Джеймс Бірнс – Державний секретар і політичний суперник Гаррі Трумена.

Abstract

The article is dedicated to one of the secretaries of state of the United States of America, James Byrnes, a man who had had such a diverse and career history in US political life. The author provides a historiographical analysis of the few works that deal with the life and activities of American politicians, and, with some emphasis, is made on the memoirs of J. Byrnes and G. Truman, key figures in this study. Methodological basis of the study were methods of system analysis and synthesis, problem-chronological and descriptive methods. The principle of historicism was also applied, which allowed us to consider the phenomenon we are studying in the course of its development and, as a result, made it possible to apply the periodization method, in particular, to allocate two periods in the development of political relations between the President and his Secretary of State. The article notes that at the initial stage of his presidency, G. Truman relied more on the advice of J. Byrnes, since at one time he was the last mentor of G. Truman in the US Senate. In particular, J. Byrnes provided the unknown G. Truman with information on the atomic bomb production project and was one of the initiators of the bombing of Japan. Appointing J. Byrnes as Secretary of State, G. Truman thus signaled the succession of the policy of F. Roosevelt and received a «eyewitness» of the Yalta agreements and an informant on further actions. Therefore, J. Byrnes, playing a leading role at the Potsdam, Paris Peace Conferences and understanding his «eyewitness» status, almost ignored experts from the State Department, and also ignored G. Truman and formed the country's external course. Later it became clear that G. Truman began to take a more sacrilegious position on the world stage (especially in relations with the USSR), while J. Byrnes tried to make certain concessions (especially in the same relations with the USSR). This confrontation eventually came to fruition: the political distance between them increased and personal ties weakened. Gradually, the personal relationship between the two people became strained, especially when G. Truman felt that J. Byrnes was trying to independently determine foreign policy and inform the president only afterwards. One of the first cases of disagreement was the Moscow Conference in December 1945, which marked the beginning of the end of the Secretary of State's career. G. Truman removed J. Byrnes from the country's foreign policy as much as possible and in January 1947 formally accepted his resignation.