[4] Webb began his long career in public service in Washington, D.C., by serving as secretary to U.S. Representative Edward W. Pou of North Carolina from 1932 to 1934.

[5] Webb next served as an assistant in the office of Oliver Max Gardner, an attorney, former governor of North Carolina and friend of President Roosevelt, from 1934 to 1936.

A group of airline executives, led by Thomas Morgan, the President of the Sperry Gyroscope Company in Brooklyn, hired Gardner's firm to represent them.

During his tenure, Sperry expanded from 800 employees to more than 33,000 and became a major supplier of navigation equipment and airborne radar systems during World War II.

[9] After World War II, Webb returned to Washington, DC and served as executive assistant to Gardner, now the Undersecretary of the Treasury, for a short while before he was named as the director of the Bureau of the Budget in the Office of the President of the United States, a position that he held until 1949.

Webb's first assignment from Secretary Dean Acheson was to reorganize the department, adding 12 new presidential appointees and reducing the power of subordinate officers.

[12][13] A question facing the Department of State at the time was whether the Soviet Union could be contained through only diplomatic means or whether the military would be needed.

Paul Nitze, as Director of Policy Planning, wrote a classified memo, NSC 68, arguing for a military build-up of NATO forces.

Webb and Secretary Acheson devised three recommendations: involve the United Nations, send the Navy Pacific Fleet into the Yellow Sea, and authorize an Air Force strike on the Korean tanks.

Webb worked with his contacts in Congress and others to convince Truman to replace Johnson, and George Marshall was called out of retirement to become the new Secretary of Defense.

In 1950, Webb established an alliance with university scientists, Project Troy, to bolster the United States' psychological warfare capabilities, in particular studying how to circumvent Soviet attempts to jam Voice of America broadcasts.

[17] Webb left Washington for a position in the Kerr-McGee Oil Corp. in Oklahoma City, but he was still active in government circles, for instance in serving on the Draper Committee in 1958.

Webb directed NASA's undertaking of the goal set by Kennedy of landing an American on the Moon before the end of the 1960s through the Apollo program.

As a longtime Washington insider and with the backing of President Lyndon B. Johnson, he was able to produce continued support and resources for Apollo.

[22] On one occasion Webb and Wernher von Braun famously confronted and lectured segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace on racial integration in front of the press.

[23] Webb was played by Dan Lauria in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon,[28] and by Ken Strunk in the 2016 film Hidden Figures.

[32][33][34] The scientists who proposed renaming the telescope pointed to the case of NASA budget analyst Clifford Norton, who was fired after an arrest for making a "homosexual advance."

[35] Personnel matters fell under the purview of the Deputy Administrator of NASA Robert Seamans; there is no direct evidence of that Webb had any knowledge of Norton's firing.

[40] On October 24, 2022, the Royal Astronomical Society released a statement on the matter, in which they indicated the editorial policy of their journals would be to not spell out Webb's name when referring to the telescope until such time as an investigation was completed and a report made public.

[43] The report, based on an examination of more than 50,000 documents, found there was no evidence of wrongdoing by Webb either in his time in the State Department or at NASA.

[44] In regard to his time at State, the report mirrors Johnson's earlier findings – Webb played no role in helping the Hoey committee or their agents.