Vandenberg, Arthur H.

Arthur H. Vandenberg (1884–1951) was a Republican senator from Michigan from 1928 until his death. Vandenberg was an isolationist turned internationalist; his influential position in the Senate allowed him to play a critical role in the conduct of international relations in the years following World War II.

After a long career as editor of the Grand Rapids Herald, Vandenberg entered the Senate in 1928 to finish an unexpired term. He also was elected to a full term in the elections of the same year. In 1929, at the beginning of his first full term, Vandenberg joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Vandenberg made his mark in the Senate as a member and later as chair of this committee.

Vandenberg supported ratification of the Treaty of Versailles and League of Nations covenant following World War I. Later he became an outspoken isolationist. During the 1930s he supported legislation that would keep the United States free of foreign entanglements. During World War II, however, Vandenberg underwent a dramatic change of heart, in part because of his distrust of the Soviet Union.

Vandenberg took part in the planning of the United Nations and was one of eight U.S. representatives at the San Francisco Conference that drafted the United Nations Charter. Later he played a critical role in planning and implementing the Marshall Plan (economic aid to war-torn European countries) and Truman Doctrine (aid to Turkey and Greece). He sponsored the Vandenberg Resolution of 1948, which formed the basis of U.S. participation in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A bipartisan spirit characterized all his efforts in the field of foreign affairs.

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Vandenberg was a colorful and emotional speaker. He enjoyed the national attention paid to him in 1947– 1949, when Republicans controlled the Senate and he became chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, as well as president pro tempore of the Senate. Vandenberg wielded an unusual amount of power in the largely ceremonial post of president pro tempore; he participated in planning the legislative program and involved himself in debate while he was presiding over the chamber.