C. Douglas Dillon

Portrait of C. Douglas Dillon in the US Treasury Department

Clarence Douglas Dillon (born August 21, 1909 in Geneva , Switzerland , †  January 10, 2003 in New York City ) was an American Republican politician and diplomat . He served as Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson .

ancestry

Dillon was the first child to a wealthy, upper-class family. His father was an American investment banker of European descent. After their wedding in 1908, the newlyweds traveled through Western Europe for two years. Clarence was born in Geneva. Nevertheless, his paternal grandfather, Samuel Lapowski, was a poor Jewish emigrant from Łomża in Poland who settled in Texas after the American Civil War . Dillon's father Clarence Lapowski later changed the family name to Dillon , his grandmother's maiden name. Dillon's mother, Anne Douglass, is a descendant of the Grahams Lairds of Tamrawer Castle in Kilsyth , North Lanarkshire , Scotland .

Studies and professional career

Clarence Douglas Dillon completed after attending the Groton School in Groton (Massachusetts) to study at Harvard University , which he graduated in 1931 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) . He then worked as a stockbroker on the world's largest stock exchange , the New York Stock Exchange , until 1936 . He then joined the investment bank Dillon, Read & Company , which his father co-founded , where he was first promoted to director in 1936 and chairman of the board in 1946.

During the Second World War he served as Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy and received several awards for his military achievements.

Political career

Ambassador and Undersecretary of State under President Eisenhower

In 1953 Dillon was appointed ambassador to France by the newly elected President Dwight D. Eisenhower to succeed James Clement Dunn . He then became Deputy Undersecretary in 1957 and then, in 1958, Deputy Undersecretary for Economic Affairs and Agriculture in the State Department . Another year later he became Deputy Secretary of State ( United States Under Secretary of State ) in 1959 . As deputy to the then Foreign Minister Christian Herter , he was among other things co-founder of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in 1959 . He also headed the US delegation to the Organization of American States (OAS) to complete the act of Bogotá and the ministerial meeting in Paris to negotiate the final convention of the OECD . In 1960 Dillon was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Treasury Secretary under Kennedy and Johnson

Dillon's signature on US $ banknotes

After the election of the Democrat John F. Kennedy as president, he was appointed as Treasury Secretary in his cabinet on January 21, 1961, despite his membership of the Republicans .

Dillon became one of the most influential economic policy advisors. In particular, he succeeded in convincing the President that the main economic problem was the correction of the budget deficit . This influence also succeeded in preventing the Kennedy administration from far-reaching liberal solutions to domestic political problems that would have weighed heavily on the budget . Dillon, a free trade advocate , developed plans that would help reduce the trade deficit by controlling inflation and expanding exports . Finally, was world trade round of the GATT 1961 to 1962 for reductions of tariffs and other trade barriers as Dillon Round designated. Most recently, he was a strong advocate of a tax cut program to stimulate economic growth .

During the Cuban Missile Crisis , particularly in October 1962, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council .

After Kennedy's assassination, he remained in office under his successor Lyndon B. Johnson , whom he was able to persuade in 1964 to implement the tax cut program in Congress . On April 1, 1965, he resigned from his position as Treasury Secretary and was replaced by his former Under-Secretary of State Henry H. Fowler .

Withdrawal from politics and later offices

After his resignation he withdrew from day-to-day politics, but on the other hand took on other offices in public and private institutions.

Between 1965 and 1978 he was director of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, making a significant contribution to the development of foreign policy strategies. From 1977 to 1978 he was deputy chairman of this council. At the same time he was chairman of the US and Foreign Securities Corporation between 1967 and 1984 .

In addition, he was a member of the supervisory board of Harvard College, the oldest school at Harvard University, from 1968 to 1972 and was also chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Brookings Institution between 1971 and 1975 . After all, he was President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1970 to 1977 and then Chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1977 to 1983 .

In 1989, together with Lech Wałęsa , he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom , the highest civilian honor in the USA.

Since 1933 he and his descendants have owned the famous Château Haut-Brion winery in France.

family

Clarence Douglas Dillon married his first wife, Phyllis Chess Ellsworth , on March 10, 1931 in Boston . She was born on August 3, 1910 in South Bend (Indiana) as the daughter of John Chess Ellsworth (* 1874) and his wife Alice Frances Chalifoux (1881-1957) from Lowell . With Phyllis, who died in New York City on June 20, 1982 , he became the father of two daughters:

• Phyllis Ellsworth Dillon
• Joan Douglas Dillon (born January 31, 1935 in New York City)

1. James Brady Moseley (1931–1998), August 1, 1953 in Paris , divorced on December 12, 1955 in Nevada , annulled June 22, 1963; one daughter: Joan Dillon Moseley (born February 6, 1954)

2. Prince Charles of Luxembourg (1927–1977), at Guildford on March 1, 1967 ; two children: Princess Charlotte (born September 15, 1967) and Prince Robert (born August 14, 1968, currently head of the winery)

3.∞ Philippe François Armand Marie, 7th Duc de Mouchy (1922–2011), on August 3, 1978 in Isleboro (Maine) , without descendants.

After the death of his first wife, C. Douglas Dillon married Susan Sage (* 1917) in 1983 .

Web links

• Biography and portrait on the US Treasury Department homepage
• Profile in the JF Kennedy Library
• C. Douglas Dillon in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)
• "The Dillon Dilemma" , article in TIME magazine, January 2, 1961
• "Man with the Purse" , cover story of TIME magazine from August 18, 1961
• Obituary in the Harvard Gazette January 16, 2003

proof

1. ^ History of the domain Clarence Dillon (French)
2. ↑ Eric Pace: C. Douglas Dillon Dies at 93; What in Kennedy Cabinet . In: The New York Times , January 12, 2003. Retrieved March 27, 2009. 
3. ^ Timothy Edward Howard, History of St Joseph County, Indiana, vol II (1907), pp. 886-887.