Contemplating a biography. I had done a biography of my grandfather. I was guessing about for another idea. I am a field fiction writer and poet. Create, but i could explore and explain. I was talking with a friend of mine who said i keep running across his name. 1970professor back in published the first of what was supposed to be a twovolume of Arthur Vandenberg. The world does not need to w o two biographies of vandenberg. My friend said i have to thought my agenda. Why dont you come and talk about some episode in Arthur Vandenbergs life. I gave a little lecture on the debate over the repeal of the arms embargo in 18 in 1939, before world war ii. Eight weeks later, i get a call from the daughter of this professor who is said to be working on the second volume of his biography. Turns out he had a difficult life, had been very ill, and had died. His adult daughter was responsible for selling his house. He was teaching in chicago. She did not know what to do with all of his research for Arthur Vandenberg. It had no monetary value. This is back in 1990. There are xerox copies of things. She hated to cast her fathers lifes Work Research out on the street. So she called on the Historical Society of michigan. She said is there anyone who has an interest in Arthur Vandenberg. The only person they knew was me because i had spoken at their conference eight weeks before. I ended up bringing a van load of papers back from chicago to my home in grand rapids. I went from thinking the world doesnt need to biographies to have a sense to having a sense of mission. If you dont do it, who will . Hendrik why did it take so long brian why did it take so long . Hendrik people say where did you find the time with your day job . It only took me 26 years. Maybe i wasnt an efficient writer. The biographers weakness for research and spent a lot of time interviewing people working in the vandenberg papers at the university of michigan, anding up with a 1000page manuscript that would not be publishable, spend years taking it down to 900, 800, taking out a paragraph here and a sentence there, and finally getting some editorial advice saying, no, take out chapter three, combined Chapter Seven and chapter eight. Then i had a publishable manuscript. Last ithe next the read was 7200 employees in the meijer company. You are ceo briefly. Hendrik yes. Meijer name . S the father was a dutch immigrant who opened a Grocery Store in the great depression. With my dads leadership, what became a small chain of supermarkets evolved into what became supercenters. Selfservicem the center with a hometown touch. It was a supermarket and they discussed apartment sure a Disco Department star. Brian that may put an auditor a photograph of Arthur Vandenberg. Hendrik Arthur Vandenberg was the senator from michigan. He was publisher of the local republican paper in the grand rapids herald. He had come from a background of what we call isolationism. He was of that generation that came out of world war i very disillusioned with the American Experience there and the peace conference at versailles that ended up being to the victor go , settlements of that so did the seeds of discontent that would lead to world war ii. After world war ii, he ofognized that that position america isolating itself, retreating from the world was no longer tenable. We were the most powerful nation honors earth and we had to assume responsibility for global leadership. Brian i wrote down some of the words to describe him. One of them was pompous. He had a vest on. Spats, did he were spats all the time . Hendrik in his early days. Brian pink earring. Cigars to be smoke . Hendrik forever cigars. He smote cigars throughout his life and he was notorious in the newspaper for the ashes that would heap behind the radiator in his editors office, and a torys for never carrying a match and needing someone to light his cigars. But he has a cigar and virtually ever picture every picture you see. Brian cockiness, bluster. Anything else . Think it was james reston or maybe Walter Lippman who described him as the only struck sittingld down. He was a big figure. He was over six feet tall and large with a big head and penetrating eyes. The way he carried himself also suggested someone a little larger than life. Brian lets listen to him and look at him on video. This is from 1936. File] while, i think that sums it up. This is the most Important Campaign since the civil war. It is the campaign against various brands of socialism, fascism, communism, bureaucracy, and bankruptcy. It is a campaign to save the republic. Thats what it is. Brian 1936. Hendrik this is in the middle of the new deal. This is after Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932. Than denver, coming from michigan, wishing understanding how dire conditions had become in the depression, joined with Franklin Roosevelt, supported several of his early new deal measures. Rooseveltsainst resistance, push through legislation to create the fdic, the federal depart the the fdic. One of the most important new deal reforms. But in 1936, things are beginning to turn. This is Election Year rhetoric. But we also see roosevelt becoming more aggressive with the National Recovery act and some of his measures that republicans, conservatives like vandenberg viewed as a centralization of power and the growth of federalism that was a step on the road to the station he always made, that it was important to be social minded, but not socialistic. This snap to hammock moving down that road. Right after that election is when roosevelt proposed the pork packing measure on the Supreme Court that lit up vandenberg and all the conservatives like crazy with fear of where roosevelt was taking the country. Brian he was in the senate from 1928 to 1951. Did that cigar smoking affect his health in the end . Hendrik he died of lung cancer. So to the extent that we can attribute a connection there, its really didnt help him. Us he you list everything was involved in. Household words. Tell us what they are. Things like the u. N. And all that. What did he play a role in . Hendrik after world war ii, first of all, frank when roosevelt, coming from that postworld war i generation of leaders, recognized he and vandenberg had a rather bitter relationship. Vandenberg was such a critic of the later new deal measures that he called it the new ordeal. Roosevelt hated to do it, but he recognized that as vandenberg emerged as the leading republican voice on Foreign Policy, he would have to name vandenberg to the american delegation to the founding of the u. N. , to write the charter in San Francisco in 1945. Then roosevelt dies. Harry truman becomes president. Of course, he had famously had lunch with roosevelt once in their few months in office together. So he came in as a decisive figure, but unschooled in Foreign Policy. Roosevelt had always been his own secretary of state and to carryd used harry out a light of his Foreign Policy plans. With roosevelt dead and a week secretary of state, vandenberg osa San Francisco as the strongest american delegate at the founding of the u. N. He is facing off with the Russian Foreign secretary molotov across the table at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, setting the groundwork for the United Nations. Soon after that, trim and asks vandenberg and his democratic counterpart, senator tom, leo senator tom connolly of texas. The postwar peace conferences where the ministers were meeting in paris at luxembourg palace to settle peace agreements with italy, with romania, with all the countries that have fought on the side of germany. Vandenberg spent the year 1946 in a diplomatic role that was unprecedented and still is for the United States senator. Then he is chairman of the Foreign Relations committee when George Marshall proposes a very Ambitious Campaign to help rebuild europe, becomes the Marshall Plan. Vandenberg is the legislative engineer who puts that through the congress. And then Economic Security isnt enough to rebuild europe. There is also the increasing threat of the red army ,ccupying Central Europe building a new society behind the iron curtain. The western european democracies come to the u. S. And say we need a military alliance. Vandenberg road the vandenberg that enables legislation for the u. S. To join nato. He dropped out of the university of michigan, ran out of money and a back and got a job as a reporter. Brian where did he live all of his adult life . Age of 21, hee became the editor of the grand rapids herald. He was a bit of a wonder can wonder kid. In 1907, he built a house in grand rapids where he lived the rest of his life and died in 1951. Brian how often was he married . Hendrik he was married to his High School Sweetheart who died of a brain tumor quite young in her early 30s, in 1918, left him with three small children. The following year, he remarried. An acquaintance he became reacquainted with at the university michigan, he remarried, married her and was married until her death in 1950. So he was twice widowed. Brian heres some video showing his wife hazel and the daughter. [video clip] these headlines certainly sound like more war in europe. Hope america has sense enough to mind her own business and stay out of these foreign troubles. If we create a strong neutrality policy and if we make it mandatory and if we decline all entangling alliances, we ought america in to keep honorable peace. That is what our people want. And in so far as i am concerned, that is what they are going to get. Brian he did a documentary back. N 2011 why . Hendrik i had a friend who is a videographer who said you have all this material, working on a book he did a documentary on president ford. Onsaid lets were together vandenberg. It helped energize me. It was a great opportunity to do interviews and take advantage of some of the work that i had done to do something that would be a little more immediate than the book. At that time, i still have used to go to edit the book. Going back to the scene where you saw the wife and the daughter, what was the relationship between senator vandenberg and his wife . I call them boon companions. They were very good friends. I think there was an element when he remarried of wanting a mother for his three small children. But they were also very good friends. I want to say that it was close. At the same time, i would read i would be remiss not to point out that he had a ,ighprofile affair in 1938 1930 9, 1940 with a woman named betsy sims. Of was the danishborn wife someone at the danish of a sea. It was controversial because Walter Winchell went on and and referred to the senator from michigan. And mitzies husband, harold sims, was reputed to run the code word at the u. S. Embassy. Neighbors at the premier Residence Hotel on connecticut avenue. That provoke a crisis in their marriage. In fact, the daughter elizabeth, betsy who you saw there, i think she married and divorced soon after, but it was almost in reaction to the crisis in the household, where she talked about her father having to decide whether to stay or to go. And hazel never quite feeling the same, of course, after that traumatic situation. Brian how public was the mitzie sends a fair back in those days . Hendrik when you have someone like Walter Winchell talking about it, it was quite public. That she hadmors i thinkd on him it was a Chicago Tribune correspondent who said, well, they planted mitzie sends on mitzie sims on vandenberg like they did on ike. The love was sincere, but i think it would have been logical , since vandenberg was plotted with fellow republicans and democratic isolationists to keep us out of world war ii, in 1939, to keep us from aiding britain, that they would want to know what was going on among these opponents of their future. Senator diedin the close to each other . Hendrik yes. She died in 1950 in Georgetown Hospital here in washington. He died in 1951. They were side by side rooms for a while here in washington when he returned. He had half of his left lung removed in 1949 in ann arbor at the university of michigan. Then he came back to washington briefly in 1950, but was never and hazel that as well but she died here and he was never Strong Enough to resume his seat in the senate. Brian heres some video from 1945. I want to ask you about the famous speech in january of that year. The was the big year when day, bj day. This is from detroit. How far is grand rapids from detroit . Hendrik about 160 miles. Hendrik brian he is talking about the importance of collective security here. [video clip] no nation hereafter can immunize itself from exclusive action. Only elective security can stop the next great war before it starts. I propose that no other nation shall have any chance to use our silence as an alibi for all terrier designs, if such there be. I propose action instead of words. I propose action now before it is too late. I propose it for the sake of a better world, but i say again and again and again that i propose it for our own american selfinterest. [applause] brian you point out that the january 10 speech, 1945, same year as this, in the united , 59 senators were present on the floor at the time. What was the point of the speech . Hendrik the point of the speech justranklin roosevelt had won the 1944 election. He is about to be sworn in once again. And he is about to leave a few weeks later for his summit conference at yalta with Winston Churchill and josef stalin. Hadr earlier conferences been about wartime strategy. But now the war is almost over in january 1945. The germans are on the run. Rhine,approaching the thend hopping against japanese. So this conference at yalta is to talk about what is going to peace with the piece and to create something called the United Nations. Vandenberg, and fellow republicans, but a lot of democrats as well, know that himself is weak. Nobody knows how weak. He dies a couple of months later. But they dont know what the americans will be negotiating. So he stands up in the senate and you saw that speech where he together working he had been known throughout his as an in the senate advocate of american neutrality, talking in that earlier speech about no entangling alliances that is a line that Alexander Hamilton road for George Washington in george. Ashingtons farewell address now vandenberg stands up and says the time has come for collective action. And he proposes a postwar treaty between the allies, the british, the russians, the u. S. , to guarantee that germany and japan will never again become military threats as they had been twice in the previous 30 years. So here we have the advocate of no entangling ali guidances entangling alliances returning the field. Vandenberg was always sharing drafts of his speech with some of his friends in the newspaper business. Brian who was reston . James reston was the New York Times washington correspondent, later bureau chief. Here is vandenberg proposing a peacetime alliance. That marked his reversal of field, he is coming out in public now for an american role that he had always shied away from. Roosevelt was a little rival. Ive of his just before he left for you all talk, the white house called and asked for 50 copies of the speech to take a long. Brian you mentioned reston in the book and quoted others. Have any of those people did you talk to about vandenberg . Hendrik i didnt get a chance i corresponded with alan drury with reston, but i did not with them. E to talk i was fortunate enough to catch a lot of people who are still alive who had known vandenberg, William Fulbright to former senator to welter tro hand, the Chicago Tribune bureau chief to a number of newspaper reporters. This copper do lose carpenter a Liz Carpenter had been young reporter win vandenberg at the republicans to agree on support for an International Organization back during the war. Harold stassen, who had been a delegate to the founding of the United Nations and later became a perennial president ial candidate, but at the time was a rising young republican. Brian you also mentioned to james tobin. What role did he play . Hendrik jim tobin was the consultant. He was the one who said take out chapter three, combined chapters seven and eight. He really gave me a direction on making major cuts to the book to jim is a wonderful writer. Burg he did a biography of arthur pile. Need to chop this section. You need to condense this section. He really helped me go from taking out sentences and paragraphs to taking out pages and chapters to get that manuscript down from a thousand pages to a manageable size. Brian how did you get your hands around who vandenberg was . And at what point in this process over the last almost 30 years did you say i got it . Hendrik i dont know if you ever feel youve got it. I dont want to speak with that degree of confidence. That live with him so long i found myself internalizing. I probably bore my f