Arthur M. Vandenberg Legacy Project
Honoring the Foreign Policy Contributions of Grand Rapids's Most Famous Senator
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Senator Arthur Vandenberg (R-MI), 1884-1951)
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The Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, the World Affairs Council of West Michigan, the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum jointly sponsor an annual lecture to honor Senator Arthur Vandenberg.
The Center is also producing, in joint venture with M. W. Grass Strategic Communications, a documentary film based in part on a forthcoming biography by Hank Meijer, America's Senator: Arthur Vandenberg.
Arthur Hendrick Vandenberg (March 22, 1884-pril 18, 1951) was a Republican Senator from the state of Michigan who participated in the creation of the United Nations.
Born and raised in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Vandenberg attended public schools there and studied law at the University of Michigan. While at the University of Michigan he joined The Delta Upsilon Fraternity. He was a newspaper reporter, editor and publisher for the Grand Rapids Herald from 1906 to 1928. On March 31, 1928, he was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Woodbridge Nathan Ferris. In November 1928, he was elected for a full term and was subsequently reelected three times, in 1934, 1940, and 1946. In total, he served 23 years in the Senate until his death in 1951.
On January 10, 1945, Vandenberg delivered a celebrated "speech heard round the world" in the Senate Chamber, announcing his conversion from isolationism to internationalism. In 1947, at the start of the Cold War, Vandenberg became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In that position, he cooperated with the Truman administration in forging bipartisan support for the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and NATO.
Married twice, he had three children. He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Grand Rapids.
On September 14, 2004, a portrait of Vandenberg, along with one of Senator Robert F. Wagner, was unveiled in the Senate Reception room. The new portraits joined a group of distinguished former Senators, including Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, Robert M. La Follette, Sr., and Robert A. Taft. Portraits of this group of Senators, known as the "Famous Five", were unveiled on March 12, 1959. Also, a statue dedicated to Vandenberg was unveiled in May 2005 in downtown Grand Rapids on Monroe Street north of Rosa Parks Circle.
Hendrik Meijer, co-chair and co-CEO of Meijer Inc., is finishing the definitive biography of Arthur Vandenberg.
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