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Benjamin Victor Cohen (September 23, 1894 – August 15, 1983), a member of the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, had a public service career that spanned from the early
New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...
to after the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, 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 Vie ...
.


Education

Cohen earned Bachelor of Philosophy (1914) and
Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...
(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 Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...
.


Early career, Brain Trust, New Deal

Cohen was a
law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...
to Judge Julian Mack. He served as counsel for the American Zionist Movement from 1919 to 1921, during which he acted as Zionist counsel to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.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, b ...
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's Brain Trust. 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 judi ...
, then a
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...
professor, brought Cohen, Thomas Corcoran, and James M. Landis together to write what became the Truth In Securities Act. Later that year Cohen was assigned to work on railroad legislation. Much of Cohen's work during the
New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...
was in conjunction with Corcoran. Together they were known as the " Gold Dust Twins" 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's novel, '' Quick Service''.


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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, Cohen helped write the
Lend-Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...
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 harmonizi ...
. 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 Pe ...
. In 1942, ''The New York Times'' published a letter by Cohen and the co-author Erwin Griswold 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 proces ...
'' 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'' case. The attorneys for Clarence Earl Gideon, the person accused of a crime, concluded their brief 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 harmonizi ...
Charter at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, where he worked alongside Charles W. Yost. In 1945, the two once more worked together at the Berlin Conference, on the
Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement (german: Potsdamer Abkommen) was the agreement between three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union on 1 August 1945. A product of the Potsdam Conference, it concerned t ...
. 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 The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The bill was passed by the 85th United States Congress and signed into law by President Dw ...
. 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 ...
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 harmonizi ...
consider proposals to end the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, 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 Vie ...
. 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 harmonizi ...
: 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, t ...
''. 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