Stevenson: Concerned and Brilliant—His Finest Hour Was in Seeking a Nuclear Test Ban

Abstract

When President Truman’s former Secretary of the Air Force Thomas Finletter interviewed me for a presidential campaign position with Governor Stevenson in the spring of 1956, he warned: “If you go to work for this man, keep in mind that if Socrates were alive today, Stevenson would tie him in knots with his logic.”

Ken Hechler, former White House research assistant to President Harry S. Truman and a longtime associate of Judge Samuel I. Rosenman in the joint assembly of the thirteen-volume Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, was appointed Executive Assistant to Adlai E. Stevenson in April 1956. He accompanied the Governor throughout the presidential election campaign of that year. Some years before, he received a Ph.D degree in political science from Columbia University where he taught beginning in 1937 and on his return from the Army, at Princeton University. During World War II, he rose from the rank of private to major, heading up a four-man history unit that accompanied General Hodges’ First Army’s historic advance to the Rhine River at Remagen, gateway to Germany. He was recipient of five battle stars and a Bronze Star. In 1958, he began nine outstanding terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from West Virginia. From 1985 to 2001, he served four terms as West Virginia’s Secretary of State. In addition to The Bridge at Remagen, he is author of the following books: Insurgency, Personalities and Politics of the Taft Era; West Virginia Memories of President Kennedy; Working with Truman; Toward the Endless Frontier; Toward the Space Frontier; and Hero of the Rhine. In 2002, he received the Truman Public Service Award, given annually to “an outstanding public servant who best typifies and possesses the qualities of dedication, industry, honesty, and integrity that distinguished Harry S. Truman.” He presently resides in Charleston, West Virginia, and frequently addresses school, college, and civic groups about Adlai Stevenson, Harry Truman, Remagen and other public issues. Email: fesenms@wvle.lib.wv.us