Robert Abercrombie Lovett (September 14, 1895 – May 7, 1986) was an American politician who served as the fourth United States secretary of defense, having been promoted to this position from Deputy Secretary of Defense. He served in the cabinet of President Harry S. Truman from 1951 to 1953 and in this capacity, directed the Korean War. As Under Secretary of State, he handled most of the tasks of the State Department while George C. Marshall was secretary.
Lovett was a core member of the group of foreign policy elders known as "The Wise Men", and was deemed an "architect of the cold war" by social scientist G. William Domhoff, in his 1970 book, The Higher Circles: The Governing Class in America.
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Early life and education
Lovett was born on September 14, 1895, in Huntsville, Texas, to Robert S. Lovett, president and chairman of the board of the Union Pacific Railroad and a director of both The National City Bank of New York and Western Union.
Lovett graduated from The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, in 1914. He was a member of the Skull and Bones society at Yale University, where he graduated in 1918. From 1919 to 1921, Lovett undertook postgraduate studies in law, then business administration, at Harvard University.
Career
Military service
A member of the First Yale Unit, Lovett became a naval ensign during World War I. A passionate aviator, He flew with the British Naval Air Service on patrol and combat missions, and then commanded a US naval air squadron, achieving the rank of lieutenant commander. He remained interested in aeronautics, especially in European commercial and military aviation.
Industry
Lovett "joined his father's banking firm in 1921," later moving to his wife's family's banking firm, Brown Brothers Harriman, where he became a partner in 1926. Beginning in the 1930s, Lovett was an intermittent director of Freeport Sulphur for more than 25 years.
Politics
In December 1940, Lovett was appointed special assistant for air affairs to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. At the same time, John J. McCloy became general assistant secretary, and Harvey H. Bundy became special assistant to the secretary of war. In April 1941, Lovett was named assistant secretary of war for air, a position that had been vacant since Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933 inauguration as president. Lovett served with distinction, overseeing the massive expansion of the Army Air Forces and the procurement of huge numbers of aircraft during World War II. In awarding Lovett the Army's Distinguished Service Medal in September 1945, President Harry Truman wrote, "He has truly been the eyes, ears and hands of the Secretary of War in respect to the growth of that enormous American airpower which has astonished the world and played such a large part in bringing the war to a speedy and successful conclusion."
President Truman refused to accept the resignation of Lovett and McCloy when they and Bundy gave their resignations in September 1945. On October 22, 1945, Secretary of War Robert Patterson created the Lovett Committee, chaired by Robert A. Lovett, to advise the government on the post-World War II organization of US intelligence activities, which led to the creation of the CIA.
In December 1945, Lovett returned to Brown Brothers Harriman, only to be called back to Washington a little more than a year later to serve with General George Marshall as undersecretary of state. Through dialogue with Senator Arthur Vandenberg, he helped draft the Vandenberg resolution, which led to the establishment of NATO. Marshall was in poor health and had never been a workaholic. He turned over major responsibilities to his deputies, especially Lovett, and refused to be troubled by minutiae. By 1948, with frailties building up, Marshall's participation was further curtailed. He said, "The fact of the matter is that Lovett bears the principal burden as I get away whenever possible."
In January 1949, Lovett went back to his investment business. Marshall insisted for Lovett to join him again when he took over at the Pentagon as Secretary of Defense in September 1950. As deputy secretary of defense to Marshall, Lovett again played the major role in the department's management. When Lovett became Secretary of Defense, the end of the Korean War was not yet in sight. His main concern continued to be the long-range rearmament program. Like Marshall, Lovett believed that the United States erred seriously at the end of World War II by disintegrating the military. He had also joined Marshall in opposing the recognition of the new state of Israel in 1948 because he thought it was contrary to long-term US strategic interests in the region.
Personal life
On April 19, 1919, Lovett married debutante Adele Quartley Brown, daughter of James Brown (1863–1935), a descendant of Alexander Brown (1764—1834) and the New York Brown banking family that, in 1931, would merge with another Wall Street firm, Harriman Brothers & Company, forming Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., and Adele Quartley (1866 – 1954), daughter of famed seascape painter, Arthur Quartley; the couple had two children.
Later life and death
After Lovett left office on January 20, 1953, he returned again to Brown Brothers Harriman, where he remained active as a general partner for many years. Lovett has been recognized as one of the most capable administrators to hold the office of secretary of defense and as a perceptive critic of defense organization. His work in completing the Korean War mobilization and in planning and implementing the long-range rearmament program, as well as his proposals to restructure the Department of Defense, were among his major contributions. His work for the U.S. Government was not yet quite completed. By January 1956, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower persuaded Lovett to take on a part-time job with the brand new President's Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities which, years later, would become known as the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.
Following the 1960 presidential election, Joseph P. Kennedy – who had served with Lovett on the President's Board of Consultants – advised his son John F. Kennedy to offer Lovett any U.S. Cabinet post he might desire. Lovett graciously declined, citing health reasons. In 1963, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, with Distinction. In 1964, he was awarded the prestigious Sylvanus Thayer Award by the United States Military Academy for his service to the country. G. William Domhoff—who described Lovett, Harvey Bundy and John McCloy as having a close working relationship; and credited John F. Kennedy as accepting Lovett's advice to appoint Dean Rusk as Secretary of State, Robert S. McNamara as Defense Secretary, and C. Douglas Dillon as Treasury Secretary in 1961.
Lovett died in Locust Valley, New York, on May 7, 1986, at the age of 90. He was preceded in death by his wife, Adele, on January 4, 1986. Both outlived their children, Evelyn Springer Lovett Brown (1920–1967) and Robert Scott Lovett, II (1927–1984). They were interred in Locust Valley Cemetery there. The Department of History at Yale University, his alma mater, has the Robert A. Lovett Chair of Military and Naval History in his honor. Its current incumbent is John Lewis Gaddis, the noted historian of the Cold War.