Robert H. Jackson

In 1945, President Truman asked Supreme Court justice Robert H. Jackson to take a leave from the bench and serve as chief U.S. prosecutor of former German leaders during the upcoming trial at Nuremberg. Although the basis for the trial was decided in negotiations with the French, British, and Soviets, Jackson was largely responsible for the legal basis of the charter used to define the work of the International Military Tribunal. Ironically, Jackson had no experience as a prosecuting attorney, a shortcoming that was most evident during his weak cross-examination of Hermann Goring and other defendants. In this excerpt from the report he wrote to the president on June 7, during the negotiations with the other Allies regarding the trial, Jackson explains the difficulty of his task and the weightiness of the issues. At this early juncture, however, it...