In the spring of 1934 the Senate's Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry chaired by Senator Gerald P. Nye (1892-1971) began to examine the role that the munitions manufacturers had played during the First World War. Nye charged that the DuPont Company had conspired to bring the United States into the War. During the public hearings company executives; Pierre S. du Pont (1870-1954), Irénée du Pont (1876-1963), and Lammot du Pont (1880-1952) were forced to defend their Old Hickory (Nashville, Tennessee) plant contract as well as the company's links to ICI and I.G. Farben, two foreign rival chemical companies. While no hard evidence was ever presented to substantiate Nye's charges, in the public mind the DuPont Company was labelled as "A Merchant of Death," was commonly used phrase at the time of the investigations. The term was often applied to describe the munitions manufactures as a result of these highly publicized hearings.