Ramsey Clark | |
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Clark in 1968 | |
66th United States Attorney General | |
In office November 28, 1966 – January 20, 1969 Acting: November 28, 1966 – March 10, 1967 | |
President | Lyndon B. Johnson |
Apr 11, 2021 · Ramsey Clark, the attorney general in the Johnson administration who became an outspoken activist for unpopular causes and a harsh critic of U.S. policy, has died. He was 93.
Feb 03, 2015 · Bobby Kennedy was attorney general as Lyndon Johnson finished serving as president after John F. Kennedy's assassination; however, …
Attorney General: Robert F. Kennedy (1963–1965) Attorney General: Nicholas Katzenbach (1965–1967) Attorney General: Ramsey Clark (1967–1969) Postmaster General: John A. Gronouski (1963–1965) Postmaster General: Lawrence F. O'Brien (1965–1968) Postmaster General: W. Marvin Watson (1968–1969) Secretary of the Treasury: C. Douglas Dillon …
Apr 11, 2021 · Ramsey Clark, US attorney general under Lyndon Johnson, dead at 93 April 11, 2021 POLITICS 6 mins read [ad_1] NEW YORK — Ramsey Clark, the attorney general in the Johnson administration who became an outspoken activist for unpopular causes and a harsh critic of U.S. policy, has died. He was 93.
April 9, 2021Ramsey Clark / Date of death
93 years (1927–2021)Ramsey Clark / Age at death
In 1814 Madison offered Rush the choice of Secretary of the Treasury or Attorney General of the United States, of which positions Rush chose the latter. With his appointment as Attorney General, Rush became the youngest person to serve in that office.
The attorney general is a statutory member of the Cabinet of the United States. Under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution, the officeholder is nominated by the president of the United States, then appointed with the advice and consent of the United States Senate.
President Kennedy's appointment of his 35-year-old brother Robert Francis Kennedy as the attorney general of the United States was controversial.
Ramsey ClarkClark in 196866th United States Attorney GeneralIn office November 28, 1966 – January 20, 1969 Acting: November 28, 1966 – March 10, 1967PresidentLyndon B. Johnson28 more rows
Randolph had handled much of President Washington's personal legal work, and Washington appointed him as the first Attorney General of the United States in 1789 and then as Secretary of State in 1794.
Edmund Jennings RandolphOn September 26, 1789, Edmund Jennings Randolph was appointed the first Attorney General of the United States by President George Washington.
List of U.S. attorneys generalAttorney GeneralYears of serviceMerrick Garland2021-PresentEdwin Meese, III1985-1988William French Smith1981-1985Benjamin Richard Civiletti1979-198182 more rows
The President of the United States has the authority to appoint U.S. Attorneys, with the consent of the United States Senate, and the President may remove U.S. Attorneys from office. In the event of a vacancy, the United States Attorney General is authorized to appoint an interim U.S. Attorney.
In 1673 the attorney general began to take up a seat in the House of Commons, and since then it has been convention to ensure that all attorneys general are members of the House of Commons or House of Lords, although there is no requirement that they be so.
In the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, Clark occupied senior positions in the Justice Department; he was Assistant Attorney General, overseeing the department's Lands Division from 1961 to 1965, and then served as Deputy Attorney General from 1965 to 1967.
Following his term as attorney general, Clark taught courses at the Howard University School of Law (1969–1972) and Brooklyn Law School (1973–1981). He was active in the anti-Vietnam War movement and visited North Vietnam in 1972 as a protest against the bombing of Hanoi.
Clark was a recipient of the 1992 Gandhi Peace Award, and also the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award for his commitment to civil rights, his opposition to war and military spending and his dedication to providing legal representation to the peace movement, particularly, his efforts to free Leonard Peltier.
As attorney general, he was known for his vigorous opposition to the death penalty, his aggressive support of civil liberties and civil rights, and his dedication in enforcing antitrust provisions. Clark supervised the drafting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Civil Rights Act of 1968.
Katzenbach has been credited with providing advice after the assassination of John F. Kennedy that led to the creation of the Warren Commission. On November 25, 1963, he sent a memo to Johnson's White House aide Bill Moyers recommending the creation of a Presidential Commission to investigate the assassination.
His B-25 Mitchell Bomber was shot down February 23, 1943, over the Mediterranean Sea off North Africa. He spent over two years as a prisoner of war in Italian and German POW camps, including Stalag Luft III, the site of the "Great Escape", which Katzenbach assisted in.
Katzenbach and his wife Lydia retired to Princeton, New Jersey, with a summer home on Martha's Vineyard in West Tisbury, Massachusetts. His son is writer John Katzenbach. His daughter, Maria, is also a published novelist.
Early life. Katzenbach was born in Philadelphia and raised in Trenton. His parents were Edward L. Katzenbach, who served as Attorney General of New Jersey, and Marie Hilson Katzenbach, who was the first female president of the New Jersey State Board of Education. His uncle, Frank S. Katzenbach, served as Mayor of Trenton, ...
Johnson had served as Vice President in the Kennedy administration and assumed the presidency upon Kennedy’s death on November 22nd, 1963. Johnson was reelected in a landslide in 1964; however, he did not seek reelection in 1968 on account of his declining popularity. Johnson was renowned for his domineering personality and, relatedly, his great skill in persuading congressmen and other politicians to support him. He accomplished an ambitious domestic agenda, enacting the “Great Society” and “War on Poverty,” which were a collection of programs related to civil rights, economic opportunity, education, healthcare, environmental protection, and public broadcasting. Historians argue that the Great Society and War on Poverty mark the peak of liberal policy in the United States, and the culmination of the New Deal era. Johnson is rated highly by many historians because of his success in enacting domestic policies.
Johnson brought to his presidency a vision of a Great Society in which everyone could share in the opportunities for a better life that the United States offered , and in which the words “liberty and justice for all” would have real meaning. One of the chief pieces of legislation that Congress passed in 1965 was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, increasing federal funding to both elementary and secondary schools. The Higher Education Act, signed into law the same year, provided scholarships and low-interest loans for the poor, increased federal funding for colleges and universities, and created a corps of teachers to serve schools in impoverished areas. Johnson’s administration passed other acts to improve transportation, protect the environment, and improve safety standards in food and motor vehicles, to name a few. His war on poverty dominated his presidency and included such acts as the 1964 Economic Opportunities Act, the 1965 Housing and Development Act, and the 1965 Social Security Act.
The majority of the American people were opposed to the Immigration and Nationality Act, largely due to xenophobia and fears of how immigrants from these nations could influence the dominant white culture of the United States. To convince people of the legislation’s merits, the act’s proponents asserted that the act would not significantly influence American culture. President Johnson minimized the act’s significance, calling it “not revolutionary.” Secretary of State Dean Rusk estimated that only a few thousand Indian immigrants would enter the country over the next five years, and other politicians, including Edward Kennedy, hastened to reassure the public that the demographic mix would not be affected. In fact, these assertions would prove highly inaccurate.
At the time Johnson took office in 1963, there were 16,000 American military advisors in South Vietnam, in the midst of the deteriorating political and military situation that existed in the region. The South Vietnamese war effort was hindered by widespread corruption in the government of Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of South Vietnam (in power since 1955). The South Vietnamese Army, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), was unable to stop the advances of the Northern Viet Cong army. In 1961, the newly elected Kennedy administration promised more aid to the war effort (including money, weapons, supplies), but these were of little effect. Doubt arose among Washington D.D. policy-makers that Diem was capable of defeating the opposing Chinese Communist regime in the North; some feared Diem might negotiate with Ho Chi Minh, the president of North Vietnam. Discussions about South Vietnamese regime change began in Washington and were concluded on November 2, 1963, when the CIA aided a group of ARVN officers in the overthrow of Diem. To help contain the post-coup chaos, Kennedy increased the number of U.S. advisors in South Vietnam to 16,000.
Lydnon B. Johnson, taking the oath of office aboard Air Force One: Johnson became the 36th President of the United States on November 22nd, 1963, following the assassination President Kennedy. Johnson would go on to win the election in 1964, accomplishing much of his ambitious domestic agenda.
Under President Johnson, the number of American troops in Vietnam rose from 16,000 in 1964, to more than 553,000 by 1969. The U.S. also financed and supplied the forces of all the American allies in the Vietnam War, including Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines, and the Republic of Korea (second only to the Americans in troop strength). The period after 1964 is thus referred to as the Americanization of the war, with the United States taking on the primary responsibilities of fighting the North Vietnamese.
In February of 1965, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson dramatically escalated the war in Vietnam with a sustained bombing campaign and the introduction of ground troops. Activists and intellectuals seeking a broad range of reforms in the 1960s came to be referred to as the New Left.
William Ramsey Clark (December 18, 1927 – April 9, 2021) was an American lawyer, activist and federal government official. A progressive, New Frontier liberal, he occupied senior positions in the United States Department of Justice under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, notably serving as United States Attorney General from 1967 to 1969; previously he was Deputy At…
Clark was born in Dallas, Texas, on December 18, 1927, the son of jurist Tom C. Clark and his wife Mary Jane (née Ramsey). Clark's father served as United States Attorney General from 1945 to 1949 under President Harry S. Truman and then became a Supreme Court Justice in August 1949. His maternal grandfather was William Franklin Ramsey, who served on the Supreme Court of Texas, while his paternal grandfather, lawyer William Henry Clark, was president of the Texas B…
Following his term as attorney general, Clark taught courses at the Howard University School of Law (1969–1972) and Brooklyn Law School (1973–1981). He was active in the anti-Vietnam War movement and visited North Vietnam in 1972 as a protest against the bombing of Hanoi. During this time he was associated with the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, but he resigned in 1973, saying, "I didn't feel like working on things I didn't believe in, I didn't thin…
In 2002, Clark founded "VoteToImpeach", an organization advocating the impeachment of George W. Bush and several members of his administration. For the duration of Bush's terms in office, Clark sought, unsuccessfully, for the House of Representatives to bring articles of impeachment against Bush. He was the founder of the International Action Center, which holds significant overlapping membership with the Workers' World Party. Clark and the IAC helped found the prote…
As a lawyer, Clark also provided legal counsel and advice to prominent figures, including many controversial individuals.
Regarding his role as a defense lawyer in the trial of Saddam Hussein, Clark said: "A fair trialin this case is absolutely imperative for historical truth." Clark stated that by the time he decided to join Hussein's defense team, it was clear that "proceedings before the Iraqi Special Tribunal would c…
In Aaron Sorkin's 2020 film The Trial of the Chicago 7, Clark was portrayed by Michael Keaton.