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There have been three official investigations into Foster's death, all of which concluded that he committed [[suicide]].<ref name="Starr">Office of the Independent Counsel. "Report on the Death of Vincent W. Foster, Jr." [[October 10]], [[1997]]</ref>
There have been three official investigations into Foster's death, all of which concluded that he committed [[suicide]].<ref name="Starr">Office of the Independent Counsel. "Report on the Death of Vincent W. Foster, Jr." [[October 10]], [[1997]]</ref>


The first was by the [[United States Park Police]] in 1993, in whose jurisdiction the original investigation fell. Due to Foster's position in the White House, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] assisted in the investigation. Investigations by a coroner and [[United States Office of the Independent Counsel|Independent Counsel]] [[Robert B. Fiske]], in a 58-page report released in 1994, also concluded that Foster had committed suicide.<ref name="encyclo-ic"/> Conspiracy theories of a [[cover-up]] still persisted. After a three-year investigation, Whitewater independent counsel [[Kenneth Starr]]<ref name="Starrreport">[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/whitewater/docs/foster.htm Full text] of the report on the 1993 death of White House counsel Vincent W. Foster, Jr., compiled by Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr.</ref><ref>[http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/02/23/starr.report/ Report: Starr Rules Out Foul Play In Foster Death] CNN [[February 23]], [[1997]]</ref> released a report in 1997 also concluding that the death was a suicide.<ref name="encyclo-ic"/>
The first was by the [[United States Park Police]] in 1993, in whose jurisdiction the original investigation fell. Due to Foster's position in the White House, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] assisted in the investigation. Investigations by a coroner and [[United States Office of the Independent Counsel|Independent Counsel]] [[Robert B. Fiske]], in a 58-page report released in 1994, also concluded that Foster had committed suicide.<ref name="encyclo-ic"/> Conspiracy theories of a [[cover-up]] still persisted. After a three-year investigation, Whitewater independent counsel [[Kenneth Starr]]<ref name="Starrreport">[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/whitewater/docs/foster.htm Full text] of the report on the 1993 death of White House counsel Vincent W. Foster, Jr., compiled by Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr.</ref><ref>[http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/02/23/starr.report/ Report: Starr Rules Out Foul Play In Foster Death] CNN [[February 23]], [[1997]]</ref> released a report in 1997 also concluding that the death was a suicide.<ref name="encyclo-ic"/>Three federal judges (David Sentelle, John Butzner, and Peter T. Fay) attached an addendum to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's Report on Foster's death despite Starr's objection.




In addition, two investigations by the [[U.S. Congress]] found that Foster committed suicide.<ref name="encyclo-ic">Gerald S. Greenberg, ''Historical Encyclopedia of U.S. Independent Counsel Investigations'', Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0313307350. pp 133-134.</ref>
In addition, two investigations by the [[U.S. Congress]] found that Foster committed suicide.<ref name="encyclo-ic">Gerald S. Greenberg, ''Historical Encyclopedia of U.S. Independent Counsel Investigations'', Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0313307350. pp 133-134.</ref>

Revision as of 20:05, 9 December 2008

Vincent Walker Foster, Jr.
File:Vince foster.jpg
Vince Foster
Born(1945-01-15)January 15, 1945
Hope, Arkansas
DiedJuly 20, 1993(1993-07-20) (aged 48)
Fairfax County, Virginia
OccupationDeputy White House counsel
SpouseLisa Foster
Children3
WebsiteVince Foster's journal

Vincent Walker Foster, Jr. (January 15, 1945–July 20, 1993) was a Deputy White House Counsel during the first term of President Bill Clinton, and also a law partner and friend of Hillary Rodham Clinton. His death was ruled a suicide by multiple official investigations, but remains a subject of interest among conspiracy theorists.

Early life and education

Foster was born in Hope, Arkansas, where he was a childhood neighbor and friend of Bill Clinton for the first eight years of his life, until Clinton moved away. He graduated from Hope High School in 1963[citation needed] as president of his class.[1] He attended Davidson College, graduating in 1967.[citation needed] After starting at Vanderbilt University Law School, he transferred to the University of Arkansas School of Law, where he was managing editor of the law review[2] and graduated first in his class in 1971.[citation needed] Additionally he scored the highest in his class on the Arkansas bar exam.[3]

Foster married Elizabeth (Lisa) Braden in 1968.[citation needed] They had three children, Vince III, Laura, and Brugh.[citation needed]

Arkansas lawyer

After law school Foster joined the Rose Law Firm in Arkansas,[4] and within two years was made partner,[2] one of only nine in the firm at the time.[5] He was the head of the Arkansas Bar Association committee that oversaw legal aid, and as such worked with legal aid clinic worker Hillary Rodham in successfully overcoming an unreasonable measuring requirement for indigent clients.[4] Foster then initiated the hiring of Rodham at Rose Law Firm, where she became its first ever female associate[4] (and later partner); Foster and fellow partner Webster Hubbell were instrumental in overcoming the reluctance of other partners to hire a woman.[5]

Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoirs call Foster "one of the best lawyers I've ever known," and compared him in style and substance to Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch role in the classic 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird.[4] Writer Carl Bernstein has described Foster as "tall, with impeccable manners and a formal mien...elegant in perfectly tailored suits, and soft-spoken to the point of taciturnity."[5]

Foster practiced mostly corporate law,[6] eventually earning nearly $300,000 a year.[6] By the time Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992, Vince Foster was at the pinnacle of the Arkansas legal establishment,[7] having received the Outstanding Lawyer Award from the Arkansas Bar Association,[2] while being described as the "soul" of Rose Law Firm[2] and soon being named one of "The Best Lawyers in America."[2]

White House Counsel

After Clinton's 1992 election, Foster joined his White House staff. The Foster residence was on Cambridge Place in Georgetown in Washington, D.C.[8]

Foster had difficulty making the transition to life and politics in Washington.[7] He found his involvement in vetting new presidential appointments during the transition period to be causing him depression and anxiety,[7] and he blamed himself for the failed Zoe Baird nomination.[7] The failed Kimba Wood and Lani Guinier appointments were also in his purview.[9] His wife and youngest son were not with him, having stayed behind in Arkansas so the son could complete his junior year of high school at Catholic High in Little Rock.[1] Foster handled the Clintons' Madison Guaranty and Industrial Development Corporation paperwork,[10] and several Whitewater-related tax returns as Deputy White House counsel.[11]

In early May 1993, Foster gave the commencement address at his University of Arkansas Law School alma mater, and said:

The reputation you develop for intellectual and ethical integrity will be your greatest asset or your worst enemy. You will be judged by your judgment. ... There is no victory, no advantage, no fee, no favor, which is worth even a blemish on your reputation for intellect and integrity. ... Dents to [your] reputation are irreparable."[1]

Days after the speech, the White House travel office controversy erupted.[1] Foster was the target of several hostile Wall Street Journal editorials in June and July 1993,[7] with titles such as "Who is Vincent Foster?"[6] He became quite upset over the travel office matter and the possibility of a congressional hearing[7] at which he may have been called to testify.[9] Disliking the public spotlight[6] and suffering from weight loss and insomnia,[7] he considered resigning his position but feared a personal humiliation upon returning to Arkansas.[7]

Death

File:2ndCannon3.jpg
Location at Fort Marcy Park where Foster's body was found on July 20, 1993
Grave of Vince Foster at Memory Gardens Cemetery in his boyhood home of Hope

Wrestling with clinical depression, Foster was prescribed the mild sleeping aid/anti-anxiety pill Trazodone over the phone by his doctor, though he only had taken a few before he died. The next day, Foster was found dead in Fort Marcy Park, a federal park in Virginia. He was found with a gun in his hand and gunshot residue on that hand. An autopsy determined that he was shot in the mouth and no other wounds were found on his body. A suicide note of sorts, actually a draft of a resignation letter, was found torn into 27 pieces in his briefcase, a list of complaints specifically including, "The WSJ editors lie without consequence"[12] and lamenting, "I was not meant for the job or the spotlight of public life in Washington. Here ruining people is considered sport."

His funeral Mass was held at the Cathedral of St. Andrew Catholic Church in Little Rock. Bill Clinton gave an emotional eulogy in which he recalled their boyhood times together and quoted a line from Leon Russell's "A Song for You": "I love you in a place that has no space and time."[13] Foster was buried in Memory Gardens Cemetery in his hometown of Hope. Foster was 48 years old and was survived by his wife and three children.

Subsequent investigations

Main article: Suicide of Vince Foster

There have been three official investigations into Foster's death, all of which concluded that he committed suicide.[14]

The first was by the United States Park Police in 1993, in whose jurisdiction the original investigation fell. Due to Foster's position in the White House, the Federal Bureau of Investigation assisted in the investigation. Investigations by a coroner and Independent Counsel Robert B. Fiske, in a 58-page report released in 1994, also concluded that Foster had committed suicide.[9] Conspiracy theories of a cover-up still persisted. After a three-year investigation, Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr[15][16] released a report in 1997 also concluding that the death was a suicide.[9]Three federal judges (David Sentelle, John Butzner, and Peter T. Fay) attached an addendum to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's Report on Foster's death despite Starr's objection.


In addition, two investigations by the U.S. Congress found that Foster committed suicide.[9]

Legacy

Foster's death, occurring just six months into the new administration, is thought by some to have ended the optimism and remaining innocence from much of the White House staff.[17] White House chief-of-staff and childhood friend Mack McLarty said that "It was a deep cut. It clearly had a tremendous impact."[17] Fellow White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum felt that if Foster had lived, he would have helped resist the calls to appoint Independent Counsels, and the many investigations lumped under the Whitewater umbrella that occupied the administration and the Clintons for the rest of their terms, might not have happened.[17] As it happened, how the White House and Hillary Clinton in particular handled Foster's files and documents immediately after his death became an issue of much investigation itself.[18][9]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Ronald W. Maris (2000). Comprehensive Textbook of Suicidology. Guilford Press. ISBN 157230541X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help) pp. 280–281.
  2. ^ a b c d e "TRIBUTE TO VINCENT FOSTER, JR.", Congressional Record, July 29, 1993.
  3. ^ "Vince Foster: One of the Best and Brightest". Retrieved 2006-05-02.
  4. ^ a b c d Hillary Rodham Clinton, Living History, Simon & Schuster, 2003, ISBN 0-7432-2224-5, pp. 78-81.
  5. ^ a b c Carl Bernstein, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Knopf, ISBN 0375407669. pp. 128-131.
  6. ^ a b c d Jason DeParle, " A Life Undone: Portrait of a White House Aide Ensnared by His Perfectionism", The New York Times, August 22, 1993. Accessed July 29, 2007.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h David Von Drehle and Howard Schneider, "Foster's Death a Suicide", The Washington Post, July 1, 1994. Accessed July 28, 2007.
  8. ^ "Vince Foster Home". Retrieved 2006-05-02.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Gerald S. Greenberg, Historical Encyclopedia of U.S. Independent Counsel Investigations, Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0313307350. pp 133-134.
  10. ^ "Rose Law Firm billing records". Frontline. WGBH educational foundation: PBS.
  11. ^ Jeff Gerth and Stephen Labaton, " Whitewater Papers Cast Doubt on Clinton Account of a Tax Underpayment", The New York Times, August 6, 1995. Accessed April 30, 2007.
  12. ^ "Robert L. Bartley: The Wall Street Journal's editor emeritus dies at 66". The Wall Street Journal. 2003-12-10. Retrieved 2008-01-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ Jason DeParle, " President Returns Home To Bury Boyhood Friend", The New York Times, July 24, 1993. Accessed July 28, 2007.
  14. ^ Office of the Independent Counsel. "Report on the Death of Vincent W. Foster, Jr." October 10, 1997
  15. ^ Full text of the report on the 1993 death of White House counsel Vincent W. Foster, Jr., compiled by Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr.
  16. ^ Report: Starr Rules Out Foul Play In Foster Death CNN February 23, 1997
  17. ^ a b c "One Death Altered Path of Presidency", Peter Baker, Washington Post, July 20,1998.
  18. ^ "Memo Links First Lady To Handling Of Suicide Note", CNN.com, August 27, 1996.

Books

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