From the LBTL:
“50 Most Influential Americans of the 20th Century”
Otis [Los Angeles], California, USA
(c) 2000: The United States Broadcasting Corporation
Political Leaders:
10. John Joseph Pershing
(Restored the traditional powers to the Presidency and began the
economic recovery continued under the tutelage of Ernest King which
eventually ended the Great Depression in the United States.)
9. Henry Lewis Stimson
(Led in the War Department in the First Great War. Successfully led the
United States through the most hectic days of the Pacific War,
continuing on to negotiate its conclusion.)
8. Irvine Luther Lenroot
(Protégé of Theodore Roosevelt. Successfully led the nation through
the length of the Pacific War and negotiated its conclusion. Governed
over the 1920s, the second Gilded Age of American history.)
7. William Randolph Hearst
(His belligerence instigated the Second Mexican-American War and forced
Theodore Roosevelt into forming the White Rose, an organization that
eventually returned democracy to the US in the Second American
Revolution.)
6. Henry Cabot Lodge
(The first “First Secretary” of the nation, made sure that the
transition between forms of government went smoothly. Successfully
conducted and concluded the First Great War. Led the nation into the
Pacific War.)
5. Leverett Saltonstall
(One of the primary leaders and figureheads of the democratic
opposition to the Pelley regime. Became the first democratically
elected President in almost a decade when he was elected in the
mid-1950s.)
4. William Dudley Pelley
(Vice President under Ernest King and leader of the militant Minutemen,
Pelley seized the reins of the federal government following King’s
assassination. Began the Second Great War and took his own life rather
than be tried for war crimes committed under his direction by Secretary
of the Interior Edgar Hoover.)
3. The “Junta” (MacArthur, LeMay, & Westmoreland)
(Overthrew the authoritarian government of William Dudley Pelley.)
2. Ernest Joseph King
(Successfully brought an end to the Great Depression. Led the country
to the height of its prestige and successfully conducted the Eurasian
War after negotiating an alliance with the German Empire.)
1. Theodore Roosevelt
(Led the fight against the corrupt Hearst regime and restored
democratic government after the successful conclusion of the Second
American Revolution. Successfully conducted and negotiated an end to
the First Great War. Rallied the nation to fight the Pacific War.)
Heroes, Icons, & Warriors:
10. Ernest Joseph King
(Was the main voice behind the construction of the fleet of aircraft
carriers that proved indispensable under his command during the Pacific
War.)
9. Joseph Warren Stilwell
(Commander-in-chief of the multi-national forces fighting in Siberia
during the Eurasian War. Successfully brought about the surrender of
Soviet forces occupying western Siberia.)
8. John Joseph Pershing
(Seized the capital for the democratic forces in the Second American
Revolution. Led the 3rd Army Group in the defense of Arizona and New
Mexico in the First Great War. Commander-in-chief of the land forces in
Siberia during the Pacific War.)
7. George Smith Patton, Jr.
(The commander of the Tank Corps throughout its existence, he was a war
hero for his actions in Texas during the First Great War. Commanded
troops in the European theater of the Eurasian War. Commander-in-chief
of the western Canadian theater of Second Great War.)
6. William “Billy” Mitchell
(Founded the United States Air Service in the First Great War. Led the
air forces in conjunction with Admiral King’s carrier fleet during
the Pacific War. Led the War Department under President King in the
Eurasian War.)
5. Charles Augustus Lindbergh
(Became the highest-scoring ace in the history of aerial warfare,
earning in the First Great War, Pacific War, Eurasian War, and Second
Great War a combined total of nearly 800 victories.)
4. Nathan Bedford Forrest III
(Served under George Patton in the Eurasian War. Commanded an army in
eastern Canada during the Second Great War. Commander-in-chief of
American forces fighting in Siberia during the East Asian War.)
3. Smedley Darlington Butler
(Hero of the defense of southern California during the First Great War.
Commander-in-chief of the ground forces serving in the Pacific War.
Only three-time Medal of Honor winner in the nation’s history.)
2. Leonard Wood
(Led the United States Expeditionary Force in the defense of Paris and
the 2nd Army Group in the defense of Texas during the First Great War.
As the Chief of the General Staff, commanded the Army and Air Service
during the Pacific War.)
1. The “Junta”
(Individual accomplishments, though great, are generally overshadowed
by the overthrow of William Pelley following the nuclear bombing of
Philadelphia and Newark at the end of the Second Great War. Restored
democracy to the United States.)
Builders & Titans:
10. Walter Percy Chrysler
(Turned the foundering Maxwell Motor Company into the nation’s third
largest automobile manufacturer, producing lower-end cars for the
average worker who is unable to afford a Cadillac.)
9. Willis Haviland Carrier
(Inventor of air conditioning and founder of the Carrier Electric
Corporation. Carrier Electric went on to be one of the first companies
to produce computers in the late-1970s.)
8. Eugene G. Grace
(Under his leadership, Bethlehem Steel became the world’s largest
producer of steel and the nation’s most prolific shipbuilder,
providing a majority of the ships for the US Navy.)
7. Thomas Howard Carter
(Founder of United States Electronics, the world’s largest modern
manufacturer of computers and electronics for commercial and
residential use.)
6. Henry Martyn Leland
(Founder of the Cadillac Motor Company, the world’s largest
manufacturer of mid-priced automobile for the average American family.)
5. John Davidson Rockefeller
(Founder of Standard Oil, the world’s largest oil company.)
4. Henry J. Kaiser
(Founder of Kaiser Industries, the world’s second-largest company.)
3. William Henry Collier
(Founder of Collier Motor Works. Single-handedly designed several lines
of automobiles, turning the company into the nation’s second largest
automobile manufacturer.)
2. Glenn Hammond Curtiss
(Founder of Curtiss Motors, which later became the Curtiss-Wright
Corporation, the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer for the past
sixty years.)
1. George Westinghouse
(Founder of Westinghouse Electric Corporation, the world’s largest
corporation. Now, Westinghouse is mainly involved in the development of
nuclear technologies and production of consumer electronics.)
Scientists, Thinkers, & Explorers:
10. Clarence L. Johnson
(Primary engineer for the Curtiss-Wright Corporation from the 1950s to
the 1980s. Responsible for most of the innovative and radical aerospace
technologies of the past fifty years.)
9. Frederick Theodore Henry
(First American to land on the moon. Later, became President of the
United States following the death of Everett Dirksen in the late
1960s.)
8. Philo Taylor Farnsworth
(Inventor of the vacuum tube television display. Was a part of the Oak
Ridge Project. Following the Second Great War, he went on to produce
civilian nuclear technologies for the Westinghouse Corporation.)
7. William Bradford Shockley
(Inventor of the transistor, making it possible to drastically decrease
the size of all electronics and, primarily, radios and computers.)
6. Edwin Powell Hubble
(Astronomer noted for proving the fact that the Universe was expanding
and thus hypothesizing the Big Bang theory as to how the universe was
formed.)
5. Thomas Alva Edison
(Invented or improved, among other things, the light bulb, the motion
projector, the radio, the Dictaphone and the record player. Founded
General Electric, a major competitor to Westinghouse and Carrier.)
4. Jonas Salk
(Invented the polio vaccine in the 1950s and devoted much of the rest
of his life to the creation of a cure for cancer, something which
eluded him. His contribution to the search, however, is invaluable to
modern researchers.)
3. Robert Hutchins Goddard
(The father of modern rocketry who went on to form the United States
Aerospace Organization, the predecessor to the United States Space
Agency, which put Frederick Theodore Henry on the Moon.)
2. Orville and Wilbur Wright
(Inventors of the airplane.)
1. The Scientists of the Oak Ridge Project
(Primary researchers include Philip Hauge Abelson, Luis Walter Alvarez,
J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Phillips Feynman, Robert Rathbun Wilson,
& Arthur Holly Compton. The scientists involved in the Oak Ridge
Project created the nuclear bomb months behind German and British
researchers towards the end of the Second Great War.)
Artists, Entertainers, & Athletes:
10. William Harrison “Jack” Dempsey
(In a nation who’s two favorite sports are football and boxing, Jack
Dempsey was the premier boxer of the first half of the century,
dominating the ring in the time around the First Great War.)
9. Joseph Francis “Buster” Keaton
(Comic actor and filmmaker who, throughout nearly fifty years in the
entertainment industry, performed such that an entire generation would
be inspired to try their luck at entertainment.)
8. George Lincoln Rockwell
(Born into a vaudeville family, became famous for playing the lead role
in Rockford’s Regime, a sitcom satirizing the repressive nature of
the corrupt Pelley government.)
7. Edward Roscoe Murrow
(One of the premier reporters for the United States Broadcasting
Corporation through its golden era during the 1940s under President
King. After a brief stay in an internment camp during Pelley’s days,
brought back as the head of the USBC with the goal of returning it to
national prominence.)
6. Walter Camp
(Founder of the modern sport of football, the largest team sport in the
United States and this country’s primary athletic export. Created the
rules of the sport throughout the early part of the century and founded
the USFL in 1921.)
5. George Campbell Scott
(One of the greatest actors of the 20th century, gave the greatest
performance of any actor in this century as Field Marshal Smedley
Darlington Butler in the 1970 classic “Butler.”)
4. Louis Daniel Armstrong
(The most popular musician of the first half of the century.)
3. Ernest Miller Hemingway
(By far and away the greatest American writer of the 20th century, he
epitomized the spirit of the nation during the 1920s with his novels
and short stories.)
2. James “Jimmy” Lee Lewis
(The greatest entertainer/musician of the century, bar none. The
pianist who electrified audiences with his performances was given the
title the “King of Rhythm & Blues” during the latter part of the
1950s.)
1. George Orson Welles
(A former radio personality, almost every movie he touched became an
instant classic, especially “Citizen Kane,” a fictionalized account
of the life of William Randolph Hearst, and “Throughout it All,”
based on the life of Field Marshal Nathan Bedford Forrest III.)
Wars:
10. Sonoran Revolt
9. Insurrection War
8. Second Mexican-American War
7. Second American Revolution
6. Siberian War
5. Pacific War
4. East Asian War
3. Eurasian War
2. First Great War
1. Second Great War
American of the Century:
Theodore Roosevelt
Runner-up: Ernest Joseph King
Runner-up: The “Junta”
