• from 1950 to 1953, the Office of Defense Mobilization was one of the most powerful agencies in the U.S., controlling almost every facet of the economy?

Facts on topics related to Office of Defense Mobilization

Harry S. Truman

• President Truman's own pastor came out publicly against his appointment of General Mark Wayne Clark (pictured) as ambassador to Pope Pius XII?
• U.S. Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Harry S. Truman once lived in the Kennedy-Warren Apartment Building?
• Leon Keyserling was the head of the Council of Economic Advisers advising U.S. President Truman, yet never finished his own graduate dissertation in economics?
• as part of the redesign of the Grand Staircase in the Truman-era White House, architect Lorenzo Winslow developed a series of maquettes, detailed scale models showing the proposed designs?
• award-winning television editor Walter Balderson was the only TV cameraman inside the White House for the 1953 Inauguration Day meeting between U.S. President Truman and President-elect Eisenhower?
• the Dean of Barnard College and Teddy Roosevelt's grandson founded an organization that lobbied the Truman administration to prevent the creation of the State of Israel?
• the White House Entrance Hall (pictured) had the President's seal removed from its floor in the early 1950s because President Truman thought it inappropriate to walk across it?

President of the United States

• actress Dorothy Kilgallen, who claimed to have information about the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, died under suspicious circumstances?
• Kentucky political boss Thomas Rhea was instrumental in getting delegates from Southern states to vote to nominate Franklin D. Roosevelt for president at the 1932 Democratic National Convention?
• political illustrator Steve Brodner has caricatured American Presidents going back to Richard Nixon?
• President of the United States James A. Garfield knew both Latin and Greek, and could write both simultaneously with separate hands?
• President Barack Obama called to congratulate baseball pitcher Mark Buehrle after his perfect game?
• President Benjamin Harrison's 1890 speech at the Coal Palace in Ottumwa, Iowa, was drowned out abruptly by noise from an indoor waterfall?
• U.S. President Benjamin Harrison appointed James R. Tanner Commissioner of the Pension Bureau in 1889, but had to remove him six months later because he vastly exceeded his office's budget?
• U.S. President Chester A. Arthur, a known Stalwart, signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, a piece of legislation that was drawn up by the rival Half-Breeds?
• U.S. President LBJ once battered Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson over Canada's Vietnam War policy?
• U.S. President Ronald Reagan timed his first proclamation of National Sanctity of Human Life Day to coincide with the anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in the Roe v. Wade abortion case?

Cold War

• cosmonauts such as Grigori Nelyubov, dismissed from the Soviet space program, were airbrushed out of official photographs, leading to early Cold War speculation of failed missions even when the actual reasons for dismissal were sometimes mundane?
• Dave Brubeck's The Real Ambassadors was largely based on the goodwill tours of Louis Armstrong and other jazz musicians on behalf of the U.S. State Department during the Cold War?
• Hungarian ballerina Nora Kovach's 1953 defection to the West was the first highly publicized Cold War-era defection of individuals in the field of dance?
• Rear Admiral Ellis M. Zacharias, who had been deputy chief of Navy intelligence in World War II, later narrated the NBC Cold War docudrama Behind Closed Doors, titled after one of his own books?
• Building 470 at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland housed fermentor tanks for producing Bacillus anthracis during the Cold War?
• Igor Britanov captained the Soviet submarine K-219 when it sank northeast of Bermuda during the Cold War?
• at the height of the Cold War, U.S. President Ronald Reagan committed a microphone gaffe when he joked that he had signed legislation to bomb Russia?
• at the height of the Cold War, Lynne Cox became the first person to swim from the USA to the USSR?
• during the Cold War, Soviet leaders used "And you are lynching Negroes..." as an ad hominem attack against the U.S.?
• during the Cold War, Canada permitted the United States to practice photo reconnaissance over Grey Goose Island with the RB-52C Stratofortress?

Central Intelligence Agency

• JMWAVE was a secret CIA base on University of Miami campus grounds during the 1960s?
• Jim Sanborn's sculpture Kryptos (pictured), located at the United States CIA headquarters, contains text that remains undeciphered after more than 18 years?
• Michigan State University, which gave technical assistance to South Vietnam from 1955 to 1962, provided cover for the CIA?
• an exploding cigar was at the heart of an alleged plot by the Central Intelligence Agency to assassinate Fidel Castro?
• the attack on Camp Chapman in Afghanistan on December 30, 2009, was the most lethal sustained by the CIA in 25 years?
• the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency supported the Chushi Gangdruk guerilla fighters in their attempts to overthrow the Communist Party of China in Tibet in the 1950s?
• the United States Youth Council received more than 90 percent of its funds from the Central Intelligence Agency?
• visual evidence of the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba which triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 was found in reconnaissance photographs by CIA analysts led by Arthur C. Lundahl?

Franklin D. Roosevelt

• Kentucky political boss Thomas Rhea was instrumental in getting delegates from Southern states to vote to nominate Franklin D. Roosevelt for president at the 1932 Democratic National Convention?
• U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt personally oversaw the design of the post office (pictured) in Poughkeepsie, New York?
• United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt personally intervened to make sure the new post office in Ellenville, New York was built of stone instead of brick after residents complained to him via telegram?
• David L. Cole served in the labor mediation field under every US President from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Richard Nixon?
• Fala, Franklin D. Roosevelt's beloved Scottish terrier and one of the most famous presidential pets, has a bronze statue in his likeness at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial?
• James W. Treffinger went on to become a Republican County executive of Essex County, New Jersey, even though his Catholic family "idolized" FDR and Kennedy?
• President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the design for a new elementary school in his native Hyde Park, New York?
• after a year as Assistant Secretary to the Treasury under Franklin D. Roosevelt, James H. Douglas, Jr. left the government and founded a committee opposing Roosevelt's monetary policies?
• before his inauguration, President Barack Obama read The Defining Moment, planning to apply some of Franklin D. Roosevelt's strategies outlined in the book into his own administration?
• on April 5, 1933, the Independent Brewing Company of Pittsburgh sent President Roosevelt a case of low point beer to celebrate the passing of the Cullen-Harrison Act?

Republican Party (United States)

• Alabama lawyer and Republican Party pioneer John Grenier of Birmingham was self-taught in four foreign languages: French, Spanish, German, and modern Greek?
• Baton Rouge attorney Dan Claitor was elected in 2009 to the Louisiana State Senate despite his fellow Republican, Governor Bobby Jindal endorsing his opponent?
• Chicago politician Giuseppe Esposito was shot and killed in front of his family during the 1928 Republican Pineapple Primary?
• Democrat Paul J. Carmouche and Republican John C. Fleming face off on December 6, 2008, in one of the final two U.S. Congressional races of the year, delayed due to Hurricane Gustav?
• Democrat Mayor Thomas G. Dunn, national co-chairman of Democrats for Nixon, was "read out of the party" for his support of Republican President Richard Nixon's 1972 re-election bid?
• Ernie Fletcher became the first Republican Governor of Kentucky in thirty-two years after winning the 2003 Kentucky gubernatorial election?
• Haley Barbour became only the second Republican Governor of Mississippi since Reconstruction after winning the 2003 Mississippi gubernatorial election?
• Jeb Bush became the first Republican Governor of Florida to be re-elected to a second term after winning the 2002 Florida gubernatorial election?
• Lubbock accountant Charles Perry unseated Delwin Jones, the oldest member of the Texas House of Representatives, in the Republican runoff held on April 13, 2010?
• Mitch Daniels became the first Republican Governor in 16 years in the 2004 Indiana gubernatorial election?