Robert John Morris (September 30, 1914 – December 29, 1996) was an American
anti-Communist
Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...
University of Plano The University of Plano was an American private liberal arts college located in Plano, Texas that was in operation from 1964 until 1977.
The University of Plano received its charter from the State of Texas on May 8, 1964 as a private, coeducationa ...
.
Biography
Morris grew up in
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Frank Hague, the city's longtime mayor and
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits.
The Assem ...
investigating allegations of
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
activities in schools and colleges in New York State.
He joined the United States Navy during World War II, though he had initially been rejected due to an inability to see the color red, a story that he would frequently retell throughout his life. Morris was a commander of counterintelligence and psychological warfare, whose duties included writing propaganda items that were dropped over
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese cities and interrogating captured prisoners.
Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security
Morris served as chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Internal Security from 1951 to 1953, leaving the following year when he was elected to serve as a municipal court judge in New York City. He returned as chief counsel from 1956 to 1958.
'' The New York Times'' described the subcommittee in 1951 as having a mandate that is practically "limitless in the whole field of security" and that its role "far overreaches the House Committee on Un-American Activities, as it far outreaches Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, Republican of Wisconsin." The subcommittee questioned businessmen, diplomats, scholars and schoolteachers, and opened investigations into an alleged Communist takeover of Hawaii, Communist control of the military-industrial complex, and Communist involvement on waterfront in New York City.
One of the subcommittee's most notorious events was the April 1957 suicide of
E. Herbert Norman
Egerton Herbert Norman (September 1, 1909 – April 4, 1957) was a Canadian diplomat and historian. Born in Japan to missionary parents, he became an historian of modern Japan before joining the Canadian foreign service. His most influential bo ...
, the Canadian Ambassador to Egypt, after Norman found out that the subcommittee was reopening an earlier investigation regarding his involvement in a Communist study group. The death affected American-Canadian relations, with Canadians calling his death the result of a "smear campaign" by the subcommittee. Morris had announced a month before the suicide that there was adequate material to justify an investigation into charges that Norman was a Communist.
In a letter written to William F. Buckley, Jr. published in 1969, Whittaker Chambers gave Morris credit for much of the efforts attributed to Senator
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visi ...
, with Chambers stating that "I would say that Bob Morris really accomplished much of what the Senator is credited with".
Republican Party
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Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
Robert Kean
Robert Winthrop Kean (September 28, 1893 – September 21, 1980) was an American Republican Party politician and member of one of the nation's oldest and longest serving political families.
Kean represented parts of Essex County, New Jersey ...
Bernard M. Shanley
Bernard Michael Shanley (August 4, 1903 – February 25, 1992) was an American lawyer and politician best known for his work with U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He served under President Eisenhower as Deputy White House Chief of Staff, App ...
, who had 36%, and Morris, whose 70,000 votes represented more than 20% of the primary votes.
As a resident of Texas, Morris ran for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in both 1964 and 1970, being defeated both times by George Herbert Walker Bush, a Massachusetts native. Bush procured 62,985 votes (44.1 percent) of the primary vote in 1964 and was forced into a
runoff primary
A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of the political party. Partisan elections are, on the other hand, segregated by political party. ...
against Jack Cox, the 1962 Republican gubernatorial nominee, who trailed with 45,561 (31.9 percent). Morris ran third with 28,279 votes (19.8 percent). Bush defeated Cox in the runoff, 62-38 percent, to garner the nomination but lost in the fall to Democratic incumbent
Ralph W. Yarborough
Ralph Webster Yarborough (June 8, 1903 – January 27, 1996) was an American politician and lawyer. He was a Texas Democratic politician who served in the United States Senate from 1957 to 1971 and was a leader of the progressive wing of his p ...
. In the 1970 primary, Bush won with 96,806 votes (87.6 percent) to Morris's 13,654 ballots (12.4 percent) 12 percent, but was then defeated in the general election by the Democrat,
Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr.
Lloyd Millard Bentsen Jr. (February 11, 1921 – May 23, 2006) was an American politician who was a four-term United States Senator (1971–1993) from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ti ...
presidential
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nomination against Louisiana politician
John Rarick
John Richard Rarick (January 29, 1924 - September 14, 2009) was an American lawyer, jurist, and World War II veteran who served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, serving Louisiana's 6th congressional district from 1967 to 1975. ...
and former Georgia governorLester Maddox. Maddox, who had been described as the front-runner prior to the convention, won the nomination on the first ballot, with the support of 177 delegates (52.2%).Our Campaigns - US President - AIP Convention Race - Aug. 26, 1976 /ref> Morris came in second with 80 delegates (23.6%) and Rarick had 79 (23.3%). In the
general election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
, Maddox would go on to win 170,274 votes (or 0.21%) against Jimmy Carter and
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
.
Back in New Jersey, Morris entered the 1982 Republican U.S. senatorial primary, dropping out of the race in May, saying that he had accomplished the goals he sought to achieve of bringing attention to Soviet expansionism and moral deterioration. The nomination went to Millicent Fenwick, a liberal Republican congresswoman, who was then defeated by Democrat Frank Lautenberg.
In 1984, Morris again ran in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, facing off against Mary V. Mochary, the Mayor of Montclair, New Jersey who had been guided by the re-election campaign of
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
. Mochary won the June primary with 61% of the vote, with Morris's 70,000 votes representing nearly 29% of the total.
Anti-Communist activism
Morris was chosen as president of the University of Dallas in 1960. His outspokenness on anti-Communism and other issues created conflict within the school, and he left in 1962.
He formed the Defenders of American Liberties in the summer of 1962, intended to serves as a counterbalance to the American Civil Liberties Union, "but with emphasis on different positions." Among the group's early efforts was to defend former Maj. Gen.
Edwin A. Walker
Edwin Anderson Walker (November 10, 1909 – October 31, 1993) was the only U.S. Army general officer to resign his commission amid his tour of duty in the 20th century. After serving in World War II and the Korean War Walker became better know ...
, who had been arrested on federal charges after a riot broke out following protests he organized in September 1962 against the use of federal troops to enforce the enrollment of African-American James Meredith at the racially segregated University of Mississippi. In a telegram to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Morris called Walker the "United States' first political prisoner", after Walker was denied bail and placed under psychiatric observation for up to 90 days.
Building on the difficulties faced by one of his children, Morris founded the
University of Plano The University of Plano was an American private liberal arts college located in Plano, Texas that was in operation from 1964 until 1977.
The University of Plano received its charter from the State of Texas on May 8, 1964 as a private, coeducationa ...
in Plano, Texas in 1964 with a focus on the education of mildly disabled college-age students using techniques from the Doman-Delacato Method, such as crawling and creeping, that were intended to stimulate brain development. He remained at the school until 1977 and it closed its doors shortly thereafter.Merwin, John "The Strange Case of Plano University" '' D Magazine'', January 1975. Accessed November 29, 2008.
Author and columnist
Morris' column ''Around the World'', was published for more than two decades, starting in 1960. The column appeared in newspapers including the '' Manchester Union Leader'' and The ''
New York Tribune
The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the domi ...
''. His 1963 book ''Disarmament: Weapon of Conquest'' achieved a modicum of success after its publication in 1963, one of five books he wrote that mostly focused on the disintegrating world order.