James I. Loeb

Oral History Interviews with
James I. Loeb

National director, Union for Democratic Action (1945-47) and Americans for Democratic Action (1947-51); Consultant to President Harry S. Truman's special counsel (1951-52); Executive Assistant to Governor W. Averell Harriman (1952); U.S. Ambassador to Peru (1961-62); and Ambassador to Guinea (1963-65).

June 26 & June 27, 1970
By Jerry N. Hess

[Notices and Restrictions | List of Subjects Discussed]

NOTICE
These are transcripts of tape-recorded interviews conducted for the Harry S. Truman Library. A draft of each transcript was edited by the interviewee but only minor emendations were made; therefore, the reader should remember that these are essentially transcripts of the spoken, rather than the written word.

Numbers appearing in square brackets (ex. [45]) within the transcript indicate the pagination in the original, hardcopy version of the oral history interview.

RESTRICTIONS
These oral history transcripts may be read, quoted from, cited, and reproduced for purposes of research. They may not be published in full except by permission of the Harry S. Truman Library.

List of Subjects Discussed

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X-Y-Z

A

    Acheson, Dean, 113-114
    Adirondack Daily Enterprize, 10
    Africa, 223-22
    Agnew, Spiro T., 229
    Alabama, 62
    Alexander, Archibald, 129
    Alsop, Stewart, 50
    American Federation of Labor (AFL), 34
    American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), 32
    Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), 8, 28, 45, 46, 47, 52, 54, 59, 65, 81, 89, 98, 100, 107, 111, 112, 113, 135, 184, 209, 213, 216
      and Eisenhower, Dwight David, 15-25, 31
      paper dealing with, 14-15
      reasons for the founding of, 10-13
      Truman, Harry S., evaluated by, 17-19
    Anderson, Senator Clinton P., 81, 84
    Anderson, Eugenie Moore, 35, 36, 55
      and political affairs of Minneapolis, Minnesota, 56-60
    Arizona, 201
    Arvey, Jacob M., 31, 127, 138
    Associated Industries, 71
    Associated Press, 148
    Atlanta, Georgia, 192
    Atlantic City, New Jersey, 19
    Atomic bomb, decision to use on Japan, 75-76
B C
    California, 31, 33-34, 63
    Carey, James, 135
    Carnegie Endowment for Peace, 118
    Carr, Robert Kenneth, and knowledge of New Hampshire politics, 92-94, 96
    Carroll, Senator John A., 111, 189-190
    Catton, Bruce, 85-86
    Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 8, 204
    Chapman, Oscar L., 65, 85, 108, 155
    Chapman, Senator Virgil Munday, 30
    Chicago, Illinois, 3, 4, 9, 126, 137-138, 147, 148
    Chicago Daily News, 202
    Childs, Marquis, 111
    Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), 16
    Civil Rights, 76
      as an issue in the 1948 Democratic National Convention, 27, 30-40, 41-43
      and the Presidential Civil Rights Commission, 36, 92
    Clark, Blair, 162
    Clifford, Clark, 65, 119
    Clymer, Adam, 15
    Cohn, Benjamin V., 158
    Collingwood, Charles, 115, 116
    Colorado, 111, 190
    Columbia University, 20, 162, 201
    Commodity Credit Corporation, 67
    Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), 19-20, 50
    Connecticut Manufacturers Association, 210
    Connelly, Matthew, 185
D
    Daily Worker, 206, 212
    Dartmouth College, 3, 4, 5, 6, 92, 94, 95, 96, 148
    Davis, Elmer, 16
    Deerfield Shields Township High School, 3
    Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, 59
    Democratic National Committee, 9, 81, 83, 84, 208
    Democratic Party Platform, 1948, and the Civil Rights Section of, 27, 30-40, 41-43
    Denmark, 198
    Dennison, Robert L., 193
    De Sapio, Carmine, 182, 183
    Dewey, Thomas, 31, 151
    as a candidate in the 1948 Presidential election, 67, 68-69, 71-72
    Dixiecrats, 38-39, 44
    Donahue, Elizabeth, 107, 126-127
    Douglas, Paul, 100
    Douglas, William O., 24, 25, 112
    Dulles, Allen, 8
    Dulles, John Foster, 118, 179, 228
E F
    Farley, James, 37, 54
    Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 202, 203, 204, 206, 207, 208
    Feeney, Joseph, 190
    Feinberg, Abraham, 64
    Finnegan, James, 174
    Fitzpatrick, Paul, 150
    "Flaming Arrows to the Sky: A Memoir of Adlai Stevenson", 144-145
    Flanders, Senator Ralph E., 214
    Flynn, Ed, 37-38
    Foreign Relations Committee, 225
    Franco, John Richard, 89, 90
    Frankfurter, Felix, 77
    Freeman, Orville, 59
    Fritchey, Clayton, 171-172
G
    Galbraith, John Kenneth, 44, 85, 225
    Garner, John Nance, 218
    Germany, 12, 18
    Ginsburg, David, 24, 64
    Grain storage bins, 67-68
    Granger, Lester, 22, 23
    Greece, 74
    Gross, Bertram, 83
    Guinea, 10
    Gunther, Violet, 103, 107
H I J K L
    LaFollette, Robert M., 226
    LaGuardia, Fiorello, 7, 46
    Lake Placid, New York, 45, 46, 70
    Lake Placid News, 10
    Landis, James, 6
    Landry, Robert, 193
    Lanigan, James L., 139, 148, 165, 166, 179, 182, 183, 196
    Laski, Harold, 77
    Lawrence, David, 38
    Lehman, Senator Herbert, 135, 152, 159, 200
    Leuchtenburg, William E., 201
    Leviero, Anthony, 187
    Liberty League, 54
    Lilienthal, David, 111
    Lincoln, Abraham, 219
    Lloyd, David, 8, 80, 82, 102, 107, 189, 212
    Loeb, James I., 145, 202
      and the Americans for Democratic Action, 8
      background of, 3-10
      and the Democratic National Committee, 9
      France, as a student in, 6
      Guinea, as ambassador to, 10
      Harriman, W. Averell, discusses, 10, 199-201
      Johnson, Lyndon B., evaluated by Loeb, 219-223, 224-225, 227-228
      Kennedy, John F., evaluated by Loeb, 220-223, 224, 226-227, 228
      and McCarthyism, 202-209
      and Murphy, Charles, 184
      Nixon, Richard M., evaluated by Loeb, 228, 229-232
      Peru, as ambassador to, 10
      and "Playclass" for children, 4-5
      Progressive Citizens of America, addresses, 45-52
      Roosevelt, Franklin D., evaluated by Loeb, 216-218
      and Souers, Admiral Sidney W., 191-193
      and Stevenson, Adlai, 9-10
      Truman, Harry S., evaluated by Loeb, 194-197, 218-219, 220, 224
      Twenty Years of Teamwork, 81-86
      and the White House staff, 80-87, 184-193
    Lombardo, Guy, 206
    Louisiana, 62
    Loyalty Review Board, 209, 210
M N
    National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 23
    National Association of Manufacturers, 71
    National Labor Relations Board, 106
    National Urban Labor League, 22
    Nazi-Soviet Pact, 12
    Neal, William Elmer, 188
    Nelson, Gaylord, 42-43
    Neustadt, Richard, 130, 148, 160, 168, 188-189
    New Deal, 216
    New Hampshire, politics in, 92-98
    New Republic, 53, 55-56
    New York, New York, 6, 7, 46, 62, 64, 73, 109, 112, 139, 149, 150
      Harriman, W. Averell, as candidate for Governor of, 181-183
    New York Herald-Tribune, 206
    New York Times, 8, 141, 182-183, 186, 206
    New Yorker, 156
    Niebuhr, Reinhold, 7-8, 12, 74, 129-130
    Nixon, Richard M., 223
    evaluated by James Loeb, 228, 229-232
    Norris, Senator George, 211
    Northwestern University, 6, 204
    Norway, 216
O
    Oberlin College, 92
    O'Connell, Joseph, 16-17
    Office of Price Administration, 64
    Oklahoma, 119
    O'Mahoney, Senator Joseph C., 168, 180
    Oregon, 108
    "Out But Happy Club"", 191
P
    Paley, William, 5
    Paris, Kentucky, 29
    Pennsylvania, 32, 38, 174
    Perlmeter, Irving, 186
    Peru, 10, 65
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 34, 51
    Pinchot, Gifford, 45
    Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 20, 22
    Political Action Committee of the CIO, 20
    Porter, Paul, 29, 64
    Presidential Civil Rights Commission, 36, 92
    Presidential election campaign, 1948:
      Dewey, Thomas, as a candidate, 67, 68-69, 71-72
      grain storage bins as an issue, 67-68
      splinter parties, 61-63
      Truman, Harry S., and predictions concerning his election, 66-70
    Presidential election campaign, 1952: Presidential election campaign, 1956, Adlai Stevenson's involvement in, 170-171, 172-176
    Presidential election campaign, 1960, Harry S. Truman campaigns during, 177-178
    Presidential primary system, a discussion of, 197-200
    Pressman, Lee, 50-51
    Prichard, Edward Kettlewell, Jr., 28, 30 Progressive Citizens of America, 52
      Loeb, James, addresses, 45-52
    Puerto Rico, 49
    Pulitzer Prize, 187
Q R S T U
    Union for Democratic Action, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 89
    Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 12-13, 15, 175
    United Automobile Workers, 90
    United Kingdom, 175
    United Nations, 117
    University of Pennsylvania, 33
    Urban League, 23, 109
    Utah, 168
V
    Vandenberg, Arthur H., 89
    Van Devander, Charles, 80-81
    Vaughan, Harry, 191, 193
    Vietnam, 185
    Vinson, Fred H., 99, 123
W
    Wake Island conference, 186
    Wallace, George, 230-231
    Wallace, Henry, 17, 43, 44, 47, 49, 62, 78, 207, 219 Washington, D.C., 73, 109, 139
    Washington, George, 219
    Watkins, Senator Arthur V., 214-215
    Weaver, George, 207
    Wechsler, James H., 50, 69
    Welch, Joseph, 214
    Welles, Sumner, 78
    White, William Allen, 11
    William Allen White Committee, 11
    Williams, Governor G. Mennen, 89, 90, 91
    Williamsburg, USS, 168
    Wisconsin, 58

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