Editing Bernard Baruch (section)

==Presidential adviser==

=== World War I ===
In 1916, Baruch left Wall Street to advise [[Woodrow Wilson]] on national defense and terms of peace. He served on the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense and, in January 1918, became the chairman of the new [[War Industries Board]]. With his leadership, this body successfully managed the US's economic mobilization during World War I. In 1919, Wilson asked Baruch to serve as a staff member at the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]]. Baruch did not approve of the [[World War I reparations|reparations]] that France and Britain demanded of Germany, and he supported Wilson's opinion that there needed to be new forms of cooperation, as well as the creation of the [[League of Nations]].<ref>Leab, Daniel et al., ed. "The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Thematic Encyclopedia." ABC-CLIO LLC., 2010, p. 11.</ref>

For his services in support of the war effort, Baruch was awarded the [[Army Distinguished Service Medal]] with the following citation: <blockquote>
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Mr. Bernard M. Baruch, a United States Civilian, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I, in the organization and administration of the War Industries Board and in the coordination of allied purchases in the United States. By establishing a broad and comprehensive policy for the supervision and control of the raw materials, manufacturing facilities, and distribution of the products of industry, he stimulated the production of war supplies, coordinated the needs of the military service and the civilian population, and contributed alike to the completeness and speed of the mobilization and equipment of the military forces and the continuity of their supply. War Department, General Orders No. 15 (1921)</blockquote>

=== Interwar period ===
[[File:TIMEMagazine25Feb1924.jpg|thumb|''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' Cover, February 25, 1924]]
In the 1920s and 1930s, Baruch expressed his concern that the United States needed to be prepared for the possibility of another world war. He wanted a more powerful version of the [[War Industries Board]], which he saw as the only way to ensure maximum coordination between civilian business and military needs.<ref>Leab, Daniel et al., ed. ''The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Thematic Encyclopedia'' ABC-CLIO Inc., 2010, p. 11.</ref> Baruch remained a prominent government adviser during this time, and supported [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s domestic and foreign policy initiatives after his election.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Baruch was also a major contributor to [[Eleanor Roosevelt]]'s controversial initiative to build a resettlement community for unemployed mining families in [[Arthurdale, West Virginia]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 2: 1933–1938 |last=Cook |first=Blanche Wiesen |author-link=Blanche Wiesen Cook |year=1999 |publisher=Viking |isbn=978-0-670-80486-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ecrtAAAAMAAJ |access-date=November 26, 2012|pages=136–141}}</ref>

This relationship did not stop the congressional [[Nye Committee]] from investigating Baruch's role in [[war profiteering]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}

In 1940, responding to pleas to help [[Harry Truman]]'s shoestring bid for reelection to the U.S. Senate, Baruch provided crucial funding.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Truman|last=McCullough|first=David|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1992}}</ref>

=== World War II ===
When the United States entered [[World War II]], Roosevelt appointed Baruch a special adviser to the director of the Office of War Mobilization. His offices at this time were at [[120 Broadway]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sutton |first1=Antony |title=Wall Street and FDR |date=1975 |publisher=Arlington House |location=New Rochelle, NY |isbn=978-0-87000-328-8 |page=134}}</ref> He supported what was known as a "work or fight" bill. Baruch advocated the creation of a permanent super-agency similar to his old Industries Board. His theory enhanced the role of civilian businessmen and industrialists in determining what was needed and who would produce it. Baruch's ideas were largely adopted, with [[James F. Byrnes|James Byrnes]] appointed to carry them out. It is estimated that these policies cut two years off the time taken to produce tanks, bombers, etc. and caught Hitler totally by surprise.<ref>Baruch, ''The Public Years,'' 321–328; Kerry E. Irish, "Apt Pupil: Dwight Eisenhower and the 1930 Industrial Mobilization Plan", ''The Journal of Military History'' 70.1 (2006) 31–61.</ref> During World War II, Baruch remained a trusted adviser and confidant of Roosevelt, who in 1944 spent a month as a guest at Baruch's South Carolina estate, [[Hobcaw Barony]].{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

In February 1943, Roosevelt invited Baruch to replace the widely criticized [[War Production Board]] head [[Donald M. Nelson]]. Baruch had long coveted the job, and responded that he only needed to ask his doctor if he was healthy enough for the post. During the delay, however, presidential advisor [[Harry Hopkins]] persuaded Roosevelt that firing Nelson at the army's demands would make him look weak, and when Roosevelt and Baruch met at the White House, Roosevelt declined to discuss the job offer further.<ref>{{cite book |title=No Ordinary Time |last=Goodwin |first=Doris Kearns |year=1994 |publisher=Simon & Schuster|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wQcMDdFC1QEC&q=doris+goodwin+eleanor|isbn=9780684804484|pages=411–412}}</ref><ref>Herman, Arthur. ''Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II,'' pp. 12–13, 247, Random House, New York. {{ISBN|978-1-4000-6964-4}}.</ref>

[[File:Helen Lawrenson with Bernard Baruch.jpg|thumb|Baruch with writer [[Helen Lawrenson]]]]
In 1944, Baruch commissioned a committee of physicians which developed recommendations for the formal establishment of the medical specialty of [[Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation]] and provided over a million dollars of funding to many medical schools to further this cause. Baruch's father, Simon Baruch, had been a surgeon and was the first teacher of physical medicine at [[Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons|Columbia]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Rusk|first1=Howard|title=One of Baruch's Deeds|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/08/23/one-of-baruchs-deeds.html|access-date=January 28, 2018|work=The New York Times|date=August 23, 1964}}</ref> In the same year, Baruch and Dr. Howard Rusk, an Air Force physician, advised Roosevelt to expand rehabilitation programs for injured soldiers within all the armed forces. After the war, these programs were adopted by the [[United States Department of Veterans' Affairs|Veterans' Administration]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rusk|first1=Howard|title=A World To Care For|date=1972|publisher=Random House|location=New York|isbn=978-0-394-48198-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/worldtocarefor00rusk/page/97 97–90]|url=https://archive.org/details/worldtocarefor00rusk/page/97}}</ref>

In 1946, President [[Harry S. Truman]] appointed Baruch as the United States representative to the [[United Nations Atomic Energy Commission]]. On Friday, June 14, 1946, Baruch presented his [[Baruch Plan]], a modified version of the [[Acheson–Lilienthal plan]], to the UNAEC, which proposed international control of then-new atomic energy. The Soviet Union rejected Baruch's proposal as unfair given the fact that the U.S. already had nuclear weapons; it proposed that the U.S. eliminate its nuclear weapons before a system of controls and inspections was implemented. A stalemate ensued.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Baruch resigned from the commission in 1947. His influence began to diminish, as his opinions grew further out-of-step with those of the Truman administration.<ref>Leab, Daniel et al., ed. ''The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Thematic Encyclopedia'' ABC-CLIO LLC., 2010, p. 12.</ref>