September 20, 2004: Death  of Townsend Hoopes II, author and Viet Nam War critic

On this day in 2004, Duluth native and one-time Under Secretary of the U. S. Air Force Townsend Hoopes II died while visiting Baja California, Mexico. Hoopes was born in Duluth April 28, 1922, the son of Great Lakes shipping magnate Henry Townsend Hoopes. and the grandnephew of Duluth pioneer Townsend Hoopes. After graduating Yale and serving as a Marine in World War II, Hoopes II’s varied career eventually led him to a position as Under Secretary of the U. S. Air Force. As biographer David Ouse explains, “Hoopes had questioned the administration’s policy toward Vietnam since 1965 but it wasn’t in his area of responsibility. With his [new] appointment…though, he was involved in the Vietnam War on a daily basis. It was then, [Hoopes later said], that ‘my skepticism deepened and hardened, and when I began arguing the need to stop the escalation and negotiate out.’ He helped convince Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford of the wisdom of de-escalation, and Clifford moved President Johnson, who did not want to be the first president to lose a war, to announce on March 31, 1968, that the U.S. would drastically reduce bombing and propose peace talks. Johnson also announced that he would not seek re-election.” Hoopes would later become an author and published several books. There’s more to Townsend Hoopes II’s story, and you can read about it here.

Townsend W. Hoopes II (Image: Public Domain)oops