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Medal of Freedom Recipient Lewis L. Strauss
(1896 - 1974)
Remarks on Presentation of the Medal of Freedom to Lewis L. Strauss, and Accompanying Citation
July 14, 1958
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Lewis, we have met here this morning to mark the passing of a distinguished public servant from one office into another. It would be completely impossible for me to express the appreciation that I feel--and I am sure the country feels--of the work that you have done over these past years.
I believe you have been a world leader in the preparation of America for all eventualities that may arise. At the same time, you have not forgotten that the nuclear science can be mankind's greatest boon. If the political thinking of our governments will allow us to proceed in that way, I think you have marked very definitely the channels, the directions, that all of us should follow.
So, this is a little ceremony, as I say, to mark the dropping of that kind of work and then to take over--as my Special Assistant--more emphatically and more specifically this work of promoting the atom as a peaceful agency for the world. I am going to ask, first, Governor Adams to read the Citation that has been prepared.
[ Governor Adams read the following ]
CITATION TO ACCOMPANY THE AWARD OF
THE MEDAL Of FREEDOM
TO
LEWIS L. STRAUSS
To LEWIS L. STRAUSS for exceptionally meritorious service in the interests of the security of the United States
During a crucial period, he has provided leadership, resourcefulness, judgment and courage equal to the immense demands and promise of the atomic age.
His direct contribution to the security of the United States and other free world nations has been outstanding. He was an effective supporter of the development of thermonuclear technology at a time when a less determined and imaginative course might have resulted in severe damage to our security and that of the free world. He initiated a long-range detection system for atomic explosions which adds both to our safety and to our hopes for successful disarmament negotiations.
Equally significant has been his work in helping build the long-term security that comes of devoting the Atom to works of peace. Under his guidance, peaceful use of atomic energy for power, research, healing, agriculture, and production has made remarkable progress. He has played a great part in bringing to reality the International Scientific Conference on Peaceful Uses, and the Atoms for Peace program, now being put into effect through the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Through his wisdom and foresight, his country enjoys greater security today and greater hopes for genuine peace in the years ahead. In recognition of his distinguished service, I take pleasure in awarding the Medal of freedom to Lewis L. Strauss.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
NOTE: The President presented the Medal of freedom to Mr. Strauss at a ceremony in the Conference Room at the White House at 11:45 a.m. Mr. Strauss served as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission from July 2, 1953, to June 30, 1958. His response follows:
Mr. President, I am deeply grateful for this honor. I am grateful that so many of my friends have come here this morning to see me receive it. But particularly I want to say how much I appreciate the opportunity that I have had to serve under you in this connection and to testify to the inspiration which I have derived from service near your desk.
To be the recipient of this Medal and of the flood of letters and messages of goodwill that I have received has changed one concept of my attitude towards government service. It is not--I repeat not--a thankless task.
Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss was secretary of commerce under President Eisenhower from November 13, 1958, to June 19, 1959. Strauss was valedictorian of his high school class and was supposed to attend the University of Virginia, but he contracted typhoid and did not graduate in time. After he recovered from his illness, he joined his father's shoe business as a traveling salesman in 1913, rising to become the company's best salesman and, by 1917, earning enough money to go to college. Instead, Strauss volunteered as an unpaid assistant to Herbert Hoover, then an engineer conducting relief efforts during the First World War. He impressed Hoover, who took him on as his personal secretary (1917-1919). Strauss also worked with the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to distribute food parcels to Jewish people affected by the war. Strauss turned down an offer to be comptroller for the League of Nations in 1919 and returned to the United States to join the New York banking firm Kuhn, Loeb and Company, becoming a partner in 1929. At the same time, he pursued his private interest in physics and in nuclear physics in particular. Strauss became a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve and worked as an intelligence officer; he was activated in February 1941 and became staff assistant to the chief of ordinance until 1943. He was made special assistant to Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal in May 1944 and promoted to rear admiral by President Truman in November 1945. He next became a member of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), sitting on that board from 1946 to 1950. Strauss returned to government as Eisenhower's special assistant on atomic energy matters in February 1953 and chaired the AEC from July 2, 1953, until June 30, 1958. He aroused controversy because of his role as AEC chair in removing the security clearance of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the prominent physicist who had worked on the atomic bomb project. At the same time, he served as presidential assistant for the Atoms for Peace program before receiving a recess appointment to the Commerce Department. His nomination aroused controversy, in part because of his involvement in the Oppenheimer matter. On June 19, 1958, Strauss became only the eighth cabinet nominee to be rejected by the Senate, which was heavily Democratic at the time. After his defeat, he returned to private life, although he helped organize support for Senator Barry Goldwater's presidential candidacy in 1964. Strauss remained active in various causes and charities until his death in 1974.
![Niels Henrik David Bohr, Arthur Holly Compton, James Rhyne Killian [Picture, Photo, Photograph]; L-R: Lewis L. Strauss, Compton, Bohr, Dwight David Eisenhower, Killian; standing; receiving the Atoms for Peace Award.](LewisStrauss1.jpg)
L-R: Lewis L. Strauss, Arthur Holly Compton, Bohr, Dwight David Eisenhower, Killian; standing; receiving the Atoms for Peace Award
In the first dozen years of the atomic age, few men played a more pivotal role in shaping U.S. nuclear policy than the former banker Lewis Strauss. An ardent champion of the hydrogen bomb, he was also a strong believer in the importance of maintaining a large nuclear stockpile. His appointment to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in 1946 (an agency he chaired from 1953 - 58) meant he was well placed to influence both President Truman's and President Eisenhower's decisions on nuclear issues and to oversee the atomic related activities of all federal agencies.
The thorny, owlish-looking Lewis Strauss started out life as a travelling shoe salesman working for his father. He later became an incredibly successful investment banker. By the time he left Wall Street to join the AEC, he was earning a million dollars a year. His new government appointment required him to give up all his business interests, which he told an interviewer, made him feel "like a man who is amputating his own leg."
Early on in his role as an AEC commissioner, Strauss argued that the U.S. needed to have a system in place to detect foreign atomic tests. As it turned out the monitoring system set up at his insistence, was established just in time to detect the first Soviet atomic test in August 1949.
The news that the U.S. no longer had a monopoly on nuclear weapons, pitted Strauss against other members of the AEC including its chairman David Lilienthal. Lilienthal wanted to respond to the Soviet test by increasing the production of atomic bombs while at the same time stepping up the effort to create international controls for weapons of mass destruction. Strauss argued vigorously for a crash program to build a hydrogen bomb: "the time has now come for a quantum jump in our planning... We should now make an intensive effort to get ahead with the super [hydrogen bomb]." Strauss won the day. And in January 1950, President Truman publicly announced a "crash" program to build a superbomb.
Conflict over the H-bomb also created tensions between Strauss and physicist Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb. Strauss told President Eisenhower that he would only accept the position of AEC chair if Oppenheimer played no role in advising the agency. He explained that he didn't trust Oppenheimer partly because of his consistent opposition to the superbomb. Within days of being sworn into office in July 1953, Strauss had all classified AEC material removed from Oppenheimer's office. By the end of the year, Oppenheimer's security clearance was revoked.
Over the years Strauss' arrogance and his insistence that he was always right made him unpopular on Capitol Hill. In 1959, after two months of exhausting hearings, the Senate rejected his nomination to be Secretary of Commerce. The ordeal was publicly humiliating for Strauss, especially after he was caught lying under oath. Afterwards the financier returned permanently to the private sector.
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Medal History
