William H. Sullivan

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The Shah with Atherton, Sullivan, Vance, Carter and Brzezinski during a meeting in 1977
As US ambassador, Sullivan was responsible for the area bombing by the US Air Force in the secret war in Laos. After consulting the Lao government, he set the targets for the bombing.
American government aid program Laotian T-28. Sullivan was in charge of this secret utility. The requirements office , officially run by USAID , was under his control. The aid deliveries were carried out by JUSMAGTHAI .

William Healy Sullivan (born October 12, 1922 in Cranston , Rhode Island , † October 11, 2013 in Washington DC ) was an American diplomat in the foreign service. From 1965 to 1969 he was ambassador to Laos and from 1977 to 1979 ambassador to Iran .

Studies, military service and diplomatic corps

William Healy Sullivan graduated from Brown University in Rhode Island. After completing his studies in 1943 , he enlisted in the US Navy as an artillery officer on the USS Hambleton (DD-455) . The destroyer took on escort duties for convoys in the Atlantic , supported the invasion of Italy and was involved in D-Day and the Battle of Okinawa . After the war he studied further semesters at Harvard and then joined the diplomatic corps. His first assignment abroad was in Bangkok , Thailand, where he earned the reputation of a Southeast Asia expert. Other stations in his career were Calcutta , Rome , Naples and The Hague . He was considered unwilling to compromise and therefore not suitable for higher tasks. In 1961 he took part in the negotiations on the future of Laos in Geneva . After the negotiations ended, all American military had to leave the country. President Kennedy decided that all announced operations in Laos should come under the supervision of the Ambassador in Vientiane .

Ambassador to Vientiane

In 1964 Sullivan got his first ambassadorial post. The decisive factor is said to have been his contacts with the Viet Minh , which he had established 20 years earlier in north-east Thailand. As Ambassador to Laos, he was responsible for the CIA's operations in this small Asian country during the Vietnam War. Since Laos was officially neutral under the Geneva Agreement, the embassy led a secret mercenary army of Hmong warriors with a strength of 45,000 men, formed, financed, equipped and trained by the CIA . The embassy was also responsible for the US Air Force's area bombing in this country. Sullivan had a level of power that other ambassadors did not have, and was responsible for tasks that were not actually the tasks of an ambassador. One of his colleagues said: “There wasn't a bag of rice dropped in Laos that he didn't know about” - “There wasn't a bag of rice dropped in Laos that he didn't know about.” He later had to answer for the area bombing, which was kept secret from the US Congress. The secret bombing and the secret war made Laos the most bombed-out country on earth and led to 600,000 refugees. Hundreds of thousands died.

Activities to Vientiane

Sullivan was involved in the Paris negotiations to end the Vietnam War under Henry Kissinger . Later he was ambassador to the Philippines and the last US ambassador to Iran. Sullivan took office shortly before US President Jimmy Carter's visit to Iran. The Americans had close ties with the Shah's government . After the visit, however, the situation in Iran deteriorated noticeably. There were large demonstrations against the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the Prime Minister appointed by him, Shapur Bakhtiar . While Sullivan called for US rapprochement with Ayatollah Khomeini , the Carter's administration security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski advocated a policy of unconditional support for the Shah. There was an argument. On February 14, 1979 , the American embassy was stormed by demonstrators, a few weeks after the abdication of the Shah on January 16, 1979. The new Iranian government was able to end the occupation without bloodshed. In March 1979, Sullivan was ordered back to the United States. He did not have to witness the occupation of the American embassy in Tehran that same year.

After retiring from the diplomatic service, he oversaw a program at Columbia University .

Publications

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William H. Sullivan, US Ambassador to Volatile Laos and Iran, Is Dead at 90
  2. ↑ William H. Sullivan Dies: US Envoy Led Secret Laotian Bombing
  3. ^ William Sullivan was a US diplomat who directed the 'secret war' in Laos and was ambassador to Iran during the 1979 revolution
  4. ^ William Sullivan: Statesman who helped take the US out of Vietnam and went on to serve as his country's last ambassador to Iran
  5. ^ William Sullivan, the Last US Ambassador to Iran, Died at the Age of 90
personal data
SURNAME Sullivan, William H.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sullivan, William Healy (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American diplomat in the foreign service
DATE OF BIRTH October 12, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Cranston , Rhode Island
DATE OF DEATH October 11, 2013
Place of death Washington DC