A Giant from Georgia: The Life of U.S. Senator Walter F. George, 1878-1957

This biography concentrates on the numerous legislative and diplomatic achievements of U.S. Senator Walter F. George (fl. 1922-1957), the son of a tenant farmer, who rose to become one of the most powerful men in the United States. His successes as a legislator (agricultural legislation, vocational education, work on the Bricker Amendment) and later in his role as a major authority on foreign policy made him a leader in the Senate. In the international field, he was responsible for the passage of Lend-Lease, was a major player in the formation of NATO, and played a definitive role in the 1955 Summit meeting between American and Soviet leaders. He was a major force in shaping American foreign policy during the first Eisenhower administration, when he breakfasted weekly with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles to determine America’s actions on the world stage. Probably his greatest accomplishment was the Senate’s passage of the Formosa Agreement, which blunted the advance of communist aggression in Southeast Asia. His early career found him serving as prosecutor and judge, most importantly on the Georgia Supreme Court. Elected to the Senate in 1922, George achieved national notoriety in 1938 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to purge him in that year’s elections for his general opposition to the New Deal and Roosevelt’s court packing attempts in 1937. In effect forced from the Senate in 1957, he ended his long career as President Eisenhower’s representative to NATO. In his thirty-five year Senate career, George worked though the
Roaring Twenties,
the Great Depression, American rearmament, World War II, and the Cold War. George made a positive mark on each of these historic events.