He was United States Secretary of War under William Howard Taft. He served as Governor General of the Philippines from 1927 - 1929 for Calvin Coolidge.
As United States Secretary of State under Herbert Hoover from 1929-1933, he formulated the Stimson Doctrine to not recognize changes in international borders brought about by military action.
He was again United States Secretary of War under both Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. During this period he advised the Presidents on the use of atomic weapons, encouraging allowing something short of unconditional surrender for the Japanese, but later supporting the use of the bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump