Official Chronology of James F. "Jimmy" Byrnes—the "Assistant President."

James F. "Jimmy" Byrnes
(1882-1972).

 

  

James F. "Jimmy" Byrnes was the ONLY man to serve in all 3 branches of the U.S. government: The Legislative, the Judicial and the Executive.

He was a Congressman and Senator; a Supreme Court Judge, and Secretary of State. The one position that he lusted after more than any other was to be President of the Unites States.

"Byrnes' advocacy at the OWM of a hard war beginning with a regimentation of the home front had been a long time coming. Soon after assuming the OWM post in 1943, Byrnes had clashed repeatedly with Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau over Byrnes' urging a program of compulsory savings to be deducted from workers' paychecks to help finance the war. Morgenthau had argued that such compulsory savings, in addition to being objectionable on civil libertarian grounds, would hurt the Treasury's drives for voluntary war bond purchases. (The compromise eventually proposed by Byrnes, to have federal income tax deducted in advance from paychecks, outlived World War Two.)" (Robertson, Sly and Able: A Political Biography of James F. Byrnes), p. 369).
Date
Event
1882
 "Jimmy" Byrnes was born in Charleston, South Carolina. His grandparents came from Ireland during the Great Irish Famine. Thanks to the Vatican engineered Famine, they are fanatical Roman Catholics.
1910
 He is elected to the U.S. Congress with the help of a notorious racist named Senator "Pitchfolk" Ben Tillman.
1918
 Reelected to Congress
1930
 Elected U.S. Senator with the help of "Jewish" financier Bernard M. Baruch.
1937
 Leads the fight with Senator Joe T. Robinson in Roosevelt's court packing scheme.
1941
 Appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by Roosevelt.
1942
 Resigns from the Supreme Court....No other man in the history of the U.S. has ever resigned from the Court . . . except to RETIRE!!
1942
 Roosevelt appoints him to the newly created position of director of the Office of Economic Stabilization (OES). He oversees ALL aspects of the civilian economy—a kind of economic czar. His power is like Joseph to Pharaoh in the Old Testament. Byrnes' office is in the East Wing of the White House next to Admiral William D. Leahy.
1943
 Appointed director of the newly created Office of War Mobilization (OWM). This position gave him virtual authority over the entire U.S. economy—both civilian and military. In this position he is able to GUARANTEE unlimited funding for the Manhattan Project!!
1944
 Attends the Democratic National Convention in Chicago fully expecting to become Vice President under Roosevelt. Harry Truman even wrote the acceptance speech nominating Byrnes....Truman is nominated instead....His history of anti-civil rights for blacks caused him to lose favor with Roosevelt and the Democrats.
April 2, 1945.
"Jimmy" Byrnes suddenly resigns from his position as "Assistant President."
April 12, 1945
 Roosevelt dies mysteriously in Warm Springs, Georgia.
May 7, 1945
 Germany officially surrenders to the Allies. World War II is all but OVER with the surrender of Nazi Germany. Hugh Soviet armies begin to redeploy to the Far East for a showdown with Japan.
July 3, 1945 Jimmy Byrnes is appointed Secretary of State under the new President Truman. This position places him next in line to succeed the President....Truman first learns about the atomic bomb from Byrnes. Truman appoints Byrnes as head of the Interim Committee to advise him on the use of the atomic bomb.
July 6, 1945

At this CRITICAL MOMENT in world history, President Truman is SENT OUT OF THE COUNTRY to Potsdam, Germany, to meet with Stalin and Churchill. He does not return until August 7, the day after the bombing of Hiroshima. 67 atomic scientists sign a petition against use of the bomb but General Groves prevents Truman from seeing it . . . until after his return.
July 16, 1945
 Second test of an atomic bomb (code name Trinity) at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
August 6, 1945 Atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Aug 7, 1945
 President Truman returns to the U.S.
Sept, 1945

Jimmy Byrnes reorganizes the State Department. Nelson Rockefeller is fired from his position as Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America. Only Rockefeller has more Presidential ambitions than Byrnes. With Rockefeller gone however, Truman is less likely to be assassinated.

1946.
 Byrnes become the first COLD WARRIOR. This time the crisis is over Iran and access to oilfields. The Soviets withdraw from Iran but Byrnes' behavior disgusts Truman.
1947
 President Truman fires Byrnes from the State Department. His ambition to be President finally ends in defeat.
1950
 Jimmy Byrnes is elected Governor of South Carolina—the oldest man ever to hold that position. His term as Governor ends in 1955.
1972
 Byrnes dies at his home in Spantanburg, South Carolina.

Jimmy at age 10 poses with a small dog at a photographer's studio in Charleston, South Carolina.
  

The relief of having successfully paid off a political debt shows clearly on Franklin Roosevelt's face on a summer day in 1940 as he congratulates Jimmy Byrnes moments after Byrnes was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in FDR's Oval Office. Standing behind the president are U.S. Senator Carter Glass of Virginia, a longtime patron of Byrnes, and Maude Byrnes. Roosevelt knew that no Justice had ever resigned and he felt that Byrnes was out of his hair for good....WW II changed all that and brought Byrnes roaring back!!

Life Magazine featured the "Assistant President" on the cover of its Jan.4, 1943, issue.
 

Bernard M. Baruch and the gang at 120 Broadway NYC, were the main financiers of Jimmy Byrnes.

Only one week after Byrnes was appointed U.S. Secretary of State, he and Truman were aboard the USS Augusta en route to the Potsdam conference in July 1945. With Truman out of the country there was no way that the anti-nuking scientists could see him!!
  

Secretary of State Jimmy Byrnes keeps a firm grip on the arm of Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov of the USSR (standing, next to Byrnes, at far right) during the taking of this group portrait at the last wartime meeting of the leaders of the Big Three, in Potsdam, Germany, in August 1945. Seated, from left to right: Prime Minister Clement Atlee of Britain, President Harry S. Truman, and Joseph Stalin. Standing; left to right: Admiral William D. Leahy, Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin of Britain, Byrnes, and Molotov.

"When they call me Jimmy, I know I've got their daddy's vote." Byrnes, having resigned from the State Department in 1947 and been elected South Carolina's governor running on a platform opposing Truman's domestic policies, picks a friendly face out of the crowd during a triumphal February 1951 tour of his state.

  

Jimmy Byrnes listens raptily to a young Billy Graham at a religious revival in South Carolina. Graham would later achieve worldwide fame as the world's most beloved Protestant evangelist. If Saint Martin Luther was preaching, Byrnes would not look so smug!!

References

Byrnes, James F. All In One Lifetime, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1958.

Lanouette, William, Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilard. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1992.

McCullough, David. Truman, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1992.

Robertson, David, Sly and Able: A Political Biography of James F. Byrnes, W. W. Morton & Co., New York, 1994.

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