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A source of great pride to a community is frequently one of its
own who has gone forth to serve the nation and the world. You,
Benjamin Victor Cohen, one of the nation's finest legal architects
of far-reaching social and economic reforms, economist, barrister
in the World Court, confidant and counselor to Presidents, and
devotee to the cause of international understanding, have been
appropriately recognized for your brilliant, but selfless,
contributions to the cause of justice and equity for all mankind.
Your home community of Muncie, Indiana, and Ball State
University join countless thousands in paying tribute to you for
your humanitarianism and your fidelity to your country and its
people—in war and peace—for more than two score years and ten.
Born in Muncie in 1894, you were educated in the Muncie and
Chicago public schools, The University of Chicago and Harvard
University. Your remarkable legal career started in 1916 as
secretary to a United States Circuit Court judge and as counsel for
the American Zionists at peace conferences in London and Paris.
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After a successful law career in New York City, you went to
Washington, D.C., in 1933 as one of the wisest and most able of
Franklin D. Roosevelt's brain trust. - You played a major role in
shaping legislative reforms affecting securities, exchanges and
utility holdings, in establishing minimum wage guarantees, and in
working throughout World War II to maintain a non-inflationary
civilian economy.
A selfless and devoted public servant, you worked closely and
quietly with James F. Byrnes in the Offices of Economic Stabilization
and War Mobilization and helped initiate the plan for lend-lease in
the early years of the war. Even before the guns of war were
silenced, you were working constructively to help shape a durable
system to ensure peace—at Bretton Woods, Dumbarton Oaks and
the Berlin Conference and later with the Council of Foreign
Ministers in London, Moscow, Paris and New York.
You were senior adviser for the American delegation to the United
Nations General Assembly between 1946 and 1952 and U.S.
representative before the International Court of Justice in The
Hague.
Among those intimately involved in the world political scene, the
characteristics of altruism, selflessness and modesty are rare
qualities, but these you have had in abundance. Ball State University
is honored to confer upon you, Benjamin Victor Cohen, the degree of
Doctor of Laws with all rights and privileges thereunto pertaining.
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New Deal Legislation
Securities and Exchange Commission
 Public Utility Holding Company Act
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Wartime Service
Drafted Legal Opinion that led to Destroyers-Bases Deal (1940)
 Counselor to US Ambassador to Britain John Winant (1941)
 Counselor to Office of Economic Stabilization and Office of
War Mobilization (Byrnes)
 Delegate to Dumbarton Oaks Conference that set up the United
Nations (1944)
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Postwar Diplomat
Counselor to Secretary of State Jimmy Byrnes
 US Delegate to United Nations
 Member, UN Disarmament Commission
 Elder Statesman
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Childhood in Muncie
Shy, introverted, brilliant, difficulty in public
speaking
Never married
University of Chicago, Harvard Law (1916)
The importance of mentors among his law
professors and their circle
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Appeals Court Judge
and Professor,
University of Chicago
Zionist at Paris Peace
Conference
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Public Interest
Lawyer
Associate Justice of
Supreme Court
(1916-1939)
Ardent and Active
Zionist at Paris
Peace Conference
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Professor, Harvard Law
Networker Extraordinaire:
“Felix’s Happy Hot Dogs”
Associate Justice of
Supreme Court (19391962)
Opens Doors for Cohen
on Multiple Occasions:
Cohen as Liaison Between
US and British Zionist
Delegations at Paris Peace
Conference, 1919
Brings Cohen into New
Deal
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Brilliant legal mind
Viewed law as an instrument of regulation of
economic and national behavior
Worked for others drafting legislation and
speeches
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usually behind the scenes
part of a team, not overtly egotistical
Eventually frustrated by lack of high position that his
contributions warranted
Almost certainly the result of anti-Semitism (especially
in State Department)
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Expanded regulatory power over securities
industry and electric utilities
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Securities and Exchange Commission
Public Utility Holding Company Act
Saw necessity for activist government
Frustrated with Supreme Court
Key role in drafting court-packing plan
Publicity for his “radicalism”
Disillusionment and distraction as war approaches
He believed that the failure to join the League of Nations
was a fatal error that had helped lead to the rise of Hitler
 Court-Packing hampers Presidential use of executive
power in foreign crisis
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Consulted with David Ben-Gurion and
discouraged armed revolt (for greater admission
of Jews into Britain’s Palestine Mandate)
Perceived Hitler’s threat; shifted his attention to
foreign policy
Focused throughout immediate prewar and
wartime period on methods to defeat Axis rather
than to rescue Jews
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Lacked direct influence
Anti-Semitism (accusations of “Jew Deal”) limited the
possibility of a public role
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Churchill asked FDR for mothballed WW1 destroyers to protect shipping
lanes
Domestic Political Pressure on FDR
Cohen provided complicated, brilliant legal argument and helped arrange
its publication: creativity at work
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1794 Statute: sale of warships “built, fitted out, or armed to the order” of a nation at
war was prohibited
1917 Espionage Act: cannot “send out of the jurisdiction of the US any vessel built,
armed, or equipped as a vessel of war…with intent…that such vessel shall be
delivered to a belligerent nation.”
Cohen argued that ships that had been built to the order of the US Navy and that
had not been built with the intent of delivering them to a nation at war could be
transferred to such a nation.
“In the present state of the world, the maintenance of British sea-power is
of inestimable advantage to us, in terms of our own national defense…it
cannot be lightly assumed that statutes designed to safeguard our national
defenses were intended to block action dictated by a realistic appreciation
of the interests of our national self-defense.”
Here Cohen acts on his own and shapes policy, leading to-
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More direct American involvement in WW2
An expanded definition of Presidential power that culminated in future Presidential
warmaking in Vietnam, etc. (Imperial Presidency)
Apex of his influence
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Wartime: legal advice in overseeing management of
economy in Office of Economic Stabilization and Office
of War Mobilization: facilitating war production
Growing interest in human rights and civil liberties
that shaped his later career
Advocate of executive power to manage economy and
win war
Delegate at Dumbarton Oaks: planning for postwar
UN: His passion
Advocate of international law and UN to maintain
peace
Feared obstinate or ailing FDR might be obstacle as
sick Wilson had been to postwar peace and joining UN
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Worked Closely with Byrnes in OES and
OWM and State
Pressure to respond to Soviet moves in
Eastern Europe as Cold Warrior
Cohen not suited for this role: his partner
in Destroyers-Bases memo, Dean
Acheson, became ‘Present at the Creation’
as Secretary of State
Consulted with State in recognition of
Israel
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He had chosen a new career in foreign
policy to build the peace not to wage war,
and as Cold War heated up, he became
much less directly involved in policy in
DC
UN delegate, argued first US case at ICJ in
Hague in 1950
UN Disarmament Commission 1952
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Leaves Government permanently in 1953
Able to speak freely
Early critic of Vietnam involvement
(1961)
Concerned about arms race, civil rights
advocate
Believed in importance of UN: argued
US involvement in Vietnam violated UN
Charter
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Benjamin Cohen sought to use the law as an
instrument to regulate abuses of power
He shifted his attention from domestic to international
regulation
He initially advocated the expansion of presidential
power to meet threats on both fronts, but…
The two world wars convinced him that international
law, international organization, and arms reduction
were crucial to the maintenance of peace
His experience taught him that the failure to embrace
the League of Nations and the United Nations was a
fatal error
His estate therefore contributed to funding for research
into peace at his hometown university: Ball State
University