Llewellyn E. Thompson

Llewellyn E. Thompson

Llewellyn E. Thompson , Jr. (born August 24, 1904 in Las Animas , Colorado , † February 6, 1972 in Bethesda , Maryland ) was an American diplomat .

Llewellyn E. Thompson, State Treaty 1955

Life

Llewellyn E. Thompson was born into a farming family; he had three brothers and a sister. He grew up in Bent County , Colorado, and graduated from high school there in 1922 . He then enrolled at the University of Colorado , where he studied business administration , and received his bachelor's degree in 1928 . After a year at PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York City , he took a course at Georgetown University in Washington, DC , where future diplomats still receive their basic training today. In January 1929 he got a position in the United States Department of State .

Thompson's diplomatic career began that same year as Vice Consul in Colombo , Sri Lanka . In 1933 he was ordered to Switzerland , where he worked in Geneva until 1940 . During this time he was promoted to consul in 1937 .

When the Second World War could no longer be stopped in Europe and the Pacific , Thompson was ordered back to the USA in 1940. In order to be well prepared militarily, he then graduated from the United States Army War College in Carlisle ( Pennsylvania ). In 1941 he was sent to Moscow , and thus acquired knowledge of the Soviet Union that would be useful in later life. He also saw the Wehrmacht invade Russia in Moscow . Thompson remained until 1944 in Russia before moving to London ( England was ordered), where he served as consul to the 1946th Because of his knowledge of Russian, he also took part in the Potsdam Conference in July 1945 . Thompson then returned to the United States, where he was awarded the Medal of Freedom for his services .

In the period between 1946 and 1950, Thompson was mainly used in the office, and held administrative positions, including head of the department for European relations or personal advisor on the staff of US Secretary of State George C. Marshall . On October 2, 1948, he married the artist Jane Monroe Goelet, for whom it was already the second marriage. In addition to the stepdaughter from his wife's first marriage, the two also had two daughters of their own over time.

In 1950, Thompson was sent to Rome by US President Harry S. Truman , and from there to Austria , where he took over the management of the US zone of occupation as High Commissioner in July 1952 ; from 1955 he was ambassador there . Under Thompson's influence, the Austrian State Treaty was ratified in May 1955 , which Thompson also signed. Shortly afterwards, the Austrian Chancellor Leopold Figl announced : Austria is free!

Thompson's knowledge of the Soviets also took advantage of Truman's successor, Dwight D. Eisenhower , and appointed him ambassador to the USSR in June 1957. With Thompson's help it was possible to achieve a historic meeting between Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev in 1959 on American territory, and subsequently a reduction in the Cold War . Thompson and Khrushchev were soon close friends not only politically but also personally; both showed great respect for one another.

Thompson's work for US presidents continued under John F. Kennedy , who consulted the ambassador in August 1961 about the crisis in Berlin and the construction of the Berlin Wall . In the summer of 1962, Thompson returned to Washington, where he advised Kennedy and his staff, and above all the National Security Council during the Cuban Missile Crisis, in the fall of the same year . Thompson knew Khrushchev and the Soviets like no other.

Under President Lyndon B. Johnson , Thompson was briefly undersecretary of state before he was sent again as US ambassador to Moscow in January 1967. In his second term, which lasted almost two years until January 1969, he arranged a meeting between Johnson and Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin in the USA. Thompson's efforts to minimize the arms race on both sides were overshadowed by the United States' participation in the Vietnam War .

In the last few years of his life, Thompson was entrusted with various duties. After being a member of the CIA for a short time , US President Richard Nixon reverted to his skills as a diplomat and sent him to conferences in Helsinki and Vienna .

Surprisingly died Thompson in February 1972 at the age of 67 years to cancer .

Honors

In his honor, the stretch of US Highway 50 that runs through his native Las Animas was renamed Ambassador Thompson Boulevard .

Web links

Commons : Llewellyn Thompson  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Llewellyn Thompson in nndb (English)
• Llewellyn Thompson at the Internet Movie Database (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Walter J. Donnelly	American High Commissioner in Austria 1952–1955	-
Walter J. Donnelly	US Ambassador to Austria 1952–1957	H. Freeman Matthews
?	US Ambassador to the Soviet Union 1957–1962	?
?	US Ambassador to the Soviet Union 1967–1969	?