cabinet from 1936 to 1940. He continued the recommendations of his predecessor for increasing the strength of the Regular Army, National Guard, and the Reserve Corps. During his tenure he directed a revision of mobilization plans to bring personnel and procurement into balance and stressed the need to perfect the initial (peacetime) protective force. A strict non-interventionist, Woodring came under pressure from other cabinet members to resign in the first year of World War II. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes met with Roosevelt at least twice to call for Woodring's firing, but FDR was at first unwilling to do so, instead appointing outspoken interventionist Louis A. Johnson as Woodring's assistant secretary of war. Woodring and Johnson were immediately at odds, and quickly reached the point where they refused to speak to each other. On June 20, 1940, Roosevelt ended the struggle by finally firing Woodring, replacing him with long-time Republican politician Henry Stimson. Woodring remained isolationist, opposing the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. Woodring ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Kansas in 1946, and for the Democratic Party nomination for that post in 1956. Death Woodring died following a stroke in Topeka, Kansas, on September 9, 1967, at the age of 80. He is buried at the Mount Hope Cemetery in Topeka. References Bibliography Further reading McFarland, Keith Donavon. "Secretary of War Harry H. Woodring and the Problems of Readiness, Rearmament and Neutrality, 1936-1940" (PhD dissertation The Ohio State University; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1969.6922177). Book Reviews From Parameters, Autumn 2006, pp. 124–49. External links National Governors Association Kansapedia The Evening Independent Publications concerning Kansas Governor Woodring's administration available via the KGI Online Library |- |- |- |- 1887 births 1967 deaths People from Montgomery County, Kansas People from Wilson County, Kansas Military personnel from Kansas United States Army officers United States Army personnel of World War I Democratic Party governors of Kansas United States Secretaries of War American Disciples of Christ Franklin D. Roosevelt administration cabinet members 20th-century American politicians United States Assistant Secretaries of War