Robert Abercrombie Lovett

Robert Abercrombie Lovett (September 14, 1895May 7, 1986) was the fourth United States Secretary of Defense, having been promoted to this position from Deputy Secretary of Defense. He served in the cabinet of President Harry S. Truman from 1951 to 1953 and in this capacity, directed the Korean War. As Under Secretary of State, he handled most of the tasks of the State Department while George C. Marshall was Secretary. Lovett was a core member of the group of foreign policy elders known as "The Wise Men", and was deemed an "architect of the cold war" by social scientist G. William Domhoff, in his 1970 book, The Higher Circles: The Governing Class in America. Early life and family Lovett was born on September 14, 1895, in Huntsville, Texas, to Robert S. Lovett, president and chairman of the board of the Union Pacific Railroad and a director of both The National City Bank of New York and Western Union. On April 19, 1919, Lovett married debutante Adele Quartley Brown, daughter of James Brown (1863–1935), a descendant of Alexander Brown (1764—1834) and the New York Brown banking family that, in 1931, would merge with another Wall Street firm, Harriman Brothers & Company, forming Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., and Adele Quartley (1866 – 1954), daughter of famed seascape painter, Arthur Quartley; the couple had two children.