Thomas Knight Finletter (November 11, 1893 – April 24, 1980) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman.

Early life

Finletter was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Thomas Dickson Finletter and Helen Grill Finletter. He was the grandson of

Thomas K. Finletter Thomas Knight Finletter (November 11, 1893 – April 24, 1980) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman. Early life Finletter was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Thomas Dickson Finletter and Helen Grill Finletter. He wa ...

, for whom the Thomas K. Finletter School in Philadelphia is named. He took his early education at

The Episcopal Academy The Episcopal Academy, founded in 1785, is a private, co-educational school for grades Pre-K through 12 based in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Prior to 2008, the main campus was located in Merion Station and the satellite campus was located in D ...

in Philadelphia and graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

with both

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in 1915 and

bachelor of laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...

in 1920. He also served as editor-in-chief of the

University of Pennsylvania Law Review The ''University of Pennsylvania Law Review'' is a law review published by an organization of second and third year J.D. students at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. It is the oldest law journal in the United States, having been publishe ...

Career

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he served with the 312th Field Artillery advancing to the rank of captain. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar 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 State Cordell 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 created Foreign Economic Administration. In 1945, Finletter acted as consultant at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

Conference on International Organization at

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. In the same year he was a cosigner of the " Declaration of the Dublin, N.H., Conference", a declaration on world peace issued by the Dublin Conference on World Peace. The declaration stated that the

was inadequate to maintain world peace, and advocated a world federal government. He returned back to public service July 18, 1947, when President Harry 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 the

Economic Cooperation Administration The Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) was a U.S. government agency set up in 1948 to administer the Marshall Plan. It reported to both the State Department and the Department of Commerce. The agency's first head was Paul G. Hoffman, a form ...

's mission to the United Kingdom with headquarters in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, to which he had been appointed early in 1949.

Secretary of the Air Force

President Truman appointed Finletter as the second

Secretary of the Air Force A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a wh ...

succeeding

Stuart Symington William Stuart Symington III (; June 26, 1901 – December 14, 1988) was an American businessman and Democratic politician from Missouri. He served as the first Secretary of the Air Force from 1947 to 1950 and was a United States Senator from ...

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 including Eleanor Roosevelt, and was chosen as the Liberal Party's candidate, though the Democratic Convention preferred

Frank Hogan Frank Smithwick Hogan (January 17, 1902 – April 2, 1974) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He served as New York County District Attorney for more than 30 years, during which he achieved a reputation for professionalism and ...

. Finletter then withdrew from the Liberal ticket, endorsing Hogan.

Diplomatic service

President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

appointed Finletter to be the Ambassador to NATO to succeed William Henry Draper Jr. in 1961. He served in that office until 1965 when he was replaced by

Harlan Cleveland Harlan Cleveland (January 19, 1918 – May 30, 2008) was an American diplomat, educator, and author. He served as Lyndon B. Johnson's U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 1965 to 1969, and earlier as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International ...

Later life

In 1965, following his term as Ambassador to NATO, he retired from government service and returned to his law practice with the firm of Coudert Brothers, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. In January 1967, he approached Senator Eugene McCarthy to see if he was interested in challenging Lyndon Johnson for the 1968 Democratic nomination for president, on the issue of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

. McCarthy did go on to challenge Johnson, but failed to win the Democratic nomination. Finletter died on April 24, 1980.

Book

*''Interim Report on the U.S. Search for a Substitute for Isolation'', W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., New York: 1968

Political and Professional Affiliations

* Americans for Democratic Action * Council on Foreign Relations * United World Federalists *

Delta Phi Delta Phi () is a fraternity founded in 1827 at Union College in Schenectady, New York consisting of ten active chapters along the East Coast of the United States. The fraternity also uses the names "St. Elmo," "St. Elmo Hall," or merely "Elmo" ...

Notes

References

*
The Truman LibraryTelevision News Archive, Vanderbilt University

External links

*
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Finletter, Thomas K. 1893 births 1980 deaths United States Secretaries of the Air Force Truman administration personnel Permanent Representatives of the United States to NATO United States Air Force officers Episcopal Academy alumni University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni United States Army personnel of World War I New York (state) lawyers Pennsylvania lawyers Lawyers from Philadelphia