Harry P. Cain
Encyclopedia
Harry Pulliam Cain was a United States Senator
from Washington who served as a Republican
from 1946 to 1953. Today, Cain is mainly remembered for his very conservative and often highly controversial views as a member of the Senate, and as a friend and supporter of Senator Joseph McCarthy
, but that picture is incomplete. Prior to his term in the Senate, he had served as the progressive, even liberal, Mayor of Tacoma, Pierce County
, Washington. Following his Senate term he was widely recognized as a defender of the civil liberties
of individuals accused of being security risks during the Eisenhower Administration and as a community activist and moderate Republican until his death in 1979. Cain was an orator and a writer of exceptional ability noted for his colorful, if often convoluted, style of speaking.
In a 1972 interview Cain described himself as being, "... basically a political pragmatist – from time to time and for different reasons a conservative, militant, liberal, moderate, purist, radical and now and again what some call a populist." Acknowledging that his career had been known for its inconsistencies, he said, "The record consists of doing the best I could when confronted by any situation demanding action."
, Tennessee. Both parents were of Scots-Irish descent who had moved from Virginia
, Alabama
, and Kentucky
. Their boys were taught a strong appreciation for their southern heritage and family history. The family moved to Tacoma in 1911. Both parents were accomplished writers. His mother suffered from depression and committed suicide in 1917.
Shortly after her death, Cain suffered an attack of Bell’s palsy crippling his ability to speak. Through great effort he re-trained himself to speak, gaining self-confidence in the process.
Cain attended the Tacoma public schools and then, in 1920, enrolled at Hill Military Academy
in Portland, Oregon
, where he was a star athlete and edited the school newspaper. He spent 1924-1925 working as a reporter for the now-defunct Portland News-Telegram. For college, he decided to return to his southern roots, attending the University of the South in Sewanee
, Tennessee graduating in 1929. At Sewanee, Cain was an honor student who studied modern and classical languages, literature, lettered in four sports, a varsity debater, and editor of the school’s newspaper. His intellectual hero was the eighteenth century British philosopher and statesman, Edmund Burke
. Upon graduation he received an offer of work from the New York Times.
Before moving to New York City Cain visited his father in Tacoma but finding him in ill-heath, decided to remain. He was employed by the Tacoma branch of The Bank of California, N.A. (now Union Bank, N.A.) where he remained until 1939. He married Marjorie Dils of Seattle, Washington in 1934. In 1935-1936, the couple took an extended trip to England and Germany, where they immersed themselves in theater and he studied British banking methods and listened to the colorful orators in London’s Hyde Park
. While in Germany, Cain attended several mass rallies where Adolf Hitler
and other top Nazi leaders spoke and returned home convinced that Germany presented a major world threat, making more than 150 speeches to local and statewide groups about what he had seen.
When Tacoma was selected to host the 1939 Golden Jubilee Celebration, celebrating fifty years of Washington statehood, Cain was selected as its festival director. The success of the event led Cain to run for the non-partisan position of Mayor of Tacoma in a special election to complete the two-year term of the interim mayor who decided not to run again. A conservative Democrat, Cain voted twice for President Franklin Roosevelt but became disenchanted with the New Deal
after 1936. Cain placed third in the primary election. Four days before the general election, the leading candidate died of a stroke and Cain’s name was added to the ballot. The dead candidate’s supporters backed Cain and he was elected mayor at the age of 34.
at the shipyards and military bases around Tacoma, and for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
. Following the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Cain was one of only two elected officials on the West Coast to publicly oppose the government’s internment of 110,000 Japanese.
In 1942 Cain was re-elected mayor by the largest plurality in Tacoma’s history. His second term was characterized by his aggressive efforts to clean up long-existing vice, to obtain funding for wartime housing, to institute a long-range planning process for the city, to reform the outdated City Commission form of government, and opposition from his fellow city commissioners to each of the above.
as a Major. Following training at the Army’s School of Military Government, Cain was assigned to Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories
(AMGOT) in Algiers, Algeria. After field training in Sicily
, Cain participated in the invasion of Italy
, landing on the beachhead at Salerno
, Italy attached to a glider regiment of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division on September 15, 1943. Cain was placed in charge of 29 towns and villages near Naples
, Italy trying to meet the needs of starving displaced civilians caught between the two armies. Cain later served in various staff positions on the staff of the newly-formed Allied Contol Commission (ACC) and the Rome Area Command of the U.S. Fifth Army. He was present during the fighting for Monte Cassino
and the invasion of Anzio
, two of the bloodiest battles of the Italian campaign.
In March 1944, Cain was assigned to SHAEF headquarters in London, England where he directed the psychological warfare and public relations division of the G-5 Civil Affairs staff. Promoted Lieutenant Colonel
, he worked with many famous writers and journalists including Archibald MacLeish
and Edward R. Murrow
. In April 1944, Cain was approached by political supporters in Washington state to run as a Republican for the open U.S. Senate seat in the Election of 1944. Although Cain was unable to actively campaign, he won the Republican primary and faced popular Democratic Congressman Warren G. Magnuson
in the general election. Cain ran a respectable campaign, but fell behind in the final weeks of the campaign, losing to Magnuson by 88,000 votes.
While he was running for the Senate and carrying out his staff duties in London, the Invasion of Normandy and Operation MARKET GARDEN
had taken place and Cain had missed both of them. He longed for an assignment in the field with a combat unit. In September, he was assigned to the XVIII Airborne Corps, commanded by Major General Matthew B. Ridgway, as Assistant Chief of Staff for Civil Affairs (G-5). On the night of December 16, 1944, two German Panzer Armies attacked across a sixty-mile front of the quiet Ardennes
sector. Ridgeway’s Corps was instrumental in plugging the gap and Cain was in the thick of the fighting. Responsible for trying to protect and feed the civilians caught in the middle, Cain received a battlefield promotion to full Colonel
.
Cain participated in the planning for Operation VARSITY
, the elimination of the Ruhr Pocket
, and the Allied push into Northern Germany. He was slightly wounded 24 hours before the end of hostilities on May 7, 1945. A day later, Cain delivered a speech at the burial of approximately 200 concentration camp victims near the town of Hagenow
, Germany. General Ridgway, remembered the speech in his memoirs as “one of the most effective I have ever heard.” Cain’s war ended inspecting General George S. Patton
's controversial military government procedures during the military occupation of Bavaria
.
Cain served in the Senate from December 26, 1946, to January 3, 1953. He became associated with the midwestern, conservative bloc of the Republican Party led by Robert A. Taft and Arthur H. Vandenberg
. His term was controversial and marked by often inflammatory rhetoric and positions on issues that were sometimes seen as being at odds with the best interests of his constituents. Cain later discussed his approach to serving in the Senate in a 1949 interview. "I had decided to listen only to my conscience and my instinct and do what seemed right at the time. Why not? A man in public office might as well play it the way he thinks he should. There is no sure way to stay in public office.”
He voted for the Taft-Hartley Act, against a 70-group Air Force, against an expansion in Social Security
benefits and generally against public power. He was generally considered to be the real estate industry’s strongest supporter in Congress and once made an extended speech attacking Time Magazine
for including him on a list of the “Senate’s Most Expendable” members.” He engaged in two notable filibusters; the first a 6 ¾ hour successful effort to block the nomination of former Washington Governor and Senator Mon C. Wallgren to be director of the National Security Resources Board
, and a longer 12 ½ hour unsuccessful effort to block an extension of federal rent controls. While in the Senate, he generally supported the efforts of Senator Joseph McCarthy and others to identify and dismiss government employees who were alleged to be Communist security risks. During the Korean War
, he opposed the firing of General Douglas MacArthur
and supported extending the war to the Chinese mainland.
As Cain’s term in the Senate wound down, he was targeted by the National Democratic Party for defeat in what otherwise looked like a very promising Republican year. With Hugh Mitchell running for Governor, Cain’s opponent would be the popular six-term Congressman, Henry M. Jackson
. The two fought a tough, bruising campaign, based largely on Cain’s record in the Senate. In the end, Jackson overcame a national Republican landslide to beat Cain by more than 130,000 votes.
Cain once responded to a comment that he had been a ‘reactionary’ in the U.S. Senate. "... as a reactionary I reacted strongly against measures believed to be adverse to the public interest. It seldom bothered me that a number of my positions were supported only by a small minority. Had I been concerned with self rather than country I would have acted much differently. I was often angry and too impatient for my own good."
appointed Cain to the Subversive Activities Control Board
, where he served from 1953-1956. Cain had no prior background in national security matters and had hoped for an appointment as Secretary of the Air Force or Assistant Secretary of the Army. However, he seemed like a safe choice. A closer scrutiny of Cain’s background would have revealed that he was very much concerned with personal freedom and individual rights and had been all of his life. He may have been a conservative, even reactionary, U.S. Senator, but he was very much a civil libertarian.
Cain went about his new duties, learning as much as he could, and generally supporting the recommendations brought to the board by Attorney General
Herbert Brownell, Jr.
. Cain soon became aware of numerous cases in which the government’s internal security program, while legal, often violated the civil liberties of the accused and sometimes denied them due process
under the law. He began to speak out against what he believed to be the excesses of the current program in a series of speeches to national civil liberties groups, to the point that Sherman Adams
, White House Chief of Staff
and members of the Justice Department
considered him disloyal. The Eisenhower Administration, under pressure from the right-wing of their party, saw their internal security program as a means of eliminataing security risks from government; Cain saw the program as often trampling on the civil rights of the accused. The confrontation came to a head in a contentious meeting between Cain and the President in the White House
on June 7, 1955. Cain determined that he would not to be re-appointed to the position and resigned on June 17, 1955.
On October 23, 1956 a testimonial banquet in Cain’s honor was held at the National Press Club and attended by more than 350 civil libertarians, labor leaders and political admirers, including many of the individuals who Cain had helped. A plaque was presented to Cain with the following inscription: “In Tribute to Harry P. Cain / Champion of Human Dignity, Defender of Constitutional Rights in the Search For National Security / From Those Whose Loyalty to Country He Vindicated, and Those Whose Faith in Freedom He Strengthened / Presented at Testimonial Dinner / National Press Club, Washington, D.C. / 23 October 1956.”
and looked for a job. He found it in Miami, Florida where old friends hired him to manage the public relations and, later, the community relations of a large Miami-based savings and loan association.
In May 1957, he was called to testify at Arthur Miller's trial for contempt of Congress. He was Miller's 'expert witness on communism' and he testified that he 'did not believe' that Miller had written his plays 'under the discipline of the Communist Party'. His testimony was unusual in that normally only the government produced 'expert testimony' to demonstrate that the defendant was a Communist. In January 1964 he testified in a libel trial brought on behalf of John Goldmark, a Washington state legislator who had been defeated partially on the basis of allegations that his membership in the ACLU was tantamount to being a member of a Communist Front organization. Cain testified that the ACLU had never been on the Attorney General’s list of such organizations and Goldmark won a sizable award from the defendants.
Cain became a familiar face on Miami television, hosting and interviewing national political personalities on a weekly public affairs program that the bank sponsored. He also became active in numerous community and civic activities with the same enthusiasm he had shown as mayor of Tacoma. Unfortunately, his new life in Florida did not include his wife and family. The Cains divorced in 1958. Later that year he married LaVonne Kneisley, a family friend since the mid-1930s.
He remained active in Republican politics and worked to liberalize and broaden the face of the party in Dade County and throughout the state. In 1962 he managed the congressional campaign of Republican newcomer Robert A. Peterson against Claude Pepper
. Peterson lost, but Cain established himself as a viable political force. He considered running for the U.S. Senate in 1964 and again in 1968, but his moderate positions on social issues were in variance with the state party. He chaired the Florida Citizens for Johnson-Humphry in 1964, but supported Nelson Rockefeller
and then Richard Nixon
in 1968 based on his opposition to the Vietnam War
. In 1972, he supported his old opponent, Henry Jackson for Democratic presidential nomination and campaigned with him in Florida.
In 1972, Cain agreed to be appointed to a vacant position on the Metropolitan Miami-Dade County Commission. He championed one of the first indoor no smoking bans in the country and other measures ensuring equal rights in jobs, housing and public accommodation. In failing health, he was defeated for re-election in 1976. He died of complications from emphysema at his home in Miami Lakes, Florida on March 3, 1979. He was cremated and had his ashes scattered on his favorite golf course in Bethesda, Maryland
.
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
from Washington who served as a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
from 1946 to 1953. Today, Cain is mainly remembered for his very conservative and often highly controversial views as a member of the Senate, and as a friend and supporter of Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
, but that picture is incomplete. Prior to his term in the Senate, he had served as the progressive, even liberal, Mayor of Tacoma, Pierce County
Pierce County, Washington
right|thumb|[[Tacoma, Washington|Tacoma]] - Seat of Pierce CountyPierce County is the second most populous county in the U.S. state of Washington. Formed out of Thurston County on December 22, 1852, by the legislature of Oregon Territory...
, Washington. Following his Senate term he was widely recognized as a defender of the civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
of individuals accused of being security risks during the Eisenhower Administration and as a community activist and moderate Republican until his death in 1979. Cain was an orator and a writer of exceptional ability noted for his colorful, if often convoluted, style of speaking.
In a 1972 interview Cain described himself as being, "... basically a political pragmatist – from time to time and for different reasons a conservative, militant, liberal, moderate, purist, radical and now and again what some call a populist." Acknowledging that his career had been known for its inconsistencies, he said, "The record consists of doing the best I could when confronted by any situation demanding action."
Early life
Harry Pulliam Cain and his twin brother were born in Nashville, Davidson CountyDavidson County, Tennessee
Davidson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2010, the population was 626,681. Its county seat is Nashville.In 1963, the City of Nashville and the Davidson County government merged, so the county government is now known as the "Metropolitan Government of Nashville and...
, Tennessee. Both parents were of Scots-Irish descent who had moved from Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, and Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
. Their boys were taught a strong appreciation for their southern heritage and family history. The family moved to Tacoma in 1911. Both parents were accomplished writers. His mother suffered from depression and committed suicide in 1917.
Shortly after her death, Cain suffered an attack of Bell’s palsy crippling his ability to speak. Through great effort he re-trained himself to speak, gaining self-confidence in the process.
Cain attended the Tacoma public schools and then, in 1920, enrolled at Hill Military Academy
Hill Military Academy
Hill Military Academy was a private, College preparatory military academy in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Opened in 1901, it was a leading military boarding school in the Pacific Northwest. Originally located in Northwest Portland, it later moved to Rocky Butte where it remained until it...
in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, where he was a star athlete and edited the school newspaper. He spent 1924-1925 working as a reporter for the now-defunct Portland News-Telegram. For college, he decided to return to his southern roots, attending the University of the South in Sewanee
Sewanee
Sewanee may refer to:* Sewanee, Tennessee* Sewanee: The University of the South* Sewanee Review* Sewanee Natural Bridge* Saint Andrews-Sewanee School-See also:* Suwanee * Suwannee * Swanee...
, Tennessee graduating in 1929. At Sewanee, Cain was an honor student who studied modern and classical languages, literature, lettered in four sports, a varsity debater, and editor of the school’s newspaper. His intellectual hero was the eighteenth century British philosopher and statesman, Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
. Upon graduation he received an offer of work from the New York Times.
Before moving to New York City Cain visited his father in Tacoma but finding him in ill-heath, decided to remain. He was employed by the Tacoma branch of The Bank of California, N.A. (now Union Bank, N.A.) where he remained until 1939. He married Marjorie Dils of Seattle, Washington in 1934. In 1935-1936, the couple took an extended trip to England and Germany, where they immersed themselves in theater and he studied British banking methods and listened to the colorful orators in London’s Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
. While in Germany, Cain attended several mass rallies where Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and other top Nazi leaders spoke and returned home convinced that Germany presented a major world threat, making more than 150 speeches to local and statewide groups about what he had seen.
When Tacoma was selected to host the 1939 Golden Jubilee Celebration, celebrating fifty years of Washington statehood, Cain was selected as its festival director. The success of the event led Cain to run for the non-partisan position of Mayor of Tacoma in a special election to complete the two-year term of the interim mayor who decided not to run again. A conservative Democrat, Cain voted twice for President Franklin Roosevelt but became disenchanted with the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
after 1936. Cain placed third in the primary election. Four days before the general election, the leading candidate died of a stroke and Cain’s name was added to the ballot. The dead candidate’s supporters backed Cain and he was elected mayor at the age of 34.
Mayor of Tacoma
Cain’s terms as mayor were characterized by his enthusiasm and very public approach to governing, including a weekly radio program that was uncommon for the time. His first term was also characterized by the build-up for World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
at the shipyards and military bases around Tacoma, and for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
Tacoma Narrows Bridge
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is a pair of twin suspension bridges in the U.S. state of Washington, which carry State Route 16 across the Tacoma Narrows strait of Puget Sound between Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula...
. Following the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Cain was one of only two elected officials on the West Coast to publicly oppose the government’s internment of 110,000 Japanese.
In 1942 Cain was re-elected mayor by the largest plurality in Tacoma’s history. His second term was characterized by his aggressive efforts to clean up long-existing vice, to obtain funding for wartime housing, to institute a long-range planning process for the city, to reform the outdated City Commission form of government, and opposition from his fellow city commissioners to each of the above.
World War II
He took a leave of absence in May 1943 to enter the United States ArmyUnited States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
as a Major. Following training at the Army’s School of Military Government, Cain was assigned to Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories
Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories
The Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories was the form of military rule administered by Allied forces during and after World War II within European territories they occupied.-Notable AMGOT:...
(AMGOT) in Algiers, Algeria. After field training in Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, Cain participated in the invasion of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, landing on the beachhead at Salerno
Salerno
Salerno is a city and comune in Campania and is the capital of the province of the same name. It is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea....
, Italy attached to a glider regiment of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division on September 15, 1943. Cain was placed in charge of 29 towns and villages near Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, Italy trying to meet the needs of starving displaced civilians caught between the two armies. Cain later served in various staff positions on the staff of the newly-formed Allied Contol Commission (ACC) and the Rome Area Command of the U.S. Fifth Army. He was present during the fighting for Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, Italy, c. to the west of the town of Cassino and altitude. St. Benedict of Nursia established his first monastery, the source of the Benedictine Order, here around 529. It was the site of Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944...
and the invasion of Anzio
Anzio
Anzio is a city and comune on the coast of the Lazio region of Italy, about south of Rome.Well known for its seaside harbour setting, it is a fishing port and a departure point for ferries and hydroplanes to the Pontine Islands of Ponza, Palmarola and Ventotene...
, two of the bloodiest battles of the Italian campaign.
In March 1944, Cain was assigned to SHAEF headquarters in London, England where he directed the psychological warfare and public relations division of the G-5 Civil Affairs staff. Promoted Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
, he worked with many famous writers and journalists including Archibald MacLeish
Archibald MacLeish
Archibald MacLeish was an American poet, writer, and the Librarian of Congress. He is associated with the Modernist school of poetry. He received three Pulitzer Prizes for his work.-Early years:...
and Edward R. Murrow
Edward R. Murrow
Edward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...
. In April 1944, Cain was approached by political supporters in Washington state to run as a Republican for the open U.S. Senate seat in the Election of 1944. Although Cain was unable to actively campaign, he won the Republican primary and faced popular Democratic Congressman Warren G. Magnuson
Warren G. Magnuson
Warren Grant "Maggie" Magnuson was a United States Senator of the Democratic Party from Washington from 1944 until 1981. Upon leaving the Senate, he was the most senior member of the body...
in the general election. Cain ran a respectable campaign, but fell behind in the final weeks of the campaign, losing to Magnuson by 88,000 votes.
While he was running for the Senate and carrying out his staff duties in London, the Invasion of Normandy and Operation MARKET GARDEN
Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in the Second World War. It was the largest airborne operation up to that time....
had taken place and Cain had missed both of them. He longed for an assignment in the field with a combat unit. In September, he was assigned to the XVIII Airborne Corps, commanded by Major General Matthew B. Ridgway, as Assistant Chief of Staff for Civil Affairs (G-5). On the night of December 16, 1944, two German Panzer Armies attacked across a sixty-mile front of the quiet Ardennes
Ardennes
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...
sector. Ridgeway’s Corps was instrumental in plugging the gap and Cain was in the thick of the fighting. Responsible for trying to protect and feed the civilians caught in the middle, Cain received a battlefield promotion to full Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
.
Cain participated in the planning for Operation VARSITY
Operation Varsity
Operation Varsity was a successful joint American–British airborne operation that took place toward the end of World War II...
, the elimination of the Ruhr Pocket
Ruhr Pocket
The Ruhr Pocket was a battle of encirclement that took place in late March and early April 1945, near the end of World War II, in the Ruhr Area of Germany. For all intents and purposes, it marked the end of major organized resistance on Nazi Germany's Western Front, as more than 300,000 troops were...
, and the Allied push into Northern Germany. He was slightly wounded 24 hours before the end of hostilities on May 7, 1945. A day later, Cain delivered a speech at the burial of approximately 200 concentration camp victims near the town of Hagenow
Hagenow
Hagenow is a German town in the southwest of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in the district of Ludwigslust-Parchim, 30 kilometers south of Schwerin...
, Germany. General Ridgway, remembered the speech in his memoirs as “one of the most effective I have ever heard.” Cain’s war ended inspecting General George S. Patton
George S. Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
's controversial military government procedures during the military occupation of Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
.
U.S. Senate
After the war, Cain resumed his duties as mayor of Tacoma, but resigned on June 15, 1946 to run again for the Senate. He was elected to the Senate on November 5, 1946, defeating Democrat Hugh B. Mitchell, an affable, competent, and decidedly uncharismatic campaigner who had recently been appointed to the position, by more than 60,000 votes. In this campaign Cain first began to raise the allegations of ties to Communist front organizations against Mitchell and other state Democrats.Cain served in the Senate from December 26, 1946, to January 3, 1953. He became associated with the midwestern, conservative bloc of the Republican Party led by Robert A. Taft and Arthur H. Vandenberg
Arthur H. Vandenberg
Arthur Hendrick Vandenberg was a Republican Senator from the U.S. state of Michigan who participated in the creation of the United Nations.-Early life and family:...
. His term was controversial and marked by often inflammatory rhetoric and positions on issues that were sometimes seen as being at odds with the best interests of his constituents. Cain later discussed his approach to serving in the Senate in a 1949 interview. "I had decided to listen only to my conscience and my instinct and do what seemed right at the time. Why not? A man in public office might as well play it the way he thinks he should. There is no sure way to stay in public office.”
He voted for the Taft-Hartley Act, against a 70-group Air Force, against an expansion in Social Security
Social Security (United States)
In the United States, Social Security refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program.The original Social Security Act and the current version of the Act, as amended encompass several social welfare and social insurance programs...
benefits and generally against public power. He was generally considered to be the real estate industry’s strongest supporter in Congress and once made an extended speech attacking Time Magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
for including him on a list of the “Senate’s Most Expendable” members.” He engaged in two notable filibusters; the first a 6 ¾ hour successful effort to block the nomination of former Washington Governor and Senator Mon C. Wallgren to be director of the National Security Resources Board
National Security Resources Board
The National Security Resources Board was a United States board created by the National Security Act of 1947. It was a part of Cold War Civil defense, and obviously United States Civil Defense in particular...
, and a longer 12 ½ hour unsuccessful effort to block an extension of federal rent controls. While in the Senate, he generally supported the efforts of Senator Joseph McCarthy and others to identify and dismiss government employees who were alleged to be Communist security risks. During the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, he opposed the firing of General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
and supported extending the war to the Chinese mainland.
As Cain’s term in the Senate wound down, he was targeted by the National Democratic Party for defeat in what otherwise looked like a very promising Republican year. With Hugh Mitchell running for Governor, Cain’s opponent would be the popular six-term Congressman, Henry M. Jackson
Henry M. Jackson
Henry Martin "Scoop" Jackson was a U.S. Congressman and Senator from the state of Washington from 1941 until his death...
. The two fought a tough, bruising campaign, based largely on Cain’s record in the Senate. In the end, Jackson overcame a national Republican landslide to beat Cain by more than 130,000 votes.
Cain once responded to a comment that he had been a ‘reactionary’ in the U.S. Senate. "... as a reactionary I reacted strongly against measures believed to be adverse to the public interest. It seldom bothered me that a number of my positions were supported only by a small minority. Had I been concerned with self rather than country I would have acted much differently. I was often angry and too impatient for my own good."
Subversive Activities Control Board
At the urging of some of his former Senate colleagues, President Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
appointed Cain to the Subversive Activities Control Board
Subversive Activities Control Board
The Subversive Activities Control Board was a United States government committee to investigate Communist infiltration of American society during the 1950s Red Scare....
, where he served from 1953-1956. Cain had no prior background in national security matters and had hoped for an appointment as Secretary of the Air Force or Assistant Secretary of the Army. However, he seemed like a safe choice. A closer scrutiny of Cain’s background would have revealed that he was very much concerned with personal freedom and individual rights and had been all of his life. He may have been a conservative, even reactionary, U.S. Senator, but he was very much a civil libertarian.
Cain went about his new duties, learning as much as he could, and generally supporting the recommendations brought to the board by Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
Herbert Brownell, Jr.
Herbert Brownell, Jr.
Herbert Brownell, Jr. was the Attorney General of the United States in President Eisenhower's cabinet from 1953 to 1957.-Early life:...
. Cain soon became aware of numerous cases in which the government’s internal security program, while legal, often violated the civil liberties of the accused and sometimes denied them due process
Due process
Due process is the legal code that the state must venerate all of the legal rights that are owed to a person under the principle. Due process balances the power of the state law of the land and thus protects individual persons from it...
under the law. He began to speak out against what he believed to be the excesses of the current program in a series of speeches to national civil liberties groups, to the point that Sherman Adams
Sherman Adams
Llewelyn Sherman Adams was an American politician, best known as White House Chief of Staff for President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the culmination of a relatively short political career that also included a stint as Governor of New Hampshire...
, White House Chief of Staff
White House Chief of Staff
The White House Chief of Staff is the highest ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and a senior aide to the President.The current White House Chief of Staff is Bill Daley.-History:...
and members of the Justice Department
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
considered him disloyal. The Eisenhower Administration, under pressure from the right-wing of their party, saw their internal security program as a means of eliminataing security risks from government; Cain saw the program as often trampling on the civil rights of the accused. The confrontation came to a head in a contentious meeting between Cain and the President in the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
on June 7, 1955. Cain determined that he would not to be re-appointed to the position and resigned on June 17, 1955.
On October 23, 1956 a testimonial banquet in Cain’s honor was held at the National Press Club and attended by more than 350 civil libertarians, labor leaders and political admirers, including many of the individuals who Cain had helped. A plaque was presented to Cain with the following inscription: “In Tribute to Harry P. Cain / Champion of Human Dignity, Defender of Constitutional Rights in the Search For National Security / From Those Whose Loyalty to Country He Vindicated, and Those Whose Faith in Freedom He Strengthened / Presented at Testimonial Dinner / National Press Club, Washington, D.C. / 23 October 1956.”
Later life
Never wealthy, Cain returned to Tacoma with limited prospects and even less money. Both major parties found him unpredictable. To make matters worse, his marriage was unraveling. He lectured briefly at Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and looked for a job. He found it in Miami, Florida where old friends hired him to manage the public relations and, later, the community relations of a large Miami-based savings and loan association.
In May 1957, he was called to testify at Arthur Miller's trial for contempt of Congress. He was Miller's 'expert witness on communism' and he testified that he 'did not believe' that Miller had written his plays 'under the discipline of the Communist Party'. His testimony was unusual in that normally only the government produced 'expert testimony' to demonstrate that the defendant was a Communist. In January 1964 he testified in a libel trial brought on behalf of John Goldmark, a Washington state legislator who had been defeated partially on the basis of allegations that his membership in the ACLU was tantamount to being a member of a Communist Front organization. Cain testified that the ACLU had never been on the Attorney General’s list of such organizations and Goldmark won a sizable award from the defendants.
Cain became a familiar face on Miami television, hosting and interviewing national political personalities on a weekly public affairs program that the bank sponsored. He also became active in numerous community and civic activities with the same enthusiasm he had shown as mayor of Tacoma. Unfortunately, his new life in Florida did not include his wife and family. The Cains divorced in 1958. Later that year he married LaVonne Kneisley, a family friend since the mid-1930s.
He remained active in Republican politics and worked to liberalize and broaden the face of the party in Dade County and throughout the state. In 1962 he managed the congressional campaign of Republican newcomer Robert A. Peterson against Claude Pepper
Claude Pepper
Claude Denson Pepper was an American politician of the Democratic Party, and a spokesman for left-liberalism and the elderly. In foreign policy he shifted from pro-Soviet in the 1940s to anti-Communist in the 1950s...
. Peterson lost, but Cain established himself as a viable political force. He considered running for the U.S. Senate in 1964 and again in 1968, but his moderate positions on social issues were in variance with the state party. He chaired the Florida Citizens for Johnson-Humphry in 1964, but supported Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
and then Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
in 1968 based on his opposition to the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. In 1972, he supported his old opponent, Henry Jackson for Democratic presidential nomination and campaigned with him in Florida.
In 1972, Cain agreed to be appointed to a vacant position on the Metropolitan Miami-Dade County Commission. He championed one of the first indoor no smoking bans in the country and other measures ensuring equal rights in jobs, housing and public accommodation. In failing health, he was defeated for re-election in 1976. He died of complications from emphysema at his home in Miami Lakes, Florida on March 3, 1979. He was cremated and had his ashes scattered on his favorite golf course in Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
.
External links
- Congressional Biography
- Washington History provides finding aid to article subject from the Special Collections, Washington State Historical Society (WSHS)