Уильям Э. Миллер: Американский политик и вице-президентский кандидат

American politician (1914–1983)

William Edward Miller (March 22, 1914 – June 24, 1983) was an American politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from New York as a Republican. During the 1964 presidential election, he was the Republican nominee for vice president, the first Catholic nominated for the office by the Republican Party. A native of Lockport, New York, Miller graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1935, and from Albany Law School in 1938, afterwards becoming an attorney in Lockport. In 1942, he was appointed a commissioner for the U. S. District Court in Buffalo, New York. Miller served in the United States Army during World War II – first as a member of an intelligence unit in Richmond, Virginia, and then as a prosecutor of Nazi war criminals during the Nuremberg trials. Miller was an assistant district attorney in Niagara County, New York, from 1946 to 1948. In January 1948, the district attorney's position became vacant, and the governor of New York appointed Miller. Miller was elected to a full term later that year, and served as district attorney until January 1951, when he resigned. In 1950, Miller was a successful Republican candidate for the United States House of Representatives. He was re elected six times, and served from January 1951 until January 1965. In 1960, he was selected to lead the National Republican Congressional Committee, and led Republicans to gain more than 20 seats in that year's elections. In 1961, he became chairman of the Republican National Committee, a position he used to advocate for the party to become more conservative. In 1964, Miller was selected as the Republican nominee for vice president. The ticket of Senator Barry Goldwater and Miller for vice president lost to the Democratic nominees, President Lyndon Johnson and Senator Hubert Humphrey. After leaving Congress, Miller resumed practicing law in Lockport. He died in Buffalo on June 24, 1983, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

William Edward Miller was born in Lockport, New York on March 22, 1914, a son of Elizabeth Hinch and Edward J. Miller. He attended the parochial schools of Lockport, and graduated from Lockport High School in 1931. Miller attended the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated with a B. A. in 1935, and Albany Law School, from which he graduated with an LL. B. in 1938. He was admitted to the bar in 1938, and practiced in Lockport. In 1942, Miller was appointed a commissioner for the U. S. District Court in Buffalo. After serving with an Intelligence unit in Richmond, Virginia, in May 1945, Miller received his commission as a first lieutenant and was assigned to the War Criminals Branch of the War Department staff.

In August 1950, Miller won the Republican nomination in New York's 42nd Congressional district after defeating Melvin L. Payne and James W. Heary in a primary. He won the general election in November by defeating the Democratic nominee, Mary Louise Nice. After redistricting placed Miller in New York's 40th Congressional District, he was easily reelected every two years from 1952 to 1962. He rose through seniority to become the second ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, and received credit for two major pieces of legislation. The first was a compromise on the development of Niagara Falls hydroelectric power, and the second was a law authorizing construction of a new Lake Erie‐Lake Ontario canal east of the Niagara River. Miller voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, and 1964, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. Miller became influential with respect to the internal workings of the House. Though Republicans lost five seats in the Senate, they gained four in the House. Martin's strong showing demonstrated his viability as a candidate, and in 1964 he was elected to the U. S. House. In the early 1960s, leading Republicans including Miller and Senator Barry Goldwater began advocating for a plan they called the Southern Strategy, an effort to make Republican gains in the Solid South, which had been pro Democratic since the American Civil War. Under the Southern Strategy, Republicans would continue an earlier effort to make inroads in the South, Operation Dixie, by ending attempts to appeal to African American voters in the Northern states, and instead appeal to white conservative voters in the South. As documented by reporters and columnists including Joseph Alsop and Arthur Krock, on the surface the Southern Strategy would appeal to white voters in the South by advocating against the New Frontier programs of President John F. Kennedy and in favor of a smaller federal government and states' rights, while less publicly arguing against the Civil Rights movement and in favor of continued racial segregation. Miller concurred with Goldwater, and backed the Southern Strategy, including holding private meetings of the RNC and other key Republican leaders in late 1962 and early 1963 so they could decide whether to implement it. Overruling the moderate and liberal wings of the party, its leadership decided to pursue the Southern Strategy for the 1964 elections and beyond.

After winning the Republican presidential nomination, Goldwater chose Miller to be his running mate. But by some other accounts, Johnson "was barely aware of Miller's existence." Despite the defeat, the ticket's inroads into the previously Solid South were seen as an indication that the Southern Strategy was viable, and Republicans continued to pursue it in subsequent campaigns. Mark Z. Barabak later wrote in the Los Angeles Times that by the time he died, Miller was "better known for his advertising appearance than his years in Congress." He participated in an interview in 1979 in which he stated that he did not miss politics as he had "had such a saturation of it in my life". On June 5, 1983, he was admitted to Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital in Williamsville, New York, for diagnostic tests. He suffered a stroke in mid June and died in Buffalo, New York, on June 24, 1983. In noting Miller's passing, Goldwater stated "he was one of the greatest men I have ever known and I feel his loss very deeply".

Miller and his wife, Stephanie (Wagner) (1923–2023) were the parents of three daughters and a son.