Siler, a self-described "Kentucky hillbilly", was born in
Williamsburg, Kentucky, the son of attorney Adam Troy and Minnie (née Chandler) Siler. He was a staunch
Republican and hailed from a traditionally Republican region of Kentucky. Siler served in the
United States Navy during
World War I and in the
United States Army as a
captain during
World War II. His war-time experiences left him, according to
David T. Beito, "cold to most proposals to send American troops into harm's way." Siler graduated from
Cumberland College in Williamsburg in 1920 and from the
University of Kentucky at Lexington in 1922. as well as the
24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but did not vote on the
Civil Rights Act of 1964. Siler was critical of U.S. involvement in
Vietnam. In 1964, after deciding not to seek reelection, he quipped, in jest, that he would run for
President as an antiwar candidate—he pledged to resign after one day in office after ordering the troops brought home. He considered the
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized President
Johnson to take "all necessary steps" in Vietnam, as a "buck-passing" pretext to "seal the lips of Congress against future criticism." In 1968, the worsening situation in Vietnam prompted Siler to return to politics, unsuccessfully seeking the Republican
U.S. Senate nomination. Siler ran on a platform calling for withdrawal of all U.S. troops by
Christmas.
Ernest Gruening (
D.-
Alaska) and
Wayne Morse (D.-
Oreg.), the only two U.S. Senators who voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, were also defeated that year. Siler married Lowell Jones in 1925 at Williamsburg, and they had four children, one of whom,
Eugene Edward Siler Jr., became a federal judge. He died at his daughter's
Louisville home on December 5, 1987. ==Legacy==