Henry Lewis Stimson (1867–1950) was born in New York. He graduated from Yale College and then Harvard Law School. As a lawyer, he rose to prominence in the law firm of Elihu Root, who had been secretary of state during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt. Stimson was secretary of war during the William Howard Taft administration and then served in the U.S. army during World War I. Between 1918 and 1926 he was an occasional envoy to Latin America, mediating disputes. In 1927 President Calvin Coolidge appointed Stimson governor general of the Philippines, a post he held until 1929, when President Herbert Hoover named him secretary of state.
As secretary, Stimson continued the effort to reduce armaments in international conferences in London and Geneva, but Japan eventually withdrew from the agreements made at the London Naval Conference in 1930. He protested Japan’s occupation of Manchuria in 1931, articulating what became known as the Stimson Doctrine—that the United States would not recognize states created by aggression. He also attempted, unsuccessfully, to limit the economic effects of war debts. Throughout his tenure he tried to preserve the Kellogg-Briand Pact, but by 1933 he observed that “the situation in the world seemed to me like the unfolding of a great Greek tragedy, where we could see the march of events and know what ought to be done, but seemed to be powerless to prevent its marching to its grim conclusion.”
Stimson retired but was recalled to government service by President Franklin Roosevelt, who appointed him secretary of war in 1940. He served until 1945, overseeing the expansion and supplying of the U.S. military during World War II. He directed the atomic bomb project after 1943 and advised President Harry S Truman on the bombings of Japan.