Donald B. Easum

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Donald Boyd Easum (born August 27, 1923 in Culver , Indiana , † April 16, 2016 in Summit , New Jersey ) was an American diplomat who served, among other things, Ambassador to Upper Volta from 1971 to 1974 , and Assistant Secretary of 1974 to 1975 State for African Affairs and most recently was Ambassador to Nigeria from 1975 to 1979 .

Life

Studies and military service in World War II

Easum grew up in Madison , where his father, Chester Easum, was professor and director of the history department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his mother was a church organist. After graduating with honors from the renowned Hotchkiss School in Lakeville in 1942 , he joined the US Air Force and subsequently took part in the Pacific War. There he served as a radio operator in flight control units and air traffic control and last took part in the Battle of Iwojima in February and March 1945 .

After completing his military service, Easum began studying history at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1946 , from which he graduated in 1947 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA History). During his studies he was part of the tennis team and played in both the band and the university orchestra. He was also a member of the Honor Societies Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa and received the University of Wisconsin's Kenneth Sterling Day Prize for his student achievements . He was then a teacher at the John Burroughs School in St. Louis, named after John Burroughs , and a local reporter for The New York Times . He also completed postgraduate studies in public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University , which he completed in 1950 with a Masters in Public Affairs (MPA). This was followed by a study visit to the University of London with the support of a Fulbright scholarship and a guest study at the Universidad de Buenos Aires with support from the Doherty Foundation and the Penfield Fellowship . On his return he received a Doctor of Philosophy ( Ph.D. ) in international politics from Princeton University in 1953 .

Began diplomatic career, Ambassador and Assistant Secretary of State

Easum then entered the diplomatic service of the US State Department in 1953 and completed his training at the Foreign Service Institute . Due to the anti-communist mood of the McCarthy era , an almost one-year review to dispel security concerns followed before it was first used in a foreign mission. In the following years he was at the foreign missions in Nicaragua and Indonesia and was honored for his services there with the Meritorious Service Award of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He later worked at the representations in Senegal , Gambia , Guinea-Bissau and Niger , thereby gaining a reputation as a specialist in Africa. In the meantime, he was Executive Secretary of the US Agency for International Development ( USAID ) and Director of the Interministerial Working Group for Latin America of the NSC ( US National Security Council ) .

On December 8, 1971, he finally took over his first ambassadorial post when he succeeded William E. Schaufele, Jr. as ambassador to Upper Volta. For his services was awarded commander of the Ordre National of Upper Volta. He remained in this post until January 19, 1974. After his return to the United States, on March 18, 1974, he succeeded David D. Newsom as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and thus head of the Africa Department (Bureau of African Affairs) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He held this position until March 26, 1975, before the previous Director General of the Foreign Service Nathaniel Davis took over on April 2, 1975 . The reason for the dismissal from this post after just under a year were allegedly a difference of opinion on Foreign Minister Henry Kissinger's Africa policy . During his tenure as Assistant Secretary of State , he worked to end major conflicts in South Africa and improve US relations with Africa, and also dealt with the decolonization of other African states such as Angola and Mozambique .

Easum himself then succeeded John Reinhardt as ambassador to Nigeria on May 22, 1975 . At the end of his tenure there, he helped General Olusegun Obasanjo to continue the democratization program of his predecessor and on October 1, 1979, handed over power to the civilly elected President Shehu Shagari . At the same time, he oversaw the visiting trips of US President Jimmy Carter and Andrew Young , the then permanent representative of the USA to the United Nations . He also organized sporting events to strengthen relationships, such as a tennis tournament in West Africa in which well-known players such as Arthur Ashe and Stan Smith took part. He held the post of Ambassador to Nigeria until October 15, 1979. In 1980 he retired with the title Career Minister , after the Career Ambassador the second highest rank in the diplomatic service (US Foreign Service) .

Retirement, other commitments and family

After his retirement, Easum became President of the New York City- based Africa-America Institute Au, founded in 1953 by Horace Mann Bond and William Leo Hansberry , in 1980 and held this position until 1988. In the following years he also lectured on international relations , global understanding and human rights . In 1991 he developed a seminar for foreign policy as a lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and spent two weeks with his students in South Africa to study a constitution after the end of apartheid . During this stay there was also a meeting with Nelson Mandela .

In addition, Easum served as Vice President and Senior Program Advisor of the River Blindness Foundation from 1990 and 1995 and, together with the Nigerian government, organized programs and measures to combat river blindness ( onchocerciasis ), which threatened 12 million people in Nigeria alone. He was later a Senior Fellow at Yale University's Stimson Seminar from 1999 to 2004 and was an observer for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) in April 2003 in the presidential elections in Nigeria, from which incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo emerged victorious. He was also a member of the supervisory boards of numerous institutions such as Worldspace , the Rothko Chapel in Houston , the American School of Tangier and the Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA), but also Vice President of Global Business Access . He was also involved in the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA), the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST), the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change (DMCC) and the American Academy of Diplomacy .

Easum was married to Augusta Pentecost Easum, who was employed as a consular officer and secretary at the embassy in the Empire of Abyssinia and Spain and who died in 1992. From this marriage the sons Jefferson Easum, David Easum and John Easum and the daughter Susan Easum Greaney were born.

publication

  • Review of State Department trip through southern and central Africa. Hearing before the Subcommittee on Africa of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, Ninety-third Congress, second session, December 12, 1974 , 1975

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexander Leitch: A Princeton Companion . Princeton University Press, 2015, ISBN 1-40087-001-1 , pp. 16, 523
  2. ↑ successor as ambassador to Upper Volta was born on July 30, 1974 Pierre R. Graham , who previously d'Affaires of the Embassy in Jordan was.
  3. ↑ NAMING OF DAVIS attacked AGAIN . In: The New York Times, February 26, 1975
  4. ^ Brenda Gayle Plummer: In Search of Power: African Americans in the Era of Decolonization, 1956-1974 , Cambridge University Press, 2013, ISBN 1-10702-299-1 , p. 319
  5. ↑ Y GM Lulat: US relations with South Africa: An Annotated Bibliography. Volume One: Books, Documents, Reports, and Monographs , Westview Press, 1991, ISBN 0-81337-138-4 , pp. 40, 163, 199
  6. ^ Into the Storm: American Covert Involvement in the Angolan Civil War, 1974-1975 , ProQuest, 2008, ISBN 0-54989-263-X , p. 158
  7. ↑ Key US Appointment Angers Africans . In: The New York Times, June 15, 1975
  8. ↑ Stephen Low , who had been ambassador to Zambia until then, was succeeded as ambassador to Nigeria on November 29, 1979 .
  9. ^ On the Move , in: Black Enterprise , December 1979, p. 72
personal data
SURNAME Easum, Donald B.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Easum, Donald Boyd (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Culver , Indiana
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 2016
Place of death Summit , New Jersey