army |
| Rank | Captain |
Thomas Knight Finletter (November 11, 1893 – April 24, 1980) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman.
Finletter was born inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Thomas Dickson Finletter and Helen Grill Finletter. He was the grandson ofThomas K. Finletter, for whom theThomas K. Finletter School in Philadelphia is named.[1]
He took his early education atThe Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia and graduated from theUniversity of Pennsylvania with bothBachelor of Arts degree in 1915 andbachelor of laws in 1920. He also served as editor-in-chief of theUniversity of Pennsylvania Law Review. In 1920, he married Gretchen Blaine Damrosch, daughter of the conductorWalter Damrosch and granddaughter of Secretary of StateJames G. Blaine.[2]
InWorld War I, he served with the 312th Field Artillery advancing to the rank ofcaptain. He was admitted to the Pennsylvaniabar in 1920 and the New York Bar in 1921.
Finletter practiced law in New York until he began his government service in 1941, as a special assistant to Secretary of StateCordell Hull on international economic affairs. In 1943, he was appointed executive director and later deputy director of the Office of Foreign Economic Coordinator (OFEC). In this post, he was in charge of planning economic activities related to liberated areas and was in control of matters of foreign exchange and matters relating to the operations of the Alien Property Custodian. Finletter resigned his post in 1944, when the functions of OFEC were absorbed by the newly createdForeign Economic Administration.
In 1945, Finletter acted as consultant at theUnited Nations Conference on International Organization atSan Francisco.
In the same year he was a cosigner of the "Declaration of the Dublin, N.H., Conference", a declaration on world peace issued by theDublin Conference on World Peace. The declaration stated that theUnited Nations was inadequate to maintain world peace, and advocated aworld federal government.
He returned back to public service July 18, 1947, when PresidentHarry S. Truman established a temporary, five-man commission that inquired into all phases of aviation and drafted the national air policy report. This commission was sometimes known as "The Finletter Commission". Finletter served as chairman of the Air Policy Commission which, on January 1, 1948, sent to the president the report entitled "Survival in the Air Age."
Finletter was chief of theEconomic Cooperation Administration's mission to the United Kingdom with headquarters inLondon, to which he had been appointed early in 1949.
President Truman appointed Finletter as the secondSecretary of the Air Force succeedingStuart Symington on April 24, 1950, in which office he served until January 20, 1953.
In 1958, Finletter was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate from New York. He won the support of some liberal reformers, prominently includingEleanor Roosevelt,[3] and was chosen as the Liberal Party's candidate, though the Democratic Convention preferredFrank Hogan. Finletter then withdrew from the Liberal ticket, endorsing Hogan.[4]
PresidentJohn F. Kennedy appointed Finletter to be theAmbassador to NATO to succeedWilliam Henry Draper Jr. in 1961. He served in that office until 1965 when he was replaced byHarlan Cleveland.
In 1965, following his term as Ambassador to NATO, he retired from government service and returned to his law practice with the firm ofCoudert Brothers, inNew York City. In January 1967, he approached SenatorEugene McCarthy to see if he was interested in challengingLyndon Johnson for the 1968 Democratic nomination for president, on the issue of theVietnam War.[5] McCarthy did go on to challenge Johnson, but failed to win the Democratic nomination. Finletter died on April 24, 1980.
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | United States Secretary of the Air Force 1950–1953 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to NATO 1961–1965 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
