Robert B. Anderson

Robert Bernard Anderson (born 4 June 1910 in Burleson, Texas, † 14 August 1989 in New York City ) was an American businessman, democratic politician, Minister of Marine and Minister of Finance.

Study and career

Anderson, who was originally high school teacher, graduated from 1929 to 1932 to study law at the Law School of the University of Texas at Austin. In 1932 he was admitted to the bar.

In 1933 he was appointed by the first governor of Texas, Miriam A. Ferguson, Deputy Attorney General of Texas, and a year later to the control commissioner of the state. In 1936 he was appointed Chairman and Executive Director of the Commission for the unemployed Texas. This office he held until his move to the private sector in 1941.

There he became Managing Director (General Manager ) of an oil company and a large ranch. After that, he was 1946-1951 President of the Texas Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association. Between 1955 and 1957 he was president of the company Ventures Ltd..

Political career

Deputy in Texas and Secretary of the Navy under Eisenhower

Anderson began his political career in 1932, when he was elected for the Democrats briefly as a deputy in the Texas House of Representatives.

In 1952 he became a member of the Army Secretary Frank Pace. After the election of Dwight D. Eisenhower as U.S. president, he was appointed on 4 February 1953 to the Secretary of the Navy ( Secretary of the Navy ). During his tenure, the last formal rules of racial segregation in the United States Navy in the naval base of Norfolk and Charleston were lifted. He also campaigned for the technological advancement within the Navy to maintain a flexible defense strategy. On May 3, 1954, he gave up his position as Secretary of the Navy and was instead Deputy Defense ( Deputy Secretary of Defense ). 1955 Medal of Freedom by the U.S. President ( Medal of Freedom ), he was awarded.

Eisenhower was so impressed by the talent of the young politician, that he saw a future president in him. For this reason, he regarded him as one of his main candidates for the office of Vice- President, if the current incumbent Richard Nixon in favor of an appointment as defense minister should give up for reelection in the presidential elections in 1956. As Nixon in 1955 but opted for a re- nomination as Vice- President, Anderson resigned in the same year as deputy defense minister.

Finance during Eisenhower 's second term

Eisenhower, estimated to be the skills of Anderson, asked him to return to his Cabinet. On July 29, 1957, he was appointed as the successor of George M. Humphrey of the Treasury ( Secretary of the Treasury ). Anderson, who enjoyed the confidence of Eisenhower and his closest adviser was continued fighting inflation its predecessor due to the reduction of public spending.

When the internal party nomination for the 1960 presidential election approached, Eisenhower urged him to run against Nixon, but what Anderson refused. After nomination by Nixon for Republican presidential candidates chose this opposed Eisenhower's expectations Anderson, but the ambassador to the United Nations, Henry Cabot Lodge, as his vice-presidential candidates.

Withdrawal from politics and conviction for tax offenses

After the electoral defeat of Nixon in the 1960 presidential election Anderson withdrew on January 20, 1961 from politics and became a partner in a law firm as well as various oil companies.

When it came to flag dispute between the U.S. and Panama in January 1964 in the Panama Canal Zone, he was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson as a special envoy to negotiate the settlement of the crisis. On April 3, 1964, the diplomatic relations between the United States and Panama were resumed due to the mediation.

Because of tax evasion, he was sentenced by the Supreme Court of New York in 1987 to a prison term and at the same time deprived of his admission to the bar. Anderson had entertained at the same branch of an unapproved in which he founded Commercial Exchange Bank of Anguilla in New York, lost by several investors saving their fortune in the mid-1980s.

Anderson died in 1989 of esophageal cancer.