Harding, Warren G(amaliel) (1865–1923)

29th president of the USA 1921–23, a Republican. As president he concluded the peace treaties of 1921 with Germany, Austria, and Hungary, and in the same year called the Washington Naval Conference to resolve conflicting British, Japanese, and US ambitions in the Pacific. He opposed US membership of the League of Nations. There were charges of corruption among members of his cabinet (the Teapot Dome Scandal), with the secretary of the interior later convicted for taking bribes.

Harding was born in Ohio. Before entering politics, he was a newspaper editor and publisher. He was an Ohio state senator 1898–1904 and lieutenant governor 1904–05, entering the US Senate in 1915. The various treaties stemming from the Washington Conference, providing for naval disarmament, and ostensibly stabilizing international relations between the great power signatories, were considered at the time a diplomatic coup for the USA and Harding, which reinforced the traditional US position of neutrality. He died in office, shortly after undeniable evidence of corruption in his administration began to surface. He was succeeded by Calvin Coolidge.