William Ezra Jenner (July 21, 1908 – March 9, 1985) was an American lawyer and politician from the state of Indiana. A Republican, Jenner was an Indiana state senator from 1934 to 1942, and a U.S. senator from 1944 to 1945 and again from 1947 to 1959. In the Senate, Jenner was a supporter of McCarthyism.
Background
Jenner was born in Marengo, Indiana, on July 21, 1908, to L.L. Woody and Jane McDonald Jenner.
He attended Lake Placid Preparatory School in New York before attending Indiana University Bloomington, where he graduated in 1930. Jenner worked as an elevator operator in the old House Office Building while attending night classes at the George Washington University Law School. Jenner later graduated with a law degree from Indiana University School of Law – Bloomington. Jenner was the first veteran of World War II elected to the Senate and the youngest member of the Senate. but did not vote on the House amendment to the bill on August 29, 1957.
McCarthyism
In Congress, Jenner was the chairman of the Committee on Rules and Administration during the Eighty-Third Congress. He was a strong supporter and friend of Joseph McCarthy and engaged in McCarthyism. Jenner and McCarthy were both part of "a core of isolationist Republicans in the Senate" along with Herman Welker of Idaho and George W. Malone of Nevada. When McCarthy was censured by the Senate in 1954, Jenner gave a speech suggesting that the censure resolution "was initiated by the Communist conspiracy."
In the Senate, Jenner was a strident opponent of General George Marshall, who was appointed Secretary of Defense in 1950. During the confirmation debate, Jenner and McCarthy formed part of a group of militantly anti-communist Republican Senators that attacked Marshall. Jenner "delivered a shrill, hour-long attack on the nominee" in which he also disparaged President Harry S. Truman and Secretary of State Dean Acheson. Using McCarthyist rhetoric, Jenner accused the Truman administration of "bloody tracks of treason" and called Marshall "a living lie" who was "joining hands once more with this criminal crowd of traitors and Communist appeasers... under the direction of Mr. Truman and Mr. Acheson." Jenner also "denounced and blamed Marshall for the Pearl Harbor defeat and for his role in helping FDR 'trick America into a war,' the extension of lend-lease to the Communist Soviet Union, the 'selling out' of Eastern Europe at Yalta, the loss of China, and the inclusion of an offer of aid to the Soviet Union under the Marshall Plan." When Marshall was informed of Jenner's speech, the former general replied: "Jenner? Jenner? I do not believe I know the man."
A consistent opponent of American foreign aid and of any involvement in foreign affairs, he opposed U.S. participation in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization During his tenure, right-wingers wanted Jenner to run for president as a far-right third-party candidate.
Jenner claimed that the United Nations had infiltrated the American educational system in 1952.
In 1958, he did not seek re-nomination.
Later life
After leaving the Senate, Jenner practiced law in Indianapolis and was the owner of the Seaway Corporation, a land development company.