Rosenman, Samuel I. Papers

Special Counsel to the President, 1945-1946

The papers of Samuel I. Rosenman mostly relate to his career of government service in the White House, and particularly his work as Special Counsel to President Harry S. Truman from 1945 to 1946. They include correspondence, draft letters and statements, invitations, newspaper clippings, printed material, speeches, speech drafts, notes, pamphlets, reports, and diary entries for part of 1945 and 1946. The collection also contains material documenting Rosenman’s work as an unofficial advisor to President Truman after his retirement to private life in 1946.

See also Samuel I. Rosenman oral history

Size: About 5.2 linear feet (approximately 10,400 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: Samuel I. Rosenman donated his literary property rights in any of his unpublished writings in this collection to the United States government. Documents created by U.S. government officials in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other writings in this collection is assumed to remain with the authors of the documents or their heirs.
Processed by: Philip D. Lagerquist (1957); Frank L. Barkofske (1960); Philip D. Lagerquist (1962); Erwin J. Mueller (1969); Laura Heller (1969); Erwin J. Mueller (1974); Sharie Simon, Janice Davis, and Carol Martin (2006).

The Samuel I. Rosenman Papers relate for the most part to Rosenman’s career of government service in the White House during the administration of Harry S. Truman. Particularly well documented is his service as Special Counsel to the President from 1945 to 1946 and as unofficial advisor to President Truman after his retirement from government. In addition, the collection contains information about Rosenman’s behind-the-scenes involvement in war crimes issues. The papers include correspondence, draft letters and statements, invitations, newspaper clippings, printed material, speeches, speech drafts, notes, pamphlets, reports and a diary that Rosemen kept for part of 1945 and 1946.

The Rosenman Papers are divided into six series and various subseries. This arrangement was generated largely from the manner in which the Rosenman Papers were donated to the Library. The first donation of material was in 1961, with additional accretions to the collection between 1961 and 1979. Generally speaking, the archives staff decided to add these accessions to the collection as new series, instead of filing them in the existing series.

The first series, the Subject File, is the largest series in the collection and has six individual subseries, one for each of the years 1945-1949 and 1952. The bulk of this series is a general alphabetical listing of the topics that Rosenman, as Special Counsel from 1945-1946, advised Truman on, or brought to the President’s attention. Rosenman provided recommendations to Truman in the form of memorandums and notes. He drafted statements and speeches, and gave legal advice to President Truman. This series contains information on such things as atomic energy, immigration, health care, Potsdam, strikes and the United Nations. During the years 1947-1952, after Rosenman resigned as Special Counsel to the President, the documents include legislative recommendations, messages to Congress and other types of speech drafts on which Rosenman consulted with the White House.

The next series, the War Crimes File, helps document the decision to try war criminals, and the behind-the-scenes planning for Nuremberg, including the appointment of Robert Jackson as Chief Prosecutor. The “major” war criminals, whose offenses knew no geographic boundaries, were to be tried by the joint decision of the Allies at Nuremberg. Rosenman was involved in these preparations as Special Counsel to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman.

The Alphabetical File, the second largest series, is actually a file of Rosenman’s correspondence with such individuals as George E. Allen, Alben Barkley, Chester Bowles, Vannevar Bush, James Byrnes, Tom Clark, Clark Clifford, William Donovan, Oscar Hammerstein, Harold Ickes, Douglas MacArthur, and David Niles. The series also contains Rosenman’s correspondence relating to various organizations and topics.

The next series, Post Presidential Correspondence between Harry S. Truman and Samuel I. Rosenman File, is a chronological file covering the years 1953-1966. It details Rosenman and Truman’s continuing relationship during the years after Truman left Government service. It contains a list of personal letters written by Truman to Rosenman, and carbons of letters written by Rosenman to Truman after January 21, 1952.

The General File contains information on the 1958 European trip taken by President and Mrs. Truman and Mr. and Mrs. Rosenman. It also contains material gathered from Hitler’s Chancellery by Rosenman in Berlin, Germany, in 1945, such as invitations, souvenirs, pamphlets and newspapers. There are also miscellaneous items, such as Truman’s statement at the Truman Library on July 2, 1960, and a letter from Stuart Symington to Samuel I. Rosenman, dated July 12, 1950.

The next series, Diaries File, contains a typewritten diary that Rosenman kept from June to October, 1945, with separate entries for May 24 to 25, 1946, on the railroad strike and June 27-29, 1946, on the veto of the OPA (Office of Price Administration) bill.

More information about Samuel I. Rosenman, and the office of the White House Special Council during the Truman administration, can be found in the Truman Library’s oral history interview with Rosenman; in the oral history interviews with Clark M. Clifford; in the Clark M. Clifford Files, which are part of the Staff Member and Office Files of the Harry S. Truman Papers; and in the Clark M. Clifford Papers. There is also a book that was written by Samuel and Dorothy Rosenman, Presidential Style: Some Giants and a Pygmy in the White House (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1976).