American politician (1895?1966)
Christian Herter
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In office
December 10, 1962 ? December 30, 1966
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President
| John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
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Preceded by
| Position established
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Succeeded by
| William M. Roth
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In office
April 22, 1959 ? January 20, 1961
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President
| Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Preceded by
| John Foster Dulles
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Succeeded by
| Dean Rusk
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In office
February 21, 1957 ? April 22, 1959
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President
| Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Preceded by
| Herbert Hoover Jr.
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Succeeded by
| C. Douglas Dillon
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In office
January 8, 1953 ? January 3, 1957
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Lieutenant
| Sumner G. Whittier
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Preceded by
| Paul A. Dever
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Succeeded by
| Foster Furcolo
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In office
January 3, 1943 ? January 3, 1953
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Preceded by
| George H. Tinkham
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Succeeded by
| Laurence Curtis
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In office
1939?1943
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Preceded by
| Horace T. Cahill
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Succeeded by
| Rudolph King
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In office
1931?1943
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Preceded by
| Henry Lee Shattuck
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Succeeded by
| Henry Lee Shattuck
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Born
| Christian Archibald Herter
(
1895-03-28
)
March 28, 1895
Paris, France
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Died
| December 30, 1966
(1966-12-30)
(aged 71)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
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Resting place
| Prospect Hill Cemetery
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Political party
| Republican
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Spouse
|
Mary Pratt
(
m.
1917)
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Education
| Harvard University
(
BA
)
Columbia University
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Signature
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Christian Archibald Herter
(March 28, 1895 – December 30, 1966) was an American diplomat and
Republican
politician who was the
59th Governor of Massachusetts
from 1953 to 1957 and
United States Secretary of State
from 1959 to 1961. He served as president of the board of trustees at the
Dexter School
from 1937 to 1939.
[1]
His moderate tone of negotiations was confronted by the intensity of Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev
in a series of unpleasant episodes that turned the
Cold War
even colder in 1960?61.
Early life
[
edit
]
Herter was born in Paris, France, to American artist and expatriate parents,
Albert Herter
and Adele McGinnis, and attended the
Ecole Alsacienne
[
fr
]
there (1901?1904) before moving to New York City, where he attended the
Browning School
(1904?1911). He graduated from Harvard College in 1915 and did graduate work in architecture and interior design at
Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
before joining the diplomatic corps.
[2]
Herter married the wealthy heiress Mary Caroline Pratt (1895?1980) in 1917. She was the daughter of
Frederic B. Pratt
, longtime head of the
Pratt Institute
and granddaughter of Standard Oil magnate
Charles Pratt
. They had three sons and one daughter, including
Christian A. Herter, Jr.
, who was active in international relations.
[1]
Diplomatic career
[
edit
]
He was made attache to the
Embassy of the United States, Berlin
, and was briefly arrested while in
Mainz
as a possible spy. He was part of the US delegation to the
1919 Paris Peace Conference
, where he helped draft the
Covenant of the League of Nations
. Later, he was the assistant to
Herbert Hoover
in providing
starvation relief to postwar Europe
. Herter went on to work for Hoover when Hoover became
Secretary of Commerce
in the
Harding Administration
. Herter also participated in the 1919 meeting that resulted in creating the U.S.
Council on Foreign Relations
.
Herter hated working for the scandal-ridden administration of President Harding, and returned to Boston, where he was a magazine editor and lecturer on international affairs.
Political career
[
edit
]
In 1930, Herter was first elected to the
Massachusetts House of Representatives
and served for 12 years. In 1942, he sought the
Massachusetts 10th district
seat in the
US House of Representatives
, held by
George H. Tinkham
, whose
isolationist
views made him vulnerable during World War II. Once Herter entered the contest, Tinkham withdrew and so opened the way for Herter to be elected. Although he was critical of
Franklin D. Roosevelt
's liberal
New Deal
, Herter distinguished himself from 1943 to 1953 primarily for his stand on foreign affairs, especially in the so-called
Herter Committee
[3]
in 1947; its report initiated proposals that led to
Harry Truman
's
Marshall Plan
. In those years, he refused to support the permanence of the
House Un-American Activities Committee
. In 1947, Herter founded the
Middle East Institute
with Middle East scholar George Camp Keiser and then served on the board of trustees of the
World Peace Foundation
. He led bipartisan support for President Truman's
Point Four Program
giving technological help to poor countries.
[4]
Herter served five terms in Congress. In 1952, he ran successfully for governor of Massachusetts, narrowly defeating incumbent Governor
Paul A. Dever
.
Herter was re-elected governor in 1954, defeating Massachusetts House Minority Leader
Robert F. Murphy
. He chose not to seek a third term in 1956.
Diplomatic career
[
edit
]
On February 21, 1957, Herter was appointed
Under Secretary of State
for the second term of the
Eisenhower
administration; later, when
John Foster Dulles
became seriously ill, he was appointed Secretary of State, April 22, 1959. Dulles died a month later. Herter himself suffered from severe arthritis, forcing him to use crutches when walking.
Herter's main diplomatic challenges included escalating crises over the status of West Berlin in the Cold War; difficult negotiations with Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev
, especially regarding the Soviet downing of the U-2 spy plane; the collapse of the Paris Summit conference; and the early stages of American efforts to divert Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution away from communism. There were smaller crises around the world including a Civil War in the Congo. Herter's careful, cautious approach matched Eisenhower's preferences, emphasizing negotiation in response to bellicosity from the Kremlin. Despite the soft language, Herter supported strong policies against Cuba, and a refusal to compromise on Berlin. During his visit to West Berlin in July 1959, Herter was enthusiastically celebrated by over 100,000 people in the streets.
[5]
After leaving office he chaired a blue ribbon committee on State Department personnel, and was one of President John F. Kennedy's representatives for trade negotiations.
[6]
As an unemployed "elder statesman" after the election of 1960, Herter served on various councils and commissions, and was a special representative for trade negotiations, working for both
John F. Kennedy
and
Lyndon Johnson
until his death.
Secretary Herter was also an active
Freemason
. He was a member of the
Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
.
Christian Herter's lifetime reputation was as an
internationalist
, especially interested in improving
political and economic relations with Europe
.
He died on December 30, 1966, at his home in Washington, D.C., at the age of 71.
[1]
He is buried at the
Prospect Hill Cemetery
in
Millis, Massachusetts
.
Legacy
[
edit
]
In 1943, with
Paul Nitze
(a distant cousin by marriage), Herter co-founded the
School of Advanced International Studies
(SAIS), which incorporated with the
Johns Hopkins University
in 1950.
In 1968, the
American Foreign Service Association
established its
Christian A. Herter Award
to honor senior diplomats who speak out or otherwise challenge the status quo. In 1948 Herter received an LL.D. from
Bates College
.
The
World Affairs Council of Boston
("WorldBoston" as of 2002), which Christian Herter helped organize in the 1940s, also has a
Christian A. Herter Award
honoring individual contributions to international relations.
The Christian A. Herter Memorial Scholarship Program is a sponsored by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to recruit 10th and 11th grade students whose socio-economic backgrounds and environmental conditions may inhibit their ability to pursue higher education. Each year, 25 students in the 10th and 11th grades are selected to receive awards of up to 50 percent (50%) of their calculated need at the college of their choice within the continental United States.
Herter Park in
the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts
is named in Herter's honor. A
University of Massachusetts Amherst
building devoted to the teaching of history and other liberal arts is named "Herter Hall" after the statesman as well.
Herter was the last serving Secretary of State born in the 19th century.
Books
[
edit
]
- Christian Herter,
Toward an Atlantic Community
(1963)
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"Christian Herter Is Dead at 71. Secretary of State, 1959-1961. Ex-Massachusetts Governor, Dalles's Successor, Devoted Life to Public Service Christian Herter, Former Secretary of State, Dies"
.
The New York Times
. January 1, 1967.
- ^
"Christian A. Herter (1959?1961) | Miller Center"
.
millercenter.org
. October 4, 2016
. Retrieved
November 16,
2020
.
- ^
"Final Report on Foreign Aid of the House Select Committee on Foreign Aid"
(PDF)
. Marshall Foundation. May 1, 1948
. Retrieved
May 30,
2020
.
- ^
Bernard Lemelin, "An International Republican in a Time of Waning Bipartisanship: Congressman Christian A. Herter of Massachusetts and the Point Four Program, 1949?1950".
The New England Journal of History
(2001) 58#1 pp. 61-90.
- ^
Andreas Daum
,
Kennedy in Berlin
. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008,
ISBN
978-0-521-85824-3
, pp. 50?51.
- ^
Bruce W. Jentleson and Thomas G. Paterson, eds.
Encyclopedia of US foreign relations.
(1997) 2:295.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Burr, William. "Avoiding the Slippery Slope: The Eisenhower Administration and the Berlin Crisis, November 1958?January 1959".
Diplomatic History
18.2 (1994): 177?205.
- George Bernard Noble
,
Christian A. Herter
(Cooper Square, 1970), Originally published as Volume XVII of
The American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy: Christian A. Herter
(1967)
online
(
registration required
)
- "Herter, Christian Archibald"
(subscription required)
, Vincent A. Lapomarda, in
American National Biography
, 2000,
American Council of Learned Societies
External links
[
edit
]
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