State Department
After a failed effort in 1949 to join the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Bud entered into federal service in January, 1950 with the U.S. Department of State in an assistant to the Legal Advisor and was placed in the Office of International Organization Affairs.
Interestingly, Bud served at the same time as Jack B. Tate, fellow Tennessean, Deputy Legal Advisor (1947-53) and later an Associate Dean at the Yale University Law School. Mr. Tate is famous for the “Tate Letter”, written in 1952 to announce a new, more restrictive, policy regarding applications for sovereign immunity by foreign governments.
At the time of his employment with the State Department, Bud resided at 2016 F. Street NW, on what is now part of the campus of George Washington University. Shortly thereafter, on January 27, 1951, a son, Bernard Fensterwald, III was born and in 1952, Bud and family moved to 851 N. Lexington Street in Arlington, Virginia.
Later in 1950, Bud was transferred to State’s Office of Political Affairs. There, he assisted other Executive Branch employees in preparing their defenses regarding charges made by the FBI and Congressional committees on matters related to Communism, loyalty, espionage, etc. This may have included former CIA employees, Frank Wisner and Cord Meyers.
In 1952, Bud was transferred back to the Office of International Organization Affairs.
In 1953, GOP Senator Bricker of Ohio proposed several amendments to the Constitution that would require Congressional approval for Executive agreements on foreign policy that were otherwise not actual treaties. The State Department opposed these proposals and none were enacted. During this period, Bud liaised with Democrats on Capitol Hill. It was at this time that he became acquainted with Senators Thomas Hennings (D-MO) and Estes Kefauver (D-TN).
In 1953, Bud was designated to the US Delegation to the UN General Assembly in New York City.
In September,1954, Bud took a leave of absence without pay to travel on the SS Maasdam with family to Britain to do graduate work on international relations at Cambridge University. He enrolled at Fitzwilliam College and took up lodging in the nearby farming community of Triplow. They returned to the States via the Queen Mary in December, 1955.
Bud returned to State in January, 1956, he was appointed as the Ad Hoc Advisor to the US Delegation to the working level meeting on a draft statute creating the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In June,1956, Bud took another leave of absence to travel for three weeks to the USSR with his mother, Blanche,
In September, 1956 he left State and took a job as a speech writer with the Democratic Vice President nominee, Senator Estes Kefauver. After President Eisenhower was re-elected in November, Bud’s request to return to State was rejected by then GOP Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles.
Thereafter, Bud’s Senate career began.
