Vandenberg, Arthur Hendrick

(1884-1951)

   Arthur H. Vandenberg was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and after a year at the University of Michigan Law School in 1901, he became a reporter for the Grand Rapids Herald. In 1906, he became editor and continued in that role until 1928. Having made a name for himself with his moderate progressive Republican views, in 1928 he was appointed to fill the seat in the U.S. Senate for Michigan vacated by Woodbridge N. Ferris upon his death. Vandenberg held the seat until his death. Although he supported some New Deal measures, like the Banking Acts and public housing legislation, he opposed many of the other measures, including the Tennessee Valley Authority, Agricultural Adjustment Act, Works Progress Administration and 1935 Revenue Act. He was also a leading isolationist and active member of the Nye Committee.

   After Pearl Harbor and U.S. entry into World War II, Vandenberg modified his position, supporting the war effort, and in 1945 publicly abandoning isolationism in favor of world leadership by the United States. He was a delegate to the San Francisco Conference in 1945 and the United Nations General Assembly in 1946. Beginning in 1947, Vandenberg chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and worked closely with the Truman administration to reach agreement on such major foreign policy such as the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan. The Vandenberg Resolution, passed by the Senate in June 1948, accepted the necessity of U.S. participation in regional and other collective agreements and paved the way for Senate approval of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Highly respected in the party, Vandenberg was a possible candidate for the presidential nomination in 1940 and 1944, but he would never campaign openly and so was passed by. Nonetheless, he was an influential figure during this period.