Ellsworth Bunker

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Ellsworth Bunker (1965)

Ellsworth Bunker (born May 11, 1894 in Yonkers , New York , † September 27, 1984 in Brattleboro , Vermont ) was an American diplomat and two-time recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom .

Life

education

Bunker graduated from Yale University with a law degree . In 1951, he followed a request from his former fellow student and friend, Dean Acheson , then Secretary of State of the United States , and became US Ambassador to Argentina .

Career

After a year in Buenos Aires he was appointed ambassador to Italy , where he remained until 1953 as the successor to James Clement Dunn . From 1954 to 1956 he was President of the American Red Cross . Further stations in his diplomatic career were India (1956–1957 and 1959–1961), where he helped to develop Indian-American relations, and Nepal (1957–1959). In 1960 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In the summer of 1962 he was instrumental in drafting the New York Agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia , in which the territorial affiliation of Western New Guinea was clarified. In 1963 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for the first time for his services as an ambassador. In 1965, as special mediator and US ambassador to the Organization of American States, he led the negotiations after the US intervention in the Dominican Republic , for which he was again awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1967.

In 1967 he was appointed US ambassador to Saigon , where he quickly made a name for himself as a “ falcon ” who supported the American intervention in the Vietnam War and welcomed the expansion of the war to neighboring countries. Bunker's six-year tenure in Saigon made him better known than any of his previous diplomatic missions. After his recall in 1973, Graham Martin became the new US ambassador to Saigon . Bunker's last diplomatic achievement was the drafting of the Torrijos-Carter treaties in 1977, and a year later he retired and settled in Dummerston , Vermont.

In September 1984, at the age of 90, Bunker fell seriously ill and was hospitalized. He died on September 27 at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and was buried in Dummerston Cemetery.

literature

  • Howard B. Schaffer: Ellsworth Bunker - Global Troubleshooter, Vietnam Hawk . University of North Carolina Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8078-2825-4

Web links

Commons : Ellsworth Bunker  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Leaders of the American Red Cross , as of February 9, 2009
  2. ↑ a b medaloffreedom.com , as of May 25, 2007
  3. ↑ University of North Carolina Press ( Memento of the original from June 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. As of May 25, 2007 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / uncpress.unc.edu
  4. ^ New York Times September 21, 1984 , as of May 25, 2007
  5. ↑ New York Times October 2, 1984 , as of May 25, 2007
predecessor Office successor
Stanton Griffis US Ambassador to Buenos Aires
May 8, 1951-12. March 1952 		Albert F. Nufer
James Clement Dunn US Ambassador to Rome
May 7, 1952–3. April 1953 		Clare Boothe Luce
John Sherman Cooper US Ambassador to New Delhi
November 28, 1956–4. March 1957 		John Kenneth Galbraith
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. US Ambassador to Saigon
April 28, 1967-11. May 1973 		Graham Martin
personal data
SURNAME Bunker, Ellsworth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Yonkers , New York
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 1984
Place of death Brattleboro , Vermont