Carl Vinson

This article is about the politician. For the aircraft carrier, seeUSS Carl Vinson.

Carl Vinson
38thDean of the United States House of Representatives
In office November 16, 1961 – January 3, 1965
Preceded by	Sam Rayburn
Succeeded by	Emanuel Celler
Chair of theHouse Armed Services Committee
In office January 3, 1955 – January 3, 1965
Speaker	Sam Rayburn John William McCormack
Preceded by	Dewey J. Short
Succeeded by	L. Mendel Rivers
In office January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1953
Speaker	Sam Rayburn
Preceded by	Walter G. Andrews
Succeeded by	Dewey J. Short
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromGeorgia
In office November 3, 1914 – January 3, 1965
Preceded by	Thomas W. Hardwick
Succeeded by	John J. Flynt, Jr.
Constituency	10th district(1914–1933) 6th district(1933–1965)
Member of the Georgia House of Representatives
In office 1908–1914
Personal details
Born	November 18, 1883 Baldwin County, Georgia,U.S.
Died	June 1, 1981 (aged 97) Milledgeville, Georgia,U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	Mercer University
Signature

Carl Vinson(November 18, 1883 – June 1, 1981) was an American politician who served in theU.S. House of Representativesfor over 50 years and was influential in the 20th century expansion of theU.S. Navy.He was a member of theDemocratic Partyand representedGeorgiain the House from 1914 to 1965. He was known as "The Father of theTwo-Ocean Navy ".He is the longest-serving member of the United States House of Representatives from the state ofGeorgia.From 1961 to 1965, he served as theDean of the US House of Representativesas the longest serving member of the body.

USSCarl Vinson,the thirdNimitz-classaircraft carrier,is named after him.

Early years

Vinson was born inBaldwin County, Georgia,where he attended local schools andGeorgia Military College.He graduated with a law degree fromMercer Universityin 1902 and was a member of theKappa Alpha Order.After some years of practice, he was elected to theGeorgia House of Representativesin 1908. After losing a third term following redistricting, he was appointed as judge of theBaldwin Countycourt.

Following the sudden death of U.S. SenatorAugustus Bacon,RepresentativeThomas W. HardwickofGeorgia's 10th congressional districtwas nominated to fill Bacon's Senate seat. Vinson announced his candidacy for Hardwick's seat in Congress. Vinson defeated three opponents. Vinson was the youngest member of Congress (30 years old) when he was sworn in on November 3, 1914.

Service in Congress

Carl Vinson was elected as aRepresentativeat age 30. A Democrat, he was repeatedly re-elected, serving until age 81.

Vinson served as a Representative from November 3, 1914, to January 3, 1965. He was repeatedly re-elected by Democratic voters for this seat. Vinson's first term in congress was characterized by his support for segregation sponsoring bills to establish separate street cars and apartments for Blacks in theDistrict of Columbia,banning interracial marriage in the District, and repealing theFifteenth Amendment.

During his tenure in the U.S. House, Vinson was a champion for national defense and especially theU.S. Navyand theU.S. Marine Corps.He joined the House Naval Affairs Committee shortly afterWorld War Iand became the ranking Democratic member in the early 1920s. He was the only Democrat appointed to theMorrow Board,which reviewed the status of aviation in America in the mid-1920s.

In 1931, Vinson became chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee. In 1934, Vinson helped push the Vinson–Trammell Act, along with Democratic SenatorPark TrammellofFlorida.The bill authorized the replacement of obsolete vessels by new construction and a gradual increase of ships within the limits of theWashington Naval Treatyof 1922 andLondon Naval Treatyof 1930. Initial funding for the Vinson–Trammell Navy Act was provided by theEmergency Appropriations Act of 1934.This was necessary as during the previous administration, not a single major warship was laid down and the US Navy was both aging and losing ground to theJapanese Navy.Japan repudiated the naval treaties in late 1934.

Vinson later was primarily responsible for additional naval expansion legislation, theNaval Act of 1938( "Second Vinson Act" ) and theThird Vinson Act of 1940(which was essentially a mere prelude to the Two-Oceans Act that followed a month later), as well as theTwo-Ocean Navy Actof 1940. The ambitious program called for by this series of laws helped the U.S. Navy as the country enteredWorld War II,as new ships were able to match the latest ships from Japan.

At the end of World War II, Congress had authorized four Naval four-star officers to be promoted toFleet Admiral.A staunch partisan of AdmiralWilliam Halsey, Jr.,Vinson blocked the nomination of AdmiralRaymond A. Spruanceseveral times, although the majority thought him more deserving,to ensure that Halsey got the fourth billet. Congress eventually responded by passing an unprecedented act that specified that Spruance would remain on a full admiral's pay once retired until his death.

Portrait of Vinson, 1943.

Following World War II, the House Naval Affairs Committee was merged with the Military Affairs Committee to become theHouse Armed Services Committee(this consolidation mirrored the establishment of theDepartment of Defensewhen the old Departments of War and of the Navy were consolidated). When the Republicans won control of Congressin the 1946 election,Vinson served as ranking minority member of the committee for two years before becoming Chairman in early 1949, when the Democrats were again in majority; a position held for four years until the Republicans briefly returned to the majority for a single congressional term after the 1952 elections. After the Democrats retook congress in the 1954 midterms, Vinson again became Chairman, a position he held until his retirement in 1965. In this role, Vinson adopted a committee rule that came to be known as the "Vinson rule", which limited the number of questions a junior member of the committee could ask to one question per year of service on the committee. As chairman, Vinson oversaw the modernization of the military as its focus shifted to theCold War.He was also committee chair when Congress authorized the procurement of the first nuclear-poweredaircraft carriers,starting withUSSEnterprise(CVN-65)in the late 1950s.

A staunch segregationist, Vinson voted against the1964 Civil Rights Actand in 1956, signed"The Southern Manifesto".Other Southern politicians signed this in resistance to the ruling by the United States Supreme Court inBrown v. Board of Education(1954) that segregated public education was unconstitutional, and that states needed to integrate their public schools.

Vinson did not seek re-election in 1964 and retired from Congress in January 1965.

Personal life

Vinson married Mary Green of Ohio in 1921. She died in 1949 after a long illness.

Vinson did not have children, but his great-nephew,Sam Nunn,served as aSenatorfrom Georgia for more than 24 years. Nunn followed in his great uncle's footsteps, serving on theSenate Armed Services Committeefor nearly his entire tenure in the Senate. Sam Nunn's daughter,Michelle Nunnran unsuccessfully for one of Georgia's U.S. Senate seats in 2014.

Vinson considered his longtime assistant Charles Tillman Snead, Jr. his surrogate son, and Snead's wife, Molly Staeman Snead, was Vinson's wife's nurse for 34 years. Snead's son and grandchildren maintained this familial bond to Vinson until his death in 1981.

Death

Vinson returned toBaldwin County, Georgia,where he lived in retirement until his death on June 1, 1981.He is buried inMemory Hill CemeteryinMilledgeville, Georgia.

At the time of his death, Vinson was the last living member of the House of Representatives who was serving at the time of theUnited States' declaration of war against the German Empire,which precipitated theUnited States' entry into World War I.

Legacy

In recognition of his efforts on behalf of the U.S. Navy, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was named theUSSCarl Vinson,an honorrarely given to a person while living.On March 15, 1980, at age 96, he attended the ship's launching.

Vinson Massif,Antarctica's highest mountain, is also named after him,together with the relatedMount VinsonandVinson Plateau.

Carl Vinson served 26 consecutive terms in the U.S. House, rarely running against significant opposition. He served for 50 years and one month, a record that stood until 1992, when the mark was surpassed byJamie WhittenofMississippi.

For his commitment, Vinson was awarded the prestigiousSylvanus Thayer Awardby theUnited States Military Academy.In 1964, PresidentLyndon B. Johnsonawarded Vinson thePresidential Medal of Freedom with Special Distinction,the highest award the President can give to a civilian. During his own tenure in the House, Johnson had served for years as a junior member of the House Naval Affairs Committee under Vinson.

TheDepartment of Veterans' AffairsMedical Center inDublin, Georgia,serving veterans in Central and Southern Georgia, is named for Vinson.

TheUniversity of Georgiahosts theCarl Vinson Institute of Government.

Athens, Georgia,is the site of Carl Vinson Park.

Carl Vinson Parkway is located inWarner Robins, Georgia.

Georgia Military Collegeformerly had a barracks named for him. It was razed in the mid-2000s.

Vinson Hall Retirement Community inMcLean, Virginia,is named after Carl Vinson.

USFederal Standard 595names a color in his honor: reference 25630, "Carl Vinson Blue." The color can be approximated byhexadecimal color#dad3d8

References

Bibliography

• Cook, James F. (2004).Carl Vinson: Patriarch of the Armed Forces.Mercer Univ. Press.ISBN0865547548.OCLC237846238.
• Gaughan, Anthony. “Woodrow Wilson and the Rise of Militant Interventionism in the South.” The Journal of Southern History 65, no. 4 (1999): 771–808.https://doi.org/10.2307/2587587.
• Reed, Ralph. “‘Fighting the Devil with Fire’: Carl Vinson’s Victory over Tom Watson in the 1918 Tenth District Democratic Primary.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly 67, no. 4 (1983): 451–79.http://www.jstor.org/stable/40581142.
• Walter, John C. “Congressman Carl Vinson and Franklin D. Roosevelt: Naval Preparedness and the Coming of World War II, 1932-40.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly 64, no. 3 (1980): 294–305.http://www.jstor.org/stable/40580647.
• Ziemke, Caroline F. “Senator Richard B. Russell and the ‘Lost Cause’ in Vietnam, 1954-1968.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly 72, no. 1 (1988): 30–71.http://www.jstor.org/stable/40581768.

External links

• University of Georgia brief biography
• University of Georgia Profile of Carl Vinson
• Congressional Biography
• United States Navy website: USS Carl Vinson
• Vinson Institute Press, "Carl Vinson: A Legacy of Public Service", 2002