James H. Smith, Jr.

James Hopkins Smith, Jr. (1909–1982) was United States Assistant Secretary of the Navy (AIR) from 1953 to 1956 and then was head of the United States Agency for International Development from 1957 to 1959.

Biography

James H. Smith, Jr. was born in New York City on December 15, 1909. His mother was the first female member of the Republican National Committee. He was educated at the Groton School and then at Harvard University, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1931. In December 1927, Smith learned how to fly a Curtiss JN-4 under the instruction of Charles Lindbergh, recently returned from his transatlantic flight. Upon graduating from college, Smith enrolled in the United States Navy Reserve, and the next year attended Columbia Law School, receiving a law degree in 1932, although he never went on to practice law.

In 1933, Smith enlisted in the United States Navy and was a naval aviator from 1933 to 1941. In 1941, he joined Pan American World Airways as manager of PanAm's operations in Africa. In 1943, he returned to active service; he served in the Navy for another ten years, retiring in 1953, having attained the rank of captain. During this period, Smith acquired the North Star Ranch outside Aspen, Colorado.

In 1953, President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower named Smith Assistant Secretary of the Navy (AIR) and Smith held this office from July 23, 1953 until June 20, 1956. In 1954, Smith publicly admitted that the Navy had wrongly suspended Abraham Chasanow as a security risk in July 1953 and issued Chasanow a public apology for the "grave injustice" perpetrated on Chasanow, and vowing to overhaul security procedures.

After resigning in 1956, Smith moved to his ranch in Colorado to pursue life as a rancher, but the next year President Eisenhower asked him to head the United States Agency for International Development and he returned to Washington, D. C. in that capacity until his resignation in 1959. Smith supported a strong foreign aid program, arguing to critics in the United States Congress that the ultimate goal of foreign aid must be not to win friends for the United States, but to allow poorer countries to become totally free of foreign domination.

After a two-year battle with cancer, Smith died at a hospital in La Jolla, San Diego, California on November 24, 1982. He was survived by his wife, Diane; a son, Morgan, and three daughters, Joy, Dinah and Sandra.

References

United States Department of the Navy Secretaries Cabinet level Stoddert Smith Hamilton Jones Crowninshield S Thompson Southard Branch L. Woodbury Dickerson Paulding Badger Upshur Henshaw Gilmer Mason Bancroft Mason Preston Graham Kennedy Dobbin Toucey Welles Borie Robeson R Thompson Goff Hunt Chandler Whitney Tracy Herbert Long Moody Morton Bonaparte Metcalf Newberry Meyer Daniels Denby Wilbur Adams Swanson Edison Knox Forrestal Dept. of Defense Sullivan Matthews Kimball Anderson Thomas T. Gates Franke Connally Korth Nitze Ignatius Chafee Warner Middendorf Claytor Hidalgo Lehman Webb Ball Garrett O'Keefe Dalton Danzig England Winter Mabus Under Secretaries Forrestal Bard A. Gates Sullivan Kenney Kimball Whitehair Thomas T. Gates Franke Bantz Fay BeLieu Baldwin Baird Warner Sanders Middendorf Potter Macdonald Woolsey Murray Goodrich Garrett Howard Danzig Hultin Pirie Livingstone Aviles Work Assistant Secretaries Pre-1954 Fox Faxon Soley McAdoo T. Roosevelt Sr. Allen Hackett Darling Newberry Satterlee Winthrop F. Roosevelt G. Woodbury T. Roosevelt Jr. Robinson Jahncke H. Roosevelt Edison Compton Bard Hensel Kenney Andrews Koehler Askins Fogler Post-1954 Financial Management and Comptroller Installations and Environment Manpower and Reserve Affairs Research, Development and Acquisitions General Counsel of the Navy defunct: Air Installations and Logistics Material Research and Development Research, Engineering and Systems Shipbuilding and Logistics