William Phillips (diplomat)

William Phillips (1922)

William Phillips (born May 30, 1878 in Beverly , Essex County , Massachusetts , † February 23, 1968 in Sarasota County , Florida ) was an American diplomat who was ambassador several times and from 1922 to 1924 and again between 1933 and 1933 as United States Under Secretary of State deputy Foreign Minister was.

Life

Family background, studies and entry into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Phillips, son of businessman John Charles Phillips and his wife Anna T. Tucker Phillips, was a younger brother of zoologist John Charles Phillips and a brother of Martha Phillips, who was married to Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Andrew James Peters . He came from a Phillips family belonging to the Boston Brahmins and was a descendant of the first mayor of Boston , John Phillips, and a great-grandchild of the politician Wendell Phillips . His great-uncle Samuel Phillips, Jr. founded the Phillips Academy in 1778 , while the educator John Phillips founded the Phillips Exeter Academy in 1781 .

William Phillips itself began in 1900 to study law at the Law School of Harvard University , where he graduated 1,903th He then entered the diplomatic service and was initially secretary to Joseph Choate , a friend of the family, also from Massachusetts, who was ambassador to the United Kingdom between 1899 and 1905 . He then became secretary to William Woodville Rockhill , who was ambassador to China from 1905 to 1909 . During his employment there, however, Phillips was appointed to the US State Department at the end of 1908 , where he succeeded Huntington Wilson on January 11, 1909 as Third Assistant Secretary of State to establish the Department of Far East Affairs (Division of Far Eastern Affairs) . On October 13, 1909, however, he was replaced by Chandler Hale , whereupon he was between 1909 and 1914 employees of the now ambassador to the United Kingdom Whitelaw Reid and Walter Hines Page . On March 17, 1914, he took over from Dudley Field Malone again the post of Third Assistant Secretary of State in the State Department, which he held until his replacement by Breckinridge Long on January 24, 1917. He was then on 24 January 1917 by US President Woodrow Wilson for assistants foreign ministers ( Assistant Secretary of State ) appointed and thus the successor to John E. Osborne . It remained in this use until March 25, 1920.

Ambassador and Undersecretary of State

On March 3, 1920 Phillips was appointed ambassador to the Netherlands and took up this office on April 23, 1920 as the successor to John W. Garrett on April 23, 1920. It remained in this use until April 11, 1922, after which Richard M. Tobin was his successor there on May 1, 1923. He was also on 18 May 1920 to 11 April 1922 as ambassador to Luxembourg , with headquarters in The Hague accredited .

After his return Phillips was born on April 26, 1922 successor to Henry P. Fletcher as Under Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( United States Under Secretary of State ) and was as such up to 8 of its replacement by Joseph Grew on April 16, 1924 Deputy Foreign Minister Charles Evans Hughes . He himself in turn replaced Henry P. Fletcher as ambassador to Belgium on June 5, 1924 and remained there until March 1, 1927, whereupon Hugh S. Gibson was his successor there. He was also re-accredited as ambassador to Luxembourg from July 12, 1924 to March 1, 1927. Thereupon he became the first ambassador of the United States to Canada on June 1, 1927 and held this post until December 14, 1927. His successor there was on August 29, 1930 Hanford MacNider .

Renewed appointment as Under Secretary of State and Ambassador to Italy

US diplomats William C. Bullitt , Sumner Welles , Hugh Robert Wilson and William Phillips (from left to right) after a meeting with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 6, 1938

On March 6, 1933, Phillips was again named Under Secretary of State by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, succeeding William Richards Castle, Jr. He was Deputy Secretary of State Cordell Hull until August 23, 1936, before Sumner Welles became the new Undersecretary of State on May 21, 1937.

Shortly after the end of the Abyssinian War and the annexation of the Abyssinian Empire by Benito Mussolini's fascist Italy , Phillips succeeded Breckinridge Long as ambassador to Italy on November 4, 1936 . On October 6, 1941, he resigned from this position of ambassador, before Benito Mussolini declared war on the United States on the afternoon of December 11, 1941 from the balcony of Palazzo Venezia .

He was head of the OSS ( Office of Strategic Services ) intelligence service in London for some time in 1942 and then President Roosevelt's special envoy to India in October 1942 . Because of his stance in favor of India's independence from the United Kingdom , he was unpopular with the colonial administration of British India and was therefore special envoy to General Dwight D. Eisenhower for European affairs with the rank of ambassador. Phillips officially retired in 1944, but was briefly special assistant to Foreign Secretary Edward Stettinius, Jr. in 1945 and a member of the Anglo-American Committee for Palestine in 1946 , in which he spoke out against the British plan to partition the region . In 1947 he tried in vain as a negotiator to resolve a border conflict between Thailand and French Indochina . In 1947 Phillips was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Phillips was married to Caroline Astor Drayton, a granddaughter of William Backhouse Astor, Jr. and his wife, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor , since 1910 . This marriage had five children, including Beatrice Schermerhorn Phillips, who was married to Rear Admiral Elliott B. Strauss , and Christopher H. Phillips , who served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1949 to 1953 and was US Ambassador to Brunei from 1989 to 1991 was. After his death he was buried in the North Beverly Cemetery in his hometown Beverly.

Web links

Entry on the homepage of the Office of the Historian of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

William Phillips in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Newspaper article about William Phillips in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

^ It was not until March 11, 1921, that Fred Morris Dearing was appointed a new Assistant Secretary of State .
↑ The post of ambassador to Italy was not refilled until January 8, 1945 with Alexander Comstock Kirk .
↑ The United States in 1946 diplomatic relations with India taking on and appointed by Henry F. Grady on July 1, 1947 a first United States Ambassador to India after George R. Merrell there as of 1 November 1946 Charge d'Affaires ad Interim worked .

personal data
SURNAME	Phillips, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH	May 30, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH	Beverly , Essex County , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH	February 23, 1968
Place of death	Sarasota County , Florida

[1] It was not until March 11, 1921, that Fred Morris Dearing was appointed a new Assistant Secretary of State .

[2] The post of ambassador to Italy was not refilled until January 8, 1945 with Alexander Comstock Kirk .

[3] The United States in 1946 diplomatic relations with India taking on and appointed by Henry F. Grady on July 1, 1947 a first United States Ambassador to India after George R. Merrell there as of 1 November 1946 Charge d'Affaires ad Interim worked .