Nicholas Katzenbach

assistant attorney general under Kennedy

Nicholas Katzenbach was born in in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 17th January, 1922. After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy he joined the United States Army Air Force (USAAF). During the Second World War he was captured by enemy troops and spent two years as a prisoner of war in Italy. After the war Katzenbach attended Princeton University and Yale Law School. While at Yale he was editor-in-chief of *the Yale Law Journal*. He also received a Rhodes scholarship and studied at Oxford University for two years. In 1950 Katzenbach became a lawyer in New Jersey. In 1952 he became Associate Professor of Law at Yale University and also served as a Professor of Law at the University of Chicago (1956-1960). Katzenbach joined the justice department's Office of Legal Counsel and in April 1962, was promoted to deputy attorney general, the second highest position in the department. Katzenbach worked closely with President John F. Kennedy and was given the task of securing the release of prisoners captured during the Bay of Pigs raid on Cuba. On the advice of Robert Kennedy President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Katzenbach as Attorney General of the United States. In this post he helped draft the Voting Rights Act. Katzenbach clashed with J. Edgar Hoover over his policy of ordering unauthorized wiretaps of people such as Martin Luther King. After Johnson resigned Katzenbach returned to private law practice in Princeton, New Jersey.