James F. Byrnes - World War II and Beginning of The Cold War

World War II and Beginning of The Cold War

Byrnes left the Supreme Court to head Roosevelt's Economic Stabilization Office, which dealt with the vitally important issues of prices and taxes. How powerful the new office would become depended entirely on Byrnes's political skills, and Washington insiders soon reported he was in full charge. In May 1943, he also became head of the Office of War Mobilization. Under the leadership of Byrnes, the program managed newly constructioned factories across the country which created raw materials, civilian and military production, and transportation for US military personnel and was credited for providing the employment needed to officially bring an end to the Great Depression Thanks to his political experience, his probing intellect, his close friendship with Roosevelt, and in no small part to his own personal charm, Byrnes was soon exerting influence over many facets of the war effort which were not technically under his departmental jurisdiction. Many in Congress and the press began referring to Byrnes as the "Assistant President."

Many expected that Byrnes would be the Democratic nominee for vice president with Roosevelt in 1944 replacing Henry A. Wallace, whom party officials strongly felt was too eccentric to replace an ailing President who likely going to die before his next term ended. Roosevelt refused to endorse anybody other than Wallace, but preferred Byrnes as the best alternative to Wallace and sought to push him as the party's nominee for president if the party's delegates refused to renominate Wallace at the 1944 Democratic National Convention. However, Byrnes was regarded as too conservative for organized labor, the big city bosses opposed him as an ex-Catholic who would offend Catholics, and blacks were wary of his opposition to racial integration. The nomination went instead to U.S. Senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri. Roosevelt brought Byrnes to the Yalta Conference in early 1945, where he seemed to favor Soviet plans. Written in shorthand, his notes comprise one of the most complete records of the "Big Three" Yalta meetings.

Upon his succession to the presidency after Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945, Truman relied heavily on Byrnes's counsel, Byrnes having been a mentor to Truman from Truman's earliest days in the U.S. Senate. Indeed, Jimmy Byrnes was one of the first people whom Truman saw on the first day of his presidency. It was Byrnes, who shared information with the new President on the atomic bomb project (Truman had known nothing about the Manhattan Project beforehand). When Truman met Roosevelt's coffin in Washington, he asked Byrnes and former Vice President Wallace, the two other men who might well have succeeded Roosevelt, to join him at the train station. Truman, originally, intended that both men would play leading roles in his administration, signaling continuity with Roosevelt's policies. While Truman quickly fell out with Wallace, he retained a good working relationship with Byrnes and increasingly turned to him for support.

Truman appointed Byrnes as Secretary of State on July 3, 1945. He played a major role at the Potsdam Conference, the Paris Peace Conference, and other major postwar conferences. According to historian Robert H. Ferrell, Byrnes knew little more about foreign relations than Truman. He made decisions after consulting a few advisors, such as Donald S. Russell and Benjamin V. Cohen. Byrnes and his small group paid little attention to the State Department and similarly ignored the President.

Although Byrnes's tough position against the Soviets paralleled the feelings of the President, personal relations between the two men grew strained, particularly when Truman felt that Byrnes was attempting to set foreign policy by himself, and only informing the President afterward. An early instance of this friction was the Moscow Conference in December 1945. Truman considered the “successes” of the conference to be “unreal” and was highly critical of Byrnes’s failure to protect Iran, which was not mentioned in the final communiqué. “I had been left in the dark about the Moscow conference,” Truman told Byrnes bluntly. In a subsequent letter to Byrnes, Truman took a harder line in reference to Iran, saying in part, "Without these supplies furnished by the United States, Russia would have been ignominiously defeated. Yet now Russia stirs up rebellion and keeps troops on the soil of her friend and ally— Iran… Unless Russia is faced with an iron fist and strong language another war is in the making. Only one language do they understand—“how many divisions do you have?” I do not think we should play compromise any longer …I am tired of babying the Soviets". This led to the Iran crisis of 1946, and Byrnes took an increasingly hardline position in opposition to Stalin, culminating in the speech held in Stuttgart on September 6, 1946. "Restatement of Policy on Germany", also known as the "Speech of hope" it set the tone of future U.S. policy as it repudiated the Morgenthau Plan economic policies and gave the Germans hope for the future. Byrnes was named TIME Man of the Year. Truman and others believed that Byrnes had grown resentful that he had not been Roosevelt's running mate and successor, and in his resentment he was disrespecting Truman. Whether this was true or not, Byrnes felt compelled to resign from the Cabinet in 1947 with some feelings of bitterness.