Ellsworth Bunker : global troubleshooter, Vietnam hawk / Howard B. Schaffer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schaffer, Howard B.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bunker, Ellsworth, 1894-1984.

Bunker, Ellsworth.

Ambassadors--United States--Biography.

Ambassadors.

United States.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Diplomatic history.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975.

Diplomatic history.

United States--Foreign relations--1945-1989.

International relations.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xiv, 380 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2003]

Summary:

In this first biography of Ellsworth Bunker (1894-1984), Howard Schaffer traces the life of one of postwar America's foremost diplomats from his formative years as a successful businessman and lobbyist through a long career in international affairs that climaxed with his six-year assignment as ambassador to South Vietnam and his lead role in the negotiation and enactment of the Panama Canal Treaties. Named ambassador to Juan Peron's Argentina by Harry Truman in 1951, Bunker went on to serve six more presidents as ambassador to Italy, India, Nepal, and Vietnam and on special diplomatic assignments. Dean Acheson called him a rara avis, a political appointee who became a natural professional in diplomacy. Indians still recall his accomplishments a half-century after his years in New Delhi. His work there led a succession of presidents to assign Bunker difficult, politically sensitive trouble-shooting tasks from Indonesia to Yemen to the Dominican Republic.

A dedicated "hawk," Bunker helped shape U.S. policy as ambassador to wartime Saigon. Using letters Bunker sent to his wife and recently declassified messages he exchanged with Henry Kissinger, Schaffer examines how Bunker promoted the war effort and how he regarded his mission. After leaving Saigon on his seventy-ninth birthday, Bunker went on to become a key figure in the negotiations during the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations that radically changed the operation and defense of the Panama Canal. Highlighting Bunker's views on the craft of diplomacy, Schaffer paints a complex picture of a man who devoted three decades to international affairs and sheds new light on important developments in post-World War II diplomacy.

Contents:

1 The Years before Diplomacy 3

2 A "Correct" Year with the Perons 23

3 On, Briefly, to Rome 36

4 Red Cross President 45

5 In Nehru's India 51

6 Recharging the Battery 83

7 The West New Guinea Negotiations 89

8 Brokering a Yemen Settlement 110

9 Troubleshooting in the Dominican Republic and Elsewhere 128

10 To Center Stage in Vietnam 160

11 Tet and Afterwards 193

12 Vietnamization Has Succeeded 218

13 The Panama Canal Negotiations 269.

Notes:

"An ADST-DACOR diplomats and diplomacy book."

Includes bibliographical references (pages [359]-365) and index.

ISBN:

0807828254

OCLC:

52208536