Herman Phleger

Herman Phleger (September 5, 1890 – November 21, 1984) was an American attorney and politician who served as Legal Adviser of the Department of State from February 2, 1953, to April 1, 1957, under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He succeeded Adrian S. Fisher and was succeeded by Loftus Becker. In 1959, he negotiated and signed the Antarctic Treaty on behalf of the United States. He is the namesake of the Phleger Estate.

Early life Herman Phleger was born in Sacramento, California, on September 5, 1890. His mother, Mary McCrory, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, around 1866, to an Irish immigrant mother and an unknown Confederate soldier.

On March 12, 1892, when Herman was two years old, his father was murdered in a Sacramento saloon. The family was left with little cash, but significant real estate interests. Herman's mother Mary worked as a schoolteacher.

Herman was baptized Catholic, but never practiced Catholicism, and grew up attending Sunday school at the local Congregational Church.

As a young man, Herman delivered newspapers for the San Francisco Examiner, and worked part time as a bill collector.

Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison was officially formed on January 1, 1926. The firm's early clients included the Matson Navigation Company, Wells Fargo, the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, and the Crocker and Spreckels families. The argument was ultimately unsuccessful, and the union won out. Having earned himself the hatred of many powerful unions, Herman never left the house during this time without a sword cane or billy club.

During the 1930s and 1940s, Brobeck represented the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, the Bethlehem Steel Company, the Panama-Pacific Exposition Company (in one of the first class action suits in San Francisco), the California-Oregon Power Company, the Southern California Gas Company, John Francis Neylan, the Hearst Family, Castle & Cook, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association (alongside James Garfield), the DiGiorgio Corporation, Herbert Hoover, the Key System, and the Association of American Railroads.

Herman arrived in Germany in July 1945. Headquartered in the former Luftwaffe building in Berlin, he worked primarily alongside Charles Fahy and J. Warren Madden, and under Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lucius Clay. Their office was known as the Legal Directorate.

Herman's primary focus was the "breaking up of the German combines and trusts," for which he drafted an analogue of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which was enacted by General Eisenhower.

Herman was a staunch supporter of Eisenhower's presidency, and attended his inauguration. He became Dulles' "closest and most valued colleague," allowing him to "exert an influence on matters well beyond the scope of his official position."

During his tenure as Legal Advisor, Herman participated in the handling of the Suez Crisis, the formulation of the Eisenhower Doctrine, the Bermuda Conference, the appointment of Chip Bohlen, the Bricker Amendment, the Status of Forces Treaty, the 1954 Pan-American Conference, the 1954 Geneva Conference, the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, the Creation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), the 1955 Geneva Summit, and the defense of the State Department against accusations of Communist conspiracy during McCarthyism.

Continuing Involvement in foreign affairs Following his resignation from the State Department, Herman returned to his law practice in San Francisco. However, he continued to participate in foreign affairs.

From 1957 to 1963, President Eisenhower appointed Herman as a United States representative to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the operative tribunal element created by the Hague Conventions. President Nixon appointed him to the same position from 1969 to 1975.

During World War II, Herman opposed the policy of Japanese internment.

Herman expressed reservations about the Vietnam War, calling its legal basis "very shaky." He later remarked that "few in government realized that the Vietnam War was a civil war and while the Communists were helping one of the sides, Communism was not the issue. The issue was the reunification of Vietnam and who would run the reunified country. That never seemed to penetrate their minds." Ultimately, he "believe our military intervention in Vietnam was planned as a step in the establishment of a permanent American military presence in Southeast Asia."

During the Cold War, he supported normalization of relations with Russia, stating "If we could get a free flow of ideas, newspapers and people between our countries, it would be a big help in our quest for peace."