James Francis Byrnes

James Francis Byrnes 1879-1972, American public official, Secretary of State (1945-47), governor of South Carolina (1951-55), b. Charleston, S.C. He studied law while working (1900-1908) as a court reporter, owned and edited a newspaper in Aiken, S. C., and represented (1911-25) South Carolina in the House. As Senator (1931-41), Byrnes, a Southern Democrat, became budgetary expert for the New Deal. He served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1941-42), but resigned and became director of economic stabilization (1942) and later (1943) director of war mobilization. As Secretary of State he tried to mend postwar differences with the USSR. He later became extremely anti-Soviet. An opponent of racial integration, he was elected governor of South Carolina, and opposed further federal centralization.

Bibliography: See his Speaking Frankly (1947) and All in One Lifetime (1958); K. A. Clements, James F. Byrnes and the Origins of the Cold War (1982).

Byrnes, James Francis ( ‘Jimmy’ Byrnes) (b. 2 May 1882, d. 24 Jan. 1972). US Secretary of State 1945–7 From a modest background in Charleston, South Carolina, he trained as a lawyer and built up a practice to become a public prosecutor in 1908. In order to meet the age requirement for his first job, he falsified his date of birth as 1879, and continued to use it thereafter. He sat in the House of Representatives as a Southern Democrat, 1911–25, and in the Senate, 1931–41. Although on the right of his party he strongly supported President Roosevelt's New Deal, he cooled towards it after Roosevelt's attempted purge against conservative Democrats in 1937–8. However, he still supported Roosevelt's campaign for a third term in 1940. Briefly a Supreme Court Justice, he became director of the Office of War Mobilization 1943–5 and was then appointed Secretary of State by President Truman. A strong believer in the UN, he helped to ensure economic recovery in Germany and was reluctant to accept the division of that country. No enthusiast for the Truman Doctrine, he was succeeded by George Marshall and was later elected Governor of South Carolina in 1951, where he supported racial segregation.

Byrnes, James F. (1879–1972),US Democrat senator, lawyer, judge, and a close friend of Roosevelt, who directed the newly established Office of Economic Stabilization in October 1942 and then the Office of War Mobilization which Roosevelt formed in May 1943. This made him the chief planner of the American wartime economy, a position so powerful that he became known as the assistant president. He accompanied Roosevelt to the Yalta conference in February 1945 (see ARGONAUT), became Truman's secretary of state when Roosevelt died, and attended the Potsdam conference in July 1945 (see TERMINAL). See also USA, 3.