---
category: "Political Figure"
relations:
  - type: spouse_of
    with: "[[Wadsworth family|Evelyn Wadsworth]]"
    start: 1924
    fn: 2
tags:
  - Person
  - Nuclear
  - Israel
summary: "Stuart Symington was a Democratic Senator from Missouri."
born: 1901-06-26
died: 1988-12-14
location: "Amherst, Massachusetts"
---

Stuart Symington was a Democratic Senator from [[Missouri]]. He was a strong backer of [[Adlai E. Stevenson]] for the Democratic presidential nomination. Paradoxically, Symington later emerged as an ardent supporter of a nuclear-armed [[Israel]] while also authoring key Senate legislation to limit the spread of such weapons.[^1]

In 1924 Symington married Evelyn Wadsworth (1903-1972), daughter of Senator [[Wadsworth family|James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr.]] of New York and Alice Hay Wadsworth, a daughter of the Secretary of State [[John Hay]]; her brother James Jeremiah Wadsworth was later United States Representative to the United Nations.[^2]

In April 1963, [[Shimon Peres]] discussed nuclear weapons with Senator Symington, who was then a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Symington reportedly told Peres, "Don't be a bunch of fools. Don't stop making atomic bombs. And don't listen to the administration. Do whatever you think best."[^1]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 8, 9.

[^2]: *Who's Who in America*, vol. 14, 1926-1927 (Chicago: A. N. Marquis, 1926), entry "Wadsworth, Alice Hay (Mrs. James Wolcott Wadsworth, Jr.)" (children Evelyn (Mrs. Stuart Symington), James Jeremiah, Reverdy), https://archive.org/details/whoswho141926 ; Livingston County Historian's Office, "Wadsworth Family: A Subject Finding Aid" (2019, rev. 2022), section II (marriage 1924).