William P. Rogers

William Pierce Rogers (June 23, 1913 – January 2, 2001) was an American politician, diplomat, and attorney.

Rogers was born June 23, 1913, in Norfolk, New York.

After the death of his mother, the former Myra Beswick, he was raised during his teen years by his grandparents in the village of Canton, New York.

He attended Colgate University, where he was initiated into the Sigma Chi fraternity.

He then attended Cornell Law School, where he was an editor of the Cornell Law Quarterly.

He received his LL.B. in 1937, graduating fifth in his class of 47 as a member of the Order of the Coif, passing the New York bar in the same year.

After serving about a year as an attorney for a Wall Street law firm, he became an assistant district attorney in 1938 and was appointed by District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey to a 60-man task force aimed at routing out New York City's organized crime.

Rogers entered the Navy in 1942, serving on the USS Intrepid (CV-11), including her action in the Battle of Okinawa.

His final rank was lieutenant commander.

After the war, Rogers joined the United States Congress as a committee counsel.

While serving on a Senate committee, Rogers examined documentation from the House Un-American Activities Committee's investigation of Alger Hiss at the request of Representative Richard M. Nixon.

He advised Nixon that Hiss had lied and that the case against him should be pursued.

On August 17, 1948, Senator Homer S. Ferguson, chairman of a Senate subcommittee on expenditures in the executive department, stated by speech and letter that the Office of the United States Attorney General had approved its espionage investigation that had started with Elizabeth Bentley on July 28.

Ferguson denied that his subcommittee "has in any way interfered with any criminal prosecution."

Ferguson's letter explained that counsel William P. Rogers had consulted with the Attorney General's assistants on June 9.

He stated that Rogers had "advised them of our purpose and the procedure planned to be followed, the witnesses who were to be called and the questions they would be asked."

That evening, Attorney General Tom C. Clark wrote a letter that contradicted Ferguson as to whether and when Ferguson's committee had "cleared" its public hearings with him.

Clark's letter stated it was "incorrect" that by June 9, 1948, Fergusons' subcommittee had told his office about its intention.

Instead, the USAG had heard of the subcommittee's intentions as those public hearings started on July 28.

Clark wrote, "It is difficult to say how much damage the efforts to arrive at a sound basis for prosecution in the espionage case has been done by the open hearings."

The story broke in newspapers next day.

In 1950, Rogers became a partner in a New York City law firm, Dwight, Royall, Harris, Koegel & Caskey.

He thereafter returned to the firm when he was not in government service.

Rogers advised Nixon in the slush fund scandal, which led to Nixon's Checkers speech in 1952.

A member of the Republican Party, Rogers served as the 4th Deputy Attorney-General of the United States (1953–1957) and as the 63rd Attorney-General of the United States (1957–1961) in the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, and as the 55th Secretary of State (1969–1973) in the administration of Richard Nixon.

Rogers joined the Administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower as Deputy Attorney General in 1953.

As Deputy Attorney General, Rogers had some role in or insight into the process that led to the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for espionage.

As deputy attorney general, Rogers was involved in the Little Rock Integration Crisis in the fall of 1957 of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

In that capacity, he worked with Osro Cobb, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, to implement federal orders and to maintain peace in the capital city.

Cobb would recall in his memoirs that Rogers called him to discuss the possibility of violence: "Our conversation was somewhat guarded. I had never recommended the use of federal troops, and Rogers asked if I thought they were necessary. I told him I hoped not. Then to my surprise he stated, 'They are on their way already.'"

Rogers served as Attorney General from 1957 to 1961.

He remained a close advisor to Vice President Nixon throughout the Eisenhower administration, especially during Eisenhower's two medical crises.

Rogers became attorney general upon the resignation of his superior, Herbert Brownell Jr.., who had worked to implement the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School.

In 1958, Little Rock closed its public schools for a year to oppose further desegregation required by the U.S. government.

At the time, Rogers said, "It seems inconceivable that a state or community would rather close its public schools than comply with decisions of the Supreme Court."

In 1959, Martin Luther King Jr. hailed Rogers for advocating the integration of an elementary school in Alabama that had excluded the children of black military personnel.

After the Eisenhower the administration, Rogers returned to his law practice, now renamed to Rogers & Wells, where he worked until his early eighties.

He played an important role in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan a 1964 case before the Supreme Court.

Rogers was a close confidant of Nixon, but National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger overshadowed Rogers and eventually succeeded him as Secretary of State in September 1973.

At the time of his death in 2001, Rogers was the last surviving member of Dwight D. Eisenhower's cabinet.