About the Program
Arthur Herman recounts President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s call to industrial business magnates, William Knudsen and Henry Kaiser to leave their private sector positions and lead the U.S. war production effort during World War II. Knudsen, president of General Motors and shipbuilder Kaiser, utilized their connections to build a team of former private sector industrial minds from the likes of GE, Frigidaire, and Chrysler; dubbed the “dollar-a-year men” they transformed the U.S. military’s aircraft and munitions productions. Arthur Herman speaks at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.