Dates: 1945-1951
Assistant Naval Aide to the President, 1945-1946; Naval Aide to the President, 1946; Special Counsel to the President, 1946-1950
The Clark M. Clifford Files primarily document his service as Special Counsel to President Truman from 1946 to 1950, and include material relating to such topics as Congressional bills, European Recovery Program, foreign affairs and economic assistance, North Atlantic Pact, Office of Price Administration, and the United Nations. The files consist of correspondence, handwritten notes, meeting minutes, memoranda, press releases, reports, speeches and speech drafts, newspaper clippings, printed material, and telegrams.
See also the Clark M. Clifford Papers and oral history.
Size: 5.2 linear feet (approximately 10,400 pages).
Access: Open
Copyright: Harry S. Truman donated his copyright interest in writings in these files to the United States government. Documents created by U.S. Government officials in the course of their official duties are likewise in the public domain. Copyright interest in any other writings in these files is assumed to remain with the authors of the documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Philip D. Lagerquist (1956); Jeremy Spencer and David Clark (2004).
The creation of this online resource was made possible in part by funding from the William T. Kemper Foundation - Commerce Bank, Trustee.
[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]
1906 (December 25) |
Born, Fort Scott, Kansas |
|
1928 |
LL.B., Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri |
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1928-1944 |
Attorney, St. Louis, Missouri |
|
1931 (October 3) |
Married Margery Pepperell Kimball |
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1944-1946 |
Officer, U.S. Naval Reserve |
|
1945-1946 |
Assistant Naval Aide to the President |
|
1946 |
Naval Aide to the President |
|
1946-1950 |
Special Counsel to the President |
|
1950-1968 |
Attorney, Clifford & Miller, Washington, D.C., and unofficial adviser to Presidents Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson |
|
1968-1969 |
Secretary of Defense |
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1969-1991 |
Attorney, Clifford & Warnke, Washington, D.C.; unofficial adviser to President Carter; Chairman, First American Bankshares |
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1991 |
Author, Counsel to the President (with Richard Holbrooke) |
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1998 (October 10) |
Died, Bethesda, Maryland |
The Clark M. Clifford files mostly relate to his service as Special Counsel to the President from 1946 to 1950. An attorney from St. Louis and an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve, Clifford came to the Truman White House in 1945 to serve as Assistant to the Naval Aide to the President, James K. Vardaman, Jr. He succeeded Vardaman as Naval Aide in 1946 and became the President's Special Counsel a few months later. For the next four years, until he resigned in 1950 to resume his career as a private attorney in Washington, Clifford was probably the most influential and prominent member of Truman's White House staff. His files document his role as a presidential speechwriter, his involvement in crises both foreign and domestic, and his contributions as a political strategist.
The Clifford Files are a part of the Staff Member and Office Files of the Harry S. Truman Papers. This material was shipped to Kansas City as part of Mr. Truman's presidential papers. Truman subsequently donated his papers to the United States government. The collection is approximately 5.2 linear feet in volume, arranged alphabetically by folder title in one series, a Subject File.
The Subject File contains correspondence, handwritten notes, meeting minutes, memoranda, press releases, reports, speeches and speech drafts, newspaper clippings, printed material, telegrams, and other items documenting some of the major events and policies of the Truman administration during Clifford's tenure as Special Counsel. Much of this material reflects his involvement in Congressional bills, European Recovery Program, foreign affairs and economic assistance, North Atlantic Pact, Office of Price Administration, and the United Nations. A substantial amount of material in the Subject File documents Clifford's work in drafting presidential speeches, messages, and statements.
The documents relate to specific topics such as civil rights, lynching, aviation, education, land claims, employment, price control, wages, standard of living, foreign aid, livestock, dairy products, agriculture, health insurance, trade, inflation, rationing, railroads, oil, legislation, housing, water resources, budgets, Mexico, Guam, the Lambert-St. Louis airport, termination of hostilities of World War II, presidential power and succession, and the North Atlantic Pact. Additional documents in the series pertain to government organizations such as the Commission on the Reorganization of the Executive Branch, Air Coordinating Committee, Council of Economic Advisers, Council of Foreign Ministers, Bureau of the Budget, Federal Power Commission, and the Office of Price Administration.
An important part of the series pertains to the European Recovery Program, foreign affairs, and economic assistance relating to commodities, manpower, coal, fertilizer, agriculture, electricity, petroleum, iron, steel, transportation, timber, machinery, food, exports, and imports. The countries specifically included are Austria, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Turkey, India, Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Spain.
Additional information about Clark Clifford and his service in the Truman administration may be found at the Truman Library in two oral history interviews with Clifford (Oral History Interview No. 276 and No. 440); in the Clark M. Clifford Papers; in the Truman Post-Presidential Papers; and in the George M. Elsey Papers.
Container Nos. |
Series |
|
1-13 |
SUBJECT FILE, 1945-1951 Memoranda, correspondence, speeches and speech drafts, reports, press releases, and other items relating to the major policies and events of the Truman administration during Clifford's tenure as Special Counsel to the President. Arranged in alphabetical order. |
Box 1
- Acquisitions of Land [by the Federal Government]
- Air Coordinating Committee [1948 Report]
- Alaska-Native Land Titles
- Alien Land Laws
- Alien Property Functions, Transfer of, to the Department of Justice
- Anti-Trust Law Inquiry
- Atomic Energy [1 of 2]
- Atomic Energy [2 of 2]
- Bank Report
- Bauxite Stockpile
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [1 of 16]; S. 191 Authorizing Federal Grants to the States for Hospital Facilities
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [2 of 16]; S. 528 Relief of Thaddeus Knight
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [3 of 16]; S. 752 Strategic and Critical Bills
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [4 of 16]; S. 2177 An Act to Provide for Increased Efficiency in re Legislative Branch of the Government
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [5 of 16]; S. 2304 The Holloway Bill
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [6 of 16]; H.R. 1362 Crosser Bill to Amend the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [7 of 16]; H.R. 2377 Commemorative Coin for the State of Iowa [empty folder]
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [8 of 16]; H.R. 2423 Silver Creek Project
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [9 of 16]; H.R. 4407 Reducing Certain Appropriations and Contract Authorizations Available for 1946
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [10 of 16]; H.R. 4428 Act to Adjust Rate of Dividends Paid by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp.
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [11 of 16]; H.R. 5654 re Bureau of Reclamation
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [12 of 16]; H.R. 5991 Farmer's Home Corp. Act
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [13 of 16]; H.R. 6528 Commemorative Coin for Booker T. Washington
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [14 of 16]; H.R. 6536 re Southern Bitumen Company
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [15 of 16]; H.R. 6682 Amending the Municipal Bankruptcy Act
- Bills 79th Congress- Action taken on [16 of 16]; H.R. 6967 Foreign Service Act of 1946
- Bills 80th Congress- Action taken on [1 of 11]; S. 814 Wool Act of 1947
- Bills 80th Congress- Action taken on [2 of 11]; S. 984 FEPC Bill
- Bills 80th Congress- Action taken on [3 of 11]; S. 1173 Bill to Prevent Corrupt Practices in Connection with Federal Elections (Ellender Bill)
- Bills 80th Congress- Action taken on [4 of 11]; S. 1173 Bill to Prevent Corrupt Practices in Connection with Federal Elections (Ellender Bill)
- Bills 80th Congress- Action taken on [5 of 11]; H.R. 2007 Women's Status Bill
- Bills 80th Congress- Action taken on [6 of 11]; H.R. 3203 Housing and Rent Act of 1947
- Bills 80th Congress- Action taken on [7 of 11]; H.R. 3237 Railroad Reorganization Act of 1947
Box 2
- Bills 80th