Benjamin Victor Cohen (September 23, 1894 – August 15, 1983), a member of the administrations of
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
and
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
, had a public service career that spanned from the early
New Deal to after the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
.
Education
Cohen earned
Bachelor of Philosophy
Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil, BPh, or PhB; la, Baccalaureus Philosophiae or ) is the title of an academic degree that usually involves considerable research, either through a thesis or supervised research projects. Unlike many other bachelor's d ...
(1914) and
Juris Doctor (1915) degrees from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
, and a
Doctor of Juridical Science
A Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD; ), or a Doctor of Science of Law (JSD; ), is a research doctorate in law equivalent to the more commonly awarded Doctor of Philosophy degree.
Australia
The S.J.D. is offered by the Australian National Univ ...
(1916) from
Harvard Law School.
Early career, Brain Trust, New Deal
Cohen was a
law clerk to
Judge Julian Mack. He served as counsel for the American
Zionist Movement
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Jew ...
from 1919 to 1921, during which he acted as Zionist counsel to the
1919 Paris Peace Conference
Events
January
* January 1
** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Bratislava, Pressburg (now Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia.
** HMY Iolaire, HMY ''Io ...
.
[Louchheim, p. 336.] Cohen practiced law in New York from 1921 to 1933.
During this period Cohen worked with the
National Consumers League
The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is an American consumer organization. The National Consumers League is a private, nonprofit advocacy group representing consumers on marketplace and workplace issues. The NCL provides government, bu ...
to draft and enact minimum wage, child labor, and worker hours legislation that would survive a challenge in the Supreme Court.
Cohen's first appearance on the national scene was as a member of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
's
Brain Trust
Brain trust was a term that originally described a group of close advisers to a political candidate or incumbent; these were often academics who were prized for their expertise in particular fields. The term is most associated with the group of ad ...
. Cohen became a part of the Roosevelt administration in 1933 when
Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was an Austrian-American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 until 1962, during which period he was a noted advocate of judic ...
, then a
Harvard Law School professor, brought Cohen,
Thomas Corcoran, and
James M. Landis together to write what became the
Truth In Securities Act
The Securities Act of 1933, also known as the 1933 Act, the Securities Act, the Truth in Securities Act, the Federal Securities Act, and the '33 Act, was enacted by the United States Congress on May 27, 1933, during the Great Depression and after ...
. Later that year Cohen was assigned to work on railroad legislation.
Much of Cohen's work during the
New Deal was in conjunction with Corcoran. Together they were known as the "
Gold Dust Twins
The Gold Dust Twins, the trademark for Fairbank's Gold Dust washing powder products, appeared in printed media as early as 1892. "Goldie" and "Dusty", the original Gold Dust Twins, were often shown doing household chores together. In general us ...
" and appeared on the cover of
''Time'' magazine's September 12, 1938, edition. By 1940 their friendship was well known enough to be used as a simile in
P.G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jee ...
's novel, ''
Quick Service
''Quick Service'' is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 4 October 1940 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on 27 December 1940 by Doubleday, Doran, New York.McIlvaine (1990), pp. 78–79, A63.
...
''.
World War II and postwar
In 1941, before the United States entered
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Cohen helped write the
Lend-Lease plan. Cohen also assisted in the drafting of the 1944
Dumbarton Oaks agreements leading to the establishment of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
. In 1945 Cohen served as the United States' chief draftsman at the
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference (german: Potsdamer Konferenz) was held at Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace, while avoiding the mistakes of the Paris P ...
.
In 1942, ''The New York Times'' published a letter by Cohen and the co-author
Erwin Griswold
Erwin Nathaniel Griswold (; July 14, 1904 – November 19, 1994) was an American appellate attorney who argued many cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Griswold served as Solicitor General of the United States (1967–1973) under Presidents Lynd ...
decrying the United States Supreme Court's ''
Betts v. Brady
''Betts v. Brady'', 316 U.S. 455 (1942), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that denied counsel to indigent defendants prosecuted by a state. The reinforcement that such a case is not to be reckoned as denial of fundamental due proce ...
'' ruling that poor criminal defendants had no right to an attorney. Two decades later the issue again came before the Supreme Court in the ''
Gideon v. Wainwright
''Gideon v. Wainwright'', 372 U.S. 335 (1963), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires U.S. states to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who are unable ...
'' case. The attorneys for
Clarence Earl Gideon
Clarence Earl Gideon (August 30, 1910 – January 18, 1972) was a poor drifter accused in a Florida state court of felony breaking and entering. While in prison, he appealed his case to the US Supreme Court, resulting in the landmark 1963 decisio ...
, the person accused of a crime, concluded their
brief
Brief, briefs, or briefing may refer to:
Documents
* A letter
* A briefing note
* Papal brief, a papal letter less formal than a bull, sealed with the pope's signet ring or stamped with the device borne on this ring
* Design brief, a type of ed ...
to the Supreme Court with a lengthy quotation from the Cohen/Griswold letter. This time, the Supreme Court ruled that the government must appoint attorneys for criminal defendants who cannot afford an attorney.
In 1944, Cohen became one of the drafters of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
Charter at the
Dumbarton Oaks Conference
The Dumbarton Oaks Conference, or, more formally, the Washington Conversations on International Peace and Security Organization, was an international conference at which proposals for the establishment of a "general international organization", w ...
, where he worked alongside
Charles W. Yost. In 1945, the two once more worked together at the Berlin Conference, on the
Potsdam Agreement.
In 1948 Cohen advised both the United States and the new
State of Israel with respect to the first official exchange between both countries. Cohen provided crucial advice and counsel to senators working for the passage of the
Civil Rights Act of 1957. In 1967 Cohen testified in favor of a proposed
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
resolution that would have called upon
President Johnson to request the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
consider proposals to end the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
.
Jordan A. Schwarz noted, "Although no government lawyer was as respected as Cohen, he never had a prominent position in government because of his palpable Jewishness."
Personal life
Cohen was the uncle of
Selma Jeanne Cohen
Selma Jeanne Cohen (September 18, 1920December 23, 2005) was a historian, teacher, author, and editor who devoted her career to advocating dance as an art worthy of the same scholarly respect traditionally awarded to painting, music, and literatur ...
, a prominent dance historian.
Characterizations
*"Cohen was known for his slouching posture, sloppy dress, absentminded table manners – and for a skill at drafting legislation that was generally reckoned the best in the United States."
*He "looked and talked, as a friend wrote, 'like a Dickens portrait of an absent-minded professor.
[Caro, p. 949]
Works
''Report on the Work of the United Nations Disarmament Commission''(1953)
* ''The
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
: Constitutional Developments, Growth, and Possibilities'' (Harvard University Press : 1961)
References
*
*
*
*
*
Notes
Further reading
Biography
Lasser, William, ''Benjamin V. Cohen: Architect of the New Deal'' (Yale University Press: 2002)
Magazines & Journals
"The Janizariat" ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
''. September 12, 1938.
* Lasser, William.
Biography Behind the Scenes: Benjamin Victor Cohen and the Spirit of the New Deal" ''Journal of Political Science'' 20.1 (1992): 9
online
Other
*Benjamin V. Cohen Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
*Benjamin V. Cohen Papers, Zionist Archives, New York
External links
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Benjamin V.
1894 births
1983 deaths
Franklin D. Roosevelt administration personnel
University of Chicago alumni
Harvard Law School alumni
American Jews
People from Muncie, Indiana
American civil servants
United States presidential advisors
University of Chicago Law School alumni
Law clerks of Judge Learned Hand
The Century Foundation