What Arthur Vandenberg Can Teach Us

Photo: U.S. Senate

Argument by Alexander Gellos | January 13, 2025

“The grave need is to find a “meeting of the minds” which will reassure our own country and the
world that our democracy can function in times of crisis. The need is to consult national rather
than political destiny.”
Arthur Vandenberg, letter to Edward R. Murrow, from The Private Papers of Senator
Vandenberg, ed. Arthur H. Vandenberg, Jr., pp. 566 (1952)

American life today is filled with a torrent of emotions and states of being, few of them good. More people recall the past with unhappiness, disillusionment and regret. They restless and angered by the present, and look toward the future with doubt and pessimism. According to a Gallup poll in February, only 33% of Americans are satisfied with the U.S. position in the world, and as of this October, 22% express satisfaction with the state of the country.

Indeed, the state of the world is a sobering one. As the United States enters the third decade of the twenty-first century, it faces a myriad of challenges and a profoundly dangerous geopolitical environment. Recent developments have been alarming: between North Korea sending troops to aid in Russia’s genocidal war against Ukraine, Communist China’s continued provocations toward Taiwan, and alleged intelligence leaks to Iran by a former CIA official. As respected commentator George Will has argued eloquently and urgently, the world is on the precipice of a major war for which the United States and the Free World are grossly and alarmingly unprepared.

The question remains: who will speak and act for America?

While there are no straightforward answers, looking at the lives of past individuals can be of immense value in charting a path forward – the present cannot be navigated without understanding the past. The generation that formulated the American-created-and-led liberal order would be a wise place to start, Today, their examples are more relevant than ever. In
particular, the extraordinary life and career of Senator Arthur Vandenberg is a shining example, as it reminds us that bipartisanship is indispensable, and that the greatest of statesmen are those who are ready to change.

While the bitter divides over foreign policy, particularly within the Republican Party, may seem like a recent phenomenon, it is not so. In many ways, it mirrors the same debate the GOP underwent in the early years of the Cold War. As America took on new responsibilities and sought a framework for winning the long twilight struggle, it was obvious that this effort would have to be a bipartisan one. It was both appropriate and fitting that one of the key architects of our foreign policy once had the exact opposite view.

Senator Arthur Vandenberg (R-MI) was one the leading congressional isolationists prior to World War II. Like many Americans, Vandenberg’s disillusionment with world affairs following World War I had made him greatly averse to the prospect of the U.S. entering a second war. He had been a member of the Nye Committee. A dark horse candidate for the Republican nomination in 1940, he had strenuously opposed the repeal of the Neutrality Acts and voted against Lend-Lease. However, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the U.S. entry into war, would begin a transformative process in the senator’s worldview as Vandenberg moved gradually and deliberately toward internationalism.

It began in a measured way, as many impactful changes do. In the summer of 1943, Vandenberg would lead the drafting of the Mackinac Charter, in which the Republican Party approved of the creation of a postwar international organization. Not only did this position the GOP in front of the Democrats on the subject of postwar plans, it would be instrumental in gaining support for the eventual creation of the United Nations. That same year, he would lead the Senate in approving the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to assist affected nations. In 1944, he would lead the draft of the foreign policy plank of the Republican platform.

In the public mind, however, the senator still personified isolationism. That would change on January 10th, 1945, with Vandenberg’s “speech heard ‘round the world” – which would announce and confirm his conversion to internationalism. It was a complete departure from the convictions he had held most of his adult life: one of the most consequential transformations in American political history had come full circle.

From there, Vandenberg would be appointed to the U.S. delegation to the San Francisco Conference, and would play a pivotal role in postwar peace talks. In 1947, he became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1947. Vandenberg would lead the Republican Party’s moderate, internationalist wing in working intimately with the Truman administration on far-reaching policies: among them military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey in 1947, the Marshall Plan in 1948, and the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Mutual Defense Assistance Act in 1949. Vandenberg would take the leading role in shepherding these through Congress, with overwhelming, bipartisan majorities being the result.

The senator from Michigan would become an indispensable figure in the creation of America’s bipartisan foreign policy. He would consistently assert that partisan politics stop at the water’s edge (the senator’s own phrasing). As he remarked in a nationwide broadcast October 1948, “it means that we strive by consultation to lift foreign policy above partisan issue. It means that we
attempt to hammer out the greatest possible means of agreement so we can speak to the world, not as Republicans or Democrats, but as undivided Americans.”

There exists a certain poignancy to his career, as Vandenberg would be absent from the Senate from October 1949 and succumb to lung cancer in April 1951. He was unable to provide a steadying and moderate hand amidst the tumultuous debate over “Who Lost China?”, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s sensational charges of communist conspiracies in government, and the
outbreak of the Korean War. Then, as now, we confront a partisan environment at home and dangerous conditions abroad, with few such statesmen to chart a path forward. An anecdote from Hendrik Meijer’s biography of the senator offers some comfort in our fractious present. Vandenberg kept a plaque on his desk from his days as newspaper editor, the inscription
originating from ancient Persian: “And this too shall pass.”

There are several lessons to be learned, simple and yet profound. We must be ready to change and adapt, as remaining unalterable in thought and deed will be of little help or comfort as the world changes around you. And as Vandenberg’s life demonstrates, the convert is oftentimes the most important and eloquent advocate for any course of action.

The example of one of this nation’s greatest senators and statesmen is necessary today, perhaps more than ever. American global leadership is a matter of moral obligation and national destiny because this nation’s democratic ideals and national interests are one and the same and always have been. The promotion of democracy and human rights, and the preservation of the postwar liberal order are paramount. Regarding our courageous friends in Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan – all the United States has done and must continue doing – Vandenberg’s speech on the Marshall Plan are words we should carry with us:

“It has its foes – some of whom compliment it by their transparent hatreds. But it has its friends – countless, prayerful friends not only at the hearthstones of America, but under many other flags. It is a plan for peace, stability, and freedom. As such, it involves the clear self-interest of the United States. It can be the turning point in history for 100 years to come. If it fails, we have done our final best. If it succeeds, our children and our children’s children will call us blessed. May God grant His benediction upon the ultimate event.”