[Senate Document 105-8] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] 105th Congress, 2d Session - - - - - - - - - - Senate Document 105-008 Dedication and Unveiling of the Statue of RICHARD BREVARD RUSSELL, JR.Proceedings in the Rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC January 24, 1996
A Senator for the Ages
Senator Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. 1897-1971 105th Congress, 2d Session - - - - - - - - - - Senate Document 105-008 Dedication and Unveiling of the Statue of RICHARD BREVARD RUSSELL, JR.
Proceedings in the Rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC January 24, 1996 Printed by the United States Government Printing Office Washington, DC: 1997 Presented to the United States Senate on behalf of the Richard B. Russell Foundation The Richard B. Russell Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the memory of Richard B. Russell, Jr. through the Richard B. Russell Chair in American History, scholarship awards, other public service endeavors, and the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, The University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Georgia. Foundation Board of Trustees Frank J. Barron, Jr. William M. Bates The Honorable Michael J. Bowers Dr. D.W. Brooks Otis A. Brumby, Jr. Charles E. Campbell, Chairman Thomas G. Cousins Bradley L. Currey, Jr. The Honorable George W. Darden Charles L. Gowen, Treasurer Don Elliott Heald Jesse Hill, Jr. The Honorable Pierre Howard David E. Hudson W. Thomas Johnson William H. Jordan, Jr. Dr. Charles B. Knapp Earl T. Leonard, Jr. Powell A. Moore William H. NeSmith, Jr. William L. Norton, Jr., Vice-Chairman Hugh Peterson, Jr. Dr. Stephen R. Portch Dr. William Gray Potter, Secretary The Honorable Robert G. Stephens, Jr. The Honorable Herman Talmadge, Chairman Emeritus Jack W. Tarver Norman L. Underwood, Vice-Chairman Betty Russell Vandiver T. Rogers Wade Accepted by the United States Senate Commission on Art Bob Dole, Kansas, Chairman Thomas A. Daschle, South Dakota, Vice Chairman Strom Thurmond, South Carolina Wendell H. Ford, Kentucky John W. Warner, Virginia Kelly D. Johnston, Executive Secretary Diane K. Skvarla, Curator
Color guard at the opening of the dedication ceremony in the rotunda of the Richard Brevard Russell Office Building. CONTENTS Dedication and Unveiling Ceremony................................... 1 "Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. (1897-1971)," by Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) Congressional Record, February 1, 1988............. 25 Resolution Designating the "Richard Brevard Russell Office Building" (S. Res. 296, 92d Congress, 2d Sess.) .......................... 54 The Russell Senate Office Building.................................. 55 Sculptor Frederick E. Hart.......................................... 58 Biography Sculptor's Notes Vincent Palumbo Appendix I: Remarks by Charles E. Campbell, Russell Statue Luncheon, Governor's Mansion, Atlanta, Georgia, October 23, 1995.......... 61 Appendix II: Chronology............................................. 65 Appendix III: Bibliography.......................................... 66 Appendix IV: Acknowledgments........................................ 67
Unveiling of the Richard B. Russell, Jr. statue. Dedication and Unveiling of the Statue of Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda January 24, 1996 4:00 p.m. Armed Forces Color Guard and "The President's Own" Marine Quintet Benediction Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie, Senate Chaplain Proceedings Vice President Al Gore Richard Russell, A President's Senator Senator Robert C. Byrd Richard Russell, A Senator's Senator Senator Ted Stevens Richard Russell, A Senator's Senator Governor Zell Miller Richard Russell, Georgia's Senator Senator Sam Nunn Master of Ceremonies Recognition of Special Guests Charles E. Campbell, Chairman Richard B. Russell Foundation Unveiling of Statue Frederick E. Hart, Sculptor Russell Family Reception
The Richard B. Russell, Jr. statue unveiled. PROCEEDINGS Senator Nunn. Our beloved Senate Chaplain, Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie, will give the invocation. Chaplain Ogilvie. Let us pray. Almighty God, sovereign of our beloved nation and Lord of our lives, we praise you that you call leaders to shape the course of history. We have gathered here today to thank you for the impact on history of Senator Richard Russell. Here in this building that bears his name, we place this statue of his likeness. May this statue call all of us to the excellence that distinguished his career, the nobility of his character that made an indelible mark on history, and his faith in you that gave him supernatural gifts of wisdom and discernment and vision. Thank you for the lasting impact of the rare blend of humility and stature, patriotism and statesmanship that made him a legend in his own time--Georgia's pride, a lodestar leader, a senator's senator for thirty-eigth years, and a truly great American. May we measure our commitment by his indefatigable faithfulness and set as a benchmark for our lives his belief that work in the government is one of the highest callings. In this spirit of dedication to your best for America and in affirmation of this giant of history, we renew our commitment to serve you. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Senator Nunn. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. Charlie Campbell, the president of the Russell Foundation, will give more elaborate introductions, but let me begin by welcoming the members of the Russell family here today. I understand there are about one hundred of you. We are very, very proud to have each and every one of you here. The Russell trustees and supporters, we welcome you, and we thank you for all of your efforts in making this historic day possible; past and present members of the United States Senate who will be introduced later; and friends and admirers of Richard B. Russell. This is indeed an important event in the life of the United States Senate. Every day since I have been serving in this unique legislative body, I have considered it a great honor to be the temporary holder of what I think of as the Russell seat in the Senate. I am also proud that I had the opportunity to follow Senator Russell's footsteps as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which he chaired so ably for fifteen years during the Cold War, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the construction of the Berlin Wall. I will never forget when I was a twenty-three-year-old lawyer sitting in the back of the Senate Armed Services Chamber right down the hall as Congressman Carl Vinson of Georgia, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, presented the House position on a legislative matter to Senator Richard Russell at the other end of the table, also of Georgia and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Those were the days for Georgia and for our nation. Twenty-seven years later, as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I watched with the rest of the world as the Berlin Wall was torn down, Eastern Europe regained its freedom, and the Soviet empire disintegrated. I have often thought that this occurred without a nuclear war and without worldwide destruction in considerable part because of the wise leadership of Richard Russell and Carl Vinson in building a strong United States and a strong NATO alliance. [Applause.] When this historic building was named in honor of Richard Brevard Russell in 1972, the powerful imprint of his record of service was still very fresh in the memory of the Senate and of our nation. Today, with the dedication of this magnificent statue, we have occasion to remember why Richard Russell made such an indelible imprint on the history of Georgia, the U.S. Senate, and our nation. Although our nation is very different today than it was at the time of Senator Russell's election in 1932, or even at the time of his death twenty-five years ago, his service and his example are more instructive now than ever before. In this context, no one is better suited to begin this ceremony of remembrance, recognition, and dedication than our next speaker. Like Richard Russell, Vice President Al Gore was molded by his southern heritage and by a loving family that encouraged and supported his early and energetic and total commitment to public service. Like Richard Russell, Al Gore is the son of a prominent political father. Indeed, Al Gore, Sr. served in the Senate with Richard Russell and with many in attendance here today. Richard Russell's own father was chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, and in that capacity, administered the oath of office when his son became Governor Russell of Georgia. Just as our vice president was known as "Young Al" when he began his political career, Richard Russell was known as "Young Dick." Like Richard Russell, Al Gore spent a lot of time on the family farm, and as young boys these youthful experiences gave both men a special understanding of people who work with their hands, work in manual labor, as well as an abiding appreciation of conservation and the environment. Like Richard Russell, Al Gore served on the Senate Armed Services Committee and devoted a considerable portion of his time to building a stronger America and a safer world. Like Richard Russell, Al Gore was elected as a very young man to Congress, and he has dedicated his life to the people of his state and to the people of our nation. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome the Vice President of the United States. [Applause.] Richard Russell, A President's Senator by Vice President Al Gore Vice President Gore. Thank you. [Continuing applause.] Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. And, Senator Nunn, thank you for your very kind words of introduction. One of my greatest honors in the time I served in the United States Senate was serving under your chairmanship on the Armed Services Committee, and thank you so much for your kind words. Senator Byrd and Senator Stevens, two close friends and great leaders of this institution, other members of the Senate who are present--forgive me for not even attempting to single out individual senators because there is such a great turnout and such a large presence here at this event--former members of the Senate who are here, as well. Governor Zell Miller, thank you for honoring us and this occasion with your presence here, and thank you for your leadership in Georgia and in our country. To Charles Campbell, Chairman of the Richard B. Russell Foundation; to Frederick Hart, the sculptor; and to Chaplain Ogilvie-- thank you for your invocation; to members of the family of Senator Russell--Carolyn Nelson and Pat Peterson especially, sisters of Senator Russell; to all of the other family members who are here. It is an honor to him that so many of you are present. This really is a very, very special day, and to hear Sam Nunn introduce me with even slight comparisons is beyond what I can' that sets off my hubris alarm, Sam, because Senator Russell is rightly regarded as a legend, and all who had the privilege of serving with him understand that. Incidentally, not too many days ago some tourists remarked to an acquaintance of mine from Tennessee that they had seen the Al Gore statue on the White House lawn, and I said, "What day was that?" [Laughter.] It's been so cold here recently people who don't know me thought I was frozen stiff. But in any event, ladies and gentlemen, from this day forward, in the rotunda of this majestic building named in his honor, a statue of Richard Brevard Russell will stand sentry. Georgia's senator, America's senator, a legendary figure in American politics will gaze over us--a fitting tribute to a towering presence. I knew Senator Russell when I was a young man. I did not have the opportunity to serve in the Congress during his time of service, but my father's service in the Congress overlapped with his for thirty- two years. These two men had a great deal in common. Eighteen of those years my father served in the Senate with Senator Russell. Both were sons of the South and both provided shoulders on which a new generation of Democrats now stands. Both believed that public service was an honorable calling that demanded common courtesy and rewarded basic decency. Both marched in the direction pointed by the compass of their conscience, no matter the prevailing winds or the calls to shift their course. I remember often hearing my father say that whatever their occasional disagreements--and they did have some; on occasion they stood toe to toe, but when it came to certain core ideals; love of country, devotion to duty, respect for principles, they always saw eye to eye. But whatever the occasional disagreements, on one matter my father was resolute whenever he spoke about Senator Russell. Dick Russell had a heart of gold and was one of the most honorable individuals ever to serve in the United States Senate throughout its more than two-hundred-year history. To six United States presidents, Richard Russell was a mentor and an occasional menace. He stood up for Franklin Roosevelt at the 1932 Democratic Convention, nominating him for president when some people thought Roosevelt couldn't win. And then he stood up to Roosevelt a few years later, casting a deciding vote against his Court- packing plan when some people thought Roosevelt couldn't lose. He challenged Harry Truman for the presidential nomination in 1948, but he challenged the nation to honor Truman's authority as commander in chief when he presided over the Senate's Army- MacArthur hearings three years later. President Johnson knew him best among all the presidents served by Richard Russell, and the relationship between Richard Russell and Lyndon Johnson began as so many of his relationships had. Johnson was the student, and Russell was the teacher. They became very, very close friends, even though they too had occasional disagreements and feuded from time to time. And Johnson owed much of his rise to the benevolence and wisdom of the Georgia Giant. Senator Russell, we all remember, was an austere man, and, ironically, Johnson lavished him with gifts from time to time--fancy neckties, glass bowls, one time a watch just like the one that President Johnson wore. And, as the story goes, one Christmas Johnson gave Senator Russell a beautiful Christian Dior handkerchief. The senator thanked him, and he said, "Now, Lyndon, I'm going to have to buy a new suit to go with this." When Johnson was vice president, he hosted a dinner in Senator Russell's honor, which was a grand affair swarming with cabinet officers, elected officials, and Washington's elite. And at that dinner, Johnson told the assembled gathering that if he were able to personally choose the president of the United States, he would select Richard Russell. Richard Russell was indeed a president's senator and a senator's senator. And if things had gone a little bit differently, if the South had been a little bit different, if other things had been just a little bit different, he might have been a senator's president. On some things Senator Russell was way ahead of his time, a little bit like that great Barbara Mandrell song "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool." For example, Richard Russell was reinventing government before reinventing government was cool. We're still in that period before reinventing government is cool. [Laughter.] As governor, he reduced the number of state bureaus, commissions, and agencies from 102 to 17. He cut the cost of government 20 percent, saved the state the then-astronomical sum of a million dollars. He knew that a government that didn't spend money as wisely and carefully as a family could never earn any family's respect. On national security, of course, Senator Russell had no peer. He championed a robust national defense, and he helped build a Pentagon that was the envy of the world. He also influenced all of those who came after him. Many members of the United States Senate today owe something of their bearing and approach to the job to their learning experience in watching Senator Russell. In fact, I have sometimes thought--and I dare say I'm not the only one--in watching the level of excellence brought to the job of chairman of the Armed Services Committee and now ranking member by Sam Nunn--that his experience, along with others, in watching Senator Russell was an important factor in giving our nation the degree of commitment to public service that we find from so many who watched Senator Russell carefully. But perhaps his most lasting influence was on matters that were less explosive and less immediately tied to life and death, less immediately newsworthy--bringing electricity to rural America, getting loans for Georgia's farmers, making sure that poor children could eat a decent lunch at school. And there was always that reverence to his life, his spartan apartment, his utter devotion to the Senate as an institution, his enduring selflessness that inspired even those with whom he disagreed. I do understand that more than one-hundred members of the Russell family are here this afternoon, and we all thank you for sharing your outstanding brother, uncle, cousin with the United States of America. I guess we all should have expected, however, that even at the dedication of his statue, Senator Russell would make certain he had the votes to come out on top in case any question was put. [Laughter.] There's no need to worry about that this afternoon. Today and forever, this leader, this patriot, this legend, remains where he belongs--in the Senate standing tall. [Applause.] Senator NUNN. Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President. Richard Russell was an astute judge of the character and the quality of his fellow senators. He made his judgment, not only on the basis of their words, but also on the basis of what he observed--their deeds. When Richard Russell determined that you were a man or woman of honor, he was your champion for life. One young senator who met this Russell test was Robert Byrd. The last vote Senator Russell cast before he died was cast from his hospital bed in favor of Robert Byrd's bid to become the majority whip of the Senate in 1971. Senator Russell was an advisor and confidant to six presidents. He served under seven, but only a brief time under one. He had the deepest respect for the office of president, so much so that he never called any sitting president, even his old friend and prot�g� Lyndon Johnson, anything but Mr. President. With a similar respect, Senator Byrd never called Senator Russell anything but Senator Russell. Senator Russell believed strongly in the independence and coequal role of the Congress of the United States, and he insisted on more than one occasion that he had not served under six presidents, Al, but rather, he served with six presidents--a real difference. Like Richard Russell, Robert Byrd reveres the Senate of the United States, not just because he serves in it, but because of his respect for its role in the history of our nation and the world. Like Richard Russell in his day, Robert Byrd by the power of his intellect, by the depth of his understanding of history and the Senate rules, by the strength of his character, and by his faith in God, is today the custodian of the Senate ideals that go back, not only to the founding fathers but, indeed, to ancient Rome. Like Richard Russell, Robert Byrd embodies the traditions, the dignity, and, indeed, the honor of the United States Senate. It is my great privilege to introduce the honored friend of Richard B. Russell, Robert C. Byrd. [Applause.] Richard Russell, A Senator's Senator by Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) Senator Byrd. Thank you. Mr. Vice President, my colleagues, fellow Ameri-cans, ladies and gentlemen. If I appear today to wear a pained expression, that's because I have some pain. If any of you have ever had the shingles, you know what I'm talking about. Although a great number of people think I wear that expression all the time. [Laughter.] And they're not far wrong. I want to thank, first of all, the Senate Chaplain, Dr. Ogilvie, who performed the most important part in the program. I thank Mr. Campbell for inviting me to participate in this program. And I thank Sam Nunn. He stepped into some big shoes when he came to the Senate, and those shoes fit today. [Applause.] The Duke of Wellington once said that the presence of Napoleon on the field was worth forty thousand men in the balance. And so it is when Sam Nunn speaks on the subject of our national defense. He has no peer in the Senate, and everybody listens. Let me say that I'm very grateful for the presence of so many of our colleagues here today. My eyes are growing dim, but I had the pleasure of personally greeting some of my colleagues before I came up here. So I want to thank John Warner and Danny Inouye, and former senator and former judge Mr. Griffin; Thad Cochran and Jesse Helms, Mark Hatfield and Paul Sarbanes; and the only man in the Senate who has served longer in the Senate than I have, Strom Thurmond. [Applause.] That is in the Senate. My tenure on the Hill is a little bit more than Strom's. Claiborne Pell. And our old friend Russell Long. [Applause.] Our great friend Mac Mathias, Paul Coverdell. I think I see Ted Moss and Wyche Fowler. There may be others. You'll forgive me if I can't see you from here, but thank you for coming. When I first came to the Senate in January 1959, my office was in room 342 of this building, then known as the Old Senate Office Building. That was still thirteen years before the Senate would adopt the resolution that I offered renaming the building in honor of Senator Richard Brevard Russell. Yet even though his name was not yet affixed to the wall of the building, it might well have been because he was the senator, the uncrowned king of the southern block, and he was as truly a Senate man as was Henry Clay or Daniel Webster or John C. Calhoun or Thomas Benton or any of the other giants who had preceded him. Back in January 1959, I was yet a relatively young senator of forty-one. Twenty years my senior, Senator Russell had already served over a quarter of a century in the United States Senate. He was a patrician in all aspects of the word, and of all the senators with whom I have served over these past thirty-seven years, he was the only senator whom I never addressed by his first name when speaking to him personally. That was the measure of my respect and admiration for Senator Richard Russell. On many occasions I sought his opinion and advice, and I always found him courteous and easy to talk with. He was urbane and scholarly, courtly and polite, a statesman by every definition. His arrival in Washington in 1933 coincided with the start of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal administration. Recognizing the severity of the Great Depression, Senator Russell gave loyal support to President Roosevelt whom he viewed as a great leader who sympathized with the problems of ordinary citizens. Russell's colleagues quickly recognized the talents and the abilities of this young senator. As a freshman, he won an almost unheard of appointment to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Richard Russell never married. We used to say he was married to the Senate. Governor Miller, he studied its traditions and its customs, its rules, its history, and its practices assiduously. Ted Stevens, Senator Russell avoided speaking often on the floor but preferred to do his work quietly in the committee rooms. Senator Russell's philosophy of government was rooted in constitutionalism. His belief in the limits of federal power and the separation of powers among the three equal branches of government was the main force behind his opposition to what were popularly known then as civil rights acts. His attitude toward the role of government he summed up once by saying, "I am a reactionary when times are good; in a depression, I'm a liberal." He was always regarded as one of the most fair and conscientious members of this body. The truth of this was clearly demonstrated during the Senate inquiry of President Truman's dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur from his command in Korea. Senator Russell presided over those hearings from May 3 to June 27, 1951. During that time, he was unfailingly courteous and was particularly solicitous of the general's views. In hindsight, it has been claimed that his judicious handling of this volatile event did much to diffuse an explosive situation. Through it all he served his nation well. Richard Russell followed his own star. He did not pander. His confidant was his conscience. He was always the good and faithful servant of the people. He was good for the Senate, and he loved it dearly. I can say without any hesitation that he was a remarkable senator, a remarkable American, a remarkable man who enjoyed the respect and the affection of all who served with him. In the death of Senator Russell, I felt a great personal loss. From my first days in the Senate, I looked upon him as my mentor, and he was the man I most admired in Washington, a man of great intellect, the finest of public servants, and his patriotism and love of country will never be excelled. "I saw the sun sink in the golden west No angry cloud obscured its latest ray; Around the couch on which it sank to rest Shone all the splendors of a summer day, And long--though lost of view--its radiant light Reflected from the skies, delayed the night. "Thus, when a good man's life comes to a close, No doubts arise to cloud his soul with gloom; But faith triumphant on each feature glows And benedictions fill the sacred room; And long do men his virtues wide proclaim, And generations rise to bless his name." And so to his kinspeople, to his kinspeople and his host of friends, I say, I am honored indeed to have been invited to participate in this ceremony in which we dedicate this handiwork of the sculptor to the memory of Richard Brevard Russell, late a senator from the state of Georgia. How poor this world would be without the memories of its mighty dead. Only the voiceless speak forever, the memory of this noble man will ever be like a star which is not extinguished when it sets upon the distant horizon. It but goes to shine in other skies and then reappears in ours as fresh as when it first arose. [Applause.] Senator Nunn. The distinguished senator we will hear from next also served with Senator Russell, but from across the aisle. Like Richard Russell, Ted Stevens's record of supporting his state's concerns and his record on national and international issues have made him a formidable force in his own home state and throughout the nation. In his own state of Alaska, his record discourages most potential opposition and crushes those who are daring enough to run against him. Like Richard Russell, Ted Stevens has chaired the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and has been an effective proponent of a strong national defense. Like Senator Russell, Ted Stevens is a champion of both our veterans and our men and women in uniform, and he fights to see that our troops have the weapons and the equipment they need to prevail in combat. Like Richard Russell, Ted Stevens believes that when our flag is committed, it is time to transcend partisan politics and to support our troops. Richard Russell once described the legislative process well when he said, quoting him, "Only through a meeting of the minds and by concessions can we legislate." Like Richard Russell, Ted Stevens understands that the legislation requires cooperation and coalition building in both political parties, not only to pass but to last. Ted, to you and to my good friend and colleague Paul Coverdell, I have one message for Majority Leader Bob Dole who wanted to be here today but had other pressing commitments. In Georgia, we have a small town that might remind Bob Dole of home in case he ever has any reason in the next few weeks or months to wander into our territory, and it's called Russell, Georgia. We'll be proud to have him there at any time. I am proud to present to you the distinguished senator from the state of Alaska, a friend of Richard Russell, the Honorable Ted Stevens. [Applause.] Richard Russell, A Senator's Senator by Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) Senator Stevens. Thank you very much, Senator Nunn. You embarrassed me with that introduction. I am delighted to be able to pinch-hit for Senator Dole and to be here with this distinguished group. After listening to my good friend--and he is my great friend-- Senator Byrd, I am reminded of a friend of mine that told me when he was ready to make a speech he felt like Lady Astor's seventh husband. He knew what he had to do, but he didn't know how to make it interesting. [Laughter.] After a speech such as Senator Byrd's and the vice president's, I'm humbled to be here. But I am delighted to be here, Sam, because as you said, Senator Russell was the chairman of the subcommittee that I've been chairman of twice now, and that's the Defense Subcommittee, and I really feel greatly the responsibility of that position. Because he spent half of his lifetime in the Senate and enjoyed relationships with every president from Franklin Roosevelt to Richard Nixon, as you've heard, Senator Russell had a deep understanding of the nation and a deeper understanding of how our government works, more so than most Americans. He was very generous in sharing his wisdom and insight with new senators regardless of their political affiliation. That legacy lives on today, and I am one of the beneficiaries as Senator Nunn mentioned. Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson and Senator Mansfield, Senator Stennis are people who served with him. They served as mentors for me and others, regardless of politics. When we came to the Senate, and I came to the Senate twenty-eight years ago, we were the recipients of the attention of Senator Russell, and we were guided by the senators that he had so well instilled with the love of this institution. As they took us under their wing, as Senator Russell had done to them, they counseled us in our first years in the Senate. Those were years when senators were seen and not heard for a few years, but I was an appointed senator so they sort of made an exception because they weren't sure I'd be back. I think that there was no question that at that time we all recognized that we were serving with the foremost congressional authority on our nation's defense, and really the architect of our nation's security. He was chairman of the Armed Services Committee and chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee at the same time as I recall. I always remember that, because I'm sorry that I can't enjoy that same circumstance. Senator Hatfield will understand that. But it is something for all of us to remember that he worked primarily to assure that this nation remained strong. And he was very bipartisan in dealing with that, and I'm very serious about saying he took time with young senators to explain his understanding of defense and why it was so necessary to keep such a firm foundation. I think he played a greater role than any other senator in shaping the defense establishment of our post-World War II period here in America. President Nixon said this of Senator Russell, "When the security of the United States was at issue, six American presidents leaned upon this great patriot," Richard Russell. "He never failed them." By remaining bipartisan, Senator Russell kept our nation from retreating into isolationism during a period that was very essential to our history, the period right after World War II. Long before Dwight Eisenhower became president, Senator Russell and Ike were great friends. Their friendship continued and grew after Eisenhower was in the White House. In testimony to America's spirit of democracy throughout the world, Senator Russell showed our nation the importance of rebuilding, rebuilding not only our nation but our enemies'--Germany and Japan--after World War II. Ensuring that the Marshall Plan became a reality was one of Dick Russell's real goals, and he was most successful. And while he was a tower of strength for our national defense, I am sure you know, Sam and the senators here from Georgia, he was a faithful representative of the people of Georgia. He saw better than others the future of the burgeoning discoveries in science and ensured that funds would be available for research in new technologies in medicine, agriculture, and in conservation. I feel truly honored to have been able to serve with Richard Russell, and I am deeply honored to my friend Robert Dole for being elsewhere so I could say it here today. Twenty-five years ago, just a few years after his death, I was a young senator, but I joined other senators in paying tribute to our departed friend. Let me just repeat now what I said then. He never sought publicity nor attempted to impress his colleagues with flashy rhetoric, but that is not to say he was not a forceful advocate and a fierce adversary. I am confident that history will mark him as a consummate statesman who transcended regional boundaries to become a senator for all here in the United States. He was a paragon worth emulating by those who would pursue a life in public service. Nothing has changed in the twenty-five years since I said those words. Russell is still a great influence, his legacy is alive today as it was then, his achievements and unique abilities will never be forgotten as Senator Byrd has so ably said, and I'm pleased to be here to be part of the dedication of this statue and pleased even more, as I said, to have been fortunate enough to have been able to serve with this great man, Richard Russell. Thank you very much. [Applause.] Senator Nunn. Like Richard Russell, our next speaker has dedicated his life to public service, and has recognized that political leader- ship is an honorable calling. Like Richard Russell, Zell Miller comes from north of what we in Georgia call "The Gnat Line," the geological fall-line that separates north Georgia from south Georgia, with 90 percent of the gnats on the southern side of the line where I live. Many north Georgia politicians never get elected because they never master a vital skill; that is, to be able to blow away the gnats and talk at the same time. [Laughter and applause.] Like Richard Russell, Zell Miller clearly mastered this skill despite his geographic disadvantage. Like Governor Richard Russell and Senator Richard Russell, Governor Zell Miller has been a champion of job creation and fiscal responsibility. Like Richard Russell, Zell Miller has a powerful commitment to the education of all of our children. As governor of Georgia, Richard Russell recognized and reorganized higher education. He established the board of regents and paved the way for Georgia's top institutions to become leaders in our nation. In Washington, Senator Russell was the father of the school lunch program, one of his proudest accomplishments. As governor, Zell Miller established the HOPE Scholarship Program which enables every student in Georgia who achieves a B average in high school to receive free tuition in college for as long as they maintain a B average. Currently, over 105,000 Georgia students are being helped by this program. [Applause.] As governor, Zell Miller is the father also of Georgia's pre- kindergarten program, the most comprehensive program for four- year-olds in the entire nation, one of his proudest accomplishments. Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to introduce the Governor of Georgia, my good friend, the Honorable Zell Miller. [Applause.] Richard Russell, Georgia's Senator by Governor Zell Miller of Georgia Governor Miller. Thank you. Thank you very much, Senator Nunn, for that introduction, but, most importantly, thank you for all that you have done for our state of Georgia and for this nation. [Applause.] Mr. Vice President, Senator Byrd, Senator Stevens, Senator Coverdell, other members of the U.S. Senate present and past, members of the Georgia congressional delegation past and present, Russell Foundation Chairman Charles Campbell, former Georgia Governor Ernest Vandiver, and Mrs. Betty Russell Vandiver, and all the members of the Russell family. [Applause.] Distinguished guests and ladies and gentlemen. It is certainly a great honor to be on this platform and to have this opportunity to speak on behalf of the state of Georgia at this ceremony. Although it has now been twenty-five years, a quarter of a century, since his passing, many of us knew and still vividly remember Richard Russell. Some knew him as a senator's senator whose knowledge and reverence of the United States Senate as an institution was so deep that even his colleagues who opposed him on the issues, or had conflicting philosophies of government, had a level of respect for him that bordered on reverence. Others knew Richard Russell as a president's senator, personal advisor, as we have known, to six presidents beginning with Franklin Roosevelt. It was often said that the only power that the president had that Dick Russell didn't have was the ability to push the button. And no president would have thought of pushing that button without first consulting with Senator Russell. But back home in Georgia we knew him as our senator, and when we sent him to Washington in 1933, it was because we already knew what a remarkable leader this man was. Dick Russell became the youngest member of the Georgia legislature when he was elected state representative at the age of twenty-three, and he became speaker of the house of representatives in Georgia while he was still in his twenties. He was elected the youngest governor in Georgia's history at the age of thirty-three. During those early years in state government, he honed the leadership skills that served him so well in Washington. He was open, he was honest in his dealings, he was always fair and civil to both sides in an argument, and once he had given his word he stood by it without equivocation. He was a genuine representative of the people who shunned political labels and special interests, and he was scrupulous about doing his homework on the issues, so that when he spoke, it was from personal understanding. The Dick Russell we Georgians knew regarded public service as his life and his work and devoted himself unstintingly to it. He worked twelve-hour days, cooked his own meals, washed his own socks in an austere bachelor apartment. He cared deeply about his large family, and his only indulgence was frequent visits with his kinfolk at the Russell family home in the little town of Winder, Georgia. Many of you, of course, remember him as Mr. Defense, the powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. And in Georgia, we still feel the positive economic impact of the many federal facilities he brought to our state. In Georgia, we also remember, however, that by his own measure, as Senator Nunn mentioned awhile ago, in his own mind the highest accomplishment of his career, and the only piece of legislation for which he jealously guarded his authorship, was the school lunch program. Here in Washington, his name lives on in this impressive Senate office building. In Georgia, the infrastructure is a little less imposing. The post office in Winder is named for him, as is an elementary school in Cobb County, an agriculture research center in Athens, the federal district courthouse in Atlanta, an Army Corps of Engineers reservoir, and a scenic stretch of north Georgia highway. But we really remember him better through ideas and intellect, the Russell Chair in American History at the University of Georgia; the Russell All-State High School Debate Championship; the Russell Teaching Awards; the Russell Leadership Program for Outstanding College Students; the Russell Public Policy Symposium; and the Russell Library for Political Research and Studies. These activities are supported by the Richard B. Russell Foundation, which also commissioned this statue to bring a remembrance of the man himself into this building that honors him. But at the same time that we always remember Richard Russell as Georgia's senator, the unfailing champion in Washington of our interests and our state, at the same time we remember that, as another great Georgia senator by the name of Sam Nunn pointed out, Richard Russell was a statesman. And these are Sam Nunn's words: He understood the simple and powerful truth that the best way to serve your state is to do the best job you can in serving your nation. And that is what made him a senator's senator and a president's senator and Georgia's senator, and a senator for the ages. [Applause.] Senator Nunn. Ladies and gentlemen, to conclude our program and acknowledge our special guests and, in particular, the Russell family, I would like to call on Mr. Charles Campbell. Charlie served on the staff of Senator Russell during the last six years of his life and was his administrative assistant at the time of Senator Russell's death. Senator Byrd will recall that Charles was with Senator Russell when he cast his last vote that I mentioned earlier and that Senator Byrd mentioned--his vote by proxy from his hospital bed in 1971 for Senator Byrd to be majority whip. It is my pleasure to introduce the chairman of the Richard B. Russell Foundation and someone who must have been the youngest administrative assistant in the history of the United States Senate, Mr. Charlie Campbell. [Applause.] Recognition of Special Guests by Charles E. Campbell, Chairman Richard B. Russell Foundation Mr. Campbell. Thank you, Senator Nunn. Vice President Gore, Senator Byrd, Senator Stevens, Senator Nunn, Governor Miller, other distinguished guests, friends and family of Senator Russell, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the Russell Foundation, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the dedication and unveiling of the Russell statue and to thank you for your attendance. There are so many distinguished guests present that we cannot hope to recognize all of them, but I know Senator Russell would be particularly pleased with the large number of currently serving and former members of Congress in the audience. And I would like to ask all of the currently serving and former members of Congress, both House and Senate in attendance, to please stand and let us recognize them. [Applause.] I want to recognize individually the senators who are here and who served with Senator Russell. You have already met Senator Byrd and Senator Stevens. The other senators who served with Senator Russell and who are present today and still serving in the Senate are: Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon, Senator William Roth of Delaware, Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, and Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii. I'd like to ask them to please stand and be recognized. [Applause.] We are also delighted to have present certain former members of the Senate who served with Senator Russell, some for extended periods of time. I would now like to recognize these senators: Senator Vance Hartke of Indiana, Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana, Senator Charles Mathias of Maryland, Senator Robert Griffin of Michigan, Senator Russell Long of Louisiana, Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana, Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, Senator Frank Moss of Utah, Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin, and Senator Harrison Williams of New Jersey. I'd like to ask these senators to stand, please, and be recognized. [Applause.] As many of you know, Senator Russell was one of thirteen brothers and sisters, and the Russell family is an exceedingly large family. It is well-represented here today. I would like to ask each member of the Russell family in attendance to please stand. [Applause.] We also have with us a number of the members of Senator Russell's staff or the staff of the committees which he chaired or on which he served, and I would like to ask the members of the Russell staff who are in attendance to please stand. [Applause.] The Russell Foundation, of which I am honored to serve as chairman, is fortunate to have a dedicated board of trustees, the names of whom are published in your program. A number of the Russell trustees are in attendance today, and I would like for them to stand and be recognized. [Applause.] Each of the donors who contributed $5,000 or more to the Russell statue are listed in your program, and I would like to ask the individual contributors or representatives of corporate contributors who are in attendance today to please stand and be recognized. [Applause.] A project such as the Russell statue could not be accomplished without the assistance of a lot of people. I particularly want to thank Senator Sam Nunn and his staff for the many things they have done to bring this project to fruition, and I also can't let the occasion pass without saying, Senator, particularly in light of your retirement now, how much we appreciate your twenty-four years of Richard Russell-type service in the United States Senate. [Applause.] Senator Paul Coverdell and his staff have been of immeasurable assistance to us in putting on this program, and I want to ask Senator Coverdell to please stand and be recognized. [Applause.] Senator Russell's close friend, Senator Robert Byrd, has served as the official sponsor of the dedication of the Russell statue and the reception that will follow in the Caucus Room on the third floor of the Russell Building, to which you are each invited. I would like to thank Senator Byrd and his staff for all of the help they have given us with the Russell statue dedication. [Applause.] With respect to the Russell statue itself, we are indebted to the stone carver and the sculptor. As you will see when the statue is unveiled in a few minutes, the master stone carver at the National Cathedral, Mr. Vincent Palumbo, who carved the Russell statue from a large block of white Italian marble using the model developed by the sculptor, did an outstanding job. I would like to ask Mr. Palumbo and his family to stand and be recognized. [Applause.] We were particularly blessed to have a talented sculptor who had a special interest in this project. The Russell Foundation selected Frederick Hart from a number of sculptors who were interviewed. We were particularly impressed by some of his public works, including the soldier figures at the Vietnam Memorial, and the Creation sculptures at the entrance to the National Cathedral here in Washington. Frederick Hart is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, and he was already well acquainted with Richard Russell's career before commencing his work on the Russell statue. In fact, his father was in the television business and was active in the 1952 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination on behalf of the late Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee who was a candidate for president that year. Senator Russell was himself a candidate for president in the 1952 Democratic presidential primaries. Frederick Hart is not only an excellent sculptor, but was a pleasure to work with on the Russell statue. I would like to ask Rick and his wife and two sons who are in the audience to please stand and be recognized at this time. [Applause.] And before we unveil the Russell statue, I would like to make a request of three groups, if they would, to, after the dedication is over, come down front so we can have some photographs made of these groups with the statue. The first ones are senators here who served with Senator Russell, both currently serving senators and former senators. Secondly, the Russell trustees. Third, the Russell staff. If you would come down after the dedication is over to the front so we can have some photographs made with the statue. Now, for the unveiling of the statue. I would like to ask the sculptor, Frederick Hart, and Senator Russell's two surviving sisters, Mrs. Pat Peterson and Mrs. Carolyn Nelson, who are seated over here, to come forward to unveil the statue. [The statue is unveiled.] [Sustained applause.] Rick, I think that Senator Russell, who was known to be quite a critic of portraits and likenesses, would say that it's a great job, and thank you so much. That concludes our program. Everyone is invited to the reception up on the third floor in the Caucus Room, and thank you very much for attending. [Applause.] [Whereupon, the ceremony was concluded.] RICHARD BREVARD RUSSELL, Jr. (1897-1971) by Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) [Address delivered in the Senate, Febrary 1, 1988] Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, in my continuing series of addresses on the history of the United States, I have focused from time to time on individual senators who have left their mark on this institution. One such senator is Richard Brevard Russell, Jr., of Georgia. In 1972, I initiated legislation that provided for naming the original Senate office building in his honor. Today, the thousands of people who work on Capitol Hill know his name, but only a few know his legacy. In preparing these remarks, I have had the good fortune to be ably assisted by Dr. Gilbert Fite. Dr. Fite served from 1976 to 1986 as the first Richard B. Russell professor of American history at the University of Georgia. From 1945 to 1971, he was a member of the history faculty at the University of Oklahoma, and, from 1971 to 1976, he served as president of Eastern Illinois University. Dr. Fite's research interests are reflected in the professional associations of which he has been president. They include the Western History Association, the Southern Historical Association, and the Agricultural History Society. This distinguished scholar is currently completing a full scale biography of Senator Russell. Richard B. Russell was one of the nation's leading statesmen in twentieth century America. A true son of the South, he served in the United States Senate from January 12, 1933, until his death on January 21, 1971, some thirty-eight years later. During that period, he worked with six presidents, and, from the 1940s when he emerged as a leader in the Senate, he played a major role in national policy-making. His career spanned epochal events, including the Great Depression, World War II, the introduction of nuclear power, the Korean and Vietnam wars, the battle for civil rights, expansion of federal powers and responsibilities, and a host of other major developments. His mark can be found on most of the great questions that faced the country during his terms in Washington. In 1963, a reporter for Newsweek magazine wrote that Senator Russell is "a courtly soft-spoken, cultural patrician, whose aides and associates treat him with deferential awe. Modest, even shy, in manner, devastatingly skilled in debate, he has a brilliant mind, encyclopedic learning, unrivaled access to pressure points of senatorial power and a gift for using them. He is a senator's senator, the head of the Senate establishment, the most influential member of the United States Senate." Who was this man who had won such respect and power? What manner of man was he? Russell was born in the small town of Winder, Georgia, some forty miles northeast of Atlanta, on November 2, 1897. He was the fourth child and first son of thirteen living children of Judge Richard B. Russell and Ina Dillard Russell. He was born into a distinguished and well-educated family whose roots went back to colonial times. His Russell ancestors had lived in South Carolina and Georgia for several generations and were successful planters and businessmen. Russell's grandmother, Rebecca Harriette Brumby, had descended from the Brumbys and the Brevards, two prominent South Carolina and North Carolina families. On both sides, it was a family of modest wealth and prestige. Richard Brevard Russell, the senator's father, was born in Marietta, Georgia in 1861. He attended the University of Georgia, receiving a law degree in 1880. He practiced law in Athens, was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1882 where he served for six years, and, in 1888, he was elected solicitor general of the western circuits of Georgia. He held that position until January 1, 1899, when he became judge of the superior court of the western judicial circuit. Judge Russell was an intensely ambitious man. In 1904, he made an unsuccessful race for chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, and, two years later, he entered the campaign for governor against the prominent Hoke Smith, a contest in which he was decisively defeated. In 1911, Russell failed again in a race for the governorship, and had no better success when he ran for Congress in 1916. In 1922, however, he won a campaign for chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, a position that he held until his death in 1938. Young Richard B. Russell, Jr., then, grew up in a large family that was prominent and widely known throughout the state. Also, it was a family that expected the children to achieve. Judge Russell believed deeply in at least three things--education, hard work, and personal ambition. Moreover, he had special ambitions for his first son and namesake. Both Judge and Mrs. Russell planned for, and expected, their eldest son to become a leader in some field, preferably public service. To help achieve that goal, the Russells sent young Dick to Gordon Military Institute at Barnesville, Georgia. This was considered the best secondary school in the state, and one of the top such institutions in the South. It attracted the sons from many of Georgia's leading families, and Judge Russell believed that the contacts Dick made there among his fellow students would be helpful later in a political career. So, in September 1911, young Dick, at age thirteen, was off to Gordon. Although he possessed high native intelligence, Dick did not take his school work very seriously. He was much more attracted to the social life, both on and off campus. Despite intense urgings from his father and mother to study hard, he so neglected his studies that he nearly flunked out of school. Judge Russell, hoping to stimulate his son by appealing to family pride, once wrote: "you carry my name, and I want you to carry it higher than I have done or can do in my few remaining years."1 Such fatherly urgings, however, were largely in vain. At the end of his sophomore year, Dick had passed all of his courses except Latin. Believing that a different environment might help his son, Judge Russell decided to send Dick to the Seventh District A&M School near Marietta. There, the curriculum was less rigorous and students had to work for part of their expenses. Dick's father believed that a work schedule might provide the discipline needed to do better academic work. During that year, Dick did improve in his studies, and, after making up his failed Latin course at a University of Georgia summer session, he returned to Gordon and graduated with his class in May 1915. It was a close call, however, whether he would meet the requirements for graduation. He declared years later that "more through grace and pity than through knowledge," his teacher had given him a passing mark in calculus.2 Up to that time, Dick had clearly failed to meet his parents' expectations in his school work. However, just as his father had planned, he had made many friends who later were important in his rise to political power in Georgia. In September 1915, Dick entered the University of Georgia Law School in Athens some twenty miles east of his home in Winder. While he continued to be active socially, courting several young ladies, joining the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and going to many parties and dances, Dick finally began to take his studies seriously. He did well in his law courses. Even though he was seriously ill and out of school in part of 1916, he received his law degree in 1918. Shortly after graduation, and only months before the Armistice, he signed up for duty in the navy. He did not leave Georgia during his seventy-nine days of service. However, he was proud of his service and joined, and became an active member in, the American Legion. One of Dick Russell's life-long interests was the reading and study of history. He was an avid reader in many fields, but history was his favorite subject. As early as age nine, he recorded in his boyhood diary that he liked to read American history as well as the history of other countries. Early in 1907, he wrote that he had just completed reading a book on the recent war between Japan and Russia. He also liked adventure stories. But his paramount interest was the history of the Civil War, and, over the years, he became an authority on all aspects of that bloody conflict. Moreover, Russell believed that history had lessons for those who would learn from it, and considered it useful in policy-making decisions. "Look to the past as a means of weighing the present and the future," he said in 1954. After being discharged from military service in December 1918, Russell returned home to Winder, moved in with his parents, and joined his father in the practice of law. A small town law business, however, failed to satisfy the growing ambitions of this popular young man. In 1920, he decided to run for the Georgia House of Representatives. Entering the campaign against a veteran legislator, Russell went from house to house seeking political support. He defeated his opponent nearly two to one.3 When he took his seat in the general assembly in 1921, he was twenty-three years old and one of the youngest men ever to serve in the Georgia legislature. In Atlanta, Russell quickly became aligned with a group of so-called "young turks" who were trying to reduce the control of special interests in state government, and advance a more progressive program. This group strongly favored improving the state's public education and building hard-surfaced highways. Education and good roads, Russell said, were the twin pathways to progress and modernization. On most issues, Russell was moderately progressive. Early in his political career, Russell developed the tactics and techniques that served him well throughout his half-century of leadership. He carefully cultivated key people who would support him, many of whom were his former classmates at Gordon Military Institute and the University of Georgia. Secondly, he made it a point to know all the rules, regulations, and traditions of the legislature, and, later, of the United States Senate. Knowledge, Russell rightly believed, was power, and he usually had more information than most other legislators. He also had a knack for political strategy, and he paid close attention to the interests of other legislators. Russell was also skillful in identifying the popular issues of the day and making them his own. Furthermore, he early developed the practice of working behind the scenes where he could arrange compromises that satisfied conflicting interests. Finally, he believed that a political leader must be absolutely honest, straightforward, and fair to all people and points of view. Working on these principles, Russell, despite his youth, advanced rapidly in the Georgia House of Representatives. In 1924, with the support of the younger and more progressive crowd, he was elected speaker pro tem. In 1927, he was unanimously elected speaker of the house, and he was reelected in 1929. During his ten years in the general assembly, four of them as speaker of the house, he worked hard to improve education and to build more and better highways. He insisted on a fiscally responsible, pay-as-you-go policy to fund these programs. Russell also became a strong backer of reorganizing the state government in order to achieve greater efficiency. By 1930, at age thirty-two, Russell was emerging as one of Georgia's major political leaders. He was especially popular among legislators and ordinary people who believed that state government had been operated too much on behalf of the special interest. In April 1930, he announced that he would run for governor on a platform of putting state government on a "business basis" and promising that he would head "an honest and economical administration." Initially, veteran politicians did not think that this young upstart had any chance in a field of seasoned candidates. However, Russell canvassed the state from one end to the other, visiting thousands of voters in their homes and at village crossroads. In this grassroots campaign, Russell presented himself as the peoples' candidate and sharply attacked the special interests. Russell was an excellent speaker and debater. He devastated his opponents with superior knowledge, logic, common sense, and, when necessary, with ridicule and wit. Georgians responded to Russell's call for honesty, efficiency, and fairness in government, and elected him by the overwhelming vote of 99,505 to 47,157 for his opponent. Russell took his oath as governor in June 1931, during the depth of the Great Depression. In his inaugural address, he promised to balance the state budget and to liquidate Georgia's debts. He emphasized that even the poorest students, especially rural youth, must be given the opportunity for an education, and that a state- funded highway system must be developed. He also stressed the need for governmental reorganization. During the eighteen months that Russell served as governor, his greatest achievement was reorganization of Georgia's government. Over one hundred boards, commissions, and departments were consolidated into eighteen new state agencies. One of the most successful examples of that reorganization was the establishment of the University System of Georgia for higher education which placed a single governing board over all of the state's colleges and universities. While it was assumed that Russell would run for a second term and be easily reelected, the death of Senator William J. Harris in April 1932 opened up an opportunity for Russell to seek a senatorial post. On April 25, 1932, he announced that he would seek election to Senator Harris's unexpired term, which ran until 1937. At the same time he appointed John S. Cohen, publisher of the Atlanta Journal, to serve until the election of Harris's successor. A short time later, the veteran Georgia congressman, Charles R. Crisp, announced that he would seek the Senate seat. The Russell-Crisp campaign turned out to be a long and bitter fight. Russell attacked Crisp's record in Washington and successfully identified him with the ruinous policies that had led to the Great Depression. He also accused Crisp of being aligned with the "power trust" and other representatives of "special privilege." In contrast, Russell presented himself as being "the champion of the masses."4 He did have the support of most farmers and of organized labor. Russell spoke in every part of the state and aired his views in radio talks. His personal friends, once again, did yeoman service on his behalf. Despite most early predictions that he could not defeat Crisp, and opposition from many major newspapers, including the Atlanta Constitution, Russell decisively whipped Crisp by winning some 58 percent of the popular vote, and getting a higher percentage of the county unit votes. During the summer, Russell had taken time off from campaigning to serve as a delegate to the National Democratic Convention. He was a strong supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Russell had become acquainted with Roosevelt in the 1920s when the New Yorker spent time at Warm Springs, Georgia. They also had several meetings when they served as governors of their respective states. At the convention, Russell made one of the seconding speeches for Roosevelt, and urged the delegates to nominate him because he was free from the "predatory interests who have long fattened at the trough of special privilege."5 Roosevelt, Russell declared, would be a great leader because he understood and sympathized with the problems of ordinary people. He saw himself and Roosevelt as favoring many of the same things. He viewed Roosevelt, too, as the man who could best lead the country out of the Depression. Roosevelt's election thrilled Russell, and he was excited about the prospect of working with the new president. Dick Russell, just past thirty-five, was sworn in on January 12, 1933, as the youngest member of the United States Senate. With the arranged resignation of Senator Cohen, which permitted Russell to take office in January, he gained seniority over those newly elected senators who, in those days prior to the ratification of the Twentieth Amendment, would take their seats on March 4. A bachelor--some said one of Washington's most eligible young men--Russell moved into the Hamilton Hotel and began his long career in Washington. Knowing that the Senate did its important work in committee, Russell actively sought an assignment to the Appropriations Committee. Senate Majority Leader Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas tried to explain to Russell that appointment to Appropriations was customarily reserved for senators with more experience and seniority. Of course, Russell knew this, but he persisted. Finally, because of some unfounded rumors that Russell might join a coalition with Senator Huey P. Long of Louisiana, whom the leadership viewed as a troublemaker, his request for appointment to Appropriations was honored. He also secured a place on the Naval Affairs, Immigration, and Manufacturers committees. A short time later, Russell became chairman of the Subcommittee on Agricultural Appropriations. This placed him in a key position to help farmers, a group for whose plight he had deep sympathy. Russell enthusiastically supported most of the early New Deal legislation. He voted for the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the National Recovery Act, and for other relief legislation. Moreover, as opposition developed to Roosevelt in 1935 and 1936, Russell became one of the president's strongest defenders. He sharply criticized those who accused Roosevelt of being a dictator, and insisted that the president was leading the country in a peaceful and constructive revolution. While Russell believed firmly in private initiative and a capitalistic economy, he argued that the system had been taken off course by special, predatory, economic interests. The federal government must now intervene, he argued, to right the wrongs and help the common people. During his early years in Washington, Richard Russell made an intensive study of the Senate rules, traditions, and practices. By the end of the 1930s, there was no better informed senator on the procedures and operations of this body. His knowledge came from hours of reading and study. It was said that he read the entire Congressional Record every day. Since Russell never married he had no family responsibilities, and this left him extra time for Senate work and for special study. Also, Russell continued his policy developed in the Georgia legislature of working behind the scenes and building up personal relationships between himself and his colleagues. He actually made very few speeches on the Senate floor. He considered that most speeches were mainly for show; he believed in quiet, effective work in committee rooms, over lunch, or in his office. His only public fight on an economic issue was in support of his bill to restrict the imports of jute which, he claimed, competed unfairly with cotton bagging. Just as Russell was getting well established in the Senate, he had to make a bid for reelection in 1936. His opponent was Governor Eugene Talmadge, one of Georgia's best known and most flamboyant politicians, and father of our former colleague, Herman Talmadge. Although Talmadge was a highly controversial figure who had even called out troops to enforce some of his decrees, Russell and his friends recognized the governor as a formidable candidate. "Old Gene" with his red suspenders and folksy manner was reputed to have the special admiration of the state's farmers. By 1934 and 1935, Talmadge had also become one of the New Deal's sharpest critics. Russell, however, was not daunted nor intimidated by such opposition. He vigorously defended the New Deal and his support for it, and stressed what he had done in Washington to assist farmers and working people. Besides defending Roosevelt and the New Deal, and his own work in the Senate, Russell attacked Talmadge and his record as governor head on. He accused the governor of forsaking the common people and lining up with rich Republicans. It was a rough and tumble campaign characterized by large and unruly crowds, fist fights among candidates' supporters, and charges and counter charges. Talmadge finally tried to capitalize on the race issue by accusing Russell of not being strong in support of white supremacy and segregation. Russell denied that he had ever compromised on the principle of white supremacy and called Talmadge's charge "despicable." Russell regretted having to discuss racial matters, but handled the matter skillfully and successfully. Unlike many other southern politicians of that period, Russell opposed bringing the race question into election campaigns. This was not the kind of campaign that Russell liked, but, when challenged and aroused, he was a master fighter on the campaign trail. When the results were in, Russell piled up a huge victory of 256,154 votes to 134,695 for Talmadge. The county unit vote was even more in his favor. Russell's victory in 1936 was so overwhelming and decisive that no other candidate ever again challenged him for his Senate seat. He won five additional elections without opposition. There was no better testimony to his popularity among the people of Georgia. Former Senator Herman Talmadge, in his recently published memoir, asserts that his father was the state's most popular politician and "in a simple one-on-one contest" he could have beaten Russell. ...the race was not Talmadge versus Russell so much as Talmadge versus Roosevelt. In Georgia in 1936, it probably would have been easier to run against Jesus Christ than against Franklin D. Roosevelt. The same people who thought that Papa was a pretty good governor didn't want him to go to Washington to vote against the New Deal.6 Although by the late 1930s Russell was having some doubts about aspects of Roosevelt's policies and programs, in the area of agriculture and farm policy he was making his mark as an avid New Dealer and true friend of the farmer. Russell was a dedicated and confirmed agrarian. Like Thomas Jefferson, he believed deeply in the political and economic importance of an independent farming class. The family farm was, in his view, one of the nation's most important and stabilizing influences. Thus, Russell was always concerned about the welfare of farmers, and he became a strong advocate of help for the small, family-type farmers. He supported all of the basic agricultural legislation enacted after 1933, including the AAA, farm credit, and soil conservation programs. But these programs did very little, if anything, for the tens of thousands of poor tenants and sharecroppers. What could be done to help the poorest farmers, many of whom were located in the South? Beginning in 1935, Russell pushed measures that would help poor tenants and sharecroppers to become landowners by lending them money to buy land and equipment. The most important law to help the poorer class of farmers was the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act of 1937, which Russell enthusiastically supported. The problem was to get funds to provide the necessary loans. It was here that Russell played a major role in his position of chairman of the subcommittee on agricultural appropriations. Not only in the subcommittee but also in conference committee he often beat back attempts to reduce the meager appropriations for the Farm Security Administration. It was not a popular program with many senators, and Russell had to use all of his influence to get even modest appropriations. In the spring of 1942, when it appeared the Congress would drastically cut money for the FSA, President Roosevelt called personally on Russell to save the program. With the cooperation of several influential colleagues, Russell was able to retain most of the funds requested by the president. When the fight was over, Roosevelt wrote Russell thanking him for his "legislative leadership."7 Throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s, farmers owed their direct parity payments, soil conservation payments, and loans from the FSA more to Russell than to any other single leader in Washington. In the mid-1930s, Russell began supporting the idea of a federally funded school lunch program to help needy children and to reduce agricultural surpluses. After operating for several years without legislative authority, in 1946 Russell pushed through a bill that made school lunches a permanent program. He also backed the food stamp plan which began on an experimental basis in 1939. Russell was a compassionate man and believed strongly that government should assist those who were needy and could not help themselves. While Russell considered himself among the loyal New Deal Democrats, he was a man of independent thought and judgment. He would not necessarily support an issue just because it enjoyed the support of the president or the Democratic party. By the late 1930s, he frequently found that he had to oppose the president. In 1937, when Roosevelt attempted to restructure the Supreme Court, Russell did not automatically fight the proposal as many of his colleagues did. It was Russell's nature and inclination to seek some kind of compromise between the president, who wanted some basic changes in the court, and those who found any change whatever abhorrent. When the president rejected a compromise plan advanced by Russell and a few other senators, the Georgian joined those who defeated the "Court packing" bill. He also opposed the president's attempt, in the 1938 elections, to purge some senators, one of whom was his colleague, Walter George. The emerging issue in the 1930s that caused Russell the gravest concern was embodied in proposed Federal legislation to guarantee civil rights for blacks. His views on race had been determined by the culture, traditions, and racial practices with which he had been raised. As a believer in the superiority of Anglo-Saxon culture and institutions, he maintained that blacks were basically inferior to whites. Russell did not dislike blacks and wished them well so long as their progress occurred within their own racial group. For example, he was a strong supporter of black colleges. However, he was vehement against what he called "race mixing," and insisted that both whites and blacks would be better off under strictly segregated conditions. He repeatedly argued that race mixing would lead to intermarriage and what he called "mongrelization" of the races. Above all, Russell believed that Congress had no right to intervene in race relations within a state. That, he argued, would violate states' rights--rights given to the states and protected by the Constitution. In other words, while Russell opposed racial integration his basic arguments against civil rights legislation were usually based on constitutional grounds. The problem, however, was that, throughout much of the country, there was a growing demand for Congress to enact legislation to protect black citizens' rights, which has been denied to them by both legal, and extralegal methods. An early civil rights campaign focused on the passage of anti-lynching legislation. When an anti-lynching bill was introduced in 1935, Russell and other southern senators easily defeated the measure with a short filibuster. But, in 1938, another anti-lynching measure came before the Senate. By that time, a group of eighteen to twenty southern senators had organized into what became known as the "Southern Bloc" for the purpose of defeating anti-lynching and other legislation designed to protect and enhance the rights of blacks. Senator Tom Connally of Texas was the nominal leader of the group, but, by 1940, these senators looked to Russell for genuine leadership. Because of his knowledge of Senate rules, his parliamentary skill, and organizational ability, Russell emerged as the main spokesman and defender of the South's position on race. No man in the United States Congress could speak more eloquently about the history, traditions, and virtues of the Old South than Dick Russell. He loved the South, as it had developed over generations, with an almost militant passion. Southern society may not be perfect, he once admitted, but it was nearly so. He believed that racial integration would destroy this ideal condition. Russell also believed that attacks on racial segregation were directed by what he called "South haters" who really did not know or understand the region or its people. Russell spoke movingly and passionately against the 1938 anti- lynching bill in the Senate. He was no demagogue or race baiter as were some other southern political leaders. He presented serious arguments against the measure, but they were always based on his fundamental understanding of desirable race relations. Russell was as strongly against the heinous crime of lynching as was anyone else. What alarmed him in this instance was the belief that passage of an anti-lynching bill would set a pattern for additional federal legislation. Next, he said, there would be federal control of elections in the southern states; then legislation to ban segregation on public transportation and in public places; guarantees of equal employment opportunities; and, finally, laws to require social equality in schools, health facilities, and colleges. Such a legislative agenda, he argued, would violate states' rights and change the nature of his beloved South. Up to World War II, Russell and his colleagues were able to turn civil rights bills, but they were unable to kill the president's Fair Employment Practices Committee, which, in 1941, began to protect employment rights of blacks. During World War II, and into the postwar years. Russell did everything he could to handicap and reduce the effectiveness of the FEPC, but without much success. As the war clouds rose in Asia and Europe in the 1930s, Russell, as a member of the Naval Affairs Committee, began devoting increasing attention to national defense and foreign affairs. Like most other Americans in the years after World War I, Russell held firm isolationist views. Speaking in opposition to joining the World Court in 1935, he warned his colleagues against getting drawn into European quarrels and conflicts. He believed that George Washington's admonition to be friends with all nations and allies to none was the correct course to follow. Surely, the United States should stay out of European entanglements. "My views are those of a nationalist," he said, and he was "for the United States of America first."8 While Russell wanted to avoid using American military power to settle other nations' problems, he was a vigorous advocate of keeping the United States militarily strong. He was especially interested in strengthening the navy. Russell strongly supported the two-ocean navy which his fellow Georgian, Representative Carl Vinson, was pushing. Russell had a special interest in developing aircraft carriers. Although Russell did not become prominently involved in the debate over neutrality legislation of the 1930s, after World War II broke out in 1939, he supported the American military build-up and the president's plans to aid Britain. He told a 4-H group in 1940 that "our policy of aiding Great Britain and the democracies is now the first national policy of our government. It is too late now to debate; it is our duty to support the president...."9 Besides supporting aid to Britain, this statement reflects Russell's acceptance of presidential leadership in foreign policy matters. Russell championed the Selective Service Act, but he took the progressive position that no person or corporation should profit unduly from defense or war. Men should not be drafted, he argued, unless industries were also forced to contribute to the war effort as the government needed and directed. He was able to enact some legislation requiring the cooperation of industry in the defense effort, but it was a much weaker law than he had hoped to enact. During World War II, Russell headed a committee of five senators who visited the world's far-flung battlefields where American troops were engaged. The purpose of the trip was to help Congress determine if American supplies and equipment were adequate and if they were being used effectively. The group left Washington on July 25, 1943, and did not return until September 28. The senators went first to England, then to North Africa, the Persian Gulf region, India, China, and Australia before returning home. Russell was greatly impressed with the quality and perform-ance of American troops, and, for the most part, he approved of the operations that he had an opportunity to observe. However, he was critical of how some military supplies were being used by American allies. Upon returning home, Russell gave a detailed report to the full Senate on the committee's trip. He dealt with several major issues that became highly important in the post-war years. Russell insisted that the United States should retain some of the bases and land parcels that had been won with the blood of American fighting men. Such bases and facilities, he argued, would be needed to guarantee American security and to preserve the peace. While some commentators accused him of being imperialistic, Russell claimed that bases would be absolutely necessary for the United States to help maintain world stability after the war. He also warned against the United States' dispersing huge amounts of relief and aid to countries around the world following the war. He believed that leaders he had met in his extensive travels had unrealistic expectations of what the United States should or could do. By the close of the war, Russell was beginning to view our wartime ally, the Soviet Union, as untrustworthy and expansionistic. Part of this view stemmed from an effort by Russell in the summer of 1945 to visit Russia after he and a Senate committee had investigated conditions in Western Europe. The Russians delayed issuing Russell an entry permit for so long that he became disgusted and returned home from France. He saw the Russians as unnecessarily suspicious and uncooperative. Russell also was frustrated with what he considered the kid-glove treatment given to defeated Japan. Even after the United States had dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities, Russell did not think that the average citizen of Japan realized the extent of that nation's defeat. Russell urged President Truman to oust the emperor and to march a large army down the streets of Tokyo as a means of impressing the Japanese with the American victory. He did not consider this vindictive; only proper punishment for attacking the United States at Pearl Harbor in 1941. By the end of World War II, Dick Russell had become one of the United States Senate's leading members. Passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 left him with especially strong committee assignments. While he lost his chairmanship of the Immigration Committee, which had been absorbed by the Judiciary Committee, Russell retained his position on Appropriations and got a seat on the newly formed and powerful Armed Services Committee. When the Democrats regained a majority in Congress in 1949, following their defeat in 1946, Russell ranked second and fourth respectively on those two most influential panels. In 1951, he became chairman of Armed Services, a position that he held until 1969 when he gave it up for the chairmanship of Appropriations, except for the two years, 1953-1954, when the Republicans were in control. Russell was also appointed to the first Joint Committee on Atomic Energy in 1946, and, after the Central Intelligence Agency was established in 1947, he became a member of the CIA's congressional oversight committee. Russell also served on the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, which was formed in 1947, and, a decade later, he became a member of the Democratic Steering Committee. He held strategic positions at many points of political and legislative power. In the post-World War II years, Russell spent much of his time trying to help and protect farmers. He was one of the major participants in the Farm Bloc, an informal group of farm-state senators who were committed to getting fuller prosperity for farmers. Among the senators with whom Russell worked closely on agricultural matters was Republican Milton Young of North Dakota. Russell and Young developed a kind of cotton-wheat coalition that fought hard for legislation to guarantee prices of 90 percent of parity for most basic crops. Russell, Young, and their supporters were able to maintain the 90 percent principle well into the mid-1950s. His interest in supporting federal programs and agencies which assist farmers never lagged. The Farm Security Administration had been effectively killed in 1943, but a new agency, the Farmers Home Adminis-tration, was created by Congress in 1945. The FHA was supposed to make loans to poor farmers to help them buy land and equipment, but Congress failed to appropriate enough funds to assist many of them. Russell fought hard, as chairman of the Subcommit- tee on Agricultural Appropriations, to increase appropriations for the agency, but he achieved only limited success. He had better luck fighting against cuts for soil conservation. As one of the leading conservationists in the country, Russell resisted efforts by the Republican Eightieth Congress to reduce the amount of money for soil conservation to what he called a "paltry" $150 million. After a hard fight in 1947, he was able to add nearly $100 million to that amount. He was also responsible for increasing the amount spent on the school lunch program in the postwar years, something that gave him great satisfaction. Senator Russell, however, was equally proud of the Research and Marketing Act which he pushed through the Senate in 1946. Although Dick Russell supported much of President Truman's domestic program, he parted company with the chief executive over labor legislation. He voted for the Taft-Hartley bill in 1947, and he voted to override the president's veto of that measure so hateful to organized labor. Russell was not anti-labor or anti-union. Organized labor had supported him enthusiastically in his races for governor and senator. But Russell had concluded by the mid-1940s that some labor leaders were becoming too powerful and were gaining excessive political influence. He viewed some segments of organized labor's leadership as greedy, selfish, and irresponsible. He was especially concerned with the political activities of the Congress of Industrial Organization's Political Action Committee. Special interests of this kind, Russell believed, were becoming too powerful, so powerful in fact that they were threatening the democratic process. Pressure groups were "becoming dangerous" to the independent thinking of House members and senators, he said. "We must retain the legislator's independence of thought," he argued. "It is not a good thing when pressure groups elect a man who is forever beholden to them."10 Russell, however, had concerns that went beyond the question of general pressure groups. He was annoyed by the lobbying being done by some labor unions for civil rights laws. By the 1940s, Russell foresaw a problem that was to become of national concern a generation later. That was the spending of huge amounts of money by political action groups on the campaigns of candidates who would support their special interests. Not only were the amounts of money corrupting, in Russell's view; but some representatives and senators also came to use campaign money in ways that made it hardly distinguishable from their private funds. Such use of money was abhorrent to Russell who was a stickler for honesty and old fashioned morality. In his own campaigns, he had returned to contributors money that was not needed for actual campaign expenses. He once sent a check for $100 back to a contributor with a note advising his friend that the amount was too generous and that he really did not need the funds. Thus, Russell saw the growing use of money in political campaigns, raised by whatever pressure groups, as endangering the democratic political process and threatening the nation's welfare. Russell himself, of course, had little need for campaign money after 1936. Funds for his filing fee and a few advertisements every six years was the limit of his campaign expenses. Another issue on which Russell felt deeply was immigration. He strongly supported the National Origins Act of 1924 which restricted total immigration to about 150,000 a year and favored northern European immigrants through a quota system. He opposed extending quotas to Asian and African countries, because he felt that immigrants from those nations would change the national racial complexion and reduce the Anglo-Saxon influences of which he was so proud. He once boasted that Georgia had only seven-tenths of one percent foreign born population. Russell was one of the leaders in fighting President Truman's plan in 1946 to admit some 400,000 refugees. Russell believed that the admission of thousands of European refugees would open the flood gates for refugees from all over the world. He wanted to tighten immigration laws, not loosen them. While Russell fought hard against the Truman policy, he could only delay and modify it. Although Russell opposed some of Truman's domestic policies, he lent strong support to the president's policies to block Russian aggression. When the president called for economic and military aid for Greece and Turkey in 1947, Russell backed the plan. He also voted for the Marshall Plan which provided for spending billions over four years to help restore the economies of Western European countries. While initially supporting foreign aid as a means of helping countries regain economic and military strength to resist Communism, Russell soon became disillusioned over the foreign aid program. He favored humanitarian assistance and programs for self-help, but, by 1952, he had become one of the bitterest opponents of the unending flow of American funds to countries all around the world. He had several objections to the foreign aid program: its failure to win friends for the United States; waste; burdens to American taxpayers; and its open-endedness. To Russell, foreign aid became a bottomless pit into which hard-earned American taxpayer dollars were thrown year after year with little or no benefit to the United States. Consequently, he worked hard to defeat foreign aid bills in the 1950s and 1960s, but was only able to reduce the amounts appropriated. Even that limited achievement, he believed, was worthy of his efforts. Russell considered the Soviet Union to be imperialistic and the source of most post-war problems throughout the world. There was no more ardent cold warrior in Congress than Dick Russell. He used his influence on the Armed Services Committee and the Appropriations Committee to strengthen conventional military forces and to develop new weapons. He bitterly opposed sharing any atomic secrets with the Russians. He viewed the conflict between that nation and the United States as a worldwide battle between good and evil. When the North Koreans invaded South Korea in 1950, he saw that action as an extension of Soviet power through one of its satellites, an action that must be resisted. Overall, however, Russell was reasonably well satisfied with the early Truman presidency. Civil rights, however, served as the issue that drew him into opposition to his old Senate colleague. Truman's legislative program included establishment of a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission, abolition of segregation in the armed forces, passage of anti-poll tax legislation, and other measures to guarantee the rights and opportunities for blacks. Following the president's special message on civil rights in February 1948, Russell wrote a constituent that the president's proposals were the "most outrageous affront to the people of our section that we have had to face since Reconstruction days."11 Russell not only opposed actions that might break down segregation and destroy white supremacy; he also believed that Truman's constant pressing for civil rights would split the Democratic party and lead to Republican victory in 1948. The Republicans had already won control of Congress as a result of the mid-term elections of 1946, and Russell and other prominent Democrats had lost their committee chairmanships. Regardless of adverse consequences to the Democratic party, Russell believed that he must fight the Truman civil rights program with all his power. On March 6, 1948, twenty-one southern senators met in Senator Harry Byrd's office to plan their strategy to resist and defeat the president's program. These senators named Russell as their leader, a position he had held informally for several years, and worked out plans to keep close watch in the Senate to make sure no civil rights bills were enacted through some unexpected parliamentary maneuvering. This Southern Bloc saw Truman's effort to eliminate Jim Crow practices as the "opening wedge in the fight to stop all segregation" which, in practice, meant that blacks and whites would "attend the same schools, swim in the same pools, eat together, and eventually, inter-marry."12 So strong was the opposition to Truman's stand on civil rights, that many southerners opposed the president's renomination in 1948. But who could the anti-Truman Democrats put in the race for the nomination? Finally, the anti-civil rights southerners prevailed on Richard Russell to let his name be placed before the convention delegates. Russell knew that he had no chance for the nomination, and he wrote: "I was very reluctant to permit the use of my name, but decided that those who were opposed to Mr. Truman were entitled to have someone for whom they could vote."13 Russell received 263 delegate votes, but Truman won easily. Loyal Democrat that he was, Russell refused to join the Dixiecrats. He quietly voted for Truman, but did nothing to help in the Democratic campaign. It was not long before Russell had an opportunity to help the increasingly beleaguered president. Because of differences in basic policy and strategy in the Korean War between General Douglas MacArthur and the president, Truman removed MacArthur from command in the spring of 1951. The dismissal of a highly popular general by an unpopular president raised a storm of protest against Truman, whose administration was already under attack for being soft on Communism and filled with corruption. It was into this highly charged atmosphere that Russell entered the scene and calmed the political storm swirling around the president. Russell chaired a joint committee of inquiry that looked into the removal of MacArthur and the general foreign policies of the United States in the Far East. The hearings lasted from early May until late June. The committee heard MacArthur and scores of other witnesses. Russell skillfully guided the hearings in a fair, calm, and rational way, and, by summer's end, the issue had largely faded from public consciousness. Truman was deeply grateful to Russell for the manner in which he had handled the entire matter and quieted the controversy. During the hearings, Russell had made one thing abundantly clear; he believed that some senators were too loose-lipped, and were more interested in making points with the press through leaks than in protecting the nation's security. As witnesses talked about military tactics and strategy in the executive sessions, Russell emphasized that such information must be kept absolutely confidential. He warned his colleagues about "a careless word, a slip of the tongue" that might help America's enemies. When some of General George C. Marshall's testimony was leaked to the press, Russell was furious and lectured his fellow senators on the importance of guarding against indiscreet statements. He added that, if such leaks endangered the lives of American soldiers in Korea, neither "our God nor our fellow citizens will ever forgive us nor would we deserve forgiveness." Russell believed that there was a common sense balance between providing the people with enough information on which to make proper policy decisions, and maintaining sufficient secrecy to protect the country's security. Another crucial issue that came up in the MacArthur hearings was that of "executive privilege." When Republican Senator Alexander Wiley attempted to make General Omar Bradley reveal his personal conversations with the president on April 6, 1950, Bradley refused to tell the committee what Truman had said. When Wiley persisted, Russell ruled that a "private conversation between the president and the chief of staff as to detail can be protected by the witness if he so desires." This was a strong statement upholding executive privilege, and, moreover, reflected Russell's deep respect for the office of the presidency. Russell also had a strong commitment to the principle of separation of powers.14 The MacArthur hearings gave Dick Russell a great deal of national exposure. He did not normally seek publicity. Indeed, he did not have a press secretary in his office until 1959. But, whether or not he wanted publicity, he now was the subject of scores of articles in newspapers and magazines. These accounts reviewed his career and activities in a depth not previously known. Richard Strout wrote in the Christian Science Monitor that Russell was the "most powerful man in the Senate" and that body's de facto leader. In late 1950 and early 1951, many of Russell's colleagues urged him to accept the position of Senate majority leader. However, Russell refused to seek or accept the formal leadership post because he disagreed with too much of the administration's legislative agenda, especially that dealing with civil rights. As Russell put it, he wanted to maintain "absolute independence of thought and action."15 While Russell did not want to be majority leader himself, no Democrat could gain the position without his support. In 1951, he endorsed Ernest McFarland of Arizona, who was elected. At the same time, as I have described in previous addresses, he threw his support for majority whip to his young Texas friend, Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson had no claim to the position, except that he had the backing of Dick Russell. That was what counted! This was the beginning of the rapid rise of Lyndon Johnson in the Senate Democratic hierarchy. It was based on his close personal and political friendship with the Senate kingpin, Dick Russell. It was Russell, more than anyone else, who was responsible for making Lyndon Johnson majority leader in 1955. The growing influence of northern liberals in the Democratic party during the Truman years caused Russell grave concern. From his perspective, the most troublesome issue was the continued demand for civil rights legislation. It was clear that the South's influence in national party affairs was declining. The uppermost question in Russell's mind was how to restore and increase the southern role in party councils. One possible avenue was to support a strong southern candidate for the presidential nomination in 1952. While a southerner probably would not be able to win the Democratic nomination, the strength flowing to a candidate from the South might influence the platform and the party's general philosophical direction. At least this was the hope of many southerners. The most logical man in the South to make such a race was Dick Russell. As the 1952 nominating campaigns approached, many southerners urged Russell to actively seek the nomination. But Russell was reluctant. Always the realist, he told supporters that no southerner who opposed civil rights law had any chance to win the Democratic nomination for president. Despite numerous denials that he would seek the nomination, he came under increasing pressure to enter the race. Governors James Byrnes of South Carolina and Herman Talmadge of Georgia, and Senators Burnet Maybank and Harry F. Byrd were the leading advocates of a Russell candidacy. Finally, he gave into the desires of his friends and announced, on February 28, 1952, that he would be a candidate for president and would campaign for the nomination. Surrounded by Senators Russell Long, Maybank, and John Stennis, Russell told reporters that he would seek the position on a platform favoring states' rights, a strong defense, and economical and honest government. Most observers from all sections of the country admitted that Russell was well qualified for the presidency, but most writers discounted his chances because, as columnist Doris Fleeson declared, he was "saddled with the traditional southern attitude on civil rights."16 Despite this obvious handicap, Russell made a strong bid for the nomination. He defeated Estes Kefauver in the Florida primary, and then went on a nationwide tour in search of delegates. However hard he tried to present himself as a moderate Democrat who had supported most of the New Deal and much of the Fair Deal, he could not remove the image that he was only a regional candidate. When the Democrats met, he could only attract 268 delegate votes, mostly from the South, and the convention went on to nominate Adlai Stevenson. Russell had been right about his chances. As Harry Truman said, Russell might have been elected president if he had lived in Indiana, Missouri, or Kentucky, but the country was not ready to nominate a Georgian. Calvin W. Rawlings, Democratic national committeeman from Utah, wrote to Russell that, "if it were not for geography and by the Grace of God," he could have been nominated instead of Stevenson.17 Russell was offered the vice presidency, but that was an office in which he had no interest whatever. Russell voted for Stevenson, but he refused to assist in the campaign. The Democratic platform, which had a pro-civil rights plank, was too distasteful to Russell. Despite his disagreement with the so-called liberal Democrats, Russell took no pleasure in Dwight D. Eisenhower's victory and the resulting control of both houses of Congress by the Republicans. Russell made it clear that he would fight to retain the New Deal and Fair Deal gains against any Republican onslaught. During the Eisenhower presidency, Russell devoted most of his energies to three major issues--agriculture, defense, and civil rights. The farm problem was never very far from Dick Russell's mind. After 1953, large surpluses built up, prices declined, and operating expenses rose, placing farmers in a tough cost-price squeeze. As a result of hard times on the farm, tens of thousands of farmers went out of business each year. To Russell, this was a national tragedy and dangerous to American strength and stability. Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson, with President Eisenhower's blessing, set out to reduce the level of federal price supports on major farm commodities. Russell believed that this was a serious mistake, and he fought to preserve and extend price supports at 90 percent of parity. Some bitter battles ensued before Russell and his farm-state supporters lost the fight in a Congress that was becoming more and more consumer oriented. Beginning in 1955, flexible price supports were inaugurated which led to lower support prices for most major agricultural commodities. Russell complained and protested that Congress did not treat farmers fairly. He wrote one constituent that he could not understand the "policies of this [Eisenhower] Administration which are threatening to destroy rural America."18 He was more successful in getting funds for conservation, agricultural research, school lunches, and other purposes. In all of the controversies over farm policy in which Russell engaged, one fact emerged that greatly disturbed him. That was the declining political power of agriculture. His correspondence in the 1950s is filled with references to this situation. Part of the reason rural America was losing its political clout, he believed, was the divisions among farm spokesmen themselves. Much more important, however, Russell considered that farmers were being sacrificed on the altar of a cheap food policy that catered to consumers in the growing urban centers. But, however hard he tried, Russell could not change policies that resulted from basic demographic shifts. Despite his concern for farmers and his criticism of the Eisenhower administration, federal expenditures on agricultural programs rose sharply after 1953. Although it could hardly be said that the federal government was neglecting farmers, Russell believed that he could have developed better farm programs. Other than national defense, the issue of greatest concern to Dick Russell in the fifteen years after 1948 was civil rights. The increasing demands for legislation that would end legal segregation required his constant attention. As leader of the Southern Bloc, he spent untold hours developing strategy and organizing the eighteen southern senators who made up the core of resistance to civil rights bills. Up until 1953, Russell and his supporters had effectively used the filibuster to block civil rights legislation. Attempts of civil rights proponents to change Senate Rule XXII, so that a majority instead of two-thirds of the senators could shut off debate, had been defeated by southerners with some conservative Republican help. Russell, however, not only opposed restrictions on debate to keep civil rights bills from coming to a vote; he also sincerely believed in the principle of full and free discussion on every issue. To Russell, unlimited debate was one of the Senate's most cherished and sacred practices and traditions. Russell was greatly concerned over the breakdown of segregation in federal agencies, including government departments, hospitals, and military posts. This was of high concern to him because it had been accomplished by administrative action, and there was nothing that segregationists in Congress could do to stop the trend. He had even gone so far in 1948 as to introduce legislation that would give men entering the military services the right to choose a segregated or integrated unit. The next year, he introduced a bill which would have encouraged blacks in the South to relocate in other parts of the country by subsidizing a move by black families. Russell believed that civil rights advocates did not know the true problems of having large numbers of blacks living under integrated conditions. His bill, he said, would expose the hypocrisy of northern integrationists. According to Russell, these so-called liberals were more interested in the black vote than in any principle of human rights. In any event, neither of these bills gained any significant support in Congress, but they did express the depth of Russell's feeling on the race issue. Russell also had a growing fear that segregation would be destroyed by the federal courts, thereby bypassing Congress. Nevertheless, he was hardly prepared for the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education handed down in May 1954, and which held that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. He called the decision a "flagrant abuse of the judicial power and a violation of states' rights."19 As a result of the Brown case and other civil rights developments, Russell and a number of other southern senators drew up the Declaration of Constitutional Principles, better known as the "Southern Manifesto." Russell prepared the final draft which criticized the Supreme Court, and promised that southerners would use all lawful means to reverse the Brown decision. Meanwhile, civil rights bills were being considered in Congress. By 1957, it was clear even to Russell that some kind of civil rights legislation would be enacted regardless of southern opposition. Thus, he turned his energies and influence to weakening a bill that had already passed the House in June 1957, hoping to make the measure as ineffective as possible in--as he viewed it--disturbing race relations in the South. While one of the bill's main features was to guarantee blacks the right to vote, Russell believed that it gave the attorney general far too much power to "force intermingling of the races in the public schools and in all places of public entertainment." He was especially upset over the denial of a jury trial for any violators of civil rights legislation. Although some southern senators wanted to stage another filibuster, Russell as leader of the Southern Bloc advised otherwise. Working with his friend, Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, he skillfully removed the most distasteful features of the bill. From the southern viewpoint, when the law passed, its worst provisions had been eliminated. Critic Thomas L. Stokes wrote that the bill had been watered down by Johnson, "the errand boy for Senator Richard Russell, who put Lyndon Johnson in the post of leadership."20 Time magazine carried Russell's picture on its cover on August 12, 1957, and, in an accompanying article, called his resistance to civil rights legislation, "one of the most notable performances in Senate history." Russell, himself, was proud of his efforts. He considered keeping the federal government "out of our schools and social order" the "sweetest victory of my twenty-five years as a senator." He was equally successful in defeating the tougher provisions of the 1960 Civil Rights Act. In this case, he organized his eighteen-member Southern Bloc into teams of three and so wore down the Senate that only minor gains were included in the bill, and then only with Russell's permission. After that fight, Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia declared that under the superb leadership of Russell, southerners had "demonstrated the effectiveness of courageous massive resistance."21 By the early 1960s, however, Russell recognized that effective and meaningful civil rights legislation would be passed. The national mood had changed, southern resistance had weakened, and an effective political leader, Lyndon Johnson, had become president. After Johnson moved into the White House, Russell frankly admitted that nothing he and other anti-civil rights forces could do would be sufficient to stop civil rights legislation. After all, Russell was a political realist. As the 1964 Civil Rights Act was about to be passed, Russell spoke movingly, and at length, against it. This, however, was to make a statement of principle with no thought of defeating the measure. He knew the outcome had already been determined. After passage of the law, he urged all people to "comply with the law of the land," a statement that brought praise from President Johnson. When Congress passed further civil rights legislation in 1965, Russell was too ill to resist it actively. Dick Russell never changed his mind on the issue of racial integration. He viewed civil rights laws as "force bills" designed to change race relations in the South. He believed, too, that much of the support for civil rights legislation came from what he called "South haters." On most issues, Russell was flexible and able to compromise, but, on the question of racial integration and white supremacy, he died holding the same views as those held by his southern ancestors. History, tradition, and social relations as they had developed in the South after slavery held an unbreakable hold on him. Indeed, he viewed federal legislation to guarantee equal rights for blacks as a repetition of intervention by national authorities in the South after 1865. Senator Russell may never have adjusted to some of the country's social changes, but he was one of the strongest advocates of a powerful national defense in the post-World War II years. As chairman of the Armed Services Committee and a member of the Appropriations Committee, he was in a position to exert great influence on strengthening American military forces. He had little faith in the United Nations as a peacekeeping agency, and believed that the United States could not rely on the NATO countries to preserve peace and stability. He once said that if Russia should attack Italy, all of the American arms provided to that NATO ally would soon be in Russian hands! Even after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, and what appeared to be less aggressive attitudes by the Soviet Union, Russell's views toward Russia remained the same. He did not trust the Russians, and declared that the only hope for peace in the world was for the United States to strengthen its military forces. He believed that any negotiations with the Soviet Union must be done "from strength rather than from weakness."22 Surely, Russell's highest national priority was to build and maintain a degree of military power that could not be successfully challenged by any nation in the world. Consequently, he favored universal military training; strengthening the conventional armed forces; maintaining a supply of nuclear weapons with the planes and missiles to deliver them; and adequate appropriations for the development of ever more highly sophisticated and technical weapons. Russell had little faith in the massive retaliation theories of John Foster Dulles, President Eisenhower's secretary of state. To Russell, such a policy relied too heavily on nuclear retaliation, which could lead to the destruction of both Russia and the United States. Under the Dulles policy, there would be greater reliance on nuclear power so that cuts could be made in conventional forces and money saved. Russell objected strenuously to President Eisenhower's recommendation to reduce appropriations for some of the regular military services, especially the Air Force. He believed that the Strategic Air Command had been the major deterrent to greater Soviet expansion. Russell wanted more bombers, fighter planes, and support services for the Air Force. When his critics talked about the need to cut defense costs, he replied that economy was important, but only after American defenses had been built up. "I want to see planes first and then consider the cost in dollars," he said.23 He recommended spending more on national defense even if other government programs, such as foreign aid, had to be reduced. He declared that "the policy of increasing the appropriations for foreign aid and for many domestic activities while reducing our armed strength is completely incomprehensible to me."24 Russell became so unhappy over military cuts and large foreign aid expenditures in the 1950s that he once suggested, not entirely with tongue in cheek, that the entire foreign aid appropriation be transferred to the Air Force. He told Senator Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee that the State Department had no answer to a foreign problem except "to pump in a few more millions from the pockets of our taxpayers into the troubled area."25 Russell and his backers were able to reduce foreign aid outlays some during the 1950s, but he was unable to get as much money for additional military equipment as he wished. He was distressed that more funds could not be appropriated for the most sophisticated weapons. By 1959, he believed that a serious missile gap existed between the United States and the Soviet Union. Criticizing the Eisenhower military budget for fiscal 1961, Russell declared that it was no time to "quibble over a couple of billion dollars."26 Russell found in President John F. Kennedy an ally for greater military spending. When Kennedy asked for an increase of $2 billion, mostly for bombers and missiles early in 1961, Russell gave the request his strongest support. He was able to obtain even more funds for the military budget than the President had requested. One of Russell's reasons for wanting overwhelming military strength was to deal with problems such as the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. When Kennedy called the Senate and House leaders to a conference on that crisis, Russell strongly urged that air power be used to wipe out the Soviet missiles in Cuba. But when Kennedy decided on a quarantine of Cuba instead, Russell announced that he would fully back the president. In such a situation, he said, "the only voice that can speak for the United States was the president."27 However, Russell always regretted that military action was not taken against Castro when a good excuse presented itself as he believed had been the case in 1962. To have solved that problem with forceful action, he argued, would have had "a salutary effect all over the entire world" by discouraging other brush fire revolutions and wars encouraged by the Soviet Union.28 Russell's continued distrust of the Soviets was reflected in his vote against the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in September 1963. That was an agonizing decision for him, but he told his colleagues that the treaty was flawed because it did not contain proper or verifiable inspection clauses to guarantee Russian compliance. He argued that the Soviets simply could not be trusted, and he sought to prove his point by listing the numerous treaties that the Russians had violated. From the beginning, Dick Russell was an outspoken opponent of American military involvement in Vietnam. He had supported the Korean War because it was a response to direct invasion by the North Koreans, but he believed the situation was different in Vietnam. He almost had a phobia against getting American forces involved in a land campaign on the continent of Asia. Consequently, when President Eisenhower and Secretary Dulles asked congressional leaders about supplying American air power to help the collapsing French forces in Vietnam in April 1954, Russell spoke vigorously against such a move. He argued that sending air support to the French would be the first step toward greater involvement and the possible use of ground troops. "Once you've committed the flag," he declared, "you've committed the country. There's no turning back; if you involve the American Air Force, why, you've involved the nation."29 That, Russell said, would be a fatal mistake. As Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson gradually extended American military power into Vietnam, Russell grew increasingly uneasy. It was bad policy, he believed, because the Vietnamese were not doing much to help themselves, and American allies refused to provide any meaningful help. It was wrong to try to go it alone, he said. However, believing deeply that only the president could be the spokesman for America's foreign policy, he supported the ends of American objectives in Vietnam, if not the means to achieve them. Russell insisted that, once the United States was in Vietnam, much more military power should be brought to bear on the North Vietnamese. By 1966, he was advocating the use of a battleship to bombard the coast of Vietnam, the bombing of military and industrial targets around Hanoi, blockading the port of Haiphong, and other measures that would either defeat the North Vietnamese or force the Communists into meaningful negotiations. But President Johnson ignored his old mentor's advice. Russell went to his grave still frustrated and critical of what he considered America's halfway military measures in Vietnam. Senator Russell disagreed with most of America's major foreign policies after World War II. He placed most of his confidence in a strong national defense, both nuclear and non-nuclear. He believed in using military force only when American national interests were directly at stake. In the case of Cuba, he would have used force because he believed Soviet intrusion ninety miles from the Florida coast was a direct threat to the nation's vital interest. On the other hand, there was no overriding reason, in his view, to intervene in Vietnam. He raised the key question of how could Communism in far away Vietnam be worthy of American military resistance when the United States refused to dislodge a Communist state close to home. To Russell, this was not only mistaken policy, but it cast aside common sense as well. On foreign aid, he was one of the nation's sharpest and most persistent critics of a policy that he believed was wasteful, expensive, and largely ineffectual from the viewpoint of American national interest. Despite his disagreement with much of American foreign policy after 1945, he was a loyal, patriotic leader who fought hard for what he believed was in the country's best interest. He was a strong nationalist in every sense of that term. In 1969, he gave up the chairmanship of the Armed Services Committee and became chairman of the Appropriations Committee. By early 1971, at the end of thirty-eight years in the U.S. Senate, Dick Russell had left his indelible mark on national affairs. No major legislation bore his name, mainly because he had worked quietly behind the scenes and had not sought credit or courted publicity. But he had made numerous permanent contributions. These included agricultural legislation, the Food Stamp and School Lunch Programs, the conservation of natural resources, a strong national defense, research and scientific achievement, and many more. Most of all, Russell understood, appreciated, and protected the institution of the U.S. Senate. As Jack Valenti wrote in the Washington Post on January 12, 1963, Senator Russell was the "embodiment of the Senate's constitutional tradition. The senator understands the Senate;...he knows its moods and its dignity. He guards its honor. He nourishes its heritage." Russell, Valenti continued, "never swerves from the history of the Senate as a structure undiminished by time, undisturbed by the moment, unbudgeable in crisis and controversy." Senator Russell's Senate colleagues were among his most ardent admirers. They respected him for his intellect, his integrity, his fairness, his courage, and his ability to cut to the heart of any problem. Special accolades from fellow senators were common, but they were almost embarrassing to Senator Russell at the time of his thirtieth anniversary in the Senate in January 1963. Senator Mike Mansfield referred to his "calmness and kindness," his "reason and deliberation," and his "scrupulous fairness." Everett Dirksen emphasized Russell's "rare fidelity to the traditions and institutions of this country," while Frank Carlson believed that Russell was "the most influential and substantial leader in the U.S. Senate."30 Writer William S. White was one of the many observers outside the Senate who were impressed with Russell's character and ability. White called him one of the "greatest senators of his era." While Russell suffered from being a southerner, White explained, "no politician in his time has more clearly and more repeatedly earned consideration for the highest office of them all."31 Senator Sam Ervin agreed that, after viewing all national leaders, Russell was the best qualified man to be president of the United States.32 When the publication, Pageant, asked senators to rank the five top members of that body in 1964, Russell was listed by those of us who were his colleagues as number one.33 One trait or habit that Russell possessed, and which his colleagues greatly admired, was the consideration which he extended to new senators. Freshmen senators often achieved more than they expected because of Russell's help. On September 14, 1959, Senator Howard A. Cannon of Nevada wrote Russell expressing his appreciation "for your outstanding leadership...and for the help and consideration you have given to me as a junior senator." I wrote to Senator Russell at about the same time saying that it had been a "glorious experience" to have served with him during my first year in the Senate. A few months later, I wrote again that Russell typified "the character, the poise, the brilliance that are associated with true greatness." I continued, "You shall never know the profundity of the impression you have made upon me as a new senator."34 I concluded that it was my greatest hope to "become a senator with the stature of Richard B. Russell." Dick Russell was a southern patrician of the old school. He was courteous, charming, polite, and considerate. He was generally tolerant and understanding, but he could be devastating in debate and comment, as many discovered who were the targets of his sharp tongue and quick wit. He once called Drew Pearson a skunk, and referred to Joseph Alsop's column as "allslop." As Dick Russell never married, he lived in Washington hotels from 1933 until 1962 when he purchased an apartment at the Potomac Plaza. During his early years in Washington, he enjoyed an active social life, attending movies, sporting events, meeting friends in the late afternoon, or taking a lady friend to dinner. He disliked cocktail parties and receptions, so popular in Washington, and, after a few years, he turned down most of the many invitations he received. He preferred to spend the evenings in his room working on Senate business or reading history. He did greatly enjoy socializing with fellow senators. He frequently had dinner with Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson, and Senator Harry Byrd's Apple Blossom Festival was one of Russell's annual highlights. He sometimes went fishing with Senator Willis Robertson. His strong interest in sports never diminished, and he attended baseball and football games as long as his health permitted. Football Coach Vince Dooley at the University of Georgia said that he had never known anyone outside the coaching staff who knew so much about Georgia football players, their talents, and strengths as Russell did. Russell started to have health problems in the mid-1950s. He had begun to smoke heavily as a teenager, and, by the 1950s, he suffered from the early stages of emphysema. He finally stopped smoking, but his respiratory problems continued to get worse in the 1960s. He was so ill in early 1965 that he had to be absent from the Senate for several months. He also had lung cancer which was treated successfully, but his lungs were so permanently damaged that he could never recover. Returning to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in January 1971, he struggled with his respiratory difficulties until his death on the afternoon of January 21. He was buried in the family cemetery behind the Russell home at the edge of Winder. Richard B. Russell, Jr., served his state and nation for fifty years, and spent more than half of his life in the U.S. Senate. At the time of his death, he held two positions of great prestige in this body--president pro tempore and chairman of the Appropriations Committee. He left a mark that will always be prominent in the history of the U.S. Senate, and one that will always be prominent in the memories of those, like myself, who served with him for so long in the Senate of the United States. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to include footnotes to "Richard Brevard Russell." There being no objection, the footnotes were ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: Notes to Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. 1 For sources on Russell's early life see, Gilbert C. Fite. "The Education of a Senator: Richard B. Russell, Jr. in School," The Atlanta Historical Journal, 30 (Summer 1986), pp. 19-31; and Karen Kelly, "Richard B. Russell: Democrat from Georgia," Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1979, ch. I. See also John H. Willey, "A Study of the Political Mind of Richard B. Russell, Jr., 1930-36," M.A. thesis, Vanderbilt University, 1974. 2 Speech given at Barnesville, GA, Nov. 11, 1928. Russell Collection, speech file. All subsequent references to Russell speeches and correspondence are found in the Russell Collection, University of Georgia Library, Athens, GA. 3 Winder (GA) News, Sept. 9, 1920. 4 Southern Cultivator 90 (Sept. 1, 1932), p. 7. 5 Atlanta Journal, June 29 and July 1, 1932. 6 Herman E. Talmadge, Talmadge: A Political Legacy, A Politician's Life (Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers, 1987), p. 36. 7 Franklin D. Roosevelt to Richard B. Russell, Roosevelt papers, Hyde Park, PPF 3869. 8 Congressional Record, 74th Congress, 1st sess., Jan. 29, 1935, pp. 1054 and 1147. 9 Russell speech at Berry College, GA, 1940. 10 Atlanta Journal, Apr. 14, 1946. 11 Richard B. Russell, Jr. to Mr. O'Hardy, Feb. 10, 1948. 12 Undated clipping in Ina Russell's scrapbook, 1947-49. 13 Richard B. Russell to Mrs. Elizabeth Caldwalder-Noyes, Aug. 31, 1948. 14 Military Situation in the Far East. Hearings before the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 82d Congress, 1st sess. (Washington, 1951), 5 parts. Pt. II, pp. 681-83, 758, and 784-829. 15 Richard B. Russell to Senator Pat McCarran, Nov. 13, 1950, and to Senator Dennis Chavez, Nov. 14, 1950. 16 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 29, 1952. 17 Calvin W. Rawlings to Richard B. Russell, July 31, 1952. 18 Richard B. Russell to Erwin Sibley, May 6, 1957. 19 Congressional Record, 83d Congress, 2d sess., May 18, 1954, pp. 6748-50. 20 Washington Evening Star, Aug. 5, 1957. The best study of Russell and the civil rights issue is David D. Potenziani, "Look to the Past, Richard B. Russell and the Defense of Southern White Supremacy," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Georgia, 1981. 21 Congressional Record, 85th Congress, 1st sess., August 30, 1957, pp. 16659-61, 85th Congress, 2d sess., April 8, 1960, p. 7814. 22 Atlanta Constitution, December 2, 1955. 23 Congressional Record, 84th Congress, 1st sess., June 26, 1956, p. 10973. 24 Richard B. Russell to Senator Josiah Sibley, March 2, 1956. 25 Richard B. Russell to Senator Kenneth McKellar, February 18, 1957. 26 New York Times, January 27 and May 19, 1960. 27 Richard B. Russell's handwritten notes of the White House conference on Cuban crisis, October 23, 1962. 28 U.S. News and World Report 59 (September 6, 1957), p. 57. 29 Quoted by Senator William F. Knowland, June 22, 1967. Columbia University Oral History. 30 Congressional Record, 88th Congress, 1st sess., January 10, 1963, pp. 137-39. 31 Washington Post, March 24, 1969. 32 Dick Dabney, The Life of Sam Ervin (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976), p. 168. 33 Pageant 20 (November, 1964), p. 6. 34 Senator Howard W. Cannon to Richard B. Russell, September 14, 1959; and Senator Robert C. Byrd to Russell, September 9, 1 From U.S. Congress. Senate. Congressional Record. 100th Congress, 2d sess., Feb. 1, 1988. (See pp. 499-509). S. RES. 296 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES April 25, 1972 Mr. Robert C. Byrd submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration (by unanimous consent) September 18, 1972 Reported by Mr. Jordan of North Carolina, with amendments October 11, 1972 Considered, amended, and agreed to Resolution To designate the Old Senate Office Building as the "Richard Brevard Russell Office Building". Resolved, That insofar as concerns the Senate, the Senate Office Building constructed under authority of the Act of April 28, 1904 (33 Stat. 452, 481), is hereby designated and shall be known as the "Richard Brevard Russell Office Building". Sec. 2. Any rule, regulation, document, or record of the Senate, in which reference is made to the building referred to in the first section of this resolution, shall be held and considered to be a reference to such building by the name designated for such building by the first section of this resolution. Sec. 3. The Committee on Rules and Administration is hereby authorized and directed to place an appropriate marker or inscription at a suitable location or locations within the Old Senate Office Building to commemorate and designate such building as provided herein. Expenses incurred in connection therewith shall be paid from the contingent fund of the Senate upon vouchers approved by the chairman of said committee. THE RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING On October 11, 1972, the Senate officially dedicated the oldest of the three Senate office buildings in honor of one of the institution's most distinguished leaders, Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. of Georgia. Located at Constitution and Delaware Avenues, NE, the building has served as office space for the members of the Senate since 1909. Throughout the nineteenth century, senators had no official office building, but instead met in committee rooms of the Capitol or in their private residences. Fifty members had office space in the old Maltby building, located on New Jersey and Constitution Avenues, NW, but the condition of the building had greatly deteriorated by the turn of the century. In 1904, the Senate authorized construction of a fireproof office building to meet the pressing need for working space. Along with the House, whose members faced the same office space predicament, the Senate awarded the architectural contract to the esteemed firm of Carrere and Hastings. One of the most successful architectural companies in the country during the early twentieth century, their work included resort hotels in St. Augustine, Florida; the Frick Art Museum in Boston; and, in New York City, the Manhattan Bridge, the Standard Oil Building, and the New York Public Library. John Merven Carrere and Thomas Hastings received their professional education at the architecture school of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where they were trained in the traditional academic and classical manner. In designing the Senate office building, Carrere and Hastings turned primarily to French classical sources; the grand exterior of the building recalls the eighteenth century facade of the Colonade du Louvre. Yet the firm remained modernists in their plans for the building. They efficiently equipped the structure with ample entrances, exits, elevators, stairwells, toilet facilities with hot and cold running water, a forced-air ventilation system, steam heat, and storage and office space, so that the interior conformed to the standards of early twentieth century buildings. When first occupied in March of 1909, only three sides of the planned four-sided structure had been completed. Ninety-four office suites of two rooms, four suites of three rooms, ten single rooms, eight committee rooms, and the Conference Room (Caucus Room) provided much needed office and meeting areas. Additional space was designated for a dining room, barber shop, post office, bathing room, telephone and telegraph offices, and also a gymnasium on the first floor. Eventually, even this space became crowded, leading to the completion of the structure's fourth side in 1933. Included in the new office building was a grand and elegant meeting room, today known as the Caucus Room (room 325). The space reflects Carrere and Hastings' European-derived style. For the marble floor design, they turned to French classical sources such as Fountainbleau and Hotel des Invalides, while other interior features follow the tradition of Versailles. Twelve heroic Corinthian columns flank the longitudinal walls, and support a classical architrave and frieze. Perhaps the most elegant feature is the ceiling, with its gilded rosettes, rows of acanthus leaves, and Greek key borders. The distinctive furniture seen in the room today, commissioned in 1910 from the Francis Bacon Furniture Company of Boston, includes the original six mahogany benches and two settles capped with carved eagles. Although originally intended for party caucuses, the size and grandeur of the room made it a likely site for major public hearings. For the past eighty years, the Caucus Room has served as a stage for some of the most dramatic Senate investigations, including the sinking of the Titanic, the Teapot Dome scandal, Pearl Harbor, the Kefauver Crime Committee, Army vs. McCarthy, the Vietnam War, Watergate, Iran-Contra, and the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas. Throughout his career, Senator Richard Russell maintained a suite of rooms in this oldest Senate office building. Originally located on the fourth floor, he moved to the second floor in 1953 to room 205 (now 203, 205, 207, and 209). Russell maintained this suite until his death in 1971. His rooms were furnished with the standard "set" of office furniture originally ordered for the building'a flat-top or "battleship" desk, a desk chair, easy chair, small chair, two arm chairs, a davenport, and a bookcase. Russell usually arrived at his office about 9:00 a.m., working until 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. He typically worked on Saturday until noon or later. Senator Russell also spent much time in the building as chairman of the Committee on Armed Services, a position he held from 1951 to 1953, and from 1955 to 1969. The committee's rooms are appropriately located adjacent to the Russell rotunda, the site of the new Richard B. Russell, Jr. statue. The Russell rotunda reflects the classical tradition of architects Carrere and Hastings. Eighteen Corinthian columns in a marble arcade support a richly detailed entablature and coffered dome. The oculus of the dome is glazed to flood the space with natural light. Behind the statue, twin marble staircases lead to the imposing Caucus Room. While used for receptions, exhibitions, and other ceremonial events, the rotunda is the main thoroughfare into the building, and the statue of Richard Russell faces southwest towards the grand entryway. FREDERICK E. HART Sculptor Frederick Hart is best known for his monumental public commissions and his graceful, figurative sculptures. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, the artist grew up in Washington, DC, and studied at the University of South Carolina, the Corcoran School of Art, and American University. Hart began to learn the skill of stonecutting in 1967 at the National Cathedral in Washington. By 1974 he had won the international competition and was awarded the commission to create a series of sculptures for the main entrance of the cathedral. The works comprise three life-size statues, Adam, Saint Peter, and Saint Paul, and three relief panels, The Creation of Night, The Creation of Day, and Ex Nihilo (Out of Nothing). In 1984, Hart's bronze figurative sculpture entitled Three Soldiers was dedicated as part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. Other notable works by the artist include: The Cross of the Millennium, a clear acrylic resin sculpture, simultaneously representing the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ; the Fauquier County Veterans Memorial, Virginia; the James Earl Carter Presidential Statue, a larger-than- life-size bronze on the grounds of the state capitol in Atlanta, Georgia; and a bronze portrait bust of James Webb at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. The artist has worked extensively in clear acrylic resin since the early 1980s, and has patented a process by which he embeds one clear acrylic sculpture within another, a technique he calls "sculpting with light." These pioneering figurative works best express Hart's artistic philosophy--his spiritual and humanist ideals. Frederick Hart's honors include: the National Sculpture Society's Henry Hering Award, shared with architect Philip Frohman, for the Creation sculptures; the Presidential Award for Design Excellence for Three Soldiers; the George Alexander Memorial Award from the Blinded American Veterans Foundation; an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of South Carolina; appointment to the Sacred Arts Commission for the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington; appointment to the Commission of Fine Arts by President Ronald Reagan; and consultant for the proposed World War II memorial in Washington, DC. In 1994 Hudson Hill press published Frederick Hart, Sculptor, a comprehensive book on the artist, his work, and his philosophy. In the publication, J. Carter Brown, Director Emeritus of the National Gallery of Art, comments: "It is breathtaking to see an artist with the technical abilities and devotion to craft of Frederick Hart combine these gifts with an ability to go to the brink with them, but somehow to keep dominant the inner, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual force of the work." Frederick Hart lives on a farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with his wife and two sons. He continues to work on sculpture in stone, bronze, and clear acrylic resin. Sculptor's Notes Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. exemplified a tradition in American politics, particularly in the South, of the classical model of gentleman and public servant. This tradition flowered in the eighteenth century; the farmer-statesman-soldier, as personified by southerners such as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, George Mason, and James Monroe whose ideals of civic responsibility and leadership were framed by classical heroes such as Cincinnatus of ancient Rome. It is fitting that the setting for a statue of Richard B. Russell, Jr. should be the beautiful neo-classical rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building designed by Carrere and Hastings, and that the stylistic inspiration for the statue be in the great tradition of Roman portrait statuary. The Russell statue is in white marble, from the same quarries as the Roman statues of two-thousand years ago. The portrait statues of Roman statesmen and patricians are typically very life-like. The likenesses are not idealized but are true characterizations of the individual; yet, the overall styling and modeling of the statues achieve an august monumentality that speaks eloquently of the authority, the dignity, and stateliness of the individual portrayed. In the same spirit, the statue of Richard B. Russell, Jr. is meant to convey both his personable and gracious courtliness as well as evoke the dignified aura of a distinguished public servant. Frederick E. Hart Vincent Palumbo Vincent Palumbo, master stone carver at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, translated artist Frederick Hart's model of Richard Russell, Jr. into Carrera marble. Born in Italy, Palumbo learned stonecutting from his father and grandfather, following a tradition of five generations. He immigrated to America in 1961, where he joined his father and a team of a dozen other stone carvers working on the National Cathedral. He continued to sculpt the religious and secular figures that adorn the cathedral, and the intricate gargoyles, for the next thirty-five years. Palumbo's association with artist Frederick Hart was established in the late 1970s when he began the task of translating Hart's monumental Creation series for the main entrance of the cathedral. Palumbo and his work were featured prominently in the award winning documentary "The Stone Carvers." Vincent Palumbo also sculpted the busts of Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller in the Senate's vice presidential bust collection; a monument plaque at Arlington National Cemetery, dedicated to American correspondents killed in World War II; and a bust of Ronald Reagan at the Reagan Library. He recently worked on the restoration of the facade of the White House. Appendix I Remarks by Charles E. Campbell, Chairman, Richard B. Russell Foundation Russell Statue Luncheon Governor's Mansion, Atlanta, Georgia October 23, 1995 Thank you, Governor Miller. First, I would like to express the appreciation of the Russell Foundation to Governor Miller and Senator Nunn for hosting this luncheon today. Zell Miller and Sam Nunn have long been friends of Richard Russell and of the Russell Foundation. I had the privilege of working for the last six years of Senator Russell's life as a member of his staff in Washington. Today, I have the honor to serve as chairman of the Richard Russell Foundation. The Russell Foundation is a non-profit corporation established by admirers of Senator Russell in Georgia. It supports numerous activities related to the preservation of the senator's memory, his records and discussion of public policy questions in which Senator Russell had a particular interest. Next January will mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of Richard Russell's death. At that time, we will have an opportunity to participate in an event that will not only bring great credit to Senator Russell but to our state as well. I refer to the dedication of the Richard B. Russell statue. The Russell statue is a seven-foot marble statue that will be placed in the rotunda area of the Russell Senate Office Building. The Russell Senate Office Building is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Senate office buildings in Washington. In 1972--the year after Senator Russell died--the Congress, through joint resolution, renamed what had been known as the "Old Senate Office Building" as the "Richard Brevard Russell Office Building." The Russell Senate Office Building is one of the most important buildings in our nation's capital. It was there that such momentous events in the history of our country took place as the hearings to inquire into President Truman's dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War (hearings which Senator Russell chaired, incidentally), the announcement of John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign, the Senate Watergate hearings (of which Senator Talmadge was such an important part), and, more recently, the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. The dedication of the Russell statue at 4 p.m. on January 24, 1996 will focus on three distinct aspects of Senator Russell's Senate career: (1) Richard B. Russell--A President's Senator, (2) Richard B. Russell--A Senator's Senator and (3) Richard B. Russell--Georgia's Senator. The president of the United States has been invited to speak on the first topic and, while he has made no final commitment, the initial indications are positive for his participation. Senator Robert Byrd, the former majority leader of the Senate, and Senator Robert Dole, the present majority leader of the Senate, have both agreed to speak on "Richard B. Russell--a Senator's Senator." Our governor will speak on the topic of "Richard B. Russell--Georgia's Senator." Senator Sam Nunn will serve as master of ceremonies. Many of you in this room knew Richard Russell personally and many others of you know him by reputation. His career was one of the most outstanding in our nation's history. He served fifty continuous years in public office. He served ten years in the Georgia House of Representatives, including the last four as speaker. He became speaker of the Georgia house in 1926 before he was even thirty years of age. He became Georgia's youngest governor in 1930 at age thirty-two during the depths of the Great Depression. The administration of Governor Russell was one of decisive change in our state--he cut the number of state agencies from 102 to 17 and cut the cost of government by 20 percent. At the same time, there were numerous progressive achievements of the Russell administration including the creation of a unified system of higher education under a Board of Regents insulated from politics. That system survives today. When a Senate seat became vacant in 1932, Governor Russell ran successfully and took office at the age of thirty-four on January 12, 1933. He was the nation's youngest senator. Richard Russell served thirty-eight years in the U.S. Senate, becoming the first person in the history of the United States to serve over half their life in the Senate. During this time--from 1933 through 1970--he never missed a single opening session of Congress. You might call him the Cal Ripken of the Senate. Senator Russell's Senate career was perhaps unique in the history of our country. No senator, at least in modern times, has amassed the power and influence that Richard Russell enjoyed both in the Senate itself and at the White House. When we refer to Richard Russell as a "president's senator" we are referring to the fact that he enjoyed an extremely close relationship with every American president from Franklin Roosevelt through Richard Nixon, and was a confidential advisor of every one of them. Four of the presidents with whom Senator Russell served--Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon--had previously served in the Senate where Richard Russell was the preeminent senator. He knew them all well and they all knew before they arrived at the White House that Richard Russell was the foremost congressional authority on national security and a senator who was good to his word in all matters. The other two presidents' Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower--also had extensive prior relationships with Senator Russell. Franklin Roosevelt and Richard Russell became friends as young men when they were both serving as governor of their states--Franklin Roosevelt in New York and Richard Russell here in Georgia. In fact, at the 1932 Democratic National Convention, Richard Russell made a nominating speech for Franklin Roosevelt in the first of Roosevelt's four successful campaigns for the White House. Even though he was a new senator at the time, Richard Russell had a significant leadership role in the Senate in passing New Deal farm legislation that created the Farmer's Home Administration and established farm price supports and soil conservation protection measures. During this time, he authored the National School Lunch Program. Senator Russell, as a result of his position of influence on the Senate Armed Services Committee, dealt extensively with Dwight Eisenhower when General Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied Commander in World War II. They had become close friends before 1952 when General Eisenhower was elected presi-dent. Their friendship continued and grew during the Eisenhower presidency. One characteristic that was dominant in Senator Russell's relationship not only with presidents but with everyone else was his staunch independence. No matter how close a friend he was of a president, nor how much political pressure was brought to bear on him, he steadfastly refused to support any measure in which he did not personally believe. Probably the two presidents who were the closest personally to Richard Russell were Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. However, in both instances, Richard Russell could not support important legislative matters pursued by them. He was one of four senators to provide the decisive votes against President Roosevelt's efforts to pack the Supreme Court after it declared several of the New Deal programs unconstitutional. His independence also caused strains in his relationship with Lyndon Johnson thirty years later when he opposed certain provisions in the president's civil rights legislation, the social programs of the "Great Society," and the way in which the war in Vietnam was conducted. In all things, Richard Russell remained true to his view of what was best for the country. If Senator Russell's friendship with presidents was unusual, his standing in the Senate itself was perhaps unique. His power was such that he could have become majority leader or minority leader on any number of occasions. However, he declined because of his desire to maintain independence of thought and voting, making it impossible for him to agree in advance to support the program of any administration. Instead of becoming majority or minority leader of the Senate, he largely selected several such leaders and became the Senate's mentor. Senators of both parties, of all political persuasions, and from all parts of the country turned to Richard Russell more than anyone else for guidance and for help in the discharge of their Senate duties. They knew he was a man of integrity, independence, and good faith. Richard Russell was, indeed, a senator's senator. He was also Georgia's senator. Many times, it seems that one who achieves the position of national prominence and power as did Richard Russell, forgets his or her home state constituents because of the press of what are viewed as more important duties. Such was not the case with Richard Russell. Up until the very end, he considered among his most important duties that of faithfully representing the people of Georgia in Washington. He was fond of saying, "I have been elected to represent and work for Georgia's interest in Washington and not Washington's interest in Georgia." Georgians have benefited immensely and continue to benefit from Richard Russell's public service career. Benefits directly traceable to his representation of Georgia in the Senate include Lockheed-- Georgia as a prime military contractor and a principal employer in this state, the National Communicable Disease Center here in Atlanta, the Richard Russell Federal Building that houses our federal court system, the numerous Corps of Engineers lake developments on Georgia's rivers, and too many outstanding military bases to even mention. I relate two brief stories to illustrate the importance serving Georgia had to Richard Russell up until the very end. Several years before he died, Senator Russell became the president pro tempore of the Senate--which is in some ways roughly equivalent to the Speaker of the House of Representatives. As president pro tempore, he was the titular head of the Senate and third in line of succession to the presidency. A part of the job as president pro tempore was to make appointments to various national commissions or boards where the president had an appointment, the Speaker of the House had an appointment, and the president pro tempore of the Senate had an appointment. After routinely approving recommended appointments for a couple of weeks, Senator Russell called me into his office one day and had on his desk a proposed appointment to a national commission. He asked me: "Isn't there anyone in Georgia qualified for any of these positions?" We got to looking around and found out that the particular appointment in question was in a discipline in which a professor at Georgia State University here in Atlanta was a nationally recognized expert. Senator Russell deleted the name of the recommended appointee and inserted the Georgia State professor instead. Amazingly, thereafter the names of qualified Georgians started appearing with greater frequency on the lists. A second true story I would relate involves Senator Russell's decision regarding activities relating to his death. Before he died, he specified that his body was to be returned to Georgia immediately upon his death. This is because he wanted his body to lie in state at Georgia's capitol here in Atlanta as opposed to in Washington. It is ironic that when the president's senator and the senator's senator died, there were only three official activities marking his death in Washington: (1) the president of the United States ordered American flags to half staff; (2) the president paused in his State of the Union Address for a moment of silent prayer; and (3) the hearse carrying Senator Russell's body was viewed by the entire Senate standing on the Capitol steps on its way to Andrews Air Force Base to be returned via Air Force One to Georgia. Richard Russell, was, indeed, Georgia's senator. The inscription selected by the Russell Foundation to be placed on the Russell statue will read simply as follows: "Richard B. Russell, Jr.--Senator from Georgia--1933-1971." From U.S. Congress. Senate. Congressional Record. 104th Congress, 2d sess., Feb. 23, 1996 (See pp. S1302-03). Appendix II Richard B. Russell Chronology Born November 2, 1897, Winder, Georgia Graduated Seventh District Agricultural and Mechanical School, Powder Springs, Georgia, 1914 Graduated Gordon Military Institute, Barnesville, Georgia, 1915 Graduated University of Georgia Law School, Athens, Georgia, 1918 Served in United States Naval Reserve, 1918 Member, Georgia House of Representatives, 1921-1931 Speaker, Georgia House of Representatives, 1927-1931 Governor of Georgia, 1931-1933 Sworn in as United States Senator from Georgia, January 12, 1933 Reelected to United States Senate 1936, 1942, 1948, 1954, 1960, 1966 Chairman, Hearings on the Military Situation in the Far East [General Douglas MacArthur hearings], 1951 Member, President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy [Warren Commission], 1963-1964 Chairman, Committee on Immigration, 1937-1947 Committee on Manufactures, 1945-1947 Committee on Armed Services, 1951-1953, 1955-1969 Committee on Appropriations, 1969-1971 President pro tempore, 1969-1971 Died January 21, 1971 in Washington, DC Appendix III Bibliography of Richard B. Russell Barrett, David M. Uncertain Warriors: Lyndon Johnson and his Vietnam Advisers. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1994. Boney, F. N. "`The Senator's Senator': Richard Brevard Russell, Jr., of Georgia." Georgia Historical Quarterly 71 (Fall 1987): 477-90. Bradford, Gary Paul. "A Rhetorical Analysis of Richard B. Russell's 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Speech." Master's thesis, University of Georgia, 1966. Fite, Gilbert C. "The Education of a Senator: Richard B. Russell, Jr., in School." Atlanta Historical Journal 30 (Summer 1986): 19-31. -----. Richard B. Russell, Jr., Senator from Georgia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991. -----. "The Richard B. Russell Library: From Idea to Working Collection." Georgia Historical Quarterly 64 (Spring 1980): 22-34. -----. "Richard B. Russell and Lyndon B. Johnson: The Story of a Strange Friendship." Missouri Historical Review 83 (January 1989): 125-38. Gay, James Thomas. "Richard B. Russell and the National School Lunch Program." Georgia Historical Quarterly 80 (Winter 1996): 859-872. Goldsmith, John A. Colleagues: Richard B. Russell and His Apprentice, Lyndon B. Johnson. Washington: Seven Locks Press, 1993. Grant, Philip A. "Editorial Reaction to the 1952 Candidacy of Richard B. Russell." Georgia Historical Quarterly 57 (Summer 1973): 167-78. Hale, F. Sheffield. "Richard B. Russell's Election to the Senate: The Watershed of Two Political Careers." Atlanta Historical Journal 28 (Spring 1984): 5-21. Kelly, Karen Kalmar. "Richard B. Russell: Democrat from Georgia." Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1979. Mann, Robert. The Walls of Jericho: Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Russell, and the Struggle for Civil Rights. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1996. Mead, Howard N. "Russell vs. Talmadge: Southern Politics and the New Deal." Georgia Historical Quarterly 65 (Spring 1981): 28-45. Mellichamp, Josephine. "Richard B. Russell, Jr." in Senators from Georgia, pp. 245-60. Huntsville, AL: Strode Publishers, 1976. Morita, Hideyuki. "Atlanta Constitution and the Occupation of Japan' A Background of the Russell Speech." Seinan Journal of Cultures 11 (September 1996): 127-160. Potenziani, David Daniel. "Look to the Past: Richard B. Russell and the Defense of Southern White Supremacy." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Georgia, 1981. -----. "Striking Back: Richard B. Russell and Racial Relocation." Georgia Historical Quarterly 65 (Fall 1981): 263-77. Stern, Mark. "Lyndon Johnson and Richard Russell: Institutions, Ambitions, and Civil Rights." Presidential Studies Quarterly 21 (Fall 1991): 687-704. U.S. Congress. Memorial Services in the Congress of the United States and Tributes in Eulogy of Richard Brevard Russell, Late a Senator from the State of Georgia. 92d Cong., 1st sess., 1971. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1971. Ziemke, Caroline F. "Senator Richard B. Russell and the `Lost Cause' in Vietnam, 1954-1968." Georgia Historical Quarterly 72 (Spring 1988): 30-71. APPENDIX IV Acknowledgments The United States Senate Commission on Art and the Richard B. Russell Foundation wish to thank the following individuals and organizations for their support and assistance with this project: Principal contributors to the Richard B. Russell, Jr. statue: The Honorable Ivan Allen, Jr. The Coca-Cola Company Alston & Bird The Honorable Griffin B. Bell The Honorable and Mrs. Howard H. (Bo) Callaway Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Campbell Mr. Bradley Currey, Jr. Delta Air Lines, Inc. The Honorable David H. Gambrell Georgia Power Foundation, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Earl T. Leonard, Jr. Adalaide G. Norton The Honorable William L. Norton, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. James L. Pannell Mr. J. Mack Robinson Bobby, Erlene & Janet Smith Standard Telephone Company Thomaston Mills, Inc. Mr. R.E. (Ted) Turner The Honorable and Mrs. S. Ernest Vandiver With special appreciation: Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) Senator Paul Coverdell (R-GA) Vice President Al Gore Mr. Frederick Hart Governor Zell Miller Mrs. Carolyn Nelson Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA) Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie Mr. Vincent Palumbo Mrs. Pat Peterson The Russell Family Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) Ms. Sheryl Vogt and Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, The University of Georgia Libraries Title page photograph courtesy Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies. Frontispiece @1996 Cindy Mahan.